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AUSTRALIAN GOLD REVIEW

First Hit stays

the course

by Fraser Palamara

hen GMJ last spoke to Julian Woodcock at the end
Wof last year, the recently appointed Viking Mines Ltd
managing director was asking “what are the opportunities on
Julian Woodcock at Viking’s West Perth office which also serves
the ground?” at the First Hit gold project in Western Australia.
as a core shed
It’s safe to say ongoing drill results from First Hit, named
after the historical mine west of Menzies, have answered
Woodcock’s question. data to plan a follow-up programme.”
Assays from the First Hit North target in February included Even though Woodcock said there was “plenty of space” still
2m @ 4.10 g/t gold from 15m, 1m @ 7.48 g/t from 88m and to be followed up at First Hit North and South, Viking added
1m @ 5.97 g/t from 36m. 60sq km of new tenure to its portfolio – just 2km east of First
The results confirmed to the Viking team that mineralisation Hit.
from the historical mine extend up to 720m away from old Drilling conducted as far back as the 1980s at the tenure
workings had not been captured in West Australian databases and
“We have identified from that drilling what we believe to be the Viking team unearthed positive results when they ran
two mineralised shoots north of the old mine,” Woodcock, the numbers.
fresh off a visit to site, told GMJ. “The strategy we undertook These included 4m @ 5.1 g/t from 12-16m, 8m @ 1.45 g/t
from First Hit was we wanted to identify what the full potential from 32m and 4m @ 4.88 g/t from 38m.
of the mineralised system could be, so we designed these
“We signed a deal and got tenements granted and that has
programmes to go north and south. added in quite a large land position to the east of First Hit,”
“The First Hit North programme has certainly been successful Woodcock said. “We’re seeing what are arguably, economic
in the fact that we’ve encountered some high-grade results gold intercepts.
as far as 720m away from the historical mine and the best “The additional tenure just gives us more ground that is
result was just short of 10 g/t.”
underexplored with the potential to get out there and do
Certain tribulations were had with the drilling, however, as more work. Our cash position is also still very strong with
some of the deep holes didn’t quite hit the mark, providing around $5 million at the end of the December quarter.”
ambition for the next drilling campaign. A surprise discovery of lithium-bearing pegmatites at First
“We still believe the mineralisation is open,” Woodcock said. Hit in March also has Woodcock pondering future options
“We need to look at extending those holes.” for the company.
Meanwhile, at another First Hit target, Jana’s Reward, initial “We intercepted a 10m wide zone at 61m and we saw these
bedrock drilling confirmed bonanza grades in early March, ‘pinky’ coloured minerals and some greener ones,” he said.
with readings of 1m @ 36.49 g/t gold from 17m and 1m @ “We really felt it was important and responsible of us to be
17.84 g/t from 16m. More assays were on the way at the making sure that we investigated that a little further.
time of print. “It wasn’t an economic intercept but what this has told us is
Woodcock described Jana’s Reward as “personally more that pegmatites in the area are looking a bit more evolved
exciting” due to its heavily underexplored status. and have the potential to produce lithium-bearing minerals.
“That area had only previously undergone a bit of aircore “It’s not something that we’re looking to farm out at this
drilling and auger work,” he explained. “We have drilled 11 stage, but it’s something we need to be conscious of while
holes and two of them have been reported which is exciting… we’re doing drilling.”
it has shown there’s high-grade gold in the area and it’s open
at the moment so we need to go back and go through the

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