Alt Resources looks to move Mt Ida into production after unearthing more gold at Tim’s Find

Alt Resources (ASX: ARS) is weighing up options to move its Mt Ida gold project in Western Australia into production after uncovering further high-grade gold during a recent drilling campaign at the Tim’s Find prospect.

The gold explorer has completed about 3,000m of reverse circulation drilling at Tim’s Find, with the company announcing high-grade results from the initial 20 holes at the start of this month.

Today, Alt announced further high-grade results from the remaining 53 RC holes and confirmed that positive gold intercepts were encountered in 63 of the total 73 holes drilled.

The most significant assay from this second round of results was a 2m intersection grading 32 grams per tonne gold, including 1m at 62.9g/t gold from a depth of 26m.

Other drilling highlights included: 2m at 19.95g/t gold from 42m; 4m at 9.6g/t gold from 17m; 11m at 4.86g/t gold including 2m at 24.68g/t gold from 22m; 14m at 4.34g/t gold including 1m at 25.9g/t gold and 1m at 30.4g/t gold from 8m; and 17m at 3.6g/t gold including 6m at 9.15g/t gold from 18m.

The Tim’s Find campaign was part of a larger 5,200m RC drilling program at the Mt Ida project, with RC holes also drilled at the Shepherds Bush and Quinn’s deposits.

The bulk of the drilling focused on confirming the grade and continuity of gold mineralisation at Tim’s Find and firming up the deposit’s mining potential, which the company believes has now been achieved.

Alt chief executive officer James Anderson expressed his delight in the delivery of “some very positive outcomes” from the Mt Ida drilling program.

“We have drilled in four of the Mt Ida South and Quinn’s project areas with the emphasis being on the Tim’s Find project area, where we will be focusing on the development potential for this shallow deposit,” he said.

According to Mr Anderson, the results from Tim’s Find support a small-scale open pit toll treatment scenario.

“The company will now consider options and costings to move Tim’s Find into production and generate a cashflow for the business,” he said.

In addition to Tim’s Find, the rig has now completed planned drilling at Quinn’s, Shepherds Bush and the Spotted Dog prospect with all samples delivered to ALS laboratories in Kalgoorlie.

Alt said it expected to be able to provide final results for each area over the coming weeks, once all assays have been processed into the drill hole database.

Gold price at all-time highs

Now is an opportune time for Alt to push its project through to production mode, with the gold price recently soaring to all-time highs of A$2,000 per ounce and above.

According to market data, gold has been trading around the US$1,410/oz (A$2,005/oz) mark for close to a month with analysts predicting a bull run just around the corner.

Martin Place Securities executive chairman Barry Dawes told Small Caps last month that he believes the gold price could even reach A$10,000/oz in the next decade.

This is good news for Alt, which also had its confidence bolstered by a recent report by Orior Capital that rated the company as a “compellingly cheap” value proposition with a multi-million ounce opportunity.

Noting Alt’s plans to deliver a maiden reserve and a feasibility study for the Mt Ida project later this year, Orior gave Alt an $0.08 per share valuation, with Alt’s current share price sitting at $0.021.

The Mt Ida project already has a global resource of 6.8 million tonnes grading at 1.82g/t gold for 406,000oz contained gold and 3.78Moz silver.