Viking Mines (VKA.AX) released an exploration update on its Kinks South vanadium area in Australia. This area is located in between the main Kinks resource estimate and the Fold Nose resource estimate which host about 1.1 billion pounds of vanadium pentoxide on a combined basis. The recent exploration results at Kinks South resulted in an exploration target of 23-31 million tonnes at 0.46-1.04% V2O5 for a total vanadium pentoxide content of 240-710 million pounds. That’s the official target. But in its August press release, Viking Mines expects to build a high-grade resource with about (or in excess off ) 30 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.90% V2O5. This is supported by recent drill results.
You may remember this project as it is the Canegrass project which was previously owned by Bluebird Battery Metals. The asset was sold and subsequently optioned to Viking Mines in 2022 by Flinders Mines (FMS.AX) and Viking is now trying to advance it to the next level. And Viking definitely thinks it has a tiger by its tail as the total project-wide exploration target now stands at 144-192 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.45-0.99% vanadium pentoxide for a total of 1.4-4.2 billion pounds of vanadium pentoxide.
Additionally, the drill bit encountered iron ore mineralization with Fe grades of up to 44.5% in some zones of the project, while other holes at Kinks South encountered copper, nickel and cobalt as well (but at low grades).
Disclosure: The author has no position in Viking Mines. Please read the disclaimer.
