Aircore drilling at Gidgee project confirms major gold trend for Gateway Mining
Assays are pending from a major 15,000m reverse circulation program underway at Gidgee.
Aircore drilling results have confirmed a major trend of shallow, oxide gold mineralisation at Gateway Mining’s (ASX: GML) flagship Gidgee gold project in Western Australia, which extends 700m southwest of the Julias oxide discovery.
In its June quarterly report, the company outlined a series of aircore intercepts from Julias and the adjacent historic Flametree target, as well as strike extensions of the current Achilles mineral resource from drilling completed in March last year.
Oxide-zone targets delineated by the program returned highlights of 4m at 8.3 grams per tonne gold from 56m; 5m at 1.9g/t gold from 36m; 8m at 1g/t gold from 40m; and 9m at 1g/t gold from 84m.
Results from Flametree have increased Gateway’s confidence in the presence of high-grade oxide gold mineralisation, with best assays including 3m at 5.4g/t gold from 51m and 4m at 2.5g/t gold from 69m.
Major drilling campaign
By the end of the quarter, Gateway had commenced a major 15,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign at Gidgee to test strike extensions to all existing mineral resources, as well as the “nose” of the Montague Granodiorite Dome between current resources at the Evermore and Whistler targets.
The company said it would continue to focus its activities on targets within 5km of Gidgee in the hope of identifying near-term additions to the project’s existing 449,000 ounce resource.
High-grade intercepts
Gateway reported significant shallow high-grade intercepts from drilling adjacent to the existing 99,000oz indicated and inferred resource at the Achilles/Airport deposit.
The deposit was defined in December and consists of a zone of mainly oxide-hosted gold mineralisation which extends almost to surface and is largely related to the western margin of the Montague Granodiorite unit.
Within the existing resource, mineralisation has previously been identified east of the main contact, while several prospective areas are still open outside of the resource.
Gateway said drilling was designed to test the persistence of oxide mineralisation within these open areas.
The results will be coupled with historic assays to refine targeting for the next phase of reverse circulation drilling aimed at defining further resources between Achilles and Airport.
Spartan discovery
During the quarter, DiscovEx Resources (ASX: DCX) completed a soil sampling program at the Edjudina project (in which Gateway holds 20% equity) and delineated the large-scale Spartan gold prospect.
It remains open to the northeast, has never been drilled, and is adjacent to the Hornet East and Hornet West targets where supergene gold mineralisation has been intersected in previous drilling.
Subsequent to the reporting period, DiscovEx announced that results from infill and extensional soil sampling at Spartan had showed up several areas of 0.1g/t gold, peaking at 0.54g/t.
Sylvania divestment
In May, Gateway announced a deal with DiscovEx and Rio Tinto Exploration (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, ASX: RIO) which will give Rio the option to acquire 100% of the iron ore rights in DiscovEx’s Sylvania project in WA’s Pilbara region.
Gateway currently holds a 1.5% gross royalty over two iron ore tenements within the project, obtained in mid-2020 when it divested Sylvania to DiscovEx subsidiary Lighthouse Resource Holdings.
Th divestment was geared towards allowing Gateway to maintain a focus on exploration and development of Gidgee.
Exploration expenditure
Gateway’s exploration expenditure for the June quarter totalled $1.28 million, focused mostly at Gidgee.
Payments to related parties included $104,000 in remuneration to directors, $21,300 in fees for professional services such as accounting and insurance, and $62,000 in fees for geological consultancy services.
At the end of the quarter, Gateway had cash reserves of $3.73 million.