Viking Mines Ltd (ASX:VKA) (FRA:AVI) has submitted an application for tenement E30/529 in the prospective Ida Greenstone belt, Western Australia, around 11 kilometres south-southeast of the First Hit Gold Project.
If granted, the 21 square kilometre exploration tenement will complement Viking’s new land position, which will be secured with the proposed acquisition of Red Dirt Mining and the high-grade First Hit historic gold mine.
This new tenement is well placed, being 11 kilometres south-southeast of the First Hit project and adjacent to Ora Banda Mining Ltd’s (ASX:OBM) Riverina open pit mine and underground resource.
The land package being established by the company in the Eastern Goldfields is strategically located 150 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie and within 100 kilometres radius of four operating mills.
Proximity to infrastructure
Viking CEO Julian Woodcock said: “I am very excited that in my first week with Viking that we have managed to secure a prospective new tenement which by all accounts hasn’t seen a drill bit for seven years and, not to mention, never had any bedrock testing with RC or Diamond drilling.
“To be located only 4 kilometres away from the Ora Banda Mining Riverina deposit, and with rocks displaying similar magnetic signatures and structural setting is very exciting.
“The proximity to First Hit and the excellent infrastructure links to the area will make exploration of this tenement package straightforward and effective.”
Tenement summary
An initial assessment of the geophysics shows there are significant variations in magnetic intensity and confirms the presence of a variety of rock types.
Local knowledge of the area and the association of regional gold deposits with magnetic highs and interpreted mafic rock units as well as regional shear zones, implies prospectivity for gold.
WAMEX search data on the tenement shows extremely limited exploration drilling history, with no drilling recorded since 2013.
Magnetics data suggest significant regional structures and prospective interpreted mafic units cutting through the tenement area.
Next steps
The company is securing the freely available datasets and incorporating them into the internal company database.
A thorough geological assessment will be undertaken while the application process is underway and reinterpretation of the bedrock geology will be completed as part of a more comprehensive regional geological assessment in the coming months.
This assessment will be used to generate drill targets to follow up once the tenement is granted.