Alto Metals reports ‘outstanding’ quarterly results from drilling at Sandstone gold project

Perth-based junior Alto Metals (ASX: AME) has reported another quarter of “outstanding” exploration results at the Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s east Murchison district.

Approximately 24,100m of drilling was completed for the three months ending September using two rigs, boosting the year’s total drilling to date to 59,000m.

It included maiden drilling for a total 3,424m over the Lord Nelson, Orion, Lord Henry, Vanguard and Indomitable targets where the company intersected thick high-grade gold mineralisation and visible gold in core.

Managing director Matthew Bowles said Alto had produced some “excellent results” during the quarter.

“It is pleasing to see the results of our aggressive drilling campaign, which is starting to demonstrate the potential that remains at this historic goldfield,” he said.

Continuity of mineralisation

Assays from deep drilling below and south of the Lord Nelson open pit highlighted the continuity of mineralisation at depth, over 300m of strike which remains open.

Best results were 3m at 11.4 grams per tonne gold from 191m and 48m at 3.4g/t gold from 214m, including 19m at 6.0g/t gold from 223m; 45m at 3.2g/t gold from 161m, including 5m at 17.5g/t gold from 162m; 36m at 2g/t gold from 203m, including 3.6m at 10.5g/t gold from 232.8m; and 26m at 2g/t gold from 232m and 11m at 1.1g/t gold from 263m.

Drilling at the nearby Orion target returned 21m at 3.5g/t gold from 76m; and 43m at 1g/t gold from 104m.

New zone

Alto also discovered a new zone named Juno, which has been considered a previously-unknown extension of the mineralised zone below the Lord Nelson pit, 400m to the south.

Best results from Juno subsequent to the quarter were 13m at 5.1g/t gold from 162m including 3m at 17.0g/t gold from 168m; 23m at 1.7g/t gold from 141m; and 22m at 1.6g/t gold from 135m.

Mr Bowles said the discovery of Juno was significant as it highlights the potential for additional repeat gold lodes along the corridor.

It is believed to have the same interpreted gentle southerly plunge as Lord Nelson and remains open up and down dip, and along strike.

Other prospects

At Lord Henry, resource and extensional drilling below and to the west of the open pit intersected further shallow, high-grade gold mineralisation with best results of 4m at 15.6g/t gold from surface, 4m at 2.1g/t gold from 12m, and 8m at 13.6g/t gold from 56m; 20m at 1.3g/t gold from 40m, including 8m at 2.0g/t gold from 44m and 4m at 6.0g/t gold from 80m; and 52m at 2.1g/t gold from 40m, including 4m at 13.8g/t gold from 72m.

Wide-spaced step-out drilling at Vanguard produced assays from 4m composites with highlights of 28m at 1.5g/t gold from 132m, including 4m at 4.3g/t gold from 152m; 8m at 1.8g/t gold from 144m, including 4m at 2.9g/t gold from 144m; 4m at 2g/t gold from 64m; and 4m at 1.4g/t gold from 40m.

Vanguard and Vanguard North mineralisation trends have been defined over a total 2,000m and remain open along strike and down dip.

Next steps

Assays are pending for more than 100 reverse circulation holes and 10 diamond drill holes targeting infill and extensions of known mineralisation at Lords Corridor, Vanguard and regional targets.

Once received, Alto said it would commence planning an updated mineral resource estimate for Lord Nelson, Lord Henry and Vanguard, targeting completion in the new year.

Project location

The Sandstone project is located 600 kilometres north of Perth over approximately 900 square kilometres of the highly-prospective Sandstone Greenstone Belt in the east Murchison mineral field.

The region has produced over 1.3 million ounces of gold from numerous underground and open pit mining operations since the 19th century.

Approximately 612,000oz of this was produced between 1994 and 2008 from the open-pit mining of shallow oxide ore by Herald Resources and Troy Resources (ASX: TRY).