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Murray Ward
Gateway Mining has significantly expanded the footprint of its Yandal gold project, 85 Kilometres northeast of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company has traced shallow, oxide gold mineralisation over a massive 4-kilometre strike at its Haflinger prospect.
The latest end-of-hole results from air core drilling along the Celia-Mustang trend have also confirmed high-grade primary gold at Gateway’s Hummer prospect, suggesting the company could be sitting on a major new gold camp in the heart of WA.
The main takeaway from the latest campaign has been the hefty size emerging at Haflinger. The results have extended the known high-grade mineralisation by 220 metres to the south, pushing the total strike length of the oxide gold zone to 4 kilometres along the Celia Shear structure.
Notable hits from the company’s southward Haflinger extension drilling included 12 metres running at 1.1 grams per tonne(g/t) gold from 104 metres, with a further hole landing 8 metres at 1.1g/t gold from 96 metres. Interestingly, the prospect is cut and offset by a northeast-trending brittle structure, where another hole intercepted 4 metres grading 1.4g/t gold from only 48 metres.
‘These latest results from the Celia-Mustang Trend are another strong step forward.’
Gateway Mining chief executive officer Richard Pugh
Gateway says the latest results have backed up a previous monster intercept of 64 metres at 1.2g/t gold from 56 metres, which featured 24 metres at 2.4g/t gold, underscoring the significant potential for stacked lodes within the broader structural corridor.
While Haflinger provides the scale, the company’s adjacent Hummer prospect is delivering some high-grade heat of its own from the primary rock. The prospect sits on a splay structure off the Celia Shear and was initially identified through a 16-metre hit at 1.0 g/t gold from 64 metres.
The recent drilling results appear to have unearthed a primary gold lode more than 200 metres long beneath a broader 700-metre oxide zone. Crucially, the latest two holes at Hummer both finished in high-grade primary mineralisation at the bottom of the hole, with the system wide open at depth.
Standout results included 6 metres at 2.2 g/t gold from 80 metres to bottom-of-hole and 5 metres at 1.7 g/t gold from 100 metres to bottom-of-hole. The results seem to validate Gateway’s theory that the Celia-Mustang structural corridor contains a series of repeating, high-grade gold lodes.
The company says this mirrors the common geological setting of major gold systems found throughout the Yilgarn Craton. The major characteristic being shear zones that flex around the margins of intrusions.
Gateway Mining chief executive officer Richard Pugh said: “These latest results from the Celia-Mustang Trend are another strong step forward in what is rapidly emerging as a significant new gold camp.”
Beyond the immediate success at Haflinger and Hummer, Gateway is maintaining momentum across its 1780-square-kilometre patch at Yandal. The company is waiting on a significant batch of assays from an 18,000-metre drilling program 15 kilometres to the northwest of the Celia-Mustang trend at its Great Western prospect. First results are expected to land in the next two weeks.
The company says the highly anticipated results should complement the current Yandal global resource of 8.17 million tonnes grading 1.52 g/t for 400,400 ounces of gold, currently centred on its Horse Well and Dusk ’til Dawn prospects.
With a formidable war chest of A$15.7 million in cash and A$5.6 million in liquid securities, Gateway is well-funded to continue accelerating its exploration program. The next steps will involve systematic reverse circulation drilling to delineate the plunge and geometry of the newly identified lodes at Haflinger and Hummer, where the primary mineralisation in fresh rock remains largely untested.
Gateway’s big system play at Yandal is starting to show its teeth, with four kilometres of strike already secured and high-grade gold potentially lurking at depth.
Punters are likely to be laser-focused on a soon-to-be-delivered torrent of assays from Great Western while watching for more results from the spinning drill rods at Haflinger and Hummer.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
