Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME) says much of the ground beneath its feet at the Sandstone Gold Project has yet to be explored, as it begins an aggressive drilling campaign in the Sandstone greenstone belt.
At present, Alto owns more than 900 square kilometres of land covering the majority of the Sandstone greenstone belt and has a mineral resource estimate of 6.2 million tonnes at 1.7 g/t gold for 331,000 ounces in total.
This belt overall covers around 1,000 square kilometres in the central-northern part of Southern Cross Domain of the Youanmi Terrane, a 300,000 square kilometre region within the wider Yilgarn Craton, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere consisting of Earth's two topmost layers that covers the majority of Western Australia.
Alto describes its Sandstone Gold Project as an “emerging growth story in a historic gold district”; the district has produced more than 1.3 million ounces of gold.
Unexplored potential
However, what excites Alto is the untapped potential - historically, drilling focus in the region was on oxide material near the surface, so very little drilling has been done below 100 metres.
To that end, Alto has deployed two reverse circulation drill rigs to the site, to undertake a 30,000-metre drilling program focused on targets within the Lords Corridor of the project, to test extensions of known high-grade gold mineralisation.
The existing resources consist of open-cut mines, surrounded by multi-million-ounce gold deposits and producing mines, with excellent regular gold recoveries averaging up to 96 per cent.
Looking for more gold
The motivation behind Alto’s aggressive drilling campaign in 2021 is to expand its already-impressive mineral resource estimate through further exploration, says managing director Matthew Bowles.
“With recent results from a major step-out hole highlighting another new mineralised zone along the Lords Corridor, we are really excited about the potential that is starting to emerge at our Sandstone Gold Project,” he said.
“With two rigs now drilling at Lord Henry, Lord Nelson and a number of other priority targets, we are really looking forward to seeing the drilling demonstrate the significant potential that we continue to see at the Sandstone Gold Project.”
Alto’s optimism is naturally boosted by the promise of the region - the Agnew, Mt Magnet and Big Bell gold mines, owned by Goldfields, Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) and Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX) respectively, lie within 150 kilometres of the Sandstone project.
The area is also very well serviced by nearby flights, a sealed highway and mobile coverage.
Lords Corridor and Orion Lode
The current 30,000-metre drilling campaign is testing potential repeat lodes south of the new Orion Lode and strike and down plunge extensions of high-grade gold, beneath Lord Henry and Lord Nelson.
Alto recently announced step-out drilling had intersected gold in every drill hole at the Vanguard target, about 8 kilometres northwest of the Lords Corridor.
An induced polarisation survey at Lords Corridor also revealed targets at depth, with drilling confirming a new 32-metre-thick zone of gold mineralisation.
The first RC drill is exploring this zone, with Alto hopeful the program will be “significantly expanded”, while the second rig will explore a planned 8,000 metres at Vanguard and an initial 2,000 metres at Chance, with up to $150,000 co-funded by the WA State Government.
Alto’s 30,000-metre program is likely to continue through April across these targets with further RC drilling targeted for May.
Funding locked in
On the corporate side, Alto’s fundamentals look strong.
It has $6.5 million cash on hand, following a recent $5.5 million placement, and in the last 18 months has fended off three unsolicited takeover offers.
And though the gold price has fallen slightly from its mid-2020 highs, it is still well above historical prices.
- Daniel Paproth