Gateway fires up three-rig gold hunt at WA Yandal project
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penny taylor
Gateway Mining has operated reverse circulation (RC) drilling rigs at its Yandal gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia’s prolific Yandal Greenstone Belt.
The new drilling program marks a significant shift in exploration strategy, moving from a highly successful 10-month airbase program that outlined kilometer-scale gold footprints to a new campaign to scale the growing gold potential pipeline.
An RC rig is already rolling towards the company’s Haflinger field; This is a significant new discovery along the Celia Shear in the southern part of the Minor project. The first holes follow a new air core discovery hole that returned 64 meters at 1.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 56 metres, including 24 meters at 2.4 g/t gold.
Drilling targets shallow mineralization in fresh rock for the first time to reveal gold-bearing structures that could support future resources. The success shows that the shallow mineralization is part of a much larger gold system at depth.
‘It promises to be a very exciting time ahead for Gateway as we begin to gauge the scale of our situation at the Minor.’
Gateway Mining CEO Richard Pugh
Once work at Haflinger is completed, the rig will move southwest toward the Great West area on the Great Western Shear; Previous drilling here outlined a 4 km long gold mineral dolerite below the bottom-hole air core intersections. It also illuminated a promising epithermal-style gold-silver system that has been poorly tested in fresh rocks so far.
Meanwhile, a second RC rig is scheduled to be on site next week to begin drilling at the Cowza and Celia South mines along the 40km long Celia Shear south of the Horse Well gold camp.
Initial drilling will target key mafic-intermediate contact zones. The same contact also hosts high-grade mineralization at Gateway’s nearby Horse Well gold camp and Northern Star Resources’ nearby Millrose deposit, making it a compelling target for follow-up drilling.
Recent highlights include 10 meters at 2.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 66 meters, 2 meters at 9.2 g/t gold at Celia South and 4 meters at 4.7 g/t gold from 96 metres, including 1 meter at 17.4 g/t gold at Cowza.
Gateway Mining CEO Richard Pugh said: “Both rigs are focused on identifying the extent of mineralized footprints on our key targets in fresh rock. Depending on how this drilling progresses, the Company may elect to add an additional rig this quarter to assist with future resource definition/growth drilling planning.”
Further weather score results from Cowza, Cowza North and Ward are expected shortly before the weather score program ends at the end of July. As Gateway continues to unlock the larger Minor project, they will feed more objectives into the expanding RC campaign.
Additional drilling will help determine which of the growing number of discoveries require resource definition and growth drilling later this year. A potential third rig could also speed up follow-up efforts on remaining leads.
Across a 1,780 square kilometer dominant Minor tract hosting almost 100 kilometers of potential gold trends, Gateway continues to confirm a tried and tested geological recipe where suitable mafic and intermediate volcanic rocks are intersected by major regional shears and structural flexures.
The project is located on the eastern flank of Western Australia’s productive Minor Greenstone Belt, which is home to world-class deposits such as Northern Star Resources’ Jundee operation. Gateway currently hosts a 400,400-ounce gold resource centered on the Dusk Till Dawn deposit and the Horse Well Gold Camp.
Haflinger, the focus of much of the drilling this time, is among these resource centres, while the Great West region lies along a parallel western structural corridor, and Celia South and Cowza are located further south on the productive Celia Shear. All four potential customers are eligible to be added to this inventory. Previous discoveries at Rubicon, Hummer, Mustang and Ward could provide further resource growth opportunities across the broader Minor project.
Gold prices remain at historically high levels and continue to favor explorers making new discoveries and resource growth, especially in world-class regions such as Western Australia.
Backed by $15.7 million in cash and $5.6 million in liquid ASX securities at the end of the March quarter, Gateway is well-funded to keep its rigs rolling as it looks to develop its growing exploration pipeline into a regional-scale gold asset in one of Australia’s leading gold belts.
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