America West Metals says it has received the best assay results to date from the fourth diamond drill hole at its West Desert base metals project in Utah.

More than 105m of high-grade zinc and copper intersected in WD22-03 within four major intervals – along with high grades of silver and indium.

The best results include:

  • 82m at 1.41% copper, 1.51% zinc, 0.23g/t gold, 59.41g/t silver, 40.63g/t indium from 224.63m, including:
    • 09m at 2.04% copper, 1.09% zinc, 0.33g/t gold, 66.09g/t silver, 47.98g/t indium from 224.63m
  • 4m at 4.3% zinc, 0.08% copper, 0.04g/t gold, 12g/t silver, 34.75/t indium from 234.07m, including:
    • 36m at 6.56% zinc, 0.05% copper, 10.35g/t silver, 36.06g/t indium from 263.03m
  • 52m at 8.46% zinc, 0.17% copper, 0.11g/t gold, 10.61g/t silver, 55.63g/t indium from 313.47m, including:
    • 47m at 10.22% zinc, 0.26% copper, 0.17g/t gold, 48.63g/t indium from 315.91m
  • 59m at 13.24% zinc, 140.96 g/t indium from 367.88m, including:
    • 75m at 21.7% zinc, 192.75g/t indium from 369.4m

America West Metals (ASX:AW1) says the assay results will feed into a resource update for the project – and maiden 2012 JORC resource estimate.

 

Support potential underground development

The company says the results from drill hole WD22-03 confirm the continuity and coherent nature of strong mineralisation in the eastern portion of the West Desert Deposit.

“We are thrilled to share the diamond drill results from WD22-03, as the program continues to define high-grade mineralisation at West Desert, substantially enhancing the resource potential,” MD Dave O’Neill said.

“The intersections within WD22-03 display outstanding thicknesses and grade which continue to highlight the significant scale and quality of the West Desert Deposit.

“The assay results and drill hole location are strategically favourable and provide further support for potential future underground development.

“We look forward to reporting further strong results from the pending assays for the other completed drill holes in the coming weeks.”

The company will be assessing a number of different development options for West Desert including a proposal that is focused on mining the high-grade core through an open-pit operation that transitions to underground mining at depth.

The results of drill hole WD22-03 are highly significant as the mineralisation intersected is located in an area that could support the commencement of underground development

 

Forward program

The processing of drill core continues on site and the assays for the remaining five drill holes from the current program are pending and are expected over the coming weeks.

These results will be used in the estimation of a maiden JORC compliant resource for the West Desert Deposit.

 

Way out West

The West Desert Project is located 160km southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, within the heart of the Sevier Orogenic Belt which hosts the world class Bingham Canyon copper deposit and Tintic Mining District. The project comprises 133ha of private land, 336 unpatented lode mining claims and a single State Metalliferous Mineral Lease, for a total land holding of approximately 32km2.

The West Desert Deposit is 100% owned by American West Metals, and contains a historical and foreign resource (Ni 43-101 compliant) of over 59Mt, which contains a higher-grade core of approximately 16.5Mt @ 6.3% Zn, 0.3% Cu and 33g/t In (1.03Mt Zn, 45Kt Cu and 545t In).

The deposit is classified as a polymetallic skarn and carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) that contains large volumes of zinc, copper, lead, indium, silver, gold, and molybdenum. The skarn and CRD mineralisation is believed to be related to a large molybdenum rich porphyry system at depth.

The mineral system is open and geophysics has identified numerous West Desert ‘lookalike’ targets in the near mine areas.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with American West Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.