Viking data crunch doubles US tungsten scale and strike
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Rob Evans
Viking Mines’ deep dive into historical data doubles down on known attack on Linka tungsten project in Nevada; It revealed high-level surface attacks and demonstrated the concealment of a much larger, region-scale system.
Viking first invested in the Linka project in January, and with it an extensive library of legacy datasets.
However, while digging through the archives, the company’s geographies uncovered something truly stunning, confirming the existence of high-grade surface tungsten almost 800 meters southwest of the historic Linka mine.
A historic, high-grade sample collected from a site hidden under a younger volcanic mantle known as the Bates Mountain Tuff revealed 0.6 percent solid tungsten trioxide. This result alone took the system far beyond the point where previous mining and modern exploration thought it had ended.
‘This doubles the instant attack potential of the mineralized corridor to 1.6 km.’
Julian Woodcock, managing director and chief executive of Viking Mines
In addition to the remarkable find, Viking also uncovered historic channels and samples from the old pit, which yielded a striking 1.0 percent tungsten oxide from 8.5 meters. Even more pleasing were individual samples that returned up to 1.5 percent tungsten oxide.
The Linka project has historically mined 123,000 tonnes of ore graded 0.54 percent tungsten oxide in three pits.
Viking Mines managing director and chief executive Julian Woodcock said: “This increases the immediate strike potential of the mineralized corridor to 1.6 km, which may represent only ~29% of the regional intervenor’s interpreted contacts of ~5.5 km.”
The comprehensive historical data used in the integration program consists of 68 drillings, corresponding to a total of 3000 m of drilling. Additional information has been obtained, particularly from older cross-sectional mapping, trenching and scraping samples. By bringing all data sets together, the company was able to comprehensively revise its understanding of underground mineralization and significantly expand its high-grade targets.
By accessing and leveraging historical data, Viking says it was able to eliminate the need to conduct 12 months of field work (which cost more than a million dollars) and accelerate management’s significant progress in understanding the Linka project, positioning the company well for further exploration across the region.
Sitting on a portfolio of five additional tungsten projects closely located in the Nevada region, Viking is bracing itself for a challenging year ahead and is racing through the permitting maze to secure an early drilling start to drill some holes in rapidly expanding high-grade targets as quickly as possible.
Strategic commodities such as tungsten have returned to the spotlight as Washington seeks nearby secure supply chains to feed the West’s defense and manufacturing needs, benefiting from the US administration’s sharpened focus, financing and policy support for critical minerals.
The Critical Minerals Ministerial Meeting recently convened by the United States to reshape the global market for critical minerals reflects this momentum and urgency. 54 countries attended the meeting, including the Australian Minister of Resources and the European Commission.
Further highlighting the needs of the West, Project Vault was launched by the US to develop stockpiles of critical, strategic minerals and rare earths for civilian use with a budget of US$12 billion (AU$17 billion).
With further data integration from historical data on Linka and a highly detailed geophysical gravity program already underway, Viking appears to have this job by the teeth.
The publication of the metallurgical test study in the next few weeks, coupled with a drilling program to test data on the expanded footprint, will likely further strengthen Linka’s case as a future tungsten development.
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