Gateway’s Cowza discovery expands as fresh-rock drilling opens a larger Yandal test

Cowza’s first fresh-rock test returns high-grade gold

Gateway Mining Limited (ASX:GML) has moved its Cowza discovery from a promising aircore anomaly into a more serious fresh-rock exploration story. The first effective reverse circulation test of the main structure returned 41 metres at 2.0g/t gold from 104 metres, including 9 metres at 7.5g/t from 105 metres in hole CZRC057.

The result came as the system expanded from roughly 800 metres of mineralised strike at the end of June to approximately 4.5 kilometres by late August. Gateway said the mineralisation remains continuous along a mafic-intermediate volcanic contact within a structurally complex, strongly demagnetised corridor. The company also said grades stayed elevated through the core of the interval rather than being confined to isolated samples, although the announcement does not provide true widths or establish a mineral resource.

The result builds on the earlier Cowza RC result, which reported the same 41-metre intercept as part of Gateway’s broader Yandal exploration update. A second RC hole, drilled about two kilometres north of CZRC057, returned a broader but lower-grade 52 metres at 0.3g/t gold from 44 metres.

Yandal corridor gathers scale across four targets

Cowza is only one part of the emerging Celia Shear corridor. Gateway reported more than 1.5 kilometres of mineralised strike at Celia South, including a standout aircore result of 4 metres at 9.7g/t gold, while Ward has now been delineated over more than 7 kilometres. Ward’s best recent results included 4 metres at 4.0g/t, 4 metres at 3.7g/t and 4 metres at 3.2g/t.

Together, Cowza, Celia South and Ward represent more than 13 kilometres of reported mineralised strike. That scale is encouraging at the exploration stage, but the results remain reconnaissance and widely spaced in places, with higher grades appearing in discrete zones rather than evenly across each corridor.

South of Cowza, Pewy has become a priority target after aircore drilling returned 8 metres at 1.0g/t gold on the edge of a 3-kilometre undrilled demagnetised corridor. The target shares the same mafic-intermediate contact and structural features identified at Cowza. Gateway had previously defined the 3km Pewy gold target as an undrilled target supported by nearby aircore results.

$45 million placement gives Gateway room to drill

The exploration push is backed by a materially stronger balance sheet. Gateway completed a $45 million placement of 562.5 million shares at $0.08, a 16.7% discount to the last closing price and a 9.1% discount to the 15-day VWAP cited in the announcement. The raising increased the company’s funding capacity but also expanded its issued share base.

Gateway also sold its portfolio of liquid securities for $8.23 million. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $52.841 million at 30 September, after $5.952 million of exploration expenditure and $861,000 of operating cash outflows during the quarter. On the Appendix 5B calculation, that equated to an estimated 7.76 quarters of funding at the quarter’s relevant expenditure rate.

The company plans to use that funding for broad RC and diamond drilling at Cowza and other Yandal targets, alongside resource growth and estimation work. The $45 million Yandal placement was earlier presented as the financing base for an aggressive exploration campaign, but the next test is whether drilling converts the long strike lengths and isolated high-grade intersections into a coherent resource.

Glenburgh South adds two regional gold anomalies

Gateway’s second exploration front is Glenburgh South, where soil sampling results released after quarter-end identified two coherent gold-in-soil anomalies, each extending for approximately four kilometres. The anomalies sit along interpreted regional structural corridors south of Benz Mining’s Glenburgh Gold Project, and follow-up mapping, rock-chip sampling and additional soil work are under way.

Montague Range and Barrelmaker, a combined landholding of about 1,000 square kilometres north of Sandstone, remain earlier-stage opportunities. Gateway is reviewing historical and geophysical data before deciding on first-pass targeted drilling. No mining development or production took place during the quarter, and the filing contains no production guidance or economic assessment.