Gateway Mining to acquire Yandal gold project in $45m deal with Strickland Metals
Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) will look to accelerate development of the large Yandal gold project after agreeing to acquire the asset from Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) for $45 million in shares.
The Yandal gold project covers 1,780 square kilometres of the prospective eastern flank of the Yandal greenstone belt in the north-eastern Yilgarn region of Western Australia.
Subject to approval by both Gateway and Strickland shareholders, the parties expect to complete the transaction is by the second half of August.
Toll treating options
In announcing the deal, Gateway said its initial focus would be to progress the mining licence application for the Horse Well resource at Yandal, which contains 291,500 ounces of gold.
Strickland has already started that process and identified several possible toll treating options within the region.
Technical work undertaken by both companies has identified several areas that warrant drill testing, in particular intrusive-related gold targets at the Dusk ‘til Dawn prospect that Gateway plans to drill later this year or in early 2026.
‘Highly strategic’ region
“I have had significant involvement with the Yandal asset in recent years and am delighted that Gateway has secured the project and can now focus on various development options in what is a highly strategic part of the WA goldfields,” executive chair Peter Langworthy said.
“Strickland’s work to date has defined a 400,400oz resource, which is an excellent platform from which to also build a more substantial resource inventory.”
Gateway will advance Yandal alongside its existing Montague and Barrelmaker projects at Sandstone.
Underexplored belt
Mr Langworthy said Gateway remains well-funded to undertake planned 2025 and 2026 exploration, with cash and liquid securities of approximately $13.6m as at the end of the March quarter.
Gateway believes that the entire eastern extent of Yandal is relatively underexplored, with modern exploration techniques having covered less than 6km of the total 75km greenstone belt.
Yandal contains 8.17Mt @ 1.52 grams per tonne for the 400,400oz Inferred gold resource with additional significant exploration potential.