It is hard to decide what to get more excited about at American West Metals Ltd.'s Storm Copper project in Nunavut – the abundance of near surface high-grade copper mineralization with the potential to be upgraded to a direct shipping ore, or the much larger yet still high-grade sediment-hosted copper orebody being unveiled under the zones being outlined on the surface.

Together, these zones on the Storm Copper project on Somerset Island in Canada's Arctic offer a potential supply of the copper being demanded by a world transitioning to clean energy.

Since optioning the project from Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. in 2021, American West has been systematically expanding the near-surface high-grade and underlying stratabound sedimentary hosted copper at Storm. This work resulted in the Australia-based exploration company earning an 80% interest in the copper project during the 2023 campaign.

To further understand Storm's district-scale potential, American West's 2023 program included 56 reverse circulation holes focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant resource around near-surface zones of high-grade copper, plus seven diamond drill holes to test deeper geophysical targets that appear to be the source of the high-grade surface mineralization.

The overall concept is to quickly develop a low-cost, open-pit mining operation at Storm that utilizes ore sorting technology to upgrade near-surface high-grade copper mineralization to direct shipping ore.

Without the cost or permitting complexity of building a mill and processing plant, a mining operation that just needs to crush and sort ore would be much quicker to develop than a traditional copper mine.

While producing copper, the company can continue to explore the larger high-grade sediment-hosted copper potential discovered at depth, as well as along a prospective stratigraphy covered by the property that extends for roughly 60 miles.

Near-surface high-grade

The company's 2023 near-surface resource drilling began at 4100N, the largest of the three main resource zones at Storm. Drilling in 1999 and 2000 cut grades as high as 3.88% copper over 15 meters and 1.9% copper over 27.2 meters at 4100N.

American West's 2023 drilling outlined a more than 1,300-meter-long zone of greater than 1% copper from a depth of roughly 60 meters at 4100N; highlights include:

• 67.1 meters averaging 1.1% copper in SR23-03.

• 29 meters averaging 1.2% copper in SR23-13.

• 24.4 meters averaging 1.1% copper in SR23-38

• 46 meters averaging 2.2% copper in SM23-02.

SM23-02, a diamond hole drilled near the center of 4100N for infill and QAQC purposes, cut a 0.3-meter (about one foot) bonanza-grade subsection averaging 42.8% copper.

"This is the highest-grade assay result to date at the 4100N Zone," said O'Neill. "Importantly, it is located in a key area that will underpin the resource classification of this prospect."

On average, however, copper grades are higher at 2750N, a surfacing zone about 1,600 meters southeast of 4100N.

Highlights from 2022 and 2023 drilling at 2750N zone include:

• 57 meters averaging 2.5% copper in ST22-02

• 41 meters averaging 4.18% copper in ST22-05.

• 27.4 meters averaging 1.5% copper in SR23-21.

Toward its goal of establishing near-surface resources that could support the rapid development of low-cost mining at Storm, the company also carried out drilling at 2200N, which lies about 500 meters north of 2750N.

One historical hole drilled at 2200N, ST97-03, cut 6.4 meters averaging 7.38% copper from surface and 23.35 meters averaging 1.56% copper from 22.9 meters.

American West's 2023 drilling also tapped multiple zones of copper at 2200N, which lies about 500 meters south of 2750N, including 29 meters averaging 1.5% copper from a depth of 4.6 meters and three meters of 2.8% copper from 53.5 meters in hole SR23-50.

Thunder and Lightning Ridge

In addition to establishing an inaugural resource in the known zones of near-surface copper mineralization at Storm, American West continues to make discoveries in underexplored areas.

In August, the company announced the discovery of Thunder, a new zone with strong near-surface copper that corresponds with an electromagnetic geophysical anomaly about 1,000 meters west of 2750N.

ST23-03, the discovery hole at Thunder, cut 76 meters averaging 2% copper from a depth of 32.4 meters, including a 0.5-meter bonanza-grade subsection averaging 49.6% copper.

"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 mineralization," said O'Neill.

Thunder was shortly followed by Lightening Ridge, a discovery made along a fault roughly midway between the 2750N and 2200N zones.

The Lightening Ridge discovery hole, SR23-52, cut 15.2 meters averaging 2.3% copper from a depth of 30.5 meters and 15.2 meters averaging 2.1% copper from 77.7 meters.

"These results underpin the potential for a camp-scale mining opportunity at the Storm project with studies underway for a near-term direct shipping ore (DSO) operation," O'Neill added.

Larger Storm

There is growing evidence that the high-grade copper being outlined so far is the tip of the proverbial copper iceberg at Storm.

American West first tested this deep copper potential in 2022 with hole ST22-10. This hole testing a deep electromagnetic anomaly below 4400N 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.

The widely spaced deep holes drilled in 2023 all cut sediment-hosted copper mineralization associated with an enormous gravity geophysical anomaly depth, including 37 meters of breccia-style copper sulfide mineralization dominated by chalcocite from a depth of 333 meters in hole ST23-02. This is the first intersection of chalcocite, a mineral that runs about 79.8% copper, at this depth.

Chalcocite is often found in the sediment-hosted copper deposits along the renowned Kalahari and Central African copper belts.

"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," O'Neill said.

Gravity targets similar to the one tested by these first two holes extend more than six miles to the east into the Blizzard and Tornado prospect areas on the Storm property. Geophysics, mapping, and sampling indicate the prospective copper-rich horizon at Storm extends about 40 miles south and 20 miles northwest from Storm.

American West Metals Ltd.

"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," said O'Neill.

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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