Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME) has intersected new shallow, high-grade mineralisation from its ongoing reverse circulation (RC) drill program at the Indomitable Camp within the Sandstone Gold Project in Western Australia.
Drill hole SRC808 delivered 80 metres at 1.6 g/t gold from 21 metres, including a high-grade zone of 10 metres at 5.2 g/t from 43 metres, which is one of the highest gram-metre results drilled at Indomitable by Alto.
The company’s drilling continues to extend mineralisation well beyond the existing resource with other standout assays including:
- 32 metres at 1.1 g/t gold from 79 metres, including 6 metres at 2.1 g/t from 87 metres;
- 18 metres at 1.1 g/t from 47 metres, including 3 metres at 2.3 g/t from 51 metres; and
- 5 metres at 3.0 g/t from 129 metres, including 1-metre at 9.7 g/t from 129 metres.
Assays remain pending with further resource and extensional drilling at Indomitable ongoing.
What’s more, Alto’s drilling is focused on increasing the current open-pittable 635,000 ounces at 1.6 g/t gold resource at the Sandstone Project, with an updated mineral resource planned for the March quarter of 2023.
“Best results from Indomitable to date”
Alto managing director Matthew Bowles said: These results highlight the extensive mineralisation that exists well beyond the existing resource at Indomitable, with SRC808 intersecting a high-grade structure of 10 metres at 5.2 g/t within an overall 80 metres at 1.6 g/t from only 21 metres depth – which is one of our best results from Indomitable to date.
“A number of assays are still pending from our resource drilling at Indomitable, focused on further extending the resource and we look forward to receiving these in the coming weeks.
“With drilling now almost completed at Indomitable East, we are preparing to commence our maiden drilling program to test high-grade gold targets at the Oroya mine, which has not been drilled in over 15 years.”
Drill program
The reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Indomitable and Indomitable North was designed to both infill and test extensions between and to the northwest of the existing resources.
New assay results are from one-metre photon assays relating to 55 RC holes drilled on mostly 40 x 40-metre spacing at Indomitable for a total of 7,508 metres at an average downhole depth of 139 metres.
Recent drilling has extended the footprint of the flat-lying shallow mineralisation defined at Indomitable North (drilled at 20 x 20-metre spacing).
The near-surface mineralisation is hosted within the upper part of the weathered profile at the base of the alluvium and appears to be associated with sub-vertical high-grade mineralised structures identified at Indomitable, Indomitable North, Tiger Moth and Piper.
There is potential to discover additional mineralised structures using near-surface mineralisation as a vector.
Further drilling is required to test the high-grade structures, which remain open at depth.
Forward plan
Alto’s drilling program is progressing well as it continues to focus on resource growth at Indomitable and testing priority regional targets
A soil sampling program is underway over Sandstone North, as part of the regional Sandstone exploration.
Further assays are pending from 10,000 metres of extensional and infill RC drilling completed at Indomitable, including step-out drilling aiming to extend the shallow oxide gold mineralisation recently intercepted up to 500 metres north of the Indomitable North.
The updated mineral resource is anticipated to be completed by the March quarter of 2023 and will include the follow-up drill results from Lord Nelson and Juno and results from the ongoing infill and extensional program at Indomitable, including a maiden resource for Indomitable East and Musketeer.