American West’s sights on Canadian high-grade copper play

American West will start diamond drilling in July to test high-grade copper targets at its Storm project in Nunavut, Canada, with a focus on defining resources at the 2750N Zone.

This focus is unsurprising given that previous drilling at the 2750N Zone had returned eye-catching results such as 110m at 2.45% copper from surface and 56.3m at 3.07% copper from 12.2m.

However, American West Metals (ASX:AW1) is clearly thinking big with other holes in the program – its first since becoming the project operator – testing new, high-priority electromagnetic conductors that could be hiding additional massive sulphide copper zones.

Electromagnetic surveying carried out by the company in 2021 had identified multiple near surface anomalies, some of which are coincident with outcropping copper occurrences, as well as several large, flat lying EM conductors that may represent a deeper, stratigraphic source to the near-surface mineralisation.

These anomalies present compelling targets for the discovery of a major sedimentary copper mineral system.

“With a round of successful drilling at our West Desert Project already delivered this year, we are now excited to be preparing for our maiden drilling program at the Storm high-grade copper project,” managing director Dave O’Neill said.

“Drilling at Storm will commence in the coming weeks with logistics for the program well underway. Having a number of high-value targets planned for drilling, we look forward to expanding on the thick, high-grade copper already discovered.”

O’Neill added that the drill program will seek to define resources that may support an initial low-footprint mining proposal utilising a direct shipping ore model producing a 53% copper product in its initial test work. It will also aim to confirm outstanding growth potential by identifying further, undiscovered zones of high-grade copper in unexplored areas.

Storm copper drilling

Drilling will focus initially on defining potential shallow resources within the 2750N Zone where historical thick, high-grade shallow mineralisation presents the potential to quickly define large volumes of further copper mineralisation.

Over 1,500m of drilling is planned in and around this area with hole depths of between 100m and 150m due to the shallow nature of mineralisation.

Initial ore sorting test work on this mineralisation already supports the potential to produce a 53% copper DSO product.

Other holes will test shallow conductors identified in 2021 with those east of the 2200N and 2750N Zones being associated with significant copper in soil geochemical anomalies and outcropping copper mineralisation.

Deeper conductors that may represent the source of the near-surface high-grade copper already confirmed by shallow drilling will also be tested during the drill program.

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.