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Rob Evans
Viking Mines’ deep dive into historic data has doubled the known strike at its Linka tungsten project in Nevada, uncovering high-grade surface hits and pointing to a much larger, district-scale system lurking under cover.
Viking first invested in the Linka project in January, and with it, an extensive library of legacy datasets.
However, while rifling through the archives, the company’s geos uncovered a real head-turner, confirming the presence of high-grade surface tungsten almost 800 metres southwest of its historic Linka mine.
A historic high-grade grab sample collected from a zone hidden beneath a younger volcanic cover known as the Bates Mountain Tuff returned a solid 0.6 per cent tungsten trioxide. That result alone has stretched the system well beyond where previous mining and modern exploration thought it ended.
‘This doubles the immediate strike potential of the mineralised corridor to 1.6km.’
Viking Mines managing director and chief executive officer Julian Woodcock
In addition to the standout finding, Viking has also unearthed historical channel and grab samples from the old pit that returned a stunning 1.0 per cent tungsten oxide over 8.5 metres. Even more pleasing were individual grab samples, which returned up to 1.5 per cent tungsten oxide.
The Linka project was historically mined for 123,000 tonnes of ore grading 0.54 per cent tungsten oxide in three pits.
Viking Mines managing director and chief executive officer Julian Woodcock said: “This doubles the immediate strike potential of the mineralised corridor to 1.6km, which may represent only ~29% of the ~5.5km interpreted contacts of the regional intrusive.”
The extensive historical data used in the integration program comprises 68 drill holes totalling 3000m of drilling. Notably, additional information has come from old cross-sectional mapping, trenching and grab samples. By pulling all the datasets together, the company has been able to extensively revise its understanding of subsurface mineralisation and dramatically expand its high-grade targets.
In accessing and leveraging the historical data, Viking says it has been able to avoid the need to run 12 months of fieldwork – costing upwards of a million dollars – significantly leapfrogging and accelerating management’s understanding of the Linka project and positioning the company well for further discoveries across the region.
Sitting on a portfolio of an additional five closely located tungsten projects in the Nevada region, Viking is steeling itself for a cracking year and is sprinting through the permitting maze to secure an early drilling start to sink some holes into the rapidly expanded high-grade targets as soon as possible.
Riding on the US administration’s sharpened focus, funding and policy support for critical minerals, strategic commodities such as tungsten are back in the spotlight as Washington hunts for nearby, secure supply chains to feed Western defence and manufacturing needs.
A recent Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting – set up by the US to reshape the global market for critical minerals – reflects this momentum and urgency. It was attended by 54 countries, including the Australian Minister for Resources and the European Commission.
Further highlighting Western needs, Project Vault, with a US$12 billion (A$17 billion) budget, was also launched by the US to develop stockpiles of critical, strategic minerals and rare earths for civilian use.
With more data integration to come from historic data at Linka and a highly detailed geophysics gravity program already underway, Viking appears to have the bit between its teeth.
The upcoming release of metallurgical test work in the next couple of weeks, coupled with a drill program to test the data relating to the expanded footprint, is likely to only strengthen Linka’s case further as a future tungsten development.
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