Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME) has unearthed multiple, high-grade gold hits during its latest exploration campaign at the Vanguard and Indomitable camps, which form part of the broader Sandstone Gold Project in Western Australia.
The precious metals explorer recently embarked on reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling at the gold camps, intersecting as much as 147.2 g/t gold during the campaign.
Ultimately, results from Vanguard will be included in Alto’s upcoming mineral resource update, which should be completed late this quarter or early next.
Looking ahead, Alto is waiting on assay results for more than 80 holes, which were predominantly drilled across the Lord Henry, Vanguard and Indomitable assets.
It will keep the market informed as more results become available.
Results “highlight exceptional grade”
Speaking to the findings, Alto managing director Matthew Bowles said: “We are excited to have confirmed so far mineralisation within two parallel trends along a 2-kilometre strike length with high-grade gold over 10 g/t in multiple drill holes and all outside the current resource.
“The final assay result from SRC286 is a standout returning over 147 g/t and highlights the exceptional grade that can be found within these quartz-rich laminated shear veins we have at Vanguard.
“A key takeaway from today’s announcement is that our systematic approach to exploration is continuing to deliver strong results for shareholders.
“We still have over 80 RC holes pending and we look forward to updating the market with further results in the coming weeks.”
The results are in
Some of the latest drilling assays come from Sandstone’s Vanguard and Vanguard North prospects, where RC and diamond drill rigs targeted extensions to previously discovered high-grade mineralisation.
The new assays link back to four diamond holes, covering 665.9 metres, and one-metre fire assays results for 61 RC holes, totalling 8,488 metres.
Some of the better drill results include:
- 30 metres at 3 g/t gold from 87 metres, including 1-metre at 18.3 g/t from 107.2 metres;
- 7 metres at 4.5 g/t from 56 metres, including 2.3 metres at 12.4 g/t from 60 metres and 16 metres at 1.4 g/t from 90 metres, including 1.4 metres at 6.96 g/t from 101.6 metres; and
- 1-metre at 11.6 g/t from 52 metres.
In the meantime, diamond drilling at the Vanguard Camp aimed to evaluate the nature of its inherent gold mineralisation, as well as its orientation.
One of the drill holes hit a visible gold occurrence at 107.4 metres, while the overall intersection reported 30 metres at 3 g/t, including 1-metre at 18.3 g/t from 107 metres.
In addition, some of the latest one-metres re-splits from previously reported RC drilling have confirmed the presence of high-grade gold mineralisation.
Highlights include:
- 11 metres at 15.3 g/t gold from 40 metres, including 1-metre at 147.2 g/t from 42 metres;
- 30 metres at 1.9 g/t from 131 metres, including 3 metres at 8.9 g/t from 153 metres;
- 8 metres at 2.0 g/t from 144 metres, including 1-metre at 5.1 g/t from 145 metres; and
- 3 metres at 8.6 g/t from 125 metres, including 1-metre at 23.7 g/t from 126 metres.
Overall, these final, one-metre assays from Vanguard Camp shall be incorporated into the ongoing work on the updated mineral resource.
Indomitable Camp
As part of the major drilling program at Sandstone, four diamond holes were completed, for 900.2 metres, at the Indomitable Camp within the main northwest/southeast trend near Vanguard.
These four holes formed part of Alto’s maiden diamond drilling program, which aimed to evaluate the nature of gold mineralisation and understand the orientation of the structural controls to assist with future drill targeting.
Results from this drilling include 15.2 metres at 2.3 g/t gold from 34.8 metres, including 1-metre at 7.9 g/t gold from 39 metres.
Coming up
Ultimately, recent drilling has more clearly defined mineralisation at the Vanguard and Vanguard North trends, with both extended along strike and down dip.
Overall mineralisation along both of these trends is now defined over 2,000 metres and remains open, paving the way for future exploration.
But explorer is also looking to its regional targets, which could hold promise as gold prospects all their own.
Alto has started to review other early greenfield and advanced brownfield targets within the Sandstone Gold Project as part of its longer-term strategy to advance the overall project pipeline.
Speaking to the road ahead, Bowles concluded: “The Lords Corridor, Vanguard and Indomitable firmly remain our priority focus as we look to grow the resources.
“However, in time, we are very much looking forward to applying the same methodical approach to unlock the value from the numerous other regional targets within our 900 square kilometres of the Sandstone Gold Project.