More than 1.3 million ounces of gold has been historically mined from the Sandstone Goldfield in Western Australia’s east Murchison region and Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME), holder of more than 740 square kilometres of this terrain, is making positive moves to revitalise the golden heritage through its Sandstone Gold Project (SGP).
SGP, which is in the Archaean Sandstone Goldfield around 600 kilometres north of Perth, is an advanced exploration project comprising brownfield and greenfield prospects.
Since acquiring the project in June 2016, Alto has delineated a mineral resource estimate (MRE) base of 17.6 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t gold for 832,000 ounces in the indicated and inferred categories within an unconstrained MRE of 23.5 million tonnes at 1.4 g/t for 1.05 million ounces.
Location of Sandstone Gold Project within the East Murchison Gold Field.
Large legacy database
Alto has compiled and reviewed a large legacy database ahead of a series of focused exploration and drilling campaigns which have significantly firmed up the base of multi-million-ounce gold potential.
The numerous former open pits, prospects and gold occurrences now owned by Alto include Lord Nelson and Lord Henry, Havilah and Maninga Marley, Ladybird, Indomitable, Tiger Moth, Vanguard and Vanguard North, Oroya and Hacks, Bull Oak, Sandstone North, and Bulchina.
Alto’s immediate focus is to rapidly expand the current mineral resources with further exploration, including step-out and infill drilling with priority targets that could be profitably mined through the establishment of standalone oxide and primary gold mining operations.
Primary targets are shallow new deposits and extension and primary zone discoveries in the vicinity of previously partially mined deposits.
New deposits include Vanguard, Indomitable Camps, Havilah and Ladybird while previously mined deposits include Lord Nelson, Lord Henry and Bulchina.
Seeking more ounces
With higher gold prices, an excellent database and a better understanding of regolith and the structural control on large gold deposits, Alto is confident of achieving its goal of 1 to 5 million ounces of gold at SGP.
To this end, the company is continuing to step out and expand the footprint of the deposits with ongoing exploration incorporating drilling.
Location of total current mineral resources for Sandstone Gold Project.
Sandstone North focus
During the December quarter of 2023, Alto identified a new 6-kilometre-long gold target at Sandstone North while ongoing drilling achieved success at Bull Oak, with shallow high-grade gold results of up to 38 g/t highlighting growth potential.
Work is continuing at Sandstone North in 2024 with low-cost infill soil sampling to follow up on the new gold and pathfinder anomaly which was identified following a large-scale geochemical sampling program over the project area.
The infill soils program is designed to refine a priority area of the anomaly before first-pass drilling and forms part of Alto’s ongoing regional exploration work over the SGP.
This program is expected to comprise about 400 samples over a strike of around 1 kilometre at 40-metre spacing focused around the two lines from the previous soil sampling program with the strongest gold responses.
Samples will be assayed in the laboratory for low-level gold and analysed for multi-elements using the company’s hand-held pXRF.
Based on the ground conditions and the target mineralisation, the company expects that aircore drilling to around 100 metres depth will be ideal as a cost-effective first-pass drilling program.
Growth and development pipeline for Sandstone Gold Project.
Regional work
The company will continue its quest for more gold this year with the initial focus on Sandstone North and an ongoing targeting review of existing resources within the Alpha Domain.
"Whilst the company remains focused on advancing our existing resources within the Alpha Domain, our ongoing low-cost regional work highlights the potential of the Sandstone Gold Project to deliver further resource growth and new discoveries," managing director Matthew Bowles said.