• Similar to a number of junior gold companies, Alto Metals (AME) intends to self-fund its exploration through the development of a number of SMPs (small mining projects) in its almost wholly-owned Sandstone Goldfield, except that Alto intends to use SAU’s Cannon-style model in which AME explores and starts the approval process over a project area [such as the recent ML Applications over Lord Henry & Lord Nelson in the Lords Project Area]. And then Alto approaches a company with an operating hard rock plant (there are possibly ~10 within a radius of ~200km) to mine, truck and treat the ore on a 50/50 profit-share basis.
• The advantage of the “Cannon-financing model” is that operating costs are at cost and no toll treatment charges (which can range from $20/t to $50/t or more) are incurred. The operating company incurs all the mining and treatment costs and then deducts them from the realised revenues, after which the profits are split 50/50 with monthly payments to the explorationist (AME or in the “Cannon” model, SAU). (In the SAU/WGX agreement a loan was also made to SAU to explore & that was also deducted from the initial profit shares).
• Fortunately for Alto, Troy never spent any money on converting the front end of their aging plant (now owned by MDI) to treat hard rock, so it remained an oxide plant and consequently the pits stopped when hard rock was encountered (such as Oroya, the Lords, Bull Oak (Hancocks) & Bulchina). In areas where hard rock is nearer to surface (often < ~20m), exploration was not undertaken by Troy because the ore could not be treated, so vast areas are unexplored in the ~35km x 35km goldfield such as Bull Oak South, Sandstone North, Hacks/Black Range, Maninga Marley and Vanguard.
• There are possible oxide resources such as at Vanguard and Indomitable which Troy were unable to geologically unravel due to Troy mostly drilling E/W (towards the west), which has resulted in the two Alto discoveries reported on 20 June 2017 of high grade (>10g/t in 4m composites) at Vanguard North & >300m on strike at Indomitable. Vanguard North has since advanced further with >15g/t intercepts over 1m, and potential similarity to Oroya.
• Alto has ~7 primary project areas within its Sandstone Goldfield, each with a diameter or elliptical long axis length of up to ~5km, of which the most advanced is the Lords Project (consisting of Henry, Nelson and Maninga Marley/Havilah), and on which AME expected to progress as an SMP, while focusing on Vanguard and then possibly Bull Oak South.
• It can easily be seen from the drone pictures how Vanguard could have been misinterpreted as it has a number of stopes and old shafts that strike E/W (similar to the northern part of the field and against the earlier mapped NW/SE strike there), while Bull Oak South has the largest untouched mullock heaps around old shafts that ERA has seen.

Other Key Points: :

• What sets Alto apart from other junior companies is that it wholly owns almost a ~35km x 35km complete historically worked goldfield that was once only 2nd to Kalgoorlie.
• Infrastructure appears to be very good for Alto's Sandstone Project, with established dirt haul & main roads, fresh water, proximity to Sandstone, and operating plants.
• Alto’s mid to long-term view is targeting material >1moz ore resources, which theoretically should exist at Sandstone given its relatively shallow historical drilling depths.
• Additional open-cut possibilities may occur once the slime areas have been removed and treated elsewhere, as they would openly reveal the underlying ground.