Alt Resources fast-tracks Mt Ida and Bottle Creek drilling
Alt Resources has begun a 3,500m reverse circulation drilling program at its Mt Ida and Bottle Creek gold projects in Western Australia.
Aspiring gold miner Alt Resources (ASX: ARS) has accelerated its drilling program at the Mt Ida and Bottle Creek gold projects in Western Australia’s northern goldfields ahead of a completed pre-feasibility study.
Contractor Challenge Drilling mobilised a rig to site last Thursday and Alt’s 3,500m reverse circulation (RC) drilling program began on the Friday and is currently underway at Mt Ida.
The company will be drilling several deposits and new prospect areas during this current program, including Single Fin, which lies south and along strike from the Boags open pit at Bottle Creek.
Additional drilling is planned for the Shepherd’s Bush deposit, where bulk tonnage gold potential was identified in a drilling campaign last month, and at the newly acquired White Eagle prospect, which was purchased in December.
Timoni mineralised trend
According to Alt, its technical staff has spent several months reviewing historical data from work undertaken by previous operators including Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM).
The stratigraphy, structure and mineralisation relating to Ora Band Mining’s (ASX: OBM) historical Timoni gold mine and the Timoni mineralised trend (TMT) have also been reviewed.
The TMT area is located 6km from Alt’s Bottle Creek mining leases and its Mt Ida tenements cover parts of the area surrounding Ora Banda’s lease containing the historic Timoni underground gold mine.
Alt said it believes the TMT, which incorporates several historically mined Timoni lodes, may extend into the company’s tenements to the south-east and adjacent to the old mine.
Alt has identified priority drilling targets based on multi-layered magnetic, structural, geological and geochemical results and intends to test several of these projected lode extensions with RC drilling.
Upcoming news
Alt is anticipating the release of a completed pre-feasibility study and maiden ore reserve at Mt Ida before the end of March.
The company has also scheduled a further resource upgrade during the second quarter of 2020.
Alt’s strategy is to fast-track Mt Ida into small-scale production, with the Tim’s Find deposit being the initial target.
An investor relations spokesperson for Alt said in an email today the company is focused on “being a gold producer before the end of Q2 2020”.