Gateway Mining Prepares for Extensive Drilling at WA Gold Target
Gateway Mining is gearing up to launch a significant maiden drilling campaign at its Great Western prospect within the Yandal gold project in Western Australia, with operations scheduled to commence in early March. The company has identified a compelling new target characterized by a differentiated dolerite unit along the western margin of the primary Great Western shear zone.
Geological Setting and Potential
Detailed lithological and structural mapping has confirmed what Gateway describes as a textbook gold setting, with the dolerite unit displaying features strikingly similar to established dolerite-hosted deposits in the Eastern Goldfields, such as Northern Star's Jundee and the Junction deposit. Gateway Mining executive chairman Andrew Bray noted that the mapping at Great Western reveals a structural and lithological environment comparable to some of the most significant gold camps in the region.
Management believes that the interaction between the shear zone and the prospective dolerite, combined with coherent gold-in-soil anomalies and nugget patches, points to the possibility of a large gold system. The sheared dolerite margin, which spans an impressive 7km of outcrop and is estimated to extend approximately 16km along strike based on magnetic imagery, will be a key focus of the drilling due to its optimal host potential for gold mineralisation.
Drilling Strategy and Campaign Details
To test this theory, Gateway has designed a two-pronged drilling campaign utilizing two aircore rigs and one RC rig. The aircore rigs will target gold-in-soil anomalies along the sheared dolerite–intermediate volcanic contact, while the RC rig will address areas where outcrop prevents effective penetration. Additionally, regional wide-spaced drilling will assess textural zonation within the dolerite and explore splay structures diverging from the main shear zone.
Gold-in-soil anomalies and nugget patches have been tracked along the sheared eastern margin of the dolerite across the sampled length, with the highest concentrations clustered in what the company calls the Target Shear Zone. Structural mapping has also revealed multi-phase deformation and cross-cutting features, suggesting the presence of dilation zones that could channel hydrothermal fluids essential for gold deposition.
Project Background and Financial Position
Gateway's Yandal project covers 1780 square kilometres of prime Yandal greenstones, located 85km northeast of Wiluna and just 40km from Northern Star's prolific Jundee operation. The project already hosts an 8.17 million tonne resource grading 1.52 grams per tonne gold for 400,400 ounces across the Horse Well and Dusk 'til Dawn deposits.
The company enters this drilling program in a strong financial position, with $19.4 million in cash and $9.3 million in liquid ASX securities as of the end of December. Armed with a 16km strike in a nugget-rich shear corridor that mirrors the structural hallmarks of Western Australia's best gold camps, Gateway is now poised to see if this geological promise translates into tangible gold ounces through its upcoming drilling efforts.
