Alt Resources prepares for Mt Ida resource upgrade early next year

Alt Resources (ASX: ARS) plans to unveil a resource upgrade next quarter for its wider Mt Ida gold project in Western Australia, with additional drilling at VB North now complete and reverse circulation drilling underway at Shepherds Bush.

The company finished 21-holes for 1,040m across VB North in July 2019, but a further 10 holes were recently completed to test mineralisation down dip.

Alt plans to model VB North and bring it into the Mt Ida global resource in the upcoming March quarter.

VB North is an unmined mineralised zone that is 500m north of the VB historic open pit.

Drilling has now moved to Shepherds Bush, which is located on the Mt Ida South tenements.

Alt plans to drill 2,000m at Shepherds Bush, which will expand on earlier drilling, which delivered “encouraging” results including 80m at 1.49g/t gold from 8m.

The 16-hole program at Shepherds Bush is due to wind up later this month, with assays to be announced early next year.

A maiden resource for Shepherds Bush will also be calculated and is scheduled for release next quarter.

Global resources at Mt Ida currently total 406,000 ounces of gold and 3.78Moz of silver.

Alt’s Mt Ida strategy

Alt is gearing up to bring Mt Ida online as quickly as possible to generate cashflow.

As part of this, the company plans to begin small scale mining at Tim’s Find deposit where higher-grade gold intercepts have been unearthed.

According to Alt chief executive officer James Anderson, the company’s plans for Tim Find were “reasonably uncomplicated” with the deposit already on a granted mining lease and mineralisation found at surface.

To build on this strategy, Alt has secured a mining services agreement with Blue Cap Mining Pty Ltd, which will provide mining, transport, processing and drill and blast services.

Blue Cap will also provide Alt with a $3 million working capital facility to fund development of the initial operation.

By midday, shares in Alt were steady at $0.018.