Gateway Mining has bagged a new high-grade gold discovery at its sprawling Yandal gold project in Western Australia, with maiden drilling at its Cowza prospect hitting a previously untested and highly prospective geological contact.

The company’s first-pass air core drilling at Cowza, 4.5km south of its recent Celia South discovery, returned a strong initial intercept of 4 metres grading 4.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 96m. Significantly, the 4.5-kilometre gap between the two discoveries remains completely untested along the key mafic-intermediate contact.

Gateway says magnetic data over this ‘gap’ shows strong demagnetisation, which is often a sign of intense hydrothermal alteration, a classic calling card for significant gold deposits. The company plans to get the drill rods turning in this gap shortly.

Other results from the campaign include 4m at 3g/t gold from 76m and a wide, lower-grade intercept of 46m at 0.4g/t gold from 68m that ended in mineralisation.

Management says the results are a promising breakthrough, confirming the geological model, based on historic drilling at Cowza, was positioned too far west and had missed the primary target – the mafic-intermediate volcanic contact. This is the same contact that hosts significant gold deposits throughout the region.

Management is keen to emphasise the similarities in the structural setting that are emerging at Cowza and at Northern Star Resources’ nearby Millrose gold deposit. It believes the historic drilling at Cowza, which sits in the footwall of the main target, is analogous to the Millrose West deposit, implying the main prize might have been left untouched until now.

The new discovery extends mineralisation over an 800-metre section of a 2.5-kilometre-long structure that remains open to the north and south, highlighting the potential scale of the system.

Testing the mafic-intermediate contact at Cowza, widely recognised as the optimal setting for gold mineralisation across the Yandal Project and previously untested at the prospect, has immediately delivered promising high-grade intercepts in the right structural position.

Cowza can now be added to an already impressive and growing list of new discovery areas for Gateway, including Haflinger, Mustang, Hummer, Rubicon and the emerging Great Western flexure, demonstrating the exceptional resource growth potential across its 1780-square-kilometre landholding.

All this potential upside sits on top of the existing Yandal mineral resource of 400,000 ounces of gold and, perhaps more importantly, is within 50km of Northern Star’s giant 10-million-ounce Jundee gold operations.

With a pipeline of news on the way, including initial drilling results from the Great Western prospect expected this week, the company is preparing to ramp up its exploration efforts.

A reverse-circulation (RC) rig is scheduled to arrive on site in the next few days to test the depth extensions beneath the new shallow oxide discoveries at Cowza and Great Western. A second RC rig is slated to be added early next quarter to accelerate a further push for resource growth.

With a healthy bank balance of $15.7 million and $5.6 million in liquid securities at the end of the March quarter, Gateway looks to be well-funded to fast-track its systematic, project-wide exploration strategy.

It seems the company may have found the geological key to unlocking its Yandal ground. By methodically targeting a geological contact that historic explorers missed, the company is building a conga line of new gold discoveries.

With an RC rig about to test the new Cowza discovery at depth and a tantalising 4.5km mineralised gap screaming to be drilled between Cowza and Celia South, there looks to be plenty of potential catalysts on the horizon. And all this in the shadow of Northern Star’s Jundee project, one of WA’s biggest gold operations.

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