Gateway Gold Commences Drilling on Santa Fe Property

VANCOUVER, BC - Gateway Gold Corp. reported that a reverse circulation drilling program has commenced on the Santa Fe gold property located near Hawthorne, Nevada. The 6,500 foot drill program is designed to test for strike and depth extensions of a high grade gold-bearing sulphide pipe that crops out at the south end of the historic Santa Fe open pit. The program will comprise approximately 6 to 8 holes.
The Santa Fe deposit was mined by Homestake in the late 1980's and 1990's, recovering in excess of 350,000 ounces of gold and 500,000 ounces of silver from near surface oxide ore bodies. Ore was mined by open pit methods and the gold was recovered by heap leaching the oxide ore. Based on information received from Homestake, a "500 x 500 foot high grade sulphide pipe", crops out in the south end of the Santa Fe pit. Although Homestake drilled over 30 holes into the pipe, it was never mined or drilled out in detail. Half of the holes drilled into the pipe by Homestake bottomed in significant gold mineralization. Hole BSF74-14, starting at surface on the south edge of the pit, intersected 240 feet averaging 2.88 g/t (0.084 opt) gold and 25.4 g/t (0.74 opt) silver including 90 feet averaging 4.66 g/t gold (0.136 opt) and 36.7 g/t (1.07 opt) silver. A second high-grade zone occurs below the north central part of the pit where Hole CSF89-19 intercepted 55 feet grading 3.98 g/t (0.116 opt) gold and 6.38 g/t (0.186 opt) silver including 25 feet that averages 7.99 g/t (0.233 opt) gold and 8.47 g/t (0.247 opt) silver. Previous drilling did not define the full extent of mineralization, which remains open for expansion.
M.D. McInnis, President and CEO of Gateway commented, "We are excited about the possibility of developing a significant gold resource at Santa Fe which will augment the 1.2 million ounce gold resource we have on our Big Springs project in northeast Nevada." A Scoping Study on the Big Springs project is currently being prepared by SRK Consulting (US) Inc.
The company's address is 906 - 595 Howe St., Vancouver, BC V6C 2T5, 604 801 6040, fax: 604 801 6075.