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

American West Metals Ltd. May 23 that assays have confirmed the strong copper mineralization observed in the core from the first hole of its 2023 drill program at the Storm Copper project on Somerset Island in the northern reaches of Nunavut, Canada.

Since optioning the Storm Copper and adjoining Seal Zinc from Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. in 2021, Australia-based American West has focused largely on defining areas of near-surface, high-grade copper mineralization that could be upgraded to direct shipping ore with simple and low-cost sorting technology.

Tests carried out on samples of core from previous drilling of the 4100N Zone at Storm produced a commercial-grade direct shipping ore (DSO) product averaging 53.9% copper.

Toward this goal, last year's program included infill drilling at 2750N, a zone where drilling in the 1990s cut wide zones of high-grade copper, including: 110 meters averaging 2.45% copper from surface; and 56.3 meters averaging 3.07% copper from a depth of 12.2 meters.

This year's 10,000-meter reverse circulation drill program is focused on establishing a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant resource for three zones and Storm – 2200N, 2750N, and 4100N.

Earlier this month, American West reported that the first four holes drilled at 4100N cut wide zones of strong copper mineralization. The company has received assays from the first hole, SR23-01; highlights include:

• 15.2 meters averaging 1.2% copper from a depth of 54.9 meters, including 4.6 meters averaging 2.8% copper.

• 7.6 meters averaging 1.2% copper from a depth of 79.3 meters, including 3.1 meters averaging 2.4% copper.

• 6.1 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 120.4 meters, including 3.1 meters averaging 1.4% copper.

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.

"Whilst we have only received the assays for the first drill hole of the current program, the results validate and exceed our initial visual estimates. This is a fantastic outcome and gives us confidence in our geological interpretations and assumptions on continuity of the mineralised zones," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill.

So far, American West has completed 17 holes within the central and western portions of Storm's 4100N zone, all of which have cut strong mineralization over widths from 7.6 to 48.7 meters.

Due to continuing success and expansion of the mineralized footprint, additional holes have been added to the 4100N zone drill program.

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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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