Assays from Viking Mines (ASX: VKA) Kinks deposit define high-grade vanadium zones

Highlights

• Latest drill assays delivered high-grade vanadium zones at Kinks deposit of up to 40M at 0.75% V₂O₅.
• The results present an opportunity to uplift the average grade in the Kinks West Block.
• The Kinks West Block area contains multiple intercepts significantly higher than the current MRE average grade.
• Several holes hit significantly elevated Cu, Ni and Co.

Viking Mines Ltd (ASX: VKA) has shared an encouraging project update. The Company shared assays from a recently completed drilling program at the Canegrass Battery Minerals Project, focusing on eight target areas. The goal was to grow and extend the existing inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 79Mt at 0.64% V₂O₅ (vanadium pentoxide) estimated at the Kinks and Fold Nose deposits.

The latest assay results have demonstrated thick high-grade zones of vanadium mineralisation within the Kinks deposit. Now, the Kinks West Block has multiple intercepts, which are higher than the current MRE average grade. This offers an opportunity to improve the average grade over the current MRE of 20Mt @ 0.57% V₂O₅ in this area.

Recently, the company also reported vanadium zones at the Kinks South target, to know more, click here.

Viking has also intersected elevated Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni) and Cobalt (Co) values and Cu remains the most significant throughout the results. To assess the significance of these results, the Company needs to undertake further work.

The Company is yet to report the results for 21 of the 45 holes drilled under the ~7,500m drilling program.

Significant vanadium mineralisation at Kinks West Block

The following mineralisation has been intersected in the three holes drilled at the Kinks Deposit and tested the western limits of the MRE -

• VCRC0021: 40m at 0.75% V₂O₅ (>0.5%) from 202m, including: 27m at 0.83% V₂O₅ (>0.8%) from 203m
• VCRC0019: 38m at 0.70% V₂O₅ (>0.5%) from 96m, including: 15m at 0.86% V₂O₅ (>0.8%) from 101m
• VCRC0020: 12m at 0.66% V₂O₅ (>0.5%) from 51m, including: 6m at 0.86% V₂O₅ (>0.8%) from 54m

The results confirm the opportunity to extend the MRE to the surface and further west.

Growth potential of Mineral Resource

The current inferred MRE of the Kinks deposit is 20Mt at 0.57% V₂O₅, a subset of the Canegrass project’s inferred MRE of 79Mt at 0.64% V₂O₅.

The Company has identified the extensions to the Kinks deposit, and in order to quantify its target size, the Exploration Target Estimate (ETE) was completed for the West Extension target area of 1.7Mt to 2.2Mt at 0.57% to 0.88% V₂O₅ for 0.02 to 0.04 billion pounds of V₂O₅. It is a sub-set of ETE for the Canegrass project of 144Mt to 192Mt at 0.45% to 0.99% V₂O₅ for 1.44 to 4.19 billion pounds V₂O₅.

Merging the extension of the mineralisation with the results in historical and current drilling, the Company believes there lies substantial opportunities to define higher-grade tonnes within the Kinks deposit MRE.

Significant copper mineralisation reported

The Company informed that Cu mineralisation has been significant in the results received and is directly associated with the VTM mineralisation. Also, the occurrence of Cu is within the same intervals as the V₂O₅ (approximately).

The elevated value observed throughout the ranges and drilling is between 0.06% to 0.1%.

The significance of these results can be assessed by further work.

Road ahead!

Following are the company’s priorities –

Data Source: Company update

VKA shares closed the day’s trade at AU$0.009 on 24 August 2023.