Vancouver, B.C. June 8, 2006. Alto Ventures Ltd. (ATV: TSX.V) is pleased to announce commencement of a 2000 metre diamond drilling program on its 100 percent owned Coldstream gold project in the Shebandowan area, northwestern Ontario. The Coldstream property, consisting of 3,056 hectares of crown granted and unpatented mining claims, contains significant gold and base metals mineralization including Noranda's former North Coldstream copper mine (102,000 million pounds of copper, 440,000 ounces silver and 22,000 ounces gold produced between 1957 and 1967) and the undeveloped East Coldstream gold deposit.
Both the historic North Coldstream copper mine and the East Coldstream gold deposit occur within a broad east-northeast trending mineralized zone traceable for approximately 10 km across the property. The mineralized zone hosts a number of incompletely explored gold occurrences, including the Span Lake showings on claims recently acquired outright from Inco Limited (see News Release dated April 26, 2006). The zone extends a further 5km southwesterly to the adjacent Moss Lake gold deposit, where Moss Lake Gold Mines Ltd. reports a historic resource of 60 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t gold.
The East Coldstream gold deposit was discovered by Noranda in 1987 and partially delineated along a strike length of 1200 meters in successive drill programs, totalling 6,138 meters in 37 holes, between 1988 and 1991. The Noranda drill holes include high grade veins with values up to 11.0 g/t gold across 3.0 meters and 37.7 g/t gold along 1.0 meter within very broad mineralized intervals of up to 1.1 g/t gold over 53 meters and 2.6 g/t gold over 23 meters. The East Coldstream deposit is open along strike to the northeast and at depth.
Alto's current 2,000m drill program is focused on infill drilling between the previous widely-spaced Noranda holes to begin the definition process towards a 43-101 compliant resource at East Coldstream. The Company's principal target is a large, near surface, bulk mineable gold deposit that can be developed by open pit methods. The program will also include evaluation of other zones of near surface gold mineralization elsewhere on the property including the Sanders zone, located 600m east of the East Coldstream deposit. In 1989, drilling by Lacana Mining on the Sanders Zone intersected 1.54 g/t gold over 26.5m.
"The Coldstream project is under-explored and has exceptional potential for a large, bulk mineable gold deposit with attractive economics for an open-pit operation.", stated Rick Mazur, President & CEO. "Alto's initial drill campaign will provide the data required, in addition to the excellent past work by Noranda, to demonstrate the potential of the East Coldstream deposit."
Mike Koziol, P.Geo. P.Eng. and Alto's Vice President, Exploration is the Qualified Person that has reviewed and approved this news release.
Alto Ventures Ltd. is a gold exploration and development company with a portfolio of nine properties in the Canadian Shield. The Company is focused on projects located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Ontario and Quebec as well as in historic gold producing districts.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Richard Mazur, P.Geo.
President & CEO
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information contact:
Timea Carlsen
Manager of Corporate Communications
ALTO VENTURES LTD.
910-475 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 2B3
Tel: 604-638-3949
Fax: 604-689-3609
Email: info@altoventures.com
Website: www.altoventures.com
Richard Cohen
President
CLARK AVENUE COMPANY INC.
103 Clark Avenue
Toronto, Ontario L3T 1T1
Tel.: (905) 882-4422
Fax: (905) 882-4435
Email: rcohen@clarkavenue.com
Website: www.clarkavenue.com
