Alto Metals Keeps 2022 Momentum Running at Sandstone
COMMODITY CAPERS: Alto Metals (ASX: AME) reported a mineral resource update for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.
The mineral resource estimate for the Sandstone gold project now totals 12.4 million tonnes at 1.6 grams per tonne gold for 635,000 ounces of contained gold.
The updated mineral resource incorporates updates for the project’s Lord Nelson, Lord Henry, Havilah and Vanguard Camps and was prepared by independent mining industry consultants, Snowden Optiro and reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code.
Highlights of the update, include:
• Resource update represents an increase of 92 per cent in contained gold at an average discovery cost of less than A$14 per ounce.
• Updated Mineral Resources constrained within $2,500/oz optimised pit-shells at a 0.5g/t gold cut-off and over 90 per cent of total ounces within 160m from surface.
• Shallow, high-grade resources remain open along strike and at depth at all deposits highlights the strong potential to continue to grow the resource inventory with further drilling.
• Excellent gold recoveries of approx. 96 per cent in fresh rock returned from preliminary gold recovery testwork (avg. of 93% across all rock types) demonstrates gold will be recoverable through a simple cyanide extraction process.
• Rapid growth at Vanguard Camp with a tripling of the resource to 2.3 million tonnes at 2g/t gold for 150,000oz and mineralisation remaining open along a +2km long NW/SE trending corridor.
• Substantial resource growth at Lord Nelson, increasing by 138 per cent to 5.3 million tonnes at 1.6g/t gold for 267,000oz and mineralisation remains open.
• Mineral Resource Estimate excludes an update for Indomitable Camp. Recent high-grade gold results outside the current resource and assays from planned drilling to be included in an update in the second half of the year.
“We view this very much as an interim resource upgrade, with significant scope to delineate additional shallow, high-grade gold ounces with the current and planned drilling at the Lords Corridor, Vanguard and Indomitable,” Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles said.
“The company remains focused on adding further ounces with extensional drilling and plans to mobilise additional rigs to fast-track this resource growth and also test a number of our high-priority regional targets.
“Alto completed over 60,000 metres of drilling in 2021 and the scale of growth, particularly at Lord Nelson which has more than doubled and Vanguard which has tripled in size, gives us the confidence that we can continue to materially grow the resources beyond what is currently defined at Sandstone.”
Alto has enjoyed a fairly busy 2022 thus far: before attending the 2022 RIU Explorers Conference in February, the company reported gold results from drilling completed at the end of 2021 at Sandstone.
Alto carried out the extensional drilling at the Indomitable deposit that forms part of the Indomitable Camp, which is currently defined over a two kilometres strike length and is hosted within the +20km NW/SE Indomitable/Vanguard/Havilah Trend that forms part of Alto’s priority ‘Alpha Domain’ target area.
Multiple, broad zones of gold mineralisation were intersected from shallow depths in step‐out RC drilling at the Indomitable Camp located approximately 15km north‐west of the Lords Corridor.
Results included:
SRC 574
21 metres at 2 grams per tonne gold from 46m, including 1m at 14.9g/t gold from 61m and including 1m at 6.3g/t gold from 66m, and 11m at 2.5g/t gold from 92m, including 2m at 7g/t gold from 93m.
The Indomitable Camp currently has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.7 million tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne gold for 74,000 ounces. These resources remain open along strike and at depth.
“At Indomitable we have now defined mineralisation over a strike length of 500 metres, with numerous broad intersections of strong gold mineralisation, encountered from shallow depths, which remain open at depth and along strike,” Bowles said.
“Such an unusually deep weathering profile suggests the mineralisation structures at the Indomitable deposit are long‐lived and extensive, which is encouraging as it indicates the potential for a much larger system.
Commencing 2022, Alto reported on activities undertaken to close 2021 at Sandstone being gold results from the Havilah‐ Maninga Marley prospect, which along with the Havilah West target makes up the Havilah Camp that is defined over a 1,500 metre strike located less than one kilometre west of the Lords Corridor.
The Havilah deposit currently has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 371,000 tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne gold for 20,300 ounces.
The results from Havilah confirmed continuity of high‐grade mineralisation outside the current resource and remains open down plunge, and included:
SRC551
3 metres at 1.4 grams per tonne gold from 51m and 13m at 2.5g/t gold from 104m, including 1m at 21.9g/t gold from 114m.
Alto also reported on further high‐grade intercepts achieved at the Lord Henry pitttt that included the latest one‐metre resplits of previously reported four‐metre composites from RC drilling designed to test extensions of gold mineralisation.
The results continued to highlight the presence of multiple stacked lodes of high‐grade gold, within broader zones of mineralisation, that remain open to the north.
These latest results will be incorporated into the updated mineral resource estimate for Lord Henry.
Email: admin@altometals.com.au
Web: www.altometals.com.au
Directors: Richard Monti, Matthew Bowles, Terry Wheeler, Dr Jingbin Wang