Vancouver, B.C., December 11, 2008. Alto Ventures Ltd. (ATV: TSX-V) and its Joint Venture partner Wescan Goldfield Inc. (WGF: TSX-V) have completed the 2008 exploration program at Mud Lake in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Belt, Ontario. The property is located south of the Hercules Project operated by Kodiak Exploration Ltd and north of the Brookbank Gold Deposit which is reported to contain 629,900 ounces of gold.
The Mud Lake Shear Zone ("MLS") is a major gold-bearing shear structure that extends for over six kilometres along strike and traverses through the centre of the property. Several gold occurrences have been exposed in surface trenches along the MLS and sampling of these returned gold assays as high as 50 grams per tonne (g/t) in grab samples and up to 13.9 g/t gold/1.0 metre in drill cores in previous work.
The 2008 summer program was part of a longer term strategy to evaluate each of the gold targets on the property and included airborne high-resolution magnetometer and XDS/VLF electromagnetic surveys over the entire property, as well as prospecting, mechanical stripping and sampling. The surface work was followed by diamond drilling of 12 holes totalling 1,032 m.
The airborne geophysical surveys have identified several new targets that will require follow-up work in 2009. The mechanical stripping has exposed the MLS at several locations along the MLS including a set of quartz veins that start at the northeast end of Showing No 6 and extend continuously for 120 m on surface. Channel sampling of these veins has returned up to 3.0 g/t gold across 1.0 m. Diamond drilling of the trenched areas intersected shearing and quartz veining including hole MUD08-40 which cut a 6.9 m wide shear zone containing a quartz vein that is 1.4 m wide. Anomalous gold values of greater than 100 parts per billion (0.1 g/t) were detected in several drill holes.
The 2007 and 2008 drilling programs confirmed that the MLS is a major zone of shearing with a strong associated gold system. A large number of targets remain to be explored along the MLS including at the Oliver Severn Showing where the Company previously intersected 13.9 g/t gold across 1.0 m. To date, 42 drill holes have been completed on this property which will assist in targeting the most prospective areas for the next phase of exploration..
Please visit the Company website at www.altoventures.com to learn more about the Mud Lake Project.
The Mud Lake Project is operated under the terms of the Mud Lake Option Agreement which grants Wescan the right to earn 50% interest in the property by funding $600,000 in exploration and issuing a total of 150,000 Wescan shares to Alto over two years.
Quality Assurance/ Quality Control
Core processing included descriptive logging and selection of samples for analyses. The NQ-size cores selected for analyses were sawed in half and one half was delivered to a commercial laboratory by Alto staff for analyses and the other half retained for future reference. Gold assays were performed at Accurassay Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The gold assaying method uses a standard Fire Assay with AA finish technique on a 30 gram sub-sample taken from a 500 gram split from the submitted sample. Commercially prepared standards were inserted by Alto every 25 samples to ensure precision of the results. The laboratory ran internal check assays every 10 samples to ensure lab quality control.
Surface channel samples are 5 cm wide and cut perpendicular to the strike of the target being sampled (vein, shear zone or sulphide horizon). The channels were cut continuously across the width of the sample with a motorized saw using a diamond saw blade to a depth of 10 cm and then the cut rock was chipped out with hammer and chisel. The samples were then described by Alto geologists noting rock types and mineralization and bagged for delivery to the assay laboratory for quantitative analyses for gold and selected elements. The samples were analysed at Accurassay Laboratories in Thunder Bay using standard Fire Assay/AA procedures.
Mike Koziol, P. Geo., P.Eng. and Alto's President and Director is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved this news release.
About Alto Ventures Ltd
Alto Ventures Ltd. is a gold exploration and development company with a portfolio of highly prospective gold properties in the Canadian Shield. The Company is active in Quebec in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and in Ontario focussing mainly on the Beardmore and Shebandowan gold districts. Alto's Management and Board of Directors have a long and successful track record of creating shareholder value through systematic exploration, acquisitions and discovery.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Mike Koziol, P. Geo., P. Eng.
President
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information contact:
Mark Prosser
Investor Relations Manager
ALTO VENTURES LTD.
910-475 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC, V6C 2B3
Tel: 604-638-3947
Fax: 604-689-3609
Email: mark@altoventures.com
Website: www.altoventures.com
