Has American West struck a Bingham Canyon lookalike deposit in Utah?

American West has outlined the growth potential of its West Desert deposit in Utah after intersecting high-grade mineralisation about 250m to the southwest.

Drilling results from American West Metals today show the company may have hit the margin of another significant ore system at their West Desert Project in Utah.

Representing a potential, major new zone of mineralisation was the intersection of 4.58m grading 5.21% zinc, 0.46% copper, 0.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 18.68g/t silver and 88.05g/t lanthanum from a down-hole depth of 455.65m including 0.92m at 20.42% zinc, 0.76% copper, 1.04g/t gold, 33.13g/t silver and 54.47g/t lanthanum from 459.31m (WD22-19).

WD22-19 was drilled into a magnetic anomaly with a geophysical signature similar to the West Desert deposit which further supports the potential for further drilling to delineate significant new high-grade mineralisation along strike.

And if that wasn’t enough for American West Metals (ASX:AW1), hole WD22-01C has intersected a new high-grade copper lens to the north of the known West Desert deposit within an extremely wide interval of molybdenum porphyry mineralisation which remains open at depth.

WD22-01C returned assays of 417.55m grading 0.019% molybdenum and 2.49g/t silver from 360.87m with a 42.37m lens grading 0.5% copper, 0.13g/t gold, 12.88g/t silver and 5.23g/t lanthanum from 398.35m.

Importantly, this style of mineralisation is highly analogous to Rio Tinto’s world-class Bingham Canyon mine in Utah about 130km to the northeast.

Managing director Dave O’Neill said the latest assays continue to show the exciting growth potential of the West Desert mineral system as the company waits for further results from the Storm drilling program.

“WD22-19 was our first drill hole exploring in areas away from the West Desert Deposit and the assays confirm it has intersected high-grade zinc and copper,” he added.

“The mineralisation looks very similar to that on the margins of the Deep Zone at the existing deposit, so we believe we are on the edge of a major new zone of mineralisation.

“WD22-19 is located over 250m southwest of the deposit, so this has huge implications for the growth potential along strike of West Desert.”

O’Neill noted that WD22-01C’s intersection of more than 400m of porphyry style molybdenum-silver mineralisation is exciting as the style, thickness and grade shows similarities for the giant Bingham Canyon deposit.

“Importantly, the broad zone of mineralisation also contains a newly discovered high-grade copper, gold and silver lens which sits outside the current West Desert resource,” he concluded.

Drill results

Exploration drill hole WD22-19 intersected high-grade zinc and copper sulphides within a broad lower-grade mineralised envelope similar to that of the Deep Zone at West Desert.

Observations indicate that it may have hit the margin of another significant ore system, which likely lies to the north and closer toward the interpreted porphyry contact.

It has confirmed the potential for further significant resources in an underexplored area to the west of the West Desert deposit.

Further exploration drilling will now aim to test to the north of WD22-19, and closer to the interpreted main mineral system.

WD22-01C was drilled on the northern edge of West Desert and was designed to test the potential for extensions of high-grade copper mineralisation along the porphyry and skarn contact.

Notably, most of the mineralisation intersected within WD22-01C, including the high-grade copper zone, is located outside of the historical resource envelope, and the mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.

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.