Source : THE AGE NEWS
Viking Mines has hit the ground running at its Linka tungsten project in Nevada, USA, with maiden drilling intersecting multiple, wide zones of visual tungsten mineralisation in the first holes at the project in 40 years.
The program marks the company’s first tilt at the target and early signs appear encouraging, with geologists spotting scheelite — the key tungsten-bearing mineral — lighting up under ultraviolet light in rock chips from the reverse circulation (RC) drilling.
Viking says its strong hits feature disseminated, coarse-grained scheelite hosted in skarn rock over significant widths of up to 12m. Scheelite is the most important natural tungsten mineral for downstream production and is made up of about 80.5 per cent tungsten trioxide.
Geologists on site are using its distinctive fluorescence under shortwave UV light to get an early read on the mineralisation ahead of laboratory assays. Key visual intercepts include a 12-metre continuous interval of visible scheelite from just 40m downhole in one hole, featuring estimated content of up to three per cent visual scheelite.
‘Initial visual mineralisation intercepts are highly encouraging and show multiple zones of strong disseminated scheelite.’
Viking Mines managing director and chief executive officer Julian Woodcock
Another hole delivered a combined total of 13m of visible scheelite over a 19m-wide horizon from a shallow 9m depth. A third hole returned a combined 11m of visible scheelite from a 21m horizon starting at a mere 3m below surface.
While management has rightly cautioned that visual estimates are no substitute for laboratory analysis, the initial results have provided plenty for the early imagination. The company says initial samples from the mineralised intercepts are being readied for dispatch to the lab, with the rig still churning away to deliver plenty more hits from the program.
Viking Mines managing director and chief executive officer Julian Woodcock said: “Being on the ground at Linka observing our maiden RC drilling programme with the chip trays lighting up under the UV lamp hole after hole, as predicted by our 3D geological model, is as good as it gets prior to assays. These initial visual mineralisation intercepts are highly encouraging and show multiple zones of strong disseminated scheelite (CaWO4) mineralisation hosted in tactite over significant widths.”
Viking’s Linka project comprises three historically producing tungsten mines that ceased operations in 1956, not for geological reasons, but due to a slump in the tungsten price. With the global tungsten market continuing to grapple with a severe supply squeeze, the rapid run-up in prices has thrust the company’s Nevada assets into sharper focus as Western supply chains hunt for secure, reliable tungsten sources.
European benchmark prices for ammonium paratungstate, a key intermediate tungsten product, averaged an eye-watering $US3075 (A$4400) per metric ton unit in the second quarter of 2026 – a more than sixfold jump from just twelve months earlier.
The historic mill grade of approximately 0.5 per cent tungsten trioxide ranks Linka amongst the higher of comparable global tungsten projects, as the brownfields project continues to show its restart opportunity chops. Historic infrastructure, including a 46m shaft, historic pits and underground workings across a tungsten trend of up to 1.6km, has the company focused on near term production at today’s record high prices.
Management has already proposed an early-stage plant design with flexibility at its core. The modular processing flowsheet could allow for future additions, suggesting a capital-light, disciplined and staged development plan for early production.
With the rods still turning on site and the first batch of samples now being prepared for dispatch to the lab in Reno, assays are expected in four to six weeks. For Viking and the punters alike, the wait for that maiden set of numbers will likely be keenly anticipated.
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