Alto nails 212m gold hit under historic pit

Alto Metals has nailed a 212m drill hit at its Bull Oak project near Sandstone in WA grading 1.2 g/t gold from just 28m and notably, it ended in mineralisation, begging the question, just how far can it go?

Alto’s latest stellar numbers come from a 3,440m, 28 hole RC drilling program at its Bull Oak, Vanguard and Ladybird deposits within its 100 per cent owned Sandstone Gold Project in WA.

The company says the 212m hole intercepted multiple high-grade quartz reefs and even includes 1 metre section running as high as 116 grams per ton (g/t) gold at the interpreted Kohinoor North Reef—the best result Alto has seen there to date.

The next best drill hole, 90 metres to the southwest, intersected 48m at 0.6 g/t gold from 83m, incl. 1m at 9.6 g/t gold from 114m.

The company says the latest results from below the old shallow Bull Oak open pit demonstrates the expansion potential and confirms the continuity of broad zones of gold mineralisation over 500 metres of strike outside the resource, representing an opportunity to considerably increase the scale of the deposit.

The current mineral resource for Bull Oak is 1.9 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.1 g/t gold for 65,000 ounces of gold and the latest assay results highlight strong growth upside.

While metallurgical studies will aid the ongoing development of Sandstone, the excellent metallurgical characteristics of the Bull Oak deposit - which previously reported gold recoveries up to 95% from conventional cyanide leaching - add to the deposit’s economic viability.

Alto plans to undertake additional metallurgical testwork in the oxide, transitional and fresh rock at Bull Oak as part of ongoing study work.

Beyond Bull Oak, the company is also testing mineralised zone extensions and continuity at its two other deposits. The 80-metre step-out hole the company drilled at its Vanguard North deposit, intersected a high-grade reef extending 80m outside the current resource.

Key results from Vanguard North include 6 metres at 1.9 g/t gold from 148 metres, including 1 metre at 10.4 g/t gold, while drilling further into a new area 500m along strike from the deposit successfully intersected a quartz reef, returned 1 metre at 3.9 g/t gold from 115 metres.

Meanwhile, extensional drilling at the Ladybird deposit, 5 kilometres north of Vanguard, has intersected further high-grade zones, including 9 metres at 2.2 g/t gold from 70 metres, with a peak interval of 10.6 g/t gold over one metre.

Alto managing director & CEO, Matt Bowles said; It is also exciting to see step-out drilling at Vanguard North has intersected the high-grade reef - outside the existing resource - 80 metres down plunge, returning +10g/t gold and first pass drilling at a ‘look-a-like target’ 500 metres along trend has successfully intersected the quartz reef confirming the targeting model. Further work is now being undertaken for follow up drilling at these prospects.

In early August, the company revealed an agreement to merge with Brightstar Resources to consolidate the Sandstone gold operations and the Alto board has unanimously recommended the deal.

Market punters gave today’s results the thumbs-up with Alto ending today’s trading around 8 per cent higher.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au