- AW1 finds thick, high-grade copper in deep drilling at the Storm project, Canada
- Project could host large-scale stratigraphic hosted copper deposits
- Further assays pending ahead of follow up exploration
Special Report: American West Metals says deep diamond drilling has discovered Cyclone style copper mineralisation at depth and confirmed the prospectivity of the Central Graben area at its Storm project in Canada.
Storm, in Canada’s northern Nunavut region, already hosts a near-surface resource of 17.5Mt at 1.2% copper and 3.4g/t silver.
Drill hole ST24-01 has intersected 10m at 1.2% copper from 311m downhole, including 3m at 2.2% copper from 315m downhole. That includes a further high-grade intercept of 0.5m at 3.7% copper from 315.5m downhole.
American West Metals (ASX:AW1) says the drilling confirms the large lateral extent of the Storm copper system at depth and highlights the potential of the ‘Deep Copper Horizon’ to host large-scale stratigraphic hosted high-grade copper deposits.
Another Cyclone in the making
“The drill hole has hit what we believe to be the first indication of Cyclone deposit style mineralisation at depth,” AW1 managing director Dave O’Neill said.
“The style, thickness, grade, and host rocks of the copper mineralisation look very similar to that of the southern part of the Cyclone deposit.
“It is also located in a setting that suggests it may be a fault offset and southern continuation of the deposit.
“To achieve these results in our very first deep drill hole this year, and whilst testing a geological concept, speaks to the untapped potential of the Storm area and confirms our assumptions that the deeper horizons have the potential to host significant quantities of economic copper mineralisation.”
Time to zero in with deep exploration
The company says the consistency of copper mineralisation in this horizon highlights the laterally extensive and likely stacked nature of the deep copper system which now covers an area of over 10km2.
These latest results further support the potential of Storm to host large-scale stratigraphic and structurally hosted high-grade copper deposits similar to those in the Central African copper belt.
“The success rate and volume of copper mineralisation at all stratigraphic levels is telling us that this is a potentially huge and long-lived mineral system,” O’Neill said.
“Zeroing in on the strongest parts of the mineralisation will be the focus of the deep exploration going forward.”
The assays for the second deep drill hole (ST24-02) are expected in the coming week.
“This drill hole intersected a total of over 90m of visual copper mineralisation and we are eagerly awaiting the results,” O’Neill said.
“We are also looking forward to reporting on the RC drilling and investors can expect continuing regular news flow over the coming weeks and months.”
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.