Mining

Latest round of drilling hauls in high-grade gold assays for Alt Resources

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By George Tchetvertakov - 
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Junior gold explorer Alt Resources (ASX: ARS) has received encouraging sampling results from the latest batch of rock-chip samples obtained as a result of its reverse circulaton drilling program at the Bottle Creek gold project in Western Australia.

Alt said that a total of 3,200m of RC drilling has now been completed at Southwark with approximately 1,300 assayed metres having been analysed.

Carrying out work at its Southwark deposit, the company said the first results indicate continuity of the broad gold zones encountered at the neighbouring Emu deposit which lies 1km to the south of Southwark.

In late March, Alt received amiable news from drilling at Emu where the gold junior encountered results of up to 21.8 grams per tonne gold, from 750m of assays.

Just over one month later, essays received from gold samples at two drill holes from Southwark indicate a bonanza grade result of 65.6g/t gold with Alt adding that high-grade gold zones occur within and alongside broad, consistently graded zones such as 23m at 3.1g/t gold.

All in all, Alt says that its received results “ensure a minimal nugget effect and a more easily extracted bulk target.”

Furthermore, Alt believes that its exploration to date has not reached the boundaries of where gold mineralisation ceases.

The initial results from Southwark demonstrate that mineralisation is open to the south and says that a “broad zone of gold mineralisation has not been closed off at depth or by either modern or historical drilling to the south”.

The company added that continuity of the mineralisation is evident in the next section to the north and that mineralisation appears to be “broadening with depth”.

Exploration set to conclude later this year

According to Alt, the concluding stage of the RC drilling program is currently underway at the Emu deposit, ahead of resource modelling.

The company also estimates that the current phase of RC drilling at Bottle Creek will be completed on 7 May 2018, and importantly, “well ahead of schedule and within budget” the company said.

Once its latest drilling round is fully completed, Alt will have completed in excess of 12,000m of RC drilling in seven weeks.

“The Southwark drilling is returning some solid results, with grades and widths that are consistent with the Emu deposit. The project has significant extra scope, considering that we are drilling only two mineralised zones over 1,000m, whereas the Bottle Creek strike length is around 7-8km. Southwark is shaping up to be another shallow asset with excellent gold grades and possible open-pit potential,” said James Anderson, chief executive officer of Alt.

Mr Anderson opened the door to further good news from Bottle Creek by hinting at the likely potential of future drilling in the south of Alt’s project area: “The new drilling we’ve completed shows that it has been poorly tested in the south. We have excellent results, including over 20m at 3g/t gold, in our southernmost drill fence. This is definitely an area we will be drilling in the future.”

“The Southwark deposit is 1,000m from the northernmost drill fence we’ve completed at Emu. Historical drilling between the two has not sufficiently tested the extent of mineralisation, as we’ve seen. This makes the ground between Southwark and Emu quite prospective,” said Mr Anderson.