Alto Metals has recorded some solid hits from the first holes sunk at its historic Bull Oak deposit including a 55m intercept grading 1.5 grams per tonne gold from 127m with a 1m section at 21.1g/t gold.
The company recently kicked off an 18-hole reverse-circulation campaign at the operation which forms part of its greater Sandstone gold project and sits about 5km from its namesake town in Western Australia.
Cumulatively, the drill bit sunk its way through 172m of mineralisation grading an average 0.64g/t gold from 44m. The intersections also included 24m at 2.1g/t gold from 148m and 1m reading 17.8g/t gold from 151m.
A second hole also yielded promising results recording mineralisation over 227m running at an average 0.44g/t gold from 26m. Individual sections included 23m at 1.1g/t gold from 147m, 8m reading 2.1g/t from 157m and 1m going 8g/t from 164m. It showed shallower assays with 4m at 2.1g/t gold from 48m including 1m going 7.1g/t from 49m.
Providing encouragement for future efforts, both holes also ended in mineralisation.
Management says the latest results confirm the multiple stacked lodes identified in previous drilling below the shallow mined pit extend along strike for at least 400m with mineralisation open to the south-west.
These first few intercepts from below the shallow mined Bull Oak pit have confirmed the continuity of thick gold mineralisation over 400 metres of strike, outside the resource, and remains open. Importantly, the drilling has also demonstrated that mineralisation is not constrained to the granodiorite but also extends into the surrounding rocks, highlighting the potential for considerable near-term growth within a larger, single pit. Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles
The Bull Oak deposit is located within the Hancocks Mining Centre. It covers an area of three square kilometres within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sandstone gold project that sits 5km south-east of its namesake WA town. The mine produced a total of 39,936 ounces at an average grade of 38g/t gold between 1904 and 1943.
Underground mining for its gold-bearing quartz reefs yielded 10,617 ounces at a grade of 27g/t gold but was worked as an open pit to 60m by Herald Resources in 1997 to deliver 9701 ounces at 1.87g/t. Currently, the mineral resource estimate for Bull Oak is 65,000 ounces grading 1.9g/t.
Alto’s Sandstone project gold resource stands at an indicated and inferred status of 832,000 ounces at 1.5g/t from 17.6 million tonnes, with 90 per cent recoverable within the top 150m using open pit mining.
With assays still to come from the remaining 14 holes sunk at Bull Oak, Alto appears to be on its way to showing there is still life in the historic gold deposit.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au