Alto Metals (ASX:AME) reports it has commenced a maiden reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at the Oroya Mine, located within the Sandstone Gold Project in Western Australia.
The company says targeting reviews on the historic Hacks and Oroya Gold Mines identified a number of priority targets, and the maiden RC drilling program planned for around 2,000m is now underway at Oroya.
It states there is potential for ‘significant’ mineralised material to remain due to historical mining activities at Oroya focusing only on ‘bonanza’ style mineralisation within the reefs leaving surrounding mineralisation unmined, as highlighted by the historical results drilled post mining.
The company also reports this initial drill program is the first RC drilling at Oroya in over 15 years and is targeting extensions of the Sandstone reef mineralisation to the northwest beyond the north end of the pit, along with extensions to the south and down dip to the west, which have not been adequately tested.
“We are excited to be testing numerous targets at the Oroya Mine, which historically produced 220,000oz @ 16.5g/t Au”
Alto Metals Managing Director Matthew Bowles said the drilling program will be testing high-grade gold mineralisation of the Sandstone Reef.
“We are excited to be testing numerous targets at the Oroya Mine, which historically produced 220,000oz @ 16.5g/t Au from underground to a depth of only 140m below surface and is the first time this long forgotten mine has had any drilling in over 15 years.
Drilling is designed to test both plunge and strike extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation at the Sandstone Reef, along with the unmined Juno reef to the west.
Whilst our focus remains on growing our current 635,000oz shallow gold resource, Oroya is an outstanding high-grade gold target, that demonstrates the quality of prospects in our project pipeline and is an exciting opportunity for Alto shareholders.
Alto reports the lack of recent exploration and numerous historic ‘high-grade’ drill results at Oroya provide an ‘exciting’ opportunity for the company to re-explore the prospect, fitting in with its strategy of continuing to focus on growing its existing resource base within the Alpha Domain, while progressing regional prospects.
Based on the outcome of this drilling program, the company believes there is ‘significant’ potential to extend the known mineralisation along strike further to the north and northwest, and Alto considers it is ‘likely’ there is potential to define additional shallow resources at Oroya based on the remnant ‘high-grade’ mineralisation that remains open.
The Oroya open pit was last mined by Herald from 1994 to 1995, and the company states ‘significant’ mineralisation remains immediately below the shallow open pit (mined to a depth of 60m), west of the pit and at the unmined Juno Lode.
Alto Metals is a gold exploration company focused on the 900lm-square Sandstone Gold Project in the Archaean Sandstone Goldfield around 600km north of Perth in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia.
Images: Alto Metals Ltd
