Gateway Mining uncovers more high-grade gold at Whistler

Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) has announced positive results from an in-fill and extensional drilling program at its Whistler gold deposit in Western Australia, paving the way for work to begin on a maiden resource estimate.

The deposit sits within its 100%-owned Gidgee gold project, located within the highly prospective Gum Creek Arachaean Greenstone Belt.

Results received to-date have confirmed the quality of the mineralisation immediately below the historical Whistler open pit, while also providing strong indications of high-grade extensions at depth.

The recent batch of results retrieved include 21m at 5.30 grams per tonne gold from 149m, 15m at 4.51g/t gold from 119m, 8m at 6.04g/t gold from 190m, 6m at 14.5g/t gold from 198m, and 26m at 2.61g/t gold from 126m.

Importantly, the presence and distribution of significant zones of thick, high-quality, gold mineralisation remains open both at depth and along strike.

The latest intercepts follow on from the retrieval of high-grade gold mineralisation at the Gidgee project last year.

The results demonstrated the potential to delineate a high-quality, large-scale gold mineralised system.

Gateway sets sights on maiden resource

Gateway said the encouraging results from drilling undertaken at the project would now lead to the estimation of a maiden mineral resource for the Whistler deposit.

In parallel with this, preliminary programs of metallurgy and geotechnical evaluation will be instigated.

The resource estimate is targeted for completion by the end of the current quarter.

Gateway managing director Peter Langworthy said the drilling program had not only laid the foundations for a maiden estimate but had strengthened the belief that the deposit could develop into a significant high-grade gold system.

“While we work up the resource at Whistler, we are planning to commence step-out diamond drilling to test the deeper potential and determine really how big this gold system may be,” he said.

“Ultimately, we have a strong belief in the potential of the broader Gidgee project to develop into a long-term gold camp.”

The Gidgee project is immediately adjacent to Horizon Gold’s (ASX: HRN) Gum Creek gold project, which has a 600,000 tonne per annum processing plant on site and is estimated to contain a resource of 17.3 million tonnes averaging 2.25g/t gold for 1.25 million ounces of gold.

Shares in Gateway climbed significantly higher on today’s news, gaining 36.4% in afternoon trade to $0.015.