Drilling And Exploration Set To Commence At The Storm Copper Project, Canada

American West Metals Limited (“American West” or the “Company”) (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) is please to announce that drilling and geophysical activities are set to commence at the beginning of April at the Storm Copper Project (Storm or the Project) on Somerset Island, Nunavut.

• Up to 10,000m of RC and Diamond drilling planned for 2023 field season
• Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling of near surface high-grade copper targets is scheduled to commence shortly at the 4100N Zone focused on resource definition
• Historical drilling at the 4100N Zone has intersected large volumes of high-grade copper including:
  • 15m @ 3.88% Cu from 72.4m (ST99-47)
  • 27.2 @ 1.9% Cu from 78.8m (ST00-62)
  • 5.8m @ 3.6% Cu from 38.6m (ST99-53)
• Resource drilling at the 2750N and 2200N Zones will follow the 4100N program and is designed to target extensive, previously identified high-grade copper mineralisation
• Moving Loop Electromagnetics (MLEM) will be completed to assist targeting for the resource definition and identify new targets
• Diamond drilling and ground gravity survey planned to follow-up the major 2022 discovery of stratabound sedimentary copper sulphides at depth

Exploration will also commence to follow-up a major sedimentary copper system within the Storm Project area that was identified over the course of the 2022 field season. This program will consist of ground gravity, electromagnetics and diamond drilling.

Approximately 10,000m of drilling is planned for 2023.

Dave O'Neil, Managing Director of American West Metals commented:

"We are pleased to report that the mobilisation of the RC drill rig and geophysical equipment is well advanced at the Storm Copper Project in Nunavut, Canada. It's a busy time on site and the exploration and drilling activities are scheduled to begin at the start of April.

The initial phase of drilling is designed to define the maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N Zones, where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface. We believe that significant copper resources exist within these zones with excellent potential to support a low-cost, open pit style mining operation.

The initial drilling will use an RC rig, which is the first of its type to be used at the Storm Project. The RC rig will allow us to cover ground more quickly, and surface geophysics will be used to refine our drill targeting. The geophysics will then roll out into new prospective areas.

Exploration will also follow-up the breakthrough 2022 discovery of stratabound, sedimentary copper mineralisation below the known copper prospects.

The 2022 drilling program indicated that we may have hit the margin of a large sedimentary copper system, and we will use ground gravity and EM to help define the core of the mineralisation. Further, diamond drilling will be used to test these deeper targets.

We look forward to reporting on the results of the drilling and exploration as activity progresses."

Figure 1: Drilling during 2022 at the 2750N Zone, Storm Copper Project. The upcoming drilling will build on the outstanding 2022 results and aim to define maiden copper resources at Storm.

RESOURCE DEFINITION AND EXPANSION

The footprint of near surface, high-grade copper mineralisation at Storm has been defined over and area of 40 heactares, with an average thickness of mineralisation of 24m @ 2.15% Cu (weighted average grade from 32 drill holes). Four main zones of mineralisation have been identified to date (Figure 2 & 3).

Drilling during 2022 has highlighted the continuity of the copper zones, and the near-surface mineralisation remains a focus for resource drilling due to its high grades, shallow nature and potential to provide a significant resource base as the basis for an initial low-cost, open-pit operation.

The areas of immediate interest are the 2750N, 2200N and 4100N Zones. Over the 30 drill holes are initially planned, will hole depths between 50-150m due to the shallow nature of mineralisation.

Moving loop electromagnetics (MLEM) will be used follow-up 11 shallow, high-priority EM conductors that were identified by the fixed loop electromagnetic (FLEM) survey completed by the Company during the 2021 field season. Some of these anomalies are coincident with outcropping high-grade copper occurrences and remain untested.

It is anticipated that EM will outline the zones with stronger, more massive mineralisation to assist in prioritising the resource definition drilling.

Figure 2: Plan view of the 4100N Zone showing copper mineralisation footprint defined by drilling and EM anomalies, overlaying regional geology.

Figure 3: Plan view of the 2750N and 2200N Zones showing copper mineralisation footprint defined by drilling and EM anomalies, overlaying regional geology.

EXPLORING THE EMERGING SEDIMENTARY COPPER SYSTEM

The recent discovery in drill hole ST22-10 (See ASX announcement, 28 September 2022: New copper system confirmed at the Storm Project, Canada) suggests that known near-surface copper prospects at Storm may be related to a large, sediment hosted style copper system at depth.

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