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Doug Bright
Gateway Mining has kicked down the door at its historic Ward prospect, with aircore drilling defining a massive gold anomaly stretching for more than 7 kilometres along the regional-scale Celia Shear. Ward sits in the southern reaches of the company’s Yandal gold project and just 6km south of its rapidly growing Cowza discovery in WA’s highly prospective Yandal greenstone belt.
Results from the reconnaissance aircore campaign delivered high-grade hits including a best run of 4 metres assaying four grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 88m. Notably, the discovery hints strongly at a likely strike continuity between Ward and the company’s nearby 4.5km-long Cowza gold trend and its 1.5km-long Celia South gold trend along the Celia Shear, adding up to an impressive combined anomalous strike of at least 13km.
‘The new results at Ward highlight the significant exploration upside that remains across Gateway’s broader project portfolio.’
Gateway Mining chief executive officer Richard Pugh
The Yandal greenstone belt sits between 40 and 80 kilometres east-northeast of the richly-endowed Wiluna-Agnew greenstone belt. In addition to Gateway’s Yilgarn ground, the belt also hosts major gold systems such as those at the Jundee, Bronzewing and Darlot gold projects.
The company’s latest aircore program at Ward was designed to test a key structural contact and its mineralisation controls. The drilling met with notable success, delivering a string of impressive results from the 7km trend. In addition to the best 4m hit at 4g/t gold, other meaningful results included 4m at 3.7g/t gold from 96m depth and 4m at 3.2g/t gold from 60m.
If the 6km-long intervening and only partially tested part of the Celia Shear between Ward and Cowza also comes up with the goods in future drilling, Gateway could be looking at a potentially continuous 19km-long mineralised trend along the Celia Shear.
What makes the discovery particularly compelling is the geological detective work behind it. Management says a review of historical drilling showed previous explorers at Ward had focused on secondary “footwall splay” structures. While those structures hosted gold, including a solid historic hit of 34m at 1.7g/t gold from 41m, Gateway believed the main prize lay in a different interpretation elsewhere.
Armed with geological insights from its recent success at the nearby Cowza discovery, the company redirected its drilling to target the primary mafic-intermediate volcanic contact, a structure it now believes is the main control on gold mineralisation in the area. Gateway’s early success in defining the 7km-long anomaly at Ward looks like solid vindication of the revised theory.
Gateway Mining chief executive officer Richard Pugh said:“Ward is developing into a compelling new gold target within our Yandal gold project, with aircore drilling now defining a 7-kilometre-long mineralised corridor supported by multiple new high-grade gold intersections and strong historic drill results.”
The Ward prospect lies just south of and along strike from Cowza, where Gateway has been busy defining what it calls a “rapidly growing gold system” over some 4.5km of strike that remains open in all directions. The geological similarities between the two prospects, including the prospective contact and structural complexity, significantly enhance the corridor’s overall potential.
The latest results land in a market that is currently keenly rewarding explorers for proving up large-scale, continuous mineral systems, particularly in WA’s revered Yilgarn Craton. So, defining a system on the sort of scale Ward and Cowza have thrown open in the past month could very well put Gateway firmly on the radar.
With a healthy $15.7 million in cash and liquid securities as of the end of the June quarter, Gateway appears to be well-funded to aggressively follow up on its new discoveries.
The company says future reverse circulation (RC) drilling will target the most prospective parts of the 7km trend at Ward to define the overall geometry and scale of the mineralised system. In the meantime, the company says it is keeping its RC drill rig busy at the nearby Cowza prospect, with initial results from that program expected soon.
Gateway’s application of a revised geological model to a historically misunderstood area has unveiled an extensive mineralised system that tends to cause geological and market pulses to quicken. With plenty of cash in the kitty and a conga line of targets now stretching for at least 13km and possibly even up to 19km long, the company looks set to keep its drill rods turning for quite a while.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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