Exploration by Freeport McMoran in the early 1980's led to a production decision in 1986. Between 1987 and 1993 Freeport mined 70,000 ounces of gold per year from seven open pits. Ore mined from the different pits had average grades ranging from 0.106 to 0.222 opt of gold. A total of 510,000 ounces of gold were mined from which 386,000 ounces were recovered.

Initially, oxide ore averaging 0.058 opt was treated on heap leach pads. Later in the mine life, sulphide ore averaging 0.16 opt gold was processed through a roaster and C.I.L. plant.

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Geology

The Big Springs gold deposits are of the sediment-hosted "Carlin" type. The historically mined ore-bodies were hosted in late Paleozoic (Mississippian to Permian) fine-grained sedimentary rocks of the Schoonover and Overlap sequences. Ore occurred primarily in steeply dipping fault structures, particularly where major structural zones (generally northerly or north-easterly trending) were cut by westerly or north-westerly trending cross structures. Ore-bodies averaged about 50 feet thick and appeared to be controlled primarily by structure rather than stratigraphy. Drilling by the previous operator established that the ore-controlling structures continue for undefined but significant distances below the ultimate pit bottoms.

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Potential

At Big Springs, over 500,000 ounces of gold were mined from open pits in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Management believed there was excellent potential for defining additional gold deposits and acquired the property in early 2003. The Big Springs drill programs to date have focused on testing, identifying and expanding the gold bearing structures that hosted the near surface mineralization mined by the previous operator.

To date over 159,500 feet have been drilled on numerous mineralized zones throughout Big Springs. Numerous gold bearing intercepts have been reported and catalogued in the Company's database. In addition to Gateway's own data, the Company acquired an extensive historical database for the property from Anglo Gold North America Inc. which has greatly enhanced the Company's overall understanding of the various structural controls on gold mineralization.

NI 43-101 Resource Estimate

The cumulative success of these drill programs at Big Springs continues to confirm management's expectations for the property. Detailed deposit modeling and an initial resource calculation have been completed. Based on results from the Company's work and data from the previous operator, results of this NI 43-101 compliant estimate are 1.2 million ounces gold with an average grade of 0.078 opt at 0.025 opt cut off.

Current Program

Gateway Gold Corp. entered into a contract with SRK Consulting (US) Inc. to prepare a Preliminary Assessment Study (Scoping Study) of the Company's Big Springs project. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the potential economic viability of the project and to identify the scope of work necessary to take the project to a pre-feasibility stage. The results of all project work will be prepared as a NI 43-101 compliant Preliminary Assessment technical report (see Company News Release April 21, 2008).

The inital phase of the SRK work will be the preparation of a geologic model and an updated resource estimation and classification of the resource into measured, indicated and inferred categories. Subsequent work will include an evaluation of potential mining methods, metallurgy and processing options, environmental and permitting considerations and estimates of capital and operating costs. The results will then be incorporated into an economic model. The study will be completed by the 4th quarter of 2008.