Alto Metals (ASX: AME) has reported a significant boost to the Mineral Resource Estimate at its Sandstone Gold Project in Western Australia after incorporating updates for the Lord Nelson, Lord Henry, Havilah Camp, and Vanguard Camp targets.
The project’s updated MRE totals 12.4Mt @ 1.6 g/t gold for 635,000oz of contained gold, representing an increase of 92% in contained gold at an average discovery cost of less than $14 per ounce.
The company said that the shallow, high-grade resources remain open along strike, providing strong potential for continued resource growth and to develop a stand-alone gold operation.
Commenting on the update, Alto Metals Managing Director Matthew Bowles said: “We are extremely pleased to be able to report this substantial increase in the gold resource, that has been independently estimated by Snowden Optiro, to 635,000 ounces at the Sandstone Gold Project. 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.
“We view this very much as an interim resource upgrade, with significant scope to delineate additional shallow, high-grade gold ounces”
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.”
The upgraded MRE was prepared by independent mining industry consultants Snowden Optiro, and was reported in accordance with the JORC 2012 code. Only Indicated and Inferred categories of mineralisation were considered for inclusion.
The resource update included all drilling completed up to the end of August 2021. Alto reported rapid growth at the Vanguard Camp with a tripling of the resource to 2.3Mt @ 2.0 g/t gold for 150,000oz. Mineralisation remains open along a 2km+ long north-west to south-east trending corridor.
At Lord Nelson, resources increased by 138% to 5.3Mt @ 1.6 g/t gold for 267,000oz while mineralisation also remains open.
Mineral Resources for the Indomitable Camp and Ladybird deposits were not updated. It is anticipated that Indomitable will be included in the next MRE update planned for H2 2022.
Importantly, gold recoveries of around 96% from fresh rock were achieved during preliminary gold recovery testwork (average of 93% across all rock types) demonstrating that gold will be recoverable through a simple cyanide extraction process.
Moving forward, Alto is proceeding with a 60,000m+ drilling program during 2022, targeting resource expansion, high-grade depth extensions, and high-priority regional targets.
Images: Alto Metals Limited
