Maiden gold resource for Julias pushes Gateway Mining’s Montague project past half-million ounces
Gateway Mining says the Julias target at Gidgee is shaping up as a significant oxide gold discovery.
West Australian explorer Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) says its renamed Montague gold project has now reached 526,000 ounces in contained gold – boosted by the maiden 77,000oz resource for the Julias prospect.
The Montague (formerly Gidgee) project now has a global resource of 10.07 million tonnes at 1.6 grams per tonne gold for the 526,000oz.
Of the overall resource, 142,000oz at 2.1g/t sits in the indicated category.
The new Julias resource totals 1.908Mt at 1.3g/t gold for that 77,000oz and spans 500m of strike defined by the reverse circulation drilling.
Of that resource, 61,000oz are classified as indicated, with the remaining 16,000oz in the inferred category. Moreover, 67% of the Julias resource is located within the oxide zone.
Aircore drilling this year has identified a 700m extension of the mineralised structure to the southwest.
The discovery cost at Julias now stands at $9 per ounce, which the company says supports its strategy of exploring for shallow, oxide deposits.
Multi-pronged strategy continues to pay dividends
Back in April, Gateway reported that it was focusing on areas within a 5km radius of its existing resource at Montague, and believed that one of its two prime prospects, Julias, was shaping up as a significant oxide discovery.
Gateway managing director Mark Cossom said the Julias maiden resource was an impressive result.
“Our multi-pronged exploration strategy continues to pay dividends at Montague.
“We have a clear pathway to grow the deposit with recent aircore drilling highlighting extensions,” Mr Cossom added.
He said more news will be coming as the year advances, including assays from a different reverse circulation drilling on extensions to existing mineral resources at Montague-Boulder, Achilles and Evermore prospects.
‘Strategic’ decision to change name
He said the strategic decision to change the project’s name involved a number of reasons, but the main one was the geological importance of the Montague Granodiorite as the major feature controlling mineralisation in this greenstone belt.
Another factor was the desire to differentiate this project from the historic Gidgee gold mine owned by Gateway’s neighbour, Horizon Gold (ASX: HRN).
It also separates present operations from previous mining operations on Gateway’s ground.
Gateway picked up Montague in 1996, initially in a joint venture with the former Yardarino Mining, then moved to take majority control two years later.
Between 1986 and 1993 the former Herald Resources mined five open pits, including one at Montague-Boulder.
Herald was delisted in 2009 following a takeover.
Historic exploration to the north at Gidgee was impeded by the presence of a tenement boundary, but Gateway has now acquired that neighbouring tenement and so controls the entire strike length.