Initial assay results from American West Metals’ drilling at the Storm Copper Project on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada have confirmed a significant discovery, the Company says.
Drill hole ST22-10 highlighted sediment hosted copper and zinc sulphide mineralisation below the near-surface high-grade deposits at the project.
Notably, the discovery drill hole is associated with a series of untested large and coincident geophysical anomalies identified across a zone that extends for more than 5km, indicating the potential for a large-scale sedimentary copper system at depth.
American West Metals (ASX:AW1) MD Dave O’Neill said the results have huge implications for the potential metal endowment of the project – which has previously returned intersections including 110m at 2.45% Cu from surface and 6.84m at 8.98% Cu from surface.
Potential sedimentary copper system
The company says the results validate its geological model that interprets the extensive near-surface high-grade copper mineralisation at Storm to be associated with a much larger sedimentary copper deposit at depth.
“These results demonstrate that in addition to the near-surface high-grade copper deposits, we have a second type of copper deposit at Storm,” O’Neill said.
“This sedimentary copper mineralisation style is typically associated with very large deposits, such as the large-scale copper deposits in the Congo and the Kupferschiefer deposits in Central Europe.
“The discovery drill hole at Storm is associated with a series of large IP, EM and gravity anomalies that sit below or adjacent to the known high-grade copper prospects and major faults.
“These features occur across a zone more than 5,000m long, supporting the potential for a very large sedimentary copper system.”
Follow-up exploration planned
Further assays from the Storm drill program are due soon, with beneficiation text work to commence shortly, focusing on further optimising the process to produce a direct shipping ore (DSO) product.
Plus, further diamond drilling and surface electromagnetics are planned to follow-up the new deeper discovery as well as the shallow mineralisation at the 2750N Zone.
“This is a tremendous exploration opportunity, and we are already planning follow-up exploration and drilling,” O’Neill said.
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.