Alto Metals reports highest-grade gold intercept drilled to date at Indomitable Camp
Drilling at Alto Metals’ Indomitable Camp returned a bonanza 1m at 122.6g/t gold from 29m.
Alto Metals (ASX: AME) has reported a bonanza gold intercept from drilling at the Indomitable Camp target within the Sandstone project in Western Australia.
Reverse circulation drilling for a total 5,000 metres was designed to follow up on interpreted high-grade structures identified last year and to test strike extensions of the existing mineralisation.
First results from 1m photon assays relating to 18 holes for a total of 2,868m, included a shallow gold intercept with bonanza grades of 16m at 13.1 grams per tonne gold from 19m, including 3m at 62.2g/t from 29m, and 1m at 122.6g/t from 29m.
It is reported to be the highest-grade intercept Alto has drilled to date at Indomitable and is within an overall 52m intercept averaging 4.5g/t gold from 7m.
Other results from extensional drilling at Indomitable to the north were 5m at 7.9g/t gold from 32m, including 1m at 23.4g/t from 34m; 5m at 3g/t gold from 34m, including 1m at 11.6g/t from 36m and 14m at 2.2g/t from 47m, including 4m at 5.5g/t from 48m; 6m at 3g/t gold from 95m, including 1m at 11g/t from 99m; and 6m at 2.1g/t gold from 46m, including 2m at 5.2g/t from 48m.
Significance of structural controls
Alto managing director Matthew Bowles said the results highlight the significance of interpreted structural controls at the Indomitable Camp which remain untested at depth.
“These latest results to give us the confidence that Indomitable will continue to grow and is emerging as a very large mineralised system,” he said.
“We are particularly excited by the size of the shallow oxide footprint which is now over 3km and in some areas is as deep as 200m … it is often the key to finding high-grade gold deposits at depth.”
He said the primary focus of the current exploration program would remain at Indomitable to further test the strike of the interpreted controls and the orientation of high-grade shoots within the fresh rock at depth.
Increased estimate
In April, Alto confirmed an increase to the mineral resource estimate at Sandstone, outlining an optimised and pit-constrained 17.6 million tonnes grading 1.5g/t gold for 832,000 ounces within $2,500/oz pit shells.
The estimate captured over 80% of the project’s total unconstrained resource estimate of 23.5Mt at 1.4g/t gold for 1.05Moz.
The update estimate included rapid resource growth at the Indomitable Camp target, which almost tripled in size to 5.4Mt at 1.2g/t gold for 210,000oz.
The target sits within a 20km northwest-to-southeast trending gold corridor which also hosts the Vanguard and Havilah deposits within the ‘Alpha Domain’ priority area.