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American West Metals Ltd (American West or the Company) (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) is pleased to announce that assay results for recent diamond drilling have confirmed further copper discoveries at the Storm Copper Project (Storm or the Project) on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
Discovery of large sediment-hosted copper system confirmed by diamond drilling:
- Assay results for diamond drill holes ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 indicate that all three holes have intersected sediment-hosted copper beneath the near-surface copper deposits at Storm
- ST23-02 has intersected a 24m thick interval of copper sulphides at depth with copper values up to 2.7% Cu, indicating the potential of the deeper system to host high-grade mineralisation
- The wide-spaced location of the holes – between 600m to 2km spacing – highlights the broad lateral scale of the sediment-hosted copper system
- The results confirm the correlation between the sediment-hosted copper and gravity anomalies, highlighting outstanding large-scale exploration potential with more than 14km prospective strike untested by drilling
Exceptional new near-surface copper discovery at Thunder:
- Diamond drill hole ST23-03 has returned assays of:
- 76m @ 2% Cu from 32.4m, including
- 48.6m @ 3% Cu from 32.4m, and including,
- 20m @ 6.2% Cu from 40.8m
- The Thunder discovery – located 1km from the known near-surface Storm copper deposits – underlines the outstanding resource expansion and exploration potential of the near-surface mineralisation
Dave O’Neill, Managing Director of American West Metals commented:
“I am very pleased to report that assays from the exploration diamond drill holes have confirmed the presence of high-grade sediment-hosted copper sulphide mineralisation at depth, with significant implications for the exploration potential of the project.
“We have demonstrated that the mineralised copper horizon is associated with a series of gravity anomalies that sit below or adjacent to the known near-surface high-grade copper prospects and major faults. These gravity features occur along the entire length of the Storm–Tornado graben, supporting the potential for a very large sediment-hosted copper system, similar to the large-scale copper deposits in the Congo and Botswana.
“All five deeper diamond holes have intersected the sediment-hosted copper system with the wide- spaced nature of the holes indicating the very large lateral extent of the system. With kilometre-scale targets remaining untested, we will plan a major drill program for 2024 to scope out the extent of the sediment-hosted copper.
“The near-surface Thunder Prospect has been confirmed as an exceptional discovery with grades up to 49.6% Cu. These kinds of copper grades and thicknesses are remarkable and rarely seen in open- pit mining opportunities, further highlighting the resource potential of the near-surface mineralisation.
“One of the key takeaways from these drilling results is that – in addition to the significant volume of mineralisation already identified – there are still tremendous exploration opportunities at Storm. The full extent of the copper mineralisation at Storm has yet to be defined and we are excited to be planning follow-up exploration and drilling programs.
“We look forward to giving shareholders further updates in the coming weeks.”
Figure 1: Drill core from diamond drill hole ST23-02 showing chalcocite (dark grey) copper sulphide breccia at approximately 354.7m downhole.
EMERGING WORLD-CLASS SEDIMENT-HOSTED COPPER SYSTEM
Diamond exploration drill holes ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 were part of four holes completed during the 2023 season to confirm the sediment-hosted copper model, with each of the holes designed to test different geophysical and structural targets (Figure 2). The drill holes are widely spaced between 600m and 2km apart.
Significantly, all drill holes have intersected copper sulphide mineralisation at the same stratigraphic level, with grades up to 2.7% Cu (ST23-02) indicating the potential of the system to host high-grade mineralisation. The copper mineralisation and geology within the drill holes is very similar and suggests that the stratigraphy of the deeper mineralised system is laterally very extensive.
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