Gateway steps on the gas in WA Wiluna gold chase

Gateway Mining has turned up the heat on its flagship Yandal gold project 85 kilometres northeast of Wiluna in Western Australia, with fresh aircore assays confirming significant high-grade gold mineralisation along a trend that encompasses the company’s emerging Mustang-Pony prospects.

Drilling has continued to define two major structures - the regional-scale Celia Shear to the west and the Mustang Shear to the east – which are both clearly associated with gold mineralisation.

Wide-spaced aircore lines at 200m and 400m spacings have clipped the targeted mafic-intermediate contact on the Celia Shear in fresh rock, delivering standout bottom-of-hole results that point to a robust mineralised system.

Key intercepts include 2 metres grading 3.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 148m to bottom-of-hole, within a 6-metre run at 1.4g/t gold from 144m.

A second hole returned 16m going 1g/t gold from 136m, including 4m at 2.9g/t gold from 148m.

Further encouragement came with a third hole, which delivered 8m grading 1.2g/t gold from 92m, including 4m at 2g/t gold from 96m - still in the oxide zone.

The higher-grade zones in the first two holes - spaced 100m apart – represent intercepts that pierced the Celia shear structure, confirming it may host significant gold.

Other drilling also nailed the same structure 200m further south, confirming the trend remains open and is expanding, although assays are still pending.

Just 1km east of the Celia shear zone, wide-spaced aircore drilling on the Mustang Shear has defined anomalous gold in saprolite over 2.5km of strike, open to the north and south, with the key mineralised contact still largely untested.

Drilling across the two key shear structures – the Celia Shear and the Mustang Shear – continues to demonstrate widespread gold anomalism. On the Celia structure, MPAC187 intersected 2m @ 3.4gt Au (fresh) in the final two metres of the hole before blade refusal, and 300m to the south, MPAC231 intersected the same structure with 4m @ 2.9g/t Au (fresh) right near the end of the hole. Drilling across the two key shear structures – the Celia Shear and the Mustang Shear – continues to demonstrate widespread gold anomalism. On the Celia structure, MPAC187 intersected 2m @ 3.4gt Au (fresh) in the final two metres of the hole before blade refusal, and 300m to the south, MPAC231 intersected the same structure with 4m @ 2.9g/t Au (fresh) right near the end of the hole.

Drilling along more than 8km of the known Mustang trend has consistently bracketed the key shear zone between intercepts, prompting Gateway to fast-track tighter infill aircore drilling on multiple lines to pinpoint the contact more accurately ahead of follow-up reverse circulation (RC) drilling.

Gateway says ongoing bottom-of-hole sampling for multiple elements, combined with historic data, is sharpening the geological map, highlighting mafic-intermediate contacts that directly link to high-grade mineralisation identified at the company’s recently acquired Horse Well gold camp.

The Mustang shear’s flexures and structural complexity - especially in the underexplored southern area where it converges with the Celia Shear – appear to have created prime structural traps ripe for hosting large-scale gold systems.

With two rigs mobilising to the project shortly - one infilling and tightening the hole-spacing around stronger anomalism and the other systematically stepping southwards - Gateway is ramping up the hunt. Follow-up RC drilling will zero in on the refined shears once they have been mapped in greater detail.

With the bit between its teeth and $13 million in cash and liquid assets as at the end of the September quarter, plus a post-quarter $22.5 million raise, Gateway is well placed to chase this emerging system in one of WA’s hottest gold belts.

Early positive signs are stacking up strongly, with high grades in fresh rock, open mineralised trends and clear geological and structural ties to proven gold camps, putting the Yandal fringe area firmly on the radar as a potential new Eastern Goldfields play.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au