Viking Mines identifies high-grade gold intercept with drilling at Riverina East project

Taking advantage of a new ‘drill-for-equity’ deal, Viking Mines (ASX: VKA) has identified a visible high-grade gold intercept in its drilling program at the Riverina East project in Western Australia.

The company is conducting the “greenfield” program at Riverina East under an agreement it signed with contractor Topdrill in early April, whereby the company is able to satisfy invoiced drilling costs via the issuance of ordinary Viking shares.

Viking has made strong progress and has now received assay results for 33 drill holes across 4,308 metres, representing approximately 72% of the phase 2 exploration program.

High-grade intercept

The program targeting both the Central Duplex and Bifrost targets has delivered the high-grade visible gold intercept, which remains open with no drilling for 1.7 kilometres north and 1.1km south.

Assays from Bifrost have confirmed a significant intercept of 2m at 23.6 grams per tonne gold from 124m with visible gold.

These sit within three broader anomalous gold zones of approximately 50 parts per billion: 21m at 0.4g/t gold from 96m; 6m at 8.0g/t gold from 123m; and 8m at 0.2g/t gold from 135m.

Significant potential

Chief executive officer Julian Woodcock said the visible gold and extent of the broad gold anomaly may represent a significant volume of mineralising fluid flow through the host rocks, highlighting the potential of the discovery.

“The intercept is located within an under-explored area of the Bifrost target open along strike and downdip and has confirmed the potential for the project to deliver high-grade gold in a prolific gold district at a time of record gold prices,” Mr Woodcock said.

“The drilling result at Bifrost is exactly the style and type of mineralisation we have been targeting with our exploration program.”

Follow-up drilling planned

The Riverina East project is centred around the historical First Hit gold mine, situated along the prospective Ida and Zuleika Shear zones in WA’s eastern goldfields.

Viking is planning immediate follow-up drilling at Bifrost to test for high-grade extensions of the recent visible gold hit.

The company is also in the process of completing high-resolution magnetic geophysics to assist with structural interpretation to provide focus areas for follow-up drilling over this large target area, as well as finalising its assessment of an underground opportunity at the First Hit mine.