Alt Resources begins drilling for gold at Shepherds Bush
Alt Resources has begun a 5,000m drilling campaign at Mt Ida – starting at the Shepherds Bush gold prospect.
Alt Resources (ASX: ARS) has kicked-off reverse circulation drilling at the Shepherds Bush prospect within its Mt Ida gold project in Western Australia.
Earlier this year, Alt carried out a review of historical drilling results at Shepherd Bush, which indicated broad zones of gold mineralisation were present.
Better intersections from historical exploration were 12m at 1.65 grams per tonne gold from 72m, 20m at 1.37g/t gold from 28m, and 32m at 0.91g/t gold from 48m.
According to Alt, the first holes in this latest campaign have already intercepted visible sulphide mineralisation and initial samples have been delivered for analysis.
In this latest program, Alt will drill 5,000m across Shepherds Bush and Tim’s Find, as well as Boudie Rat, Forrest Belle, Quinns Hills and Boags South.
Multi-million ounce gold opportunity
In mid-May, Orior Capital released a report valuing Alt as a “compellingly cheap” proposition with a multi-million ounce opportunity.
Orior Capital analyst Simon Francis gave Alt an $0.08 share valuation and pointed out Alt plans to release a maiden reserve and a feasibility study later this year for the Mt Ida gold project.
The company has already firmed up resource of 6.8 million tonnes at 1.82g/t gold for 406,000oz and expects to add to this in the coming months.
Alt is looking to develop a 500,000tpa operation with an initial eight-year life at the Bottle Creek deposit.
To shore up its case, the project hosts existing infrastructure including roads, an airstrip, tailings dams, bore fields and a mining camp.
Mr Francis estimates a 500,000tpa carbon-in-pulp processing operation would cost Alt as little as $20 million to establish.
Cashed up
To fund Alt through its current drilling program at Shepherds Bush and other targets the company has received firm commitments to raise $1.35 million via a $0.02 share placement.
“We are pleased to have sufficient funding to focus on increasing our current resource base across the Mt Ida projects,” Alt chief executive officer James Anderson said.
“This placement is a strong endorsement of the results we have achieved and the inherent value investors see in Alt.”
Mr Anderson added the company expected to have a strong news flow in the coming months including a potential resource upgrade.
In early morning trade, shares in Alt were steady at $0.019.