American West’s first diamond drill hole at the West Desert project in Utah has intersected very thick intervals of visual zinc, copper and lead mineralisation.

While visual observations are no substitute for assay results, they do however provide a valuable tool for confirming the presence of mineralisation.

This is especially true for the mineralisation at drill hole WD22-01, which shows visual similarities to that encountered in historical drill holes, providing a positive indication of the continuity of the historical resource and its development potential.

Adding further interest for American West Metals (ASX:AW1), two of the 10 zones intersected by the drill hole represent new zones of mineralisation south of/underneath the Deep Zone and outside of the current resource.

West Desert currently hosts a non-JORC resource of 59 million tonnes grading 5.78% zinc equivalent including a higher-grade core of about 16.5Mt at 6.3% zinc, 0.3% copper and 33 grams per tonne (g/t) indium that remains open at depth and along strike.

“We are very pleased to provide an update on the drilling and report that we have successfully completed the first drill hole of our 7,500m drilling campaign,” managing director Dave O’Neill said.

“The visual observations from WD22-01 show ten main zones of zinc and copper mineralisation, including two new discoveries to the south and below the existing deposit.

“Importantly, with our first drill hole we have highlighted the scale and quality of the West Desert Deposit. It has significantly increased our confidence that West Desert will be amenable to high-grade development by indicating continuity of the orebody in this wide, previously untested drill section.”

 

More drilling at West Desert

The West Desert zinc-copper-indium project is located in west-central Utah about 160km southwest of Salt Lake City within the heart of the Sevier Orogenic Belt, which hosts Rio Tinto’s giant Bingham Canyon copper deposit.

Drilling is currently underway on the second hole in the 7,500m diamond drilling program.

WD22-01C will be angled below WD22-01 and target a wider section of the porphyry/skarn contact and copper-gold-molybdenum-silver-indium rich lenses.

The porphyry contact in this location has very little drilling, is open along strike to the west and at depth, and is outside the historical resource. Further copper-gold rich mineralisation in this location has the potential to add significant value to the current resource.

This will be followed by a further eight diamond holes with depths ranging from 450m to 800m.

Additional drill holes may also be added as required and a second rig is expected to join the program in the coming months.

This article was developed in collaboration with American West, 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.