Gateway Mining Limited’s (ASX: GML) shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling at the Evermore deposit, part of its 1,000 sq. km Gidgee Gold Project in the Murchison District of Western Australia, has confirmed strong potential to further increase the recently announced 67,000oz Au maiden Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate.
The drilling programme was undertaken in September to test the northern and north-eastern extents of the Evermore deposit, which was discovered by Gateway in 2020. The drilling focused both on extending the main host shear at Evermore to the north, as well as testing for extensions around the “nose” of the Montague Granodiorite towards the Whistler deposit (120,000oz Inferred Resource) to the east.
Results from both areas returned strong gold mineralisation, particularly to the north-east along the margins of the granodiorite where a broad intercept of 21m @ 1.7g/t Au from 132m was returned from hole GRC717.
Gateway’s Managing Director, Mark Cossom, said this is a very exciting outcome coming hard on the heels of our recently-announced 67,000oz maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the Evermore deposit.
“The initial assays from this drill program indicate compelling potential to rapidly extend the current Evermore Resource to the north-east along the margin of the Montague Granodiorite contact, as well as along the shear zone to the north.
“We are particularly excited by the opportunity to further test the granodiorite contact between Evermore and Whistler. This granodiorite contact zone hosts all our existing gold deposits at Gidgee, and this relatively untested area, which sits between two known gold deposits, represents a high-priority exploration target.
“We’ll be back on the ground in early 2022 to kick off our next round of drilling, targeting Evermore as well as other priority targets with near-term Resource potential.”
The new results extend the footprint of the Evermore deposit, being located outside the recent maiden Mineral Resource Estimate announced in mid-December 2021.
The drill program m3comprised a total of six holes for 770m of RC drilling completed on two separate drill sections. One section was drilled on a north-south orientation and was designed to test the “nose” of the granodiorite dome between Evermore and Whistler. The second, orientated east-west, was drilled to step-out 50m north of the previous extents of drilling to test the main moderately-dipping shear structure at Evermore.
The Evermore deposit was discovered by Gateway in 2020 by systematically drill-testing the north-western margin of the Montague Granodiorite dome between the 163,000oz Indicated and Inferred Montague-Boulder deposit3 and the 120,000oz Inferred Whistler deposit.
This initial RC drilling, which successfully intersected mineralisation over approximately 1.2km at Evermore, was used to underpin the recently announced maiden 67,000oz Inferred Resource at Evermore5, while also indicating that the mineralisation remained open to the north.
Following the completion of the Resource drilling, the focus shifted to test for extensions of the mineralisation further to the north-east, around the “nose” of the granodiorite dome, toward the Whistler deposit.
Diamond drilling completed by Gateway in 2021, part-funded by the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme, indicated that the northern end of the granodiorite dome is plunging steeply to the south. As such, a section of RC holes orientated from south to north were drilled to adequately test this “nose” area. Excitingly, drilling intersected silicified and bleached granodiorite with trace pyrite-chalcopyrite sulphides, with significant intersections returned of: GRC717: 21m @ 1.7g/t Au from 132m including 2m @ 9.3g/t Au; and 3m @ 1.1g/t Au from 163m (EOH)
The entire northern end of the Montague Granodiorite remains an exciting exploration target, being a prime geological setting immediately proximal to two established gold deposits, and with the majority of drilling being shallow and orientated in an east-west direction. Further drilling to expand on this intersection will be undertaken in early 2022.
In addition, a series of RC holes were drilled to step-out to the north of the previous limit of drilling on the main Evermore host structure. These holes were designed to scope the potential for shallow strike extensions to the current 67,000oz Inferred Resource. These holes successfully intersected the moderately west-dipping, biotite- altered shear zone within the western basalt sequence and returned a significant oxide zone intersection of GRC718: 8m @ 1.8g/t Au from 42m.
For further information please visit: https://www.gatewaymining.com.au/
