• American West Metals drilling intersects thick, near-surface and high grade copper at the 4100N Zone
  • Result backs confidence in Storm being a camp-scale copper mining opportunity
  • Low-cost, high-margin DSO copper production is looking increasingly likely
  • Assays pending for fourth diamond hole, sampling and magnetic survey over Tempest

 

Special Report: American West Metals’ belief that its Storm project in Canada hosts a camp-scale copper mining opportunity has been bolstered by the intersection of further thick, near-surface and high grade copper mineralisation.

Recent results from the Lightning Ridge prospect extended the coverage of near-surface, high-grade copper at the project in Somerset Island, Nunavut, after returning intercepts of:

  • 2m intercept grading 2.3% copper from a down-hole depth of 30.5m including two 1.5m zones at 4.5% copper from 32m and 44.2m; and
  • 2m at 2.1% copper from 77.7m including 1.5m at 7.6% copper from 77.7m.

The results confirmed the presence of high-grade copper in a previously unexplored area between the 2200N and 2750N Zones, which highlights outstanding exploration and growth potential.

Drilling at the 2200N Zone, which remains open in all directions, also confirmed the continuity of mineralisation over an east-west strike of 450m after returning intercepts of 29m at 1.5% copper from 4.6m and 3m at 2.8% copper from 53.3m in a single hole.

American West Metals (ASX:AW1) believes that Storm – in which it holds a 80% ownership stake – hosts a large, high-grade copper system.

Results to date certainly seem to back this while indicating that it has clear geological similarities to many of the world’s major sediment-hosted copper systems such as the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana and Central African Copper Belt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Preliminary test work on the near-surface mineralisation has also produced a direct shipping ore with grades of up to 53% copper, meaning there’s a clear way forward to early cash flow.

 

Large-scale copper project

American West Metals asx aw1

Plan view of the 4100N Zone showing interpreted footprint of near-surface copper mineralisation. Pic: Supplied (AW1).

 

The summer reverse circulation (RC) drilling has now delivered even more joy, returning thick intervals of near-surface, high-grade copper mineralisation at the 4100N Zone over a strike of >1,300m and a width of 400m.

Notable intercepts are:

  • 4m grading 1.1% copper from 48.8m including 6.1m at 2.8% copper from 54.9m and 4.5m at 1.5% copper from 67.1m;
  • 2m at 1.1% copper from 118.9m including 3m at 4% copper from 126.5m; and
  • 5m at 1% copper from 51.8m, 1.5m at 1.6% copper from 64m, 3.1m at 2.7% copper from 76.2m and 1.5m at 1% copper from 80.8m.

AW1 adds that the drilling and geophysics supports the potential to extend mineralisation by a further 600m to the northeast.

Encouragingly, drilling also continues to demonstrate the strong correlation between geophysical targets and copper mineralisation, which is likely making the company keen to test the extensive suite of geophysical targets that remain.

“This year’s drilling program continues to impress with the remainder of the reverse circulation drilling results now received. The results continue to expand the large-scale copper footprint at the 4100N Zone with new thick zones of near-surface copper mineralisation,” managing director Dave O’Neill said.

“Now we have the complete picture of the resource drilling to date, it is clear that all of the near-surface high-grade copper zones are continuous and remain open with outstanding growth potential.

“The case for a potential low-cost, high margin DSO production scenario at Storm continues to grow.

“Our exploration has also been highly successful in delivering new discoveries of near-surface copper as well as confirming the presence of high-grade sediment hosted copper sulphide mineralisation at depth.

“These achievements point to the significant scale potential of the project and highlight clear similarities of Storm to the large-scale copper deposits in the Congo and Botswana.”

 

Upcoming activity

AW1 is currently awaiting assays from the fourth diamond hole as well as results from the surface sampling and magnetic surveying over the Tempest area.

Ore sorting, beneficiation, and process optimisation studies on a range of ore types from the 2750N and 4100N Zones are in progress while resource modelling and estimation work for the Storm project is continuing.

The company is also compiling a report on the project’s summer environmental program and is planning for exploration in 2024.

 

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.

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