Gateway Mining identifies new mineralised zone at Achilles gold deposit

Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) has reported strong intercepts grading up to 5.6 grams per tonne gold from a new and large-scale mineralised zone at the Achilles deposit, within the Montague project in Western Australia.

A 27-hole reverse circulation program for 2,754 metres targeted extensions to an existing 99,000 ounce mineral resource at Achilles and tested areas to the east and southeast where historic and recent drilling has indicated the presence of widespread shallow mineralisation.

It returned extensive broad intercepts of moderate-grade mineralisation hosted within the regional Montague granodiorite.

The intercepts are parallel to the main Achilles shear structure, over an area up to 150m wide and 600m long, and present as a major zone of gold mineralisation.

Known as Achilles East, drilling produced best results of 12m at 5.6g/t gold from 56m; 18m at 2g/t gold from 31m, within a broader 30m at 1.3g/t gold from 31m; 14m at 1.6g/t gold from 68m, within a broader 63m at 0.6g/t gold; and 22m at 1g/t gold from 115m, within a broader 54m at 0.5g/t from 112m.

It also highlighted immediate near-surface extensions to the shallow Achilles oxide deposit, with significant intersections along strike including 9m at 1g/t gold from 9m; 7m at 2.2g/t gold from 59m; 6m at 1g/t gold from 14m; and 7m at 1g/t gold from 24m.

Historical intercepts from this zone include 147m at 0.4g/t gold from 21m; 120m at 0.4g/t gold from 80m; and 47m at 0.7g/t gold from 76m.

Significant exploration target

Gateway managing director Mark Cossom said Achilles East was emerging as a significant exploration target for large-scale, granodiorite-hosted mineralisation.

“These new intercepts define a large zone which we believe has excellent potential to add to the existing resource base at Montague,” he said.

“The high-grade intercepts occur within broader lower-grade intervals of mineralisation which correlate well with historic intercepts along the granodiorite.”

Bulk mineralisation

Mr Cossom said the zone could become a target for large-scale bulk mineralisation similar to that seen at major granodiorite-hosted deposits such as Red 5’s (ASX: RED) King of the Hills development near Leonora.

“While our strategic focus is on shallow, high-grade deposits, this serves to remind investors that Montague is also prospective for much larger-scale discoveries we will evaluate the potential to pursue this broad-scale style of mineralisation in future drilling campaigns,” he said.

Edjudina joint venture

Gateway also revealed today that gold had been intercepted at its 20%-owned Edjudina project, which is operated by DiscoverEx Resources (ASX: DCX).

First pass aircore drilling at the project’s Spartan prospect’s bedrock returned 8m at 0.22g/t gold from 80m and elevated copper.
Within the paleochannel at the prospect, drilling intercepted 4m at 2.1g/t gold from 32m.

The program was designed to gauge the gold potential within insitu weathered basement rocks as well as in the overlying transported cover.

Drilling is ongoing with 141-holes completed at Spartan so-far.