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American West Metals Ltd (American West or the Company) (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) ) is pleased to provide a significant update to the JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for it’s 100% owned West Desert Project in Utah (West Desert or the Project) with the release of our maiden indium resource for West Desert.
- World-class indium resource defined at the West Desert Deposit in Utah, USA with an updated independent JORC 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) that has added 33.7Mt @ 20g/t In and 0.1g/t Au, which includes:
- 18.7Mt @ 13g/t In and 0.09g/t Ag contained within an open-pit resource
- 15Mt @ 28.7g/t In and 0.12g/t Au contained within higher-grade underground resource
- The updated JORC MRE adds 23.8Moz of indium and 119Koz of gold to the existing 1.3Mt zinc, 49Kt copper and 10Moz silver of contained metal at West Desert
- West Desert is the only indium deposit in the US and one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped indium deposits globally – indium is classified as a critical mineral in the US, which currently imports 100% of indium
- Considerable potential to significantly expand all metals within the West Desert resource, including:
- The newly identified high-grade ‘Copper Zone’ (includes 17.22m @ 1.04% Cu, 0.58g/t Au and 12.46g/t In from 325.21m in WD22-01c) has not been included in the MRE at this stage, and remains open along strike and at depth
- High-grade indium-zinc-copper mineralisation (includes 4.58m @ 5.21% Zn, 0.46% Cu, 0.6g/t Au, 18.68g/t Ag, 88.05g/t In from 455.65m in WD22-19) was discovered by American West Metals 250m to the west of the current resource
- West Desert is favourably positioned for development:
- Hosted on private land owned 100% by American West Metals, allowing for expedited permitting
- Located in a world class mining district of Utah that includes Kennecott’s world class Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, with considerable infrastructure and operating advantages
- West Desert is amenable to bulk open cut and underground (long hole open stope) mining methods
Dave O’Neill, Managing Director of American West Metals also commented:
“We are pleased to announce an updated JORC compliant mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the West Desert Deposit. Significantly, the updated MRE adds a world class indium resource to the existing large volumes of zinc, copper and silver that were defined within the maiden resource announced in February this year.
“Indium and gold were omitted in the maiden MRE for West Desert due to data gaps in the historical drilling, but further studies allow us to now add these two highly valuable metals as inferred resources.
“West Desert is currently the only indium resource in the US and is one of the largest undeveloped deposits of the metal globally. As the geopolitical alignment of supply chains in the resources sector emerges as an important issue in the U.S., the updated MRE highlights the unique characteristics of West Desert and its importance to the supply of critical and strategic metals.
“West Desert is well located for future development and has received strong support from the local and federal government. The large resources and exciting growth opportunities at West Desert demonstrate the outstanding value of the project.”
Figure 1: Indium rich chalcopyrite, bornite, and sphalerite in drill core from WD22-01 (interval 543.74- 545.11m downhole @ 2.8% Cu, 0.3% Zn, 94.5g/t In, 0.49g/t Au and 39.5g/t Ag).1
MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATION AND CLASSIFICATION – INDIUM AND GOLD
Historical resource estimates and economic studies demonstrated that a large quantity of indium and gold exists within the West Desert Deposit 2, and this was confirmed in drilling by American West Metals during 2022.
Due to gaps in the historical indium and gold data, the metals could not be included in the maiden Mineral Resource Estimation (MRE) for West Desert completed during February 2023 (see ASX announcement dated 9 February, 2023 – Maiden JORC MRE for West Desert).
An updated JORC compliant MRE for West Desert has now been completed to incorporate the indium and gold, which have been classified under the inferred resource category. The updated MRE was completed by international mining and engineering company Stantec Consulting Services Inc. (Stantec), with geological modelling and validation assistance by American West.
American West and Stantec have also completed mining and mineral processing studies which have included a number of pit shell analyses and stope optimisations to assist in refining the MRE. This has resulted in different material classifications for the inferred resources (listed in Table 1), and only mineralisation that is likely to be mineable has been included in the MRE.
The studies have shown that a phased mining approach combining open-pit and underground scenarios is likely to be the most appropriate way to mine the ores of the West Desert Deposit based on known mineral resources. The studies are preliminary in nature and not considered to be as ‘Scoping Level’.
Click here for the full ASX Release
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