Maria Bonita's gold count jumps to 1.31 million ounces

Altamira Gold has published a new resource estimate for its Maria Bonita deposit in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and the number that matters is the total: about 1.31 million ounces of gold. That splits into 404,000 ounces in the Indicated category — the more confident bucket — and 908,000 ounces in the Inferred category, the lowest-confidence tier. The Inferred number is what leapt, up 150% from before. The stock has noticed. Over the past three months ALTA shares rose 84%, while gold gained a modest 5% and the junior gold index (GDXJ) added 16% — a move roughly five times the peer index, and the price chart shows it happened in a sharp step-up over the final weeks rather than a slow drift.

This is a resource update, not a drill-result release, so the usual grade-times-width math barely applies — the only interval quoted is a single 1-metre peak assay of 7.27 grams per tonne. The story is scale, not grade. Grades here run 0.41 to 0.50 grams per tonne — low, meaning every tonne of rock carries under half a gram of gold — with a richer sub-population around 0.75 to 0.80. Numbers that thin only work as a big open pit: dig cheaply, treat huge volumes, lean on soft near-surface saprolite rock to start. The pit optimization supports that at a US$3,300-per-ounce gold price. The estimate is independent and CIM-compliant, calculated at a 0.24 g/t cut-off by a named qualified person, Volodymyr Myadzel, PhD. The consistent, uniform grade is a genuine plus for later upgrading of those ounces. Bennett, an exploration geologist, has run Altamira since 2017; his record is building this company from a shell, with no prior mine or company sale on the public record.

Now the honest part. The 150% Inferred jump rests on just 11 new holes and 3,868 metres across a large tonnage — most of the new ounces sit on a coarse 50×100-metre grid in the least-confident category. True widths have not yet been determined; the resource is a 3D block model, so per-hole continuity is not individually verified. The economics depend entirely on that US$3,300 price and a flowsheet backed by “metallurgical testwork to date.” The westward extension and open directions are exploration targets, not yet drilled into resource. To watch: assays from ongoing western step-out drilling, trenching and scout drilling at the Novo Sonho target in the short term, and the full NI 43-101 technical report, which the company says will be filed within 45 days of the September 21 release.

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