Alto Metals identifies historic high-grade targets at Sandstone gold project
Alto Metals is working to confirm initial drill targets after identifying high-grade gold at the historic Oroya and Hacks mines.
Junior explorer Alto Metals (ASX: AME) has identified multiple high-grade gold targets at the historic Oraya and Hacks mines within its Sandstone project in Western Australia’s East Murchison region.
The targets were identified as part of an ongoing evaluation of advanced prospects within the wholly-owned project.
They include: a potential extension of the Oroya Sandstone reef which has not been previously tested; remnant mineralisation at Oroya and the unmined Juno reef which have the potential to add shallow resources in the near term; the main Hacks high-grade reef; and the Hacks West target area which is considered highly prospective for ‘repeat’ high-grade gold reefs linking to the regional Youanmi shear corridor.
Alto is working to confirm initial drill targets through a review of historic data sets and recently-acquired digitised historical mined void models.
The Oroya North, Hacks North and Hacks West areas contain multiple walk-up drill targets and are located within 10 kilometres of Sandstone’s Alpha Domain, which hosts a current 635,000-ounce shallow gold resource.
Major gold producers
The Oroya and Hacks mines were major gold producers in their day, accounting for almost 40% of total gold production from the Sandstone Greenstone Belt.
Alto said there is potential for significant remnant material within Oroya and Hacks due to historic mining focusing on bonanza-style mineralisation within the reefs.
Despite numerous old workings over the area, there has been limited modern exploration at the two prospects.
This provides Alto with the opportunity to re-explore ‘long forgotten’ mines and fits with its strategy of growing the existing resource base within the Alpha Domain, while progressing regional prospects.
Sandstone tenure
Alto’s tenure at Sandstone covers 740 square kilometres over what is believed to be the most prospective areas of the Sandstone Greenstone Belt.
The tenure includes five granted mining licences within the Alpha Domain, as well as multiple priority targets at Oroya, Hacks, Hacks West, Bulchina, Bull Oak and Sandstone North.
Alto’s exploration strategy is focused on discoveries and resource growth within the Alpha Domain.
The company is continuing to review multiple other early greenfield and advanced brownfield targets at Sandstone as part of a longer-term strategy to advance the overall project pipeline to support a standalone operation.