How Big Does Altamira Gold's Maria Bonita Need to Be? CEO Michael Bennett Has a Number in Mind

0:15Michael Bennett: Last month, Altamira Gold updated the resource at its Maria Bonita deposit in Brazil and more than doubled the inferred resource. The company says mineralization remains open in several directions and additional step-out drilling is ongoing. So what are the next steps? CEO is Michael Bennett. Michael, welcome to Mining Stock Daily. Thank you very much, Michael. Great to be with you. Walk us through the headline numbers, Michael. What does Maria Bonita look like compared to the maiden resource in May 2025?

0:47Mining Stock Daily Hosts: So, yeah, in 2025, we had 720 ,000 ounces of indicating and furred. And it was really a very, very limited amount of drilling as well, something like just over 4 ,000 meters we used to put that resource together. and what we've been really surprised about is the new discoveries both to the west at depth and also alongside the porphyry because you know the wall rock has also been discovered to be mineralized on the western flank of of the maria bonita intrusive and so we with 12 holes and less than 4 000 meters of drilling over the last year we've been able to add another just over 600 ,000 ounces.

1:39Mining Stock Daily Hosts: When you work that out, it's 153 ounces of gold per meter of drilling, which is pretty incredible when you think about the size of the deposit now. And this is something, if you like to compare it, we can compare it with some deposits like Paraca 2, which has a similar head grade of 0.43 grams per tonne gold, has metallurgy, which is much, much more difficult. And we're onto something now which is build up and build up and build up the volume of this to show that this palfrey district really can gain millions of ounces very quickly.

2:24Michael Bennett: I want to talk more about the recent resource and how that charts a pass for what you're doing at Altamira. But you did want to talk about Maria Bonita West, which is more recent news. Why are you excited about that since getting access?

2:37Mining Stock Daily Hosts: Well, we're very excited about that, Michael, because, you know, we had previously thought over the first two rounds of drilling that we'd done that maybe the deposit was actually cut off to the west. You know, we'd hit some sterile rock there, a rock called Felspar Palfrey, which has no gold in it but uh as fate will have it you know we drilled hole 36 and at about uh 280 meters depth we cut a new porphyry and we're calling it a brand new porphyry for a very simple reason that mario bonita is non-magnetic the new porphyry mario bonita west is magnetic it has magnetite both in the quartz veins and in the uh intrusive hose shrug and it also has pyrite it has two to three percent pyrite and you know with the same sort of quartz veins very dark quartz veins and the the free gold sitting in there and so you know we hit in the bottom of that hole 36 70 just over 70 meters at 0.5 grams per ton gold we bottomed in mineralization and obviously at the time you know we were drilling under the the farmer's fence but now we are actually on our first hole within that new farm.

3:54Mining Stock Daily Hosts: It's our mining rights, but it's land property. And, you know, we're drilling, we're very excited to be able to say that we're drilling now from south to north through this new intrusive body.

4:06Michael Bennett: Let's talk about the recently announced resource. You did drill 3 ,868 meters. Inferred tonnage went from about 26 million up to 70 million tons, roughly 4 million tons per hole um kind of talk about your assumptions regarding inferred tonnage

4:26Mining Stock Daily Hosts: well so you know the thing that's so incredible about these these bodies is that you know as a junior probably you wouldn't normally be looking for a paltry for a very simple reason that they're very expensive to drill out and so you know you'd have to go through hundreds of meters of stale rock sterile rock before you got to the intrusive However, our porphyries are 1.8 billion years old. They're sitting right in the middle of the South American continent. And for a simple reason, they haven't been completely eroded. We have these things sitting on surface. So we've got an alliance chance of every hole we put down of adding on to both the tonnage and to the ounces of gold that we have in the resource.

5:13Mining Stock Daily Hosts: And that's exactly what we've done. We've been very, very successful. Of the 44 holes that are included in the resource, only two holes were drilled that have very low grades and almost no mineralization. Everything else runs. and so we've had hundreds of meters of this consistent mineralization of the just over 9 ,000 meters of mineral of drilling that we've done so far the highest grade in one meter is just over seven grams and the second highest grade is 2.4 grams so it's it doesn't have any nuggety effect mineralization in there it is continuously mineralized throughout this intrusive and so So when we hit it and we see these quartz veins, we know about mineralization.

6:03Michael Bennett: Talk about that high grade because you do highlight it. How are you looking at that in terms of a potential starting future mine plan?

6:13Mining Stock Daily Hosts: So in the middle of the thing, yeah, we've got 513 ,000 ounces, which runs almost 0.8 grams per ton gold. Obviously, with the present gold price,$4 ,150 an ounce, that's very attractive from surface starter operation. And once we get to that stage, obviously we've got a few more holes to drill in Mario Bonita West before we understand the full dimension of these two bodies now. But when we get to that stage of putting together a mine plan on this thing, that will obviously be where the open pit starts.

6:57Michael Bennett: Now, talking about that potential mine plan in the future, you do mention at the top of your deck that you do have an infrastructure advantage. Pave roads, 1.8 gigawatt, hydro plant 20 kilometers away. Is that kind of giving you thoughts in terms of what the scale that you kind of need this to get to, as opposed to, say, something that was further afield, for instance? is it something where you can kind of move the mine plan up further or is there an advantage in terms of like continuing to push this thing out in terms of getting scale now i i just look at it

7:32Mining Stock Daily Hosts: uh with the you know we've had several majors come out and look at this uh look at our project here and you know the sort of uh bar that they put in there is three million three million ounces so you know if you think about what we've been able to do with four or five thousand meters of drilling If we can drill another 5 ,000 or 6 ,000 meters of drilling, you know, my next goal here is to reach the 3 million ounce mark on just the immediate vicinity of Mario Bonita and Mario Bonita West. And then we've got, you know, the other targets which are nearby. We've got another porphyry which is called Tavares North.

8:14Mining Stock Daily Hosts: north uh we've got the central area which can grow as well even though it's only a you know it's a structurally hosted mineralization but having said that you know knowing that we're in a pulfury district knowing them on this very very important east west suture um there are probably many other many other pulfury centers there still to be discovered and we believe that that central area which is structurally hosted mineralization will also have a porphyry center so we don't want to drill and drill and drill and just keep building ounces we believe that we're very close now to what could be you know already an important economic center for the mineralization in the porphyry but we also have two smaller licenses which are on the central area which could be a startup operation on the higher grade oxide material on surface there.

9:12Mining Stock Daily Hosts: So we're going through that process. We're doing parallel to the exploration. We're doing an internal study on that.

9:19Michael Bennett: Is that the, help me out here, that would be the Keizu Eiru Central? Because you do mention at the top of your deck, and you also mentioned something about being a potential path to early generation because you're permitted up to 100 ,000 tons.

9:35Mining Stock Daily Hosts: Yeah, we've got two licenses on that. The way it works in Brazil is you can get these trial mining licenses. And the two licenses we have on that area and the accompanying environmental license, Michael, would allow us to work the oxides on surface there in the central area. The whole project's called Casuero, but we call that Casuero Central. That was the first resource published in 2019 where there's 700 ,000 ounces of gold. At a gold price of$1 ,500 an ounce. So there's quite a bit of upside to be had just in the gold price there.

10:17Michael Bennett: What's your cash position and what does that look for in terms of doing more exploration and drilling?

10:23Mining Stock Daily Hosts: We've got about$3.5 million in the bank right now. As I say, we are drilling on the western side And we intend to drill both the Mario Bonita West deposit And also Noblesonia over the next few months And we'll see as time goes on Perhaps into the new year Where we'd like to perhaps increase our kitty And also increase the amount of drill rigs that we have on the property

10:55Michael Bennett: Lassie Michael as you march out to 3 million which is you know what are the milestones or what are the news releases that you want investors to pay attention to over the next 12 months

11:07Mining Stock Daily Hosts: I think the investors should be looking at as I've pointed out the beginning of the discussion with you this is the first hole that we're drilling in the correct position from south to north through the new body. So I think that's a very important milestone for the company, depending how this whole comes out, because it'll show us really what the size of this body could be.

11:39Michael Bennett: Michael, thanks to speak with Mining Stock Daily.

11:42Mining Stock Daily Hosts: Thank you very much. It was great to speak to you, Michael. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily Yance affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.