Vancouver, B.C., September 4, 2008. Alto Ventures Ltd. (ATV: TSX-V) is pleased to provide a progress report for exploration activities on its projects in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Belt. The Company has been active on each of four projects it operates as well as on one project operated by a joint venture partner. The prolific Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Belt has produced over four million ounces of gold in the past at grades that are comparable to the Red Lake mining camp in north western Ontario and is experiencing a resurgence of exploration since 2006. The following is a summary of work completed on each of the projects and results as they are currently available.
Greenoaks Property
The Greenoaks property is located 43 km northeast of the Town of Beardmore and approximately 5 km west of the Golden Mile gold zone discovered by Kodiak Exploration Ltd. Mechanical stripping and sampling programs were completed earlier this summer returning significant results of up to 59.5 g/t gold (see Alto news release dated July 24, 2008). The gold values were obtained from grab samples collected at various locations along a north to northwest trending structure consisting of micro-faults and fractures. This structure was injected with semi-continuous quartz-sulphide veins, some up to 30 cm thick. The structure has been sampled intermittently for more than 500 m along strike earlier this summer and now the Company has completed channel sampling of the readily accessible veins using a diamond saw. The assay results from this sampling program are pending.
Three Towers Property (formerly Cote-801)
Mechanical stripping was completed and followed by geological mapping and channel sampling at the Golden Link Trench, a 500 m long corridor of anomalous gold mineralization and quartz veining. Once the assay results from the current program are received, they will be combined with previous results (up to 15.5 g/t gold -see Alto news release dated December 11, 2007) and incorporated into the geological model to select drill targets for testing in October.
Mud Lake Property
The Mud Lake property is operated as a Joint Venture between Alto and Wescan Goldfields Inc (WGF-TSX-V) and Alto is the operator. The property lies adjacent to the Hercules Project operated by Kodiak Exploration Ltd and hosts the Mud Lake Shear Zone (MLS), a major gold-bearing shear structure that extends for over six kilometres along strike. In the past, 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. The Joint Venture partners approved a $300,000 exploration program in June (see Alto news release dated June 25, 2008) and prospecting has already been completed. Mechanical stripping and sampling are currently in progress. Targets generated from this program will be combined with those identified from previous work and will be drilled in October.
Under the terms of the Mud Lake Option Agreement, Wescan can 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. Upon completion of the planned work, Wescan will have satisfied the expenditures commitments to earn its interest in the project.
Expansion Lake Property
Phase 1 prospecting was completed in July and assay results are pending. A second phase of prospecting will be carried out in September after results from Phase 1 are received.
Cote-Archie Lake Property
The Cote-Archie Lake property is operated as a Joint Venture between Alto and Kodiak Explorations Ltd and Kodiak is the operator. Twelve diamond drill holes were completed and significant amounts of gold were intersected in eight of the holes. The table below provides a summary of significant gold values.
| HOLE ID | FROM (M) | TO (M) | LENGTH (M) | GOLD G/T |
| CA08-01 | 41.88 | 42.8 | 0.92 | 1.48 |
| 44.53 | 45.15 | 0.62 | 1.24 | |
| 45.37 | 45.8 | 0.43 | 1.35 | |
| 94.9 | 95.2 | 0.3 | 3.0 | |
| CA08-02 | 52.1 | 52.5 | 0.4 | 1.19 |
| 115.4 | 115.6 | 0.2 | 1.63 | |
| CA08-04 | 84.6 | 84.8 | 0.2 | 2.06 |
| 86 | 86.5 | 0.5 | 1.01 | |
| CA08-05 | 57.5 | 58.6 | 1.1 | 1.29 |
| 59.15 | 59.5 | 0.35 | 1.32 | |
| 77.85 | 78.85 | 1 | 1.11 | |
| 100.7 | 101.4 | 0.7 | 1.54 | |
| CA08-06 | 37.1 | 37.4 | 0.3 | 1.75 |
| 42.4 | 42.8 | 0.4 | 1.23 | |
| 46.7 | 47 | 0.3 | 1.17 | |
| 84.2 | 84.5 | 0.3 | 3.48 | |
| CA08-07 | 94.2 | 94.8 | 0.6 | 2.05 |
| CA08-11 | 59.25 | 59.45 | 0.2 | 1.17 |
| CA08-12 | 146.8 | 147.4 | 0.6 | 1.15 |
Under the terms of a 2007 Option Agreement between Kodiak and Alto, Kodiak has the option to earn 51% interest in the project by spending $1,000,000 on exploration and paying Alto $100,000 in cash or Kodiak shares over three years. This program was funded by Kodiak as per terms of the Option Agreement and fulfills Kodiak's first year commitments.
Other Activities
Despinassy, Quebec
Drill-hole cross sections and a 3D model were generated for the DAC Deposit and posted on www.corebox.net, a website dedicated to providing easy-to-use, interactive analytical tools that help investors visualize drill results. Alto has already delineated NI43-101 compliant resources for the DAC Deposit 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. The deposit is open to expansion at depth and along strike to the west. Readers are invited to visit www.corebox.net or www.altoventures.com to learn specific details about the deposit or to get a general overview.
Geophysical data generated from the 2008 airborne VTEM survey over the Despinassy property was interpreted and compiled. The survey detected several strong electromagnetic conductors including one that was drilled previously by hole DES00-53. This hole intersected anomalous zinc ("Zn") and lead ("Pb") values at several locations down-hole including two sections of stronger mineralization containing 0.31% Zn and 0.66% Pb across 4.5 m in one and 0.3% Zn and 0.11% Pb across 8.0 m in the other. The hole was drilled to test an electromagnetic conductor that has been detected with the current VTEM survey for 1.2 km along strike. Only one other hole is reported to have been drilled on this conductor and it too intersected anomalous zinc and lead values. The detection of several strong electromagnetic conductors, some of which have Zn and Pb associated with then, is encouraging as it opens the possibility of base metals mineralization on the property in addition to the shear hosted gold associated with the Despinassy Shear Zone.
Plans for September and October
The Company will complete the planned surface work in September. A 3,000 m diamond drilling program is scheduled to start in early October to test some of the high priority targets include those at the Three Towers and Mud Lake projects.
Mike Koziol, P. Geo., P.Eng. and Alto's President and CEO is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved this news release.
QualityAssurance/ Quality Control
Rock samples from Alto operated projects were collected by Company geologists and their locations confirmed in the field. The samples were then delivered by Alto staff to Accurassay Laboratories in Thunder Bay for analyses. 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. The laboratory ran internal check assays every 10 samples to ensure lab quality control.
For Cote-Archie Lake, drill cores were split down the centre with a typical table feed circular rock saw. Sample intervals were selected according to geologic contacts, visible mineralization, and alteration, placed into sample bags and shipped to the assay lab where they were quantitatively analysed for gold. Drill cores were boxed, covered, and sealed at the drill rig and moved to the Kodiak logging and sample preparation facilities by Kodiak personnel. The samples were assayed at Activation Laboratories Limited, Ancaster, ON, L9G 4V5. Blank and standard samples were routinely submitted with all sample batches sent to the lab for assay. Screened metallic assays are routinely run on all anomalous gold results as a check on nugget effects. Kodiak sends samples routinely to other labs for additional checks.
About Alto Ventures Ltd
Alto Ventures Ltd. is a gold exploration and development company with a portfolio of highly prospective properties in the Canadian Shield. 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 & 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
