Alto Metals strikes high-grade gold in maiden drilling at Oroya mine

Alto Metals (ASX: AME) has hit high-grade gold mineralisation during its maiden drilling campaign at the historic Oroya mine in Western Australia.

The explorer drilled a total of 13 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 2,000 metres over three initial target areas around the mine, located within Alto’s wholly-owned Sandstone gold project.

The high-grade hits both above and below the historical workings, and along strike, confirm the mineralisation extends north-west of the open pit, and down-dip to the west of the Main Reef.

Significant assays returned from the program include: 3m at 13.8 grams per tonne gold from 65m, including 1m at 37.1g/t from the Main Reef; 6m at 1.3g/t from 41m including 1m at 5.5g/t from the Juno target; and 3m at 2.8g/t from 104m including 1m at 7.6g/t from the NW Extension.

Alto managing director Matthew Bowles said these results have validated the company’s targeting model and it will now launch a follow-up drilling program in the “coming weeks”.

He also confirmed the company is on track to deliver an update to the project’s current open-pitable gold resource of 635,000oz at 1.6 g/t.

“While our focus firmly remains on growing our current 635,000oz shallow gold resource with an updated mineral resource coming this quarter, Oroya is an outstanding high-grade gold target within our Sandstone gold project,” Mr Bowles said.

First drilling in more than 15 years at Oroya

This is the first time in over 15 years that drilling has been undertaken at Oroya, which once produced 220,000 ounces at 16.5 grams per tonne gold from underground mining between 1904-1920 and a further 25,000oz at 2.3g/t from open pit mining in 1994-1995.

Alto said its maiden program successfully demonstrated that mineralisation remains open for more than 200m along strike to the north-west, beyond the end of the pit.

High-grade mineralisation also remains at the main Sandstone and Juno reefs, and the company believes there is potential to extend the strike extension of Oroya South mineralisation.

Alto’s planned follow-up exploration activities include further step-out and down-dip drilling to test the extension of existing mineralisation, in addition to closer spaced drilling to validate historical results for geological modelling.