THE CONFERENCE CALLER: With the RIU Sydney Resources Roundup fast approaching, we thought it would be the ideal time to check in an a few of the companies that will be presenting to see what they’re up to.

Alto Metals (ASX: AME)

Alto Metals recently reported a Mineral Resource update for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.

The updated Mineral Resource incorporated updates for deposits across the Sandstone project, including the Indomitable Camp (including a maiden resource for Indomitable East and Musketeer), an update to Lord Nelson and a maiden Mineral Resource estimate for Bull Oak.

The independent Mineral Resource Estimate outlined an optimised and pit-constrained 17.6 million tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne gold for 832,000 ounces of gold within $2,500 per ounce optimised pit-shells reported at 0.5g/t gold cut-off.

The latest MRE included all drilling Alto had completed on the aforementioned deposits up to the end of November 2022.

It is important to note that Resource estimates for Lord Henry, Vanguard, Vanguard North, Havilah Camp, Tiger Moth, Piper and Ladybird deposits remained unchanged from Mineral Resources the company reported in March 2022, September 2018 and June 2019, respectively.

“This latest update once again highlights the shallow nature of mineralisation and has delivered a robust, optimised and pit-constrained Resource of 832,000 ounces gold at 1.5 grams per tonne, representing 80 per cent of the total MRE and remains open in all directions,” Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles said.

“Our systematic approach to exploration is continuing to deliver and we are confident further drilling will continue to grow the resource and increase the confidence of additional Inferred resources to Indicated.”

With over 27 per cent of the Total MRE within the optimised pit-shells in the Indicated category, Alto considers the total mineral resources for the Sandstone gold project have a reasonable prospect of eventually being mined.

These considerations stem from the shallow nature and the thickness and gold grades of the deposits, which are located on granted mining or exploration leases, and close to existing infrastructure.

“The company is focused on adding further ounces and sees plenty of avenues to continue growing the Sandstone resource with numerous priority targets, as well as starting to target the significant potential at depth, which remains relatively untested,” Bowles remarked.

“The total mineral resource now delineated at Sandstone is a significant milestone for the company.”

Lunnon Metals (ASX: LM8)

Lunnon Metals made the market take notice by releasing an updated nickel JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Warren deposit within the company’s Kambalda nickel project (KNP) in Western Australia.

Lunnon reported the updated Warren MRE at 445,000 tonnes at 2.5 per cent nickel for 11,200 contained nickel tonnes, comprising: – 345,000 tonnes at 2.6 per cent nickel for 8,800 nickel tonnes in Indicated Resource; and – 100,000 tonnes at 2.4 per cent nickel for 2,400 nickel tonnes in Inferred Resource.

The update took Lunnon Metals’ global MRE across the KNP to 2.9 million tonnes at 3.1 per cent nickel for 87,800 contained nickel tonnes.

To put the achievement into focus, this equates to a 125 per cent increase in contained metal since Lunnon Metals listed on the boards of the ASX in June 2021.

“The drill programs at Warren have delivered steady growth to the MRE but importantly, have achieved other, just as significant, outcomes,” Lunnon Metals managing director Ed Ainscough said.

“We have hit nickel in host positions not previously considered prospective in this area, opening up an exciting new exploration search space.

“This discovery has dramatically increased the footprint of nickel mineralisation at Warren, now captured in the increased MRE.

“To test this potential properly, we will likely need to get underground and this MRE provides confidence that Warren will form an important part of the PFS studies for a possible re-start of the Foster nickel mine, from which Warren would be accessed.”

Lunnon will use the MRE as the basis of economic studies to investigate the potential to mine the Warren deposit as part of a Foster PFS.

These studies will include mine design and scheduling, estimation of capital access costs, estimation of future operating costs of mining and discussion with potential ore tolling and concentrate purchase partners with respect to the metallurgical recovery and payability terms of future Warren nickel sulphide production.

These studies, if positive, will form the basis of a development study that could eventually position the company to negotiate with potential ore tolling and concentrate purchase partners in the immediate local area.

Revolver Resources (ASX: RRR)

Revolver Resources is a copper-focused exploration play with two 100 per cent-owned copper projects in Queensland.

The Dianne project covers six Mining Leases and an Exploration Permit in the proven polymetallic Hodkinson Province in north Queensland.

Project Osprey covers six exploration permits within the North-West Minerals Province, one of the world’s richest mineral producing regions.

The principal targets Revolver is chasing are Mount Isa style copper and IOCG deposits.

Late 2022, Revolver released an initial Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Dianne Mine primary and supergene massive sulphide (MS) and the Green Hill supergene oxide deposits.

The MRE for the Dianne Mine includes:

Dianne Primary and Supergene MS: Total Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 135,000 tonnes at 6.1 per cent copper for 8,200 tonnes of contained copper metal, at a 0.5 per cent copper cut-off grade.

Green Hill Supergene Oxide: Total Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.49 million tonnes at 0.66 per cent copper for 11,000 tonnes of contained copper metal, at a 0.25 per cent cut-off grade.

The combined MRE tonnage contains 72.1 per cent in the Inferred Mineral Resource and 27.9 per cent in the Indicated Mineral Resource categories.

“This initial mineral resource estimate equips Revolver with the necessary information to progress a dual track approach to unlocking early value at Dianne,” Revolver Resources managing director Pat Williams said.

“The already establish highly prospective copper district surrounding Dianne is now complimented by the clear definition of the starting resource that has the potential to support near term open pit mining.”

Revolver began 2023 in an equally exciting way with the announcement it had discovered a substantial new VMS system in the district scale tenement package containing the Larramore Volcanic Belt, within the greater Dianne project area.

Following results of a Heli-EM survey that had identified multiple priority conductive anomalies across the region, Revolver’s first diamond hole testing the first of these targets confirmed the VMS potential of the district and the validity of the Heli-EM targets intersecting VMS mineralisation.

“This is a ground-breaking result and provides Revolver with the clear evidence needed to upscale exploration activities across this exciting district-scale copper precinct,” Williams said.