The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – April 26, 2024
Copper-rich chalcocite boulders collected from a gully below Lightening Ridge, a Storm exploration target where 2023 drilling cut 15.2 meters averaging 2.3% copper.
American West has identified more than 15 high-priority geophysical targets for testing within the Storm Copper resource area.
Copper-rich chalcocite boulders collected from a gully below Lightening Ridge, a Storm exploration target where 2023 drilling cut 15.2 meters averaging 2.3% copper.
American West Metals Ltd. April 22 announced the start of a more than 20,000-meter resource expansion and exploration drill program at its high-grade Storm Copper project in Nunavut.
"We are very pleased to report that the drilling and exploration program for 2024 is now in full swing at the Storm Copper project in Nunavut, Canada," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill.
According to an inaugural calculation completed in February, four deposits within a roughly 10-square-kilometer (3.9 square miles) area of the Storm property host 17.48 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant indicated and inferred resources averaging 1.17% (452 million lb) copper and 3.38 grams per metric ton (1.9 million oz) silver.
This year's drill program has begun with a track-mounted reverse circulation (RC) drill to rapidly test high-priority electromagnetic (EM) and induced polarization (IP) geophysical targets between the deposits, as well as areas of potential resource extensions within the Storm area.
This first tracked RC rig to be used at Storm will not require helicopter transport to move between drill hole locations, which is expected to lower costs and increase efficiency.
At the very top of the priority list is resource drilling at the Thunder target. Thunder discovery hole ST23-03 cut 76 meters averaging 2% copper from a depth of 32.4 meters, including 48.6 meters averaging 3% copper.
Drilling EM targets adjacent to Cyclone, which hosts roughly 70% of the overall Storm resource, is another target high on the list of priorities.
"We believe these targets will give us strong potential for the discovery of new zones of copper mineralization and confirmation of the resource potential in key areas," said O'Neill. "Early success in these areas will help to prioritize and focus the remainder of the drilling program."
Up to 12,000 meters of RC drilling is initially planned for the 2024 season at Storm.
An additional RC and a diamond core rig are slated to join the program in the coming weeks.
It is expected that the core rig will test deeper sediment-hosted copper mineralization below the deposits and targets within the Storm resource area.
The 2024 program will also include resource expansion and upgrade drilling in and around the Cyclone and Chinook deposits, as well as exploration drilling at the outlying Tornado, Blizzard, and Tempest targets.
In total, American West plans to complete more than 20,000 meters of drilling at Storm this year.
The company is also carrying out a high-powered moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey to highlight the priority areas for expansion of the higher-grade copper resources and identify new targets for drill testing.
"This survey has the potential to generate new targets in higher resolution and at deeper levels than previous surveys, opening the area for further copper discoveries and providing important targeting information for the resource drilling," said O'Neill. "EM surveys have proven to be a reliable targeting tool with all of the EM anomalies tested to date correlating with high-grade copper sulfides."
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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