Alto Metals (ASX:AME) has outlined the ‘outstanding’ resource growth potential of its Sandstone Gold Project in Western Australia following a review of the mineralisation in the area.
The $32.85 million market capitalisation company reviewed the mineralisation within the Bull Oak granodiorite and historical workings at the project. Alto says the granodiorite is host to multiple stacked lodes of mineralisation similar to that observed at the Lord Nelson and Lord Henry areas and has a strike length of about 500m and a width of up to 150m.
The mineralisation is not constrained by the boundary of the granodiorite and extends into the mafic rock.
Alto reports that unmined results from below the shallow mined pit highlight ‘significant’ mineralisation.
Results include hole MSGC1292 with 7m @ 38.9 grams per tonne (g/t) from 64m, including 1m @ 154g/t gold from 65m; and hole MSGC508 with 9m @ 31.4g/t gold from 49m, including 1m @ 275g/t gold from 51m.
The company notes mineralisation is completely open up- and down-dip, along strike and at depth. This demonstrates the ‘significant’ potential to extend mineralisation below the shallow mined pit in these directions.
An 18-hole reverse circulation (RC) drill program has now been planned and will begin in the coming weeks targeting these potential extensions.
Low-cost lithium exploration work is currently ongoing at Sandstone, including multi-element geochemical sampling along parts of the Edale Shear along the eastern tenement boundary, where a number of prospective targets have already been identified.
Speaking on the results, Alto Metals Managing Director Matthew Bowles says: “Mineralisation at Bull Oak is multiple stacked lodes hosted within a granodiorite, similar to that at Lord Nelson and Lord Henry. Most of the historic drilling at Bull Oak has been relatively shallow. However, two historic holes drilled to 300m depth intersected multiple lodes and reported numerous instances of visible gold.
“we are excited to have an RC rig arriving shortly to test these outstanding targets that have the potential to drive near-term growth”
A follow-up deep hole drilled by Alto returned a wide zone 260m @ 0.4g/t gold from 36m, including 14.1 g/t gold and ended in mineralisation. The mineralisation is completely untested up- and down-dip of these intercepts, as well as at depth, and we are excited to have an RC rig arriving shortly to test these outstanding targets that have the potential to drive near-term growth.”
Alto Metals is the sole owner of the Sandstone project in the East Murchison region of Western Australia.
The project covers a total land holding of 740km-square and currently has an optimised open-pit constrained Mineral Resource Estimate of 832,000oz gold at 1.5g/t, capturing over 80% of the unconstrained total MRE of 1.05 million ounces.
Alto Metals had $1.1 million cash at hand as of 30 June 2023 prior to a $5 million share placement and an additional $420,000 via a drill-for-equity arrangement launched in July.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Alto Metals
