American West Metals raises $7m to advance Storm copper project in Canada

American West Metals raises $7m to boost exploration and development at Storm project
Storm already hosts 17.5Mt at 1.2% copper and 3.4g/t silver in resources
Funds will be used to expand existing resources and look for new discoveries

Special Report: American West Metals has received firm commitments to raise $7 million via a placement at 9c per share to advance development and exploration plans at its Storm copper project in Canada.

Storm sits in Canada’s northern Nunavut region and already hosts a near-surface resource of 17.5Mt at 1.2% copper and 3.4g/t silver.

This raise comes off the back of successful exploration and resource definition activities at the project, including a 13.5% copper hit and confirmation of a large deep copper system.

American West Metals (ASX:AW1) is confident there is outstanding potential to grow the mineralised footprint of copper mineralisation within, and outside, of the Storm area, with only 5% of the prospective 100km long copper belt having been explored.

There have also been numerous copper rich gossans already discovered within the regional Tornado, Blizzard, and Tempest Prospect areas.

The funds will be primarily used for a resource estimate upgrade and preliminary economic assessment/pre-feasibility level studies – along with the 2025 development and exploration program at the project.

Funding development and exploration in parallel

The company says the strong support from new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors highlights the important value-creating milestones achieved at the project this year, and the emergence of Storm as a potentially globally significant copper project.

“We are very pleased to successfully execute this capital raising for AW1 on the back of a highly successful 2024 program to date,” AW1 managing director Dave O’Neill said.

“The proceeds from the capital raising will further project development and exploration work in parallel at the Storm project.

“The capital raise received strong support from local and international investors – in recognition of the high quality and significant progress of the Storm project to date and the tremendous valuation upside it offers.

“The 2024 program to date has achieved major milestones including the completion of more than 23,000m of drilling, the discovery of new zones of high-grade copper mineralisation, and the demonstration of breakthrough results on the proposed DSO operation at Storm.”

Another significant milestone and cost saving initiative at Storm this year was the completion of a sealift which provided crucial supplies and front-end loaded the 2025 drilling season.

This is expected to provide very significant savings on next year’s logistical budget.

The exploration and drilling programs will continue to focus on expanding existing resources in the Storm area, defining new discoveries of high-grade copper in the near-surface and at depth, and following up on regional copper targets and high-priority geophysical targets.

“With further catalysts to come, including drilling assay results expected in the coming weeks, the updated MRE expected in late CY24 and the PEA/PFS expected in early 2025, we are looking forward to providing shareholders with regular news flow,” 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.