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Oct 2021 - Alto Metals Ltd

LN Granodiorite Appears to Have a Number of Similarities to RED5’s KOTH

  • Put simply Alto’s granodiorites (Lord Nelson, Lord Henry and Bulchina of which Lord Nelson is currently the most advanced) appear to have a number of similarities (~8 similarities) to RED5’s granodiorite – and I only laterally “spotted” it because of visiting and writing ERA’s RED5 KOTH report.
  • RED5’s KOTH has a granodiorite/cooked ultramafic contact with fractured higher grades – as does Lord Nelson (& Lord Henry & Bulchina).
  • The 8 similarities between the LN and KOTH Granodiorites (which include similar higher grade, average grade, widths, ~95% recoveries, etc ) are :
    • Granodiorite contact that has cooked the ultramafic harder and become more competent.
    • A fractured zone in the granodiorite in the (ultramafic) contact area, injected with mineralisation.
    • Higher grades at undulations/ indentations in the granodiorite/ ultramafic contact (Figs 3b, 3c & 4a).
    • Average long intersections and resources of ~1.9g/t.
    • Higher grade ore shoots within the granodiorite.
    • Higher grade lengths of ~ 3.5g/t, inferring the possibility of lower cost bulk stopes (48m @ 3.4g/t in SRC423 and [5 Oct] 45m @ 3.2g/t in SRC432 at Lord Nelson compared to KOTH Lemonwood 32kt @ 3.4g/t), and the possibility of over-reconciliation (KOTH ~11% to 14%, LN >40%).
    • High recoveries of ~95% (eg Table 1 {KOTH} vs Table 4 {Sandstone}).
    • Thickness of the mineable granodiorite resulting in low open-cut SRs (Strip ratios).
  • And there is an enhancement – AME”s Sandstone Granodiorites (Lord Nelson, Lord Henry and Bulchina appear to contain internal stacked higher grade lodes – clearly identifiable in Lord Henry, but possibly also in Lord Nelson and Bulchina.
  • The key to where the higher grades are appears to be the indentations or undulations in the granodiorite / ultramafic contact as illustrated in Figure 3b and in the schematic model of Figures 4a and 3a of KOTH - and the location of the Orion Lode at Lord Nelson in Figures 2b and 3c on page 2 of the report.
  • Most granodiorites ERA has encountered have average grades ~0.8g/t to 1.2g/t, except for RED5’s KOTH granodiorite with an ultramafic contact at ~1.9g/t, eg p5 of ERAs RED5 July 2019 report [which resulted in the trial Lemonwood stope ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /t), followed in November 2018 by the same hole reporting 330m @ 1.7g/t, plus 234m @ 2.0g/t (D0098) & 127m @ 1.9g/t (D0101)].
  • Historically, TRY mined ~0.5Moz in 3 granodiorite/ultramafic contact pits (now held by AME), being Lord Nelson (1.4Mt @ 4.6g/t for ~207koz [49% higher grade reconciliation]), Lord Henry (0.4kt @ 3.6g/t for ~48koz [43% higher grade]), & Bulchina (2.0Mt @ 3.4g/t [47% higher grade] for 219koz).
  • There is plenty of comparison detail in this ERA AME Report, however, the reality is if Alto’s LN granodiorite has any similarity to even a portion of Red5’s KOTH granodiorite, with $RED’s MC at ~$500M, $AME appears to be significantly undervalued at a MC of only ~$39M.
  • And recently (5 October) AME reported the discovery of Juno extending the mineralisation under Lord Nelson to a ~1 km strike length.
  • Alto expects to calculate an upgraded resource by end Dec 2021 or early MQ 2022 (with 10 diamond holes and >100 RC holes still to be assayed. (Lord Nelson was last reported as at May 2020 & Lord Henry May 2017 – ie none of the intersections since then are in the current ore resource).
  • While we are on the subject of Alto’s granodiorites and apart from a number of double digit grades at Lord Henry as shown in Figure 7a on page 4 of the report, there’s Bulchina :
  • Ok, how many granodiorites have you encountered that have a triple digit grade intersection over 1m ? none ? - I haven’t either – so how about a granodiorite that had 6 triple digit grades up to 600g/t (102, 123, 195, 238, 381 & 600g/t) on 2 sections and only 2 of those are possibly supergene (123g/t & 238g/t) – that’s Bulchina – and not drilled down dip because it couldn’t be treated in the oxide plant – and it still hasn’t been drilled down dip – because there are too many targets – and hence it has no ore resource. It’s also no wonder that with those grades, Bulchina over-reconciled by 155% on its gold production from 86koz expected to 219koz achieved – of which average grades at 3.4g/t were 47% higher than the expected average ore reserve grades of 2.1g/t.
  • However, the layout of this Alto report focuses on ERA’s perceived 4 areas of upside potential in Alto. :
    • Recent intersections inferring the Lord Nelson granodiorite appears to have a number of similarities with RED5’s KOTH granodiorite.
    • The V-shaped Alpha Domain showing encouraging intersections with visible gold at Vanguard through to the deeply weathered Indomitable.
    • A number of significant large historical mines that have not been mined by open-cut, and
    • Other Prospects : Possibly underexplored East-West striking mineralisation, and Bulchina etc.
  • So aside from Lord Nelson and Lord Henry, which lie on the eastern limb of the “V-shaped” Alpha Domain, there’s No 2 - The Western Limb of Vanguard and Indomitable :
  • Written by: Keith Goode
  • Thursday, 07 October 2021