Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME) has been hard at work at the Indomitable Camp of the Sandstone Gold Project in WA for some months, unearthing dozens of broad, shallow oxide gold and several high-grade intersections, all of which will contribute to an updated mineral resource estimate.
The latest set of reverse circulation (RC) drilling results come from Indomitable East, where Alto was following up recent drilling success.
The company has described the results as significant, stating they highlight the potential scale of Indomitable’s mineralised system:
- 15 metres at 2.2 g/t gold from 126 metres, including 3 metres at 6.0 g/t from 135 metres;
- 13 metres at 2.0 g/t from 38 metres, including 3 metres at 5.3 g/t from 39 metres;
- 15 metres at 1.5 g/t from 54 metres, including 5 metres at 3.0 g/t from 60 metres;
- 22 metres at 1.0 g/t from 19 metres, including 2 metres at 2.5 g/t from 36 metres;
- 8 metres at 2.0 g/t from 162 metres, including 1-metre at 7.7 g/t from 166 metres;
- 13 metres at 1.0 g/t from 38 metres, including 2 metres at 2.7 g/t from 39 metres;
- 11 metres at 1.2 g/t from 32 metres, including 1-metre at 8.7 g/t from 38 metres;
- 11 metres at 1.0 g/t from 18 metres, including 3 metres at 2.3 g/t from 24 metres; and
- 1-metre at 17.3 g/t gold from 116 metres.
Mineralisation at Indomitable East has now been identified over 800 metres of strike, remaining open to further exploration to the northwest and southeast as well as at depth.
During this year drilling by Alto Metals has focused on increasing the current open-pittable 635,000 ounces at 1.6 g/t gold resource at the Sandstone Project with the Indomitable Camp's resource sitting at 7 million tonnes at 1.3 g/t for 74,000 ounces.
Resource upgrade slated for March quarter
“We are pleased to announce more shallow oxide gold results from this year’s major drilling program at Indomitable, which puts us in a great position to deliver an updated resource estimate in the March quarter of 2023,” Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles said.
“The excellent results reported to date continue to highlight the potential for a much larger system.
“We are looking forward to commencing our next drill program in the new year to follow up on these results and continue growing our shallow gold resources at Sandstone.”
The Indomitable Camp still has plenty of potential for growth; the 2.5-kilometre-long mineralised strike is open in all directions and sits atop a 20-kilometre-long prospective gold corridor.
Drilling completed at Oroya Mine
Although the Indomitable Camp has been the core focus at Sandstone for Alto this year, the company also completed exploratory drilling at the old Oroya Mine, which historically produced more than 200,000 ounces of gold at 16 g/t.
The drilling program targeted potential extensions of the Sandstone gold reef, both along strike and at depth.
“Our first-pass drill program at the historical Oroya mine is now completed and results are pending,” Bowles said.
“We look forward to updating shareholders on our plans for further drilling at this exciting high-grade gold target.”