Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) is planning to begin a phase-two drilling program early next month at the Northern Duplex target in Western Australia, after confirming the presence of a steeply dipping gold zone.
The program will be conducted at a separate 6km-long geochemical anomaly over the Central Duplex target, with follow-up drilling to be incorporated at the Northern Duplex target.
This news comes after Viking received assay results from a recently completed first-phase drilling program at Northern Duplex.
Viking, which has a market capitalisation of $10.62 million, says drillhole VKRC0068, which returned 17m @ 1.1 grams per tonne gold, confirmed the presence of the gold zone which is open along strike with no constraining drillholes.
CEO Julian Woodcock says this zone correlates with the results seen in another previously reported intercept and confirms the company has discovered a new zone of mineralisation which has seen no prior bedrock drill testing.
“I can’t emphasise enough the scale of the area we are drill testing and the opportunity for discovery of a substantial gold deposit,” Woodcock says.
“The Riverina gold mine owned by Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM) is located only 10km to the southwest and has a surface strike extent of 900m. There is ample space between our drilling to host multiple deposits of this size.
“The tenor of these results is analogous to those that are commonly seen proximal to substantial gold deposits and means we have the opportunity to follow the pathway to a higher grade zone.”
Woodcock notes that the company is focused on delineating the extents of the target with further fieldwork and follow-up drill testing to establish if Viking has a new gold deposit by the tail.
The remaining assays from the phase one program are expected to be returned late this month and early next month.
Further, Viking is beginning an infill auger drilling program which aims to define the target anomalies to allow targeted drill testing to take place.
The company says this will ensure it focuses on the highest tenor anomalies with the highest chance of success.
In conjunction, Viking is obtaining quotes for a high-resolution magnetic geophysics survey to better resolve the structures which form the focus of its targeting.
The Northern Duplex forms part of the First Hit Gold Project which is centred around the historic First Hit Gold Mine. The mine sits along the prospective Ida and Zuleika Shear zones in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Viking Mines is a gold and battery minerals explorer focused on its two projects, First Hit and Canegrass, in Western Australia.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Viking Mines
