Falcon Metals has intersected mineralisation in its maiden drilling program at the Viking gold project, where it is following up numerous high-grade historical intercepts.
It comes as the junior, which was spun out from Chalice Mining in December 2021, said it had completed its maiden 10-hole reverse circulation (RC) drill program at the Western Australian project.
The drilling targeted the down-dip and potential down-plunge extensions to previous discoveries, where shallow interceptions were made and limited follow-up drilling ensued. Significant historical results included 5m at 44.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 4m at 15.4g/t gold, 3m at 15.3g/t gold and 3m at 8.2g/t gold.
Geological logging from Falcon’s maiden drill program has identified several shear zones with sulphides and quartz veining up to 6m wide. RC samples from these zones were panned, with visible gold observed in 10 of the 25 zones.
“Falcon is delighted by the initial observations from our first drill program at Viking,” Falcon Metals’ managing director Tim Markwell said.
“Although our expectations were high given the gold grades from the historical drilling, the fact mineralised zones were encountered in fresh bedrock down-dip and down-plunge from previous oxide intercepts is a significant positive.
“We are encouraged by the presence of visible gold from panning, but a degree of caution is required until we receive the assays, as it does not always translate to high-grade results. Once we receive the results, planning will commence for the next phase of work at Viking.”
Assay results from the drill program are expected in 4–6 weeks.
Falcon is earning a 70 per cent interest in the Viking project from Metal Hawk. Viking is located 30km east of Norseman within the highly prospective Albany-Fraser province, which is also home to the Tropicana gold mine.
A joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti (70 per cent) and Regis Resources (30 per cent), Tropicana has produced more than three million ounces of gold since 2013.