Winter Exploration Programs Outlined
Vancouver, B.C. January 16, 2008. Alto Ventures Ltd. (ATV: TSX.V) is pleased to announce that it has acquired through staking 161 claim units totalling 2,576 hectares. These claims are located east of the Alto-Wescan Goldfields Inc Mud Lake Property and south of the Hercules Project operated by Kodiak Exploration. The Company is also pleased to confirm its planned winter exploration programs including diamond drilling at Mud Lake as well as airborne geophysical surveying and diamond drilling at Despinassy.
Mud Lake, Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Belt, Ontario
Drilling on the Alto-Wescan Mud Lake Project started in late November and nine holes were completed prior to the Christmas break. Drilling resumed again on January 9 to complete the remaining nine holes of the planned program announced on November 22, 2007. Earlier work on this property identified 12 surface gold occurrences along a six kilometre segment of the Mud Lake Shear Zone ("MLS") but these occurrences were not drilled until the commencement of Alto's 2007 winter program.
During 2007, Alto drilled three of the 12 gold occurrences intersecting up to 13.9 g/t gold across 1.0 m within a wider zone of gold mineralization that assays 3.39 g/t across 6.1 m (see Alto news releases dated March 6 and March 20, 2007). The program currently underway will follow-up on gold mineralization intersected at the three occurrences drilled during 2007 and test another three targets along the MLS that were not drilled previously. This work is part of a longer term strategy to evaluate each of these gold targets with diamond drilling and start to delineate in detail those that display continuity of mineralization and grade.
Samples from the nine holes were delivered for analyses on December 21 and gold assay results are expected shortly.
Despinassy, Quebec
The Company has recently signed a Letter of Intent with its joint venture partner, Commander Resources Ltd ("Commander") to increase its ownership in Despinassy to 100% by purchasing Commander's 24.5% interest in this property (see Alto news released dated January 10, 2008). Following this agreement, the Company is planning an aggressive exploration program on the property and has contracted Geotech Ltd to fly helicopter borne time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) and magnetometer surveys over the property. These surveys are scheduled to commence in late January.
Gold at Despinassy is associated with shear-hosted quartz vein sets which locally have significant sulphides associated with them. The best gold grades and continuity of mineralization occur in local folds within the extensive Despinassy Shear Zone but these folds are not easily identified because of the overburden cover. The VTEM survey is expected to help locate this folding and identify areas of increased sulphide mineralization which may be gold bearing.
A diamond drilling program consisting of 4,000 m in 15 to 20 holes will focus on the incompletely explored Darla Zone and the gold zones located in Area 3 of the property. The drilling contract was awarded to Forage Val d'Or and the program is anticipated to commence at the end of January and to be completed in early April.
Previous drilling on the property delineated the DAC Deposit and a NI43-101 compliant mineral resource of 167,000 tonnes grading 6.88 g/t gold in the Indicated plus 445,000 tonnes grading 4.46 g/t gold in the Inferred categories (see Alto news release dated November 26, 2006). Drilling has also identified several other high priority targets along a six kilometre segment of the Despinassy Shear Zone including the Darla Zone where drilling intersected 19.5 g/t gold across 2.1m (see Alto news release dated March 29, 2006) and several gold zones in Area 3 located three kilometres east of the DAC Deposit (4.6 g/t gold across 2 m in Zone 20 and 2.4 g/t gold across 6 m in Zone 21).
The Company remains optimistic that this drilling will confirm the potential on the property for a significant Abitibi-style gold deposit within the six kilometre long Despinassy structural zone.
Alto's President, Mike Koziol commented "We are very pleased that these programs will advance two of our key projects and look forward with anticipation to what looks to be an exciting winter exploration season".
Mike Koziol, P. Geo., P.Eng. and Alto's President and CEO 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 twelve properties in the Canadian Shield. With a pipeline of quality projects, the Company's approach to maximizing opportunities while minimizing exploration risk is to attract well financed partners with the technical expertise to take the projects on to feasibility and subsequently production.
Alto's Management and Board of Directors have a long and successful track record of creating shareholder value through systematic exploration, acquisitions and discovery. The Company is currently active in Quebec where it is focussed on the Despinassy project in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and in Ontario in the Beardmore and Shebandowan gold districts.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Mike Koziol, P. Geo., P. Eng.
President and CEO
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
