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Viking sets sail to iking sets sail to
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WA GoldfieldsA Goldfields
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ulian Woodcock Viking managing director
Jwas looking to use Julian Woodcock at
his vast experience in the company’s Perth
exploration to move office, which features an
into a “managing expansive core shed
director or chief
executive role” when “piecemeal”, leaving
he was introduced to an opportunity to map
Viking Mines Ltd. out a bigger picture of
Viking was looking for mineralisation.
its own change too,
“We’ve got a high-
having undertaken grade gold focus in
a restructuring to by Fraser Palamara what I would call an
refine a portfolio underexplored area,”
that included gold he said. “Barra just
and coal projects across locations such as Ghana, Mongolia and drilled a couple-hundred holes, defined a resource and started the
Western Australia. mine.
In late 2020, Viking shed its weight and landed a new life after “The fact that the mine produced at an average of 7.7 g/t after
purchasing the First Hit gold project north-west of Kalgoorlie. dilution shows that it is actually very, very rich. But Barra didn’t
Formerly of Gold Fields Ltd, Evolution Mining Ltd and Gold Road actually undertake any extensive exploration along the ground.
Resources Ltd, Woodcock was introduced to the board at the same
“Any exploration drilling that they did do was quite constrained to
time and was quickly placed in the hot seat due to his experience in
the known shoot, with a couple of small programmes stepping out
exploration management.
north and south. They did get some good results but nothing they
“We came out of the blocks very quickly in 2021. By the of the end really followed up on.”
of the year, we have drilled 15,000m,” Woodcock told GMJ as the
By the time Viking had landed its warship at First Hit with Woodcock
company was undertaking its third drill programme at First Hit.
in tow, the project had gone nearly 19 years without any modern or
“This is where I bring in my expertise. In my previous roles, I have
systematic exploration.
overseen years where we have drilled up to 250,000m with lots of
Viking has since drilled to delineate the mineralisation of the project
targets.
with the latest programme spanning 65 holes. At the time of print,
“I have brought in the same approach here; we’ve got a block of
31 holes were completed with five showing visible gold and assay
ground, a known historical mine – what are the opportunities on the
results were on the way.
ground, both extending from the mine and around it but also across
Historic drilling at First Hit has achieved 4.9m @ 64.8 g/t gold from
the rest of the tenement?”
62.1m, 3m @ 77.6 g/t from 224m and 4m @ 26.1 g/t from 58.0m.
First Hit surrounds the historic mine of the same name and
Even before receiving the latest assay results, Woodcock felt
includes 28sq km of tenements with six active mining licences and
confident in the company’s exploration theory. He said observable
an exploration licence under application.
gold in one hole south of another supported the potential for a new
The mine was previously operated by Barra Resources and
shoot roughly 700m north of the old mine.
produced 30,000oz @ 7.7 g/t before shutting down in 2002 at a
time when gold prices were as low as $US320/oz. One hole, 220m north of First Hit, showed gold 98-100m downhole.
Another, 720m north of the project, showed gold 26-28m downhole.
Woodcock believes exploration on the tenement has been bare and
“Viking is planning to do follow up drilling in the first quarter of 2022,”
Woodcock explained. “We’re funded to undertake that work; we
can easily do a diamond or RC programme.
“First Hit has sat around for so long without any rapid advancement
before Viking came in. We’ve now completed two great
programmes and finishing up a third, and we’ve had encouraging
results from what we’ve drilled to date.
“The diamond drilling we’ve undertaken has confirmed that the
mineralisation is open both along strike and down dip and we’ve
identified additional targets with aircore drilling.”
Drill core from First Hit displaying visible gold

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