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

American West Metals Ltd. July 5 announced that its drilling is continuing to expand the near-surface, high-grade copper footprint of 4100N Zone at Storm, and the company is ready to begin testing a much larger but deeper copper target on this northern Nunavut property.

American West launched a 10,000-meter reverse circulation drill program in April that is focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant resource for three zones at Storm – 4100N, 2750N and 2200N.

So far, this drilling has focused on 4100N Zone; highlights from previously released intercepts from the 2023 drilling at 4100N include:

• 29 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 59.4 meters in hole SR23-02, including a 1.5-meter subsection averaging 5.1% copper.

• 67.1 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 54.9 meters in hole SR23-03, including a 1.5-meter subsection averaging 7.1% copper.

• 10.7 meters averaging 1.3% copper from a depth of 76.2 meters in hole SR23-07, including a 1.5-meter subsection averaging 6.5% copper.

• 29 meters averaging 1.2% copper from a depth of 62.5 meters in hole SR23-13, including a 1.5-meter subsection averaging 8.2% copper.

• 25.9 meters averaging 1.3% copper from a depth of 61 meters in hole SR23-14, including a three-meter subsection averaging 3.7% copper.

Highlights from the latest batch of assay results include:

• 9.1 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 62.5 meters in hole SR23-10, including a 1.5-meter subsection averaging 2.8% copper.

• 7.6 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 106.7 meters in hole SR23-12, including a 3.1-meter subsection averaging 2.1% copper.

• 15.3 meters averaging 1.6% copper from a depth of 59.4 meters in hole SR23-17, including a 3.1-meter subsection averaging 4.8% copper.

With most of the holes drilled beyond the bounds of known mineralization, American West says this year's drilling has expanded the 4100N Zone footprint to 1,300 meters along strike over an average width of about 300 meters.

"The 4100N Zone has grown into a significant copper story," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill. "The results from the latest batch of assays, along with geophysical interpretation, shows that the copper mineralisation is now over 1.3km long, 300m wide and open laterally in every direction. Additional extension and resource drilling will be completed to expand the footprint further."

Bigger, deeper prize

In addition to expanding the near-surface 4100N Zone footprint, American West is about to begin diamond drilling to test deeper geophysical targets that appear to be the potential source of the high-grade copper being drilled at surface.

"The largest of the geophysical targets is located directly below the 4100N Zone, and immediately adjacent to the large fault that we interpret as the main conduit for the copper mineralisation coming to surface," said O'Neill.

The company says a recent gravity geophysical survey has defined a series of dense features that are spatially associated with what is interpreted to be geological features similar to those found at large sediment-hosted copper deposits in Africa, as well as known copper sulfide mineralization at Storm.

The first of the copper targets to be tested is a 2,300-meter-long dense body beginning at a depth of about 200 meters that is interpreted to represent a larger accumulation of copper sulfides under 4100N Zone.

"The largest of the geophysical targets is located directly below the 4100N Zone, and immediately adjacent to the large fault that we interpret as the main conduit for the copper mineralisation coming to surface," the American West managing director added.

The dense body identified by the gravity survey is intersected by a strong induced polarization (IP) geophysical anomaly on its upper contact.

"This is a highly significant association and indicates a both dense and electrically chargeable body," said O'Neill. "The only known dense and chargeable geological feature at depth in the Storm area is sulphides."

American West Metals Ltd.

Click on image for larger map of five deep geophysical targets at Storm Copper that American West plans to test with drilling.

American West plans to test this and other deep targets identified by geophysics with an initial 2,500 meters of drilling that will involve roughly five holes drilled to a depth of 400 to 600 meters. The company plans to add additional deep holes to follow up on any encouraging results.

To fund its ongoing exploration at Storm, American West recently completed an A$3 million (about US$2 million) financing and received a C$250,000 (roughly US$188,500) grant under the newly initiated Nunavut Exploration Support Program.

"With our recent capital raise completed and strong support from the Nunavut Government, our focus remains to aggressively advance exploration and resource definition at the Storm Copper project," said O'Neill. "We look forward to reporting on the results of this exciting next phase of exploration."

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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