Alto Metals Limited (ASX: AME) has identified “several compelling drill targets” following a review and reinterpretation of the geology and historical results at the Lord’s mining camp, within the company’s Sandstone Gold Project in WA.
These new targets comprise depth extensions to the shallow-mined Lord Nelson and Lord Henry historical open-pits and potential near-surface ‘Lord’s style’ geological repetitions along a +3km corridor between the two pits.
Preparations are underway for a reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme to test these high-priority targets recently identified by Alto’s geologists and its external peer review team, including Prof. David Groves and Terra Resources.
Chairman Terry Wheeler said the Lord Nelson and Lord Henry deposits, which produced 207,000oz gold and 48,000oz gold respectively, were only mined to shallow depths of 90m and 50m. This was primarily due to the inability of the former Sandstone process plant to treat large volumes of the harder, fresh ore found at depth.
Mr Wheeler said little to no systematic work has been undertaken to test for depth extensions to the shallow Lord’s mineralisation which, given that many similar orogenic Yilgarn gold deposits are known to extend to great depth, provides an exciting opportunity for Alto.
Support for depth extensions at Lord Nelson, where there is a current 68,000oz Au Mineral Resource, includes historical intercepts of 6m @ 16.4 g/t gold from 167m and 5m @ 13.0 g/t gold from 99m.
A recent drill intercept by Alto of 12m @ 3.4 g/t gold from 66m highlights the potential for strike extension or repetitions.
At Lord Henry, where there is a 69,000oz Au Mineral Resource historical intercepts include 2m @ 51.3 g/t gold from 70m and 6m @ 10.2 g/t gold from 50m.
Mr Wheeler said additional re-interpretive work is underway ahead of finalising the design of a multi-target drill programme. The commencement of this follow up drilling is subject to rig availability.