North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

American West Metals Ltd. March 30 announced that it is mobilizing for an April start of the 2023 exploration program on its Storm Copper project on Somerset Island in Northern Nunavut.

Since optioning the project from Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. in 2021, American West has been systematically exploring the high-grade, near-surface copper and deeper stratabound sedimentary hosted copper on this property.

This year, the company plans to complete up to 10,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling to establish near-surface resources, along with geophysics and diamond drilling to follow up what appears to be a major sedimentary copper discovery made at depth last year.

"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," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neil.

The RC rig will focus on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant resource for the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones.

The 32 holes drilled in these zones have encountered an average grade of 2.15% copper over an average thickness of 24 meters.

"We believe that significant copper resources exist within these zones with excellent potential to support a low-cost, open pit style mining operation," said O'Neil.

The company is considering the use of ore sorting technology to upgrade the high-grade copper mineralization in these near-surface zones into a product that can be shipped to market without any further processing.

This year's RC drilling will begin at 4100N, where historical drilling has cut:

• 15 meters averaging 3.88% copper from a depth of 72.4 meters in hole ST99-47.

• 5.8 meters averaging 3.6% copper from a depth of 38.6 meters in hole ST99-53.

• 27.2 meters averaging 1.9% copper from a depth of 78.8 meters in hole ST00-62.

After 4100N, the company will move to the 2750N and 2200N zones.

ST97-03, a holed drilled at the 2200N zone in 1997, cut 6.4 meters averaging 7.38% copper from surface and 22.35 meters averaging 1.56% copper from 22.9 meters.

Some of the most impressive near-surface copper mineralization at Storm has been drilled at 2750N., including:

• 110 meters averaging 2.45% copper from surface in hole ST97-08.

• 56.3 meters averaging 3.07% copper from a depth of 12.2 meters in hole ST99-19.

American West's 2022 drilling at 2750N also cut strong mineralization over impressive widths, including:

• 57 meters averaging 2.5% copper from a depth of eight meters in hole ST22-02

• 41 meters averaging 4.18% from a depth of 83 meters in hole ST22-05.

During its 2022 program, American West also drilled one hole near 4400N to test a deep electromagnetic geophysical anomaly below the high-grade copper mineralization found at surface.

Assay results show that this hole cut five layers of low-grade zinc from depths of 29 to 150 meters, three layers of low-grade copper from 313 to 325 meters, followed by another layer of low-grade zinc starting at 358 meters.

While ST22-10 did not encounter high-grade copper similar to what is being drilled near the surface, American West says the mineralization in this hole appears to be at the edge of a much larger sediment-hosted copper-zinc deposit at Storm.

A series of large, coincident electromagnetic, induced polarization, and gravity geophysical anomalies seem to support this idea.

The proximity of the near-surface and deeper mineralization suggest that they may be related.

American West Metals Ltd.

American Wests Nunavut project hosts the Seal Zinc deposit, Storm Copper project, and several prospects that follow the zinc and copper horizons to the south.

To get a clear picture, American West is having high-resolution geophysical surveys that involve a closely spaced ground gravity survey and moving loop EM surveys flown over the property. These airborne geophysical surveys will cover known prospects and extend into new, previously untested areas with the aim of expanding the prospective footprint of copper mineralization.

New areas for exploration include the Blizzard, Tornado and Tempest prospects.

Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Storm deposits currently being tested, Tempest hosts a roughly 250-meter copper gossan exposed at surface. Selective rock samples from Tempest returned assays with as much as 32% copper.

Following the near-surface resource drilling and geophysical survey, American West will test high-priority deep targets at Storm with a diamond drill rig.

"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 mineralization," said O'Neil. "Further, diamond drilling will be used to test these deeper targets."

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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