Gateway Mining Limited (ASX: GML) is off to a strong start with its expanded exploration programme with a number of high-grade assay results from its recently completed 4,500m Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programme at Gidgee Gold Project in Western Australia.
The first batch of results have returned significant high-grade gold mineralisation at the Whistler West prospect, 1.1km north of the 120,000oz Montague-Boulder Resource, representing an exciting early breakthrough.
This RC drilling was completed as part of a larger programme testing several targets around the margins of the Montague Dome.
The Whistler West area had been identified as being highly prospective by Gateway’s recent structural and geological interpretation, which highlighted that the Boulder structure within the Montague-Boulder pit (120,000oz Inferred Resource) appeared to continue along the entirety of the margin of the granodiorite, and had only been historically tested by shallow RAB and air-core drilling, which was largely ineffective due to shallow depth penetration.
The prospectivity of this area was also enhanced by a recently completed soil geochemical sampling programme, which defined several coherent gold anomalies along the north-western contact margin.
The drilling programme in this area consisted of a single RC traverse of 40m spaced holes across the northern extent of the Montague Dome, with 15 holes drilled for 1,262m. This traverse aimed to test two different styles of mineralisation.
The first is high-grade mafic shear-hosted mineralisation adjacent to the granodiorite contact – the same as that in the Boulder lode at the Montague-Boulder deposit. The second is granodiorite-hosted “stockwork” mineralisation that is similar to the Whistler Gold Deposit.
These drilling results highlight that there is approximately 1.6km of effectively untested strike of this structural corridor between the Montague-Boulder Resource and the Armada Prospect to the north.
Managing Director, Peter Langworthy, said it is now obvious that, in each position that has been drilled deeper than the historical shallow RAB and air-core drilling, significant mineralisation has been intersected.
Our fully-funded and expanded exploration campaign at Gidgee is off to a great start,” Mr Langworthy said.
“Hitting a shallow six metre interval of high-grade gold mineralisation grading 6g/t in an entirely new area 1.1km north of the Montague-Boulder resource in our very first round of drilling is a fantastic result. It is supported by several other broad intercepts along the same fence of RC holes, plus some significant historical intercepts.
“This is a clear indication of the scale of the opportunity at Gidgee. We have been able to apply the geological learnings from our exploration in and around the Montague resource to successfully extend the same ore-hosting contact over 1km to the north.
“This opens up a massive new area to the north of the Montague deposit along the prospective north-western granodiorite contact to a major exploration push.
This is a very exciting early development in our exploration programme and we are now looking forward to getting the RC rig back to this area later this month to systematically drill out what could well be the first of a number of potential game-changing targets at Gidgee this year.”
Mr Langworthy added that these results are highly encouraging for the continued exploration of the Montague Dome for significant new gold discoveries, with the RC holes representing the first systematic test of the granodiorite margin away from areas of historical mining activity and build on the understanding of the controls on mineralisation that Gateway has developed over the past 18 months.