VKA advances US tungsten project - US pentagon actively looking for domestic supply

BREAKING NEWS: The Pentagon (US Department of War) is asking a group of domestic companies and research organisations to help boost supply of 13 critical minerals…

Including Tungsten…

(source)

We Invested in Viking Mines (ASX: VKA) for its US tungsten project in Nevada, which the company acquired late last year.

VKA’s project previously produced tungsten from an open-pit between 1955 and 1956 from an open pit.

A big part of the reason why we Invested in VKA was because VKA’s project is located near the US defence stockpile locations such as the Hawthorne Army Depot, the largest storage facility in the world.

And because we want to see those old mine workings followed up - and eventually a mine restart plan built around the asset.

(hopefully that puts VKA’s project on the radar of anyone looking for domestic tungsten supply)

(source - acquisition announcement in December)

Here is a photo of that old pit:

(source)

Despite its history of tungsten production - the Linka project hasn’t really been explored with modern exploration methods.

Today VKA released the results of geophysical surveys run on the project (magnetic and gravity surveys).

VKA ran the gravity survey over the old mine area and magnetics across the broader project area.

Both the gravity and magnetics surveys identified anomalies directly over the known surface mineralisation on VKA’s ground - which is a good sign - showing correlation between the old workings and the geophysics.

In particular the gravity survey has picked up the density contrast between the tungsten mineralised scheelite bearing garnetite (what VKA wants to find) and the other host rocks.

Here are the results from the gravity survey:

(source)

And here are the results from the magnetics survey:

(source)

Basically, that dotted line is the area where VKA expects to find more tungsten mineralisation - and where the geophysics is telling the company to look.

VKA has already started a phase 2 expanded survey, which is expected to be completed in mid March (just a couple of weeks away).

This will be aiming to reveal more high priority drill targets, right across the project that lay under the buried intrusion (historic volcanic rock) and to search further west for more of the intrusion area.

What else has VKA been up to?

Since picking up the project VKA has:

• Expanded its ground position to cover more of the mineralisation that appears to continue to the north and south of the Linka Mine area.
• Started modern geophysical surveys to get a better understanding of how the mineralised structures extend and to help define drill targets Results from this today, with a phase 2 program underway to expand the survey area.
• Acquired a historic data set over the project and started digitising the data.
• Located tungsten intercepts outside of the old workings using the digitised dataset - including a hit of 7.9m @ 0.9% tungsten from just 7.6m.
• Tested metallurgical samples that will aid in a potential rapid startup operation

VKA still has newsflow to come from the results for the remaining drill data digitisation, followup geophysics surveys results plus the met work, these will be used to plan an initial drill program expected in Q2.

Here is a brief overview of what VKA has defined so far at its Linka project:

(source)

What do we want to see VKA do next?

🔄 Target generation work (mapping/sampling)

VKA recently completed the digitisation of the historical drilling and previous sampling data on the project (source).

After that we want to see the full data set get integrated into a modern 3D model.

We also want to see the project mapped with LiDAR to reveal the full extent of the underground workings on the project.

Milestones:

🔄 Mapping and sampling (soils and rock chips)

🔄 Geophysics/LiDAR (geophysics commenced a few weeks ago, with the results here and has been expanded to a phase 2 program covering more area) (source)

🔲 Drill targets confirmed

🔲 Drilling (planned for April) (source)

The magnetics/gravity survey phase 2 will be done in the areas of the orange callouts:

(source)

✅Early metwork testing

VKA recently sent off a bulk sample to test its viability for processing.

In particular there is a focus on exploring the viability for this to be used in an early production opportunity scenario, the results from this were released today and were positive, supporting a low capex near term production opportunity. (source)