Viking rolls drill rig onto US tungsten play after 40-year wait

Viking Mines has mobilised a drill rig to its Linka tungsten project in Nevada, USA, with the rods set to spin at the historic operation for the first time in more than 40 years.

The reverse circulation (RC) drilling program marks a significant step in the company’s goal to define a maiden mineral resource at the past-producing mine. With earthworks and drill pad preparation already underway, drilling is expected to kick off this week.

Viking’s maiden campaign is designed to test scheelite-bearing skarn mineralisation across three specific target areas. The company will look to confirm and extend shallow, near-mine high-grade mineralisation and test for down-dip extensions at the old Linka workings.

In addition, the program will probe for interpreted extensions to the south-west under shallow cover and conduct first-pass regional drilling along a broader, seven-kilometre geophysical mapped intrusive contact, of which only 10 per cent has been properly tested.

‘Tungsten prices have strengthened to multi-year highs,with European APT trading at US$3265 per mtu.’

The decision to drill was prompted by a string of positive technical results that Viking believes have significantly de-risked the project.

Recent metallurgical test work produced a solid 56.9 per cent tungsten trioxide concentrate at a recovery of 76 per cent using conventional gravity and flotation methods. The met work was preceded by successful ore sorting tests which demonstrated the potential to easily upgrade the Linka ore before processing.

The timing of the program looks sharp, with European tungsten prices recently hitting multi-year highs of US$3265 (A$4665) per metric tonne unit (MTU) for 88.5 per cent ammonium paratungstate. One MTU equates to 10 kilograms.

Viking Mines managing director and chief executive officer Julian Woodcock said: “Mobilising the rig is a significant milestone for Viking and the culmination of a substantial amount of planning and groundwork by the team. This is the first drilling program at Linka both under Viking’s ownership and for more than 40 years.”

Tungsten is a designated critical mineral in the United States, prized for its extreme hardness and high melting point, making it essential for defence, aerospace and industrial applications.

A powerful tailwind for Viking is the US REEShore Act, which mandates that US military supply chains must be free of Chinese-sourced tungsten from December 2026, creating a domestic imperative for American-based projects such as Linka.

The Linka project was a historical producer, churning out 65,000 tonnes at a solid grade of 0.5 per cent tungsten trioxide up until 1956, when operations ceased due to a weak tungsten price rather than a lack of ore.

The project area includes substantial existing infrastructure, such as a 46-metre-deep shaft, historic pits, underground workings and a run-of-mine pad.

Beyond the primary Linka operations, Viking maintains an active footprint across several other asset holdings in Nevada.

The company’s regional land claims include the Alpine, Long, Ragged Top, Terrell and Victory tungsten projects, which are held under various unpatented mineral claim agreements.

Viking says it’s actively gathering and evaluating historical exploration data across these peripheral claim blocks to plan future field campaigns.

The company has been steadily building its case at Linka since acquiring the project and recently divested non-core gold assets for up to $5 million to shore up its balance sheet for the work ahead.

With the drill rig now on site in Nevada, Viking is not just poking holes in the ground for the first time in a generation. It is testing a brownfields restart strategy at a historical producing mine, in a top-tier jurisdiction, at a time when both the commodity price and geopolitics are firmly in its corner.

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