American West Metals (ASX: AW1, FRA: R84) is immediately building on the great success of the previous year with the first drill holes of the new season on the Arctic archipelago Somerset Island, Nunavut. All four completed drill holes in the 0.32 km² Zone 4100N within the 4,125 km² Storm Copper District have, as hoped, once again intersected thick, near-surface copper sulfide sections, confirmed by a portable XRF device!
These included 24.4 m with strong visible copper sulfides from 48.8 m in SR23-01; 27.4 m with strong visible copper sulfides from 56.4 m in SR23-02; 48.7 m with strong visible copper sulfides from 54.9 m in SR23-03 and 30.6 m with strong visible copper sulfides from 50.3 m in SR23-04. In previous years, 32 drill holes in four sub-projects over an area of 0.4 km² had already identified high-grade copper occurrences.
American West uses the fast, cost-effective Reverse-Circulation (RC) drilling method because mineralization begins at shallow depths. The drilling is intended to test the continuity of near-surface, flat-lying copper mineralization at 4100N over an area of 1,000 by 400 meters. By the end of the season, American West aims to calculate an initial resource. Meanwhile, parallel geophysical surveys using Moving Loop Electromagnetics (MLEM) have identified two new strong conductors in the 4100N zone that have not yet been tested. The first batch of drill samples has been sent to the laboratory for analysis. Results are expected in four to five weeks.
Dave O’Neill, Managing Director of American West Metals, called the results “fantastic”. “The initial drill holes show the volume and size of mineralization as we had hoped, and the geophysics suggests we haven’t yet reached the strongest zones. This is an excellent result for the resource potential of the 4100N zone,” he stated.
In total, about a dozen drill holes are planned for the 4100N zone this season. This will be followed by further RC drilling on the nearby 2750N and 2200N targets, where near-surface copper mineralization has also been identified in the past. All these drill holes are designed to define an initial JORC resource in the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones.
Once the resource definition drilling is complete, American West plans to test more distant exploration areas, including the Blizzard, Tornado, and Tempest properties. The Tempest prospect is located about 40 kilometers south of the Storm deposit and contains a large (>250 m long) copper anomaly that has been exposed at the surface and assays up to 32% Cu. The location and distance from Storm demonstrate the extent of the promising sedimentary copper horizon within the project area.
The predominant copper sulfide minerals observed in the drill holes to date are chalcocite, with minor bornite and chalcopyrite at the margins of the mineralized sections and within the veins. Minor native copper and copper oxides (mainly malachite and cuprite) are also present. Chalcocite is an important ore mineral due to its high grades (up to 79.8% copper) and excellent metallurgical properties.
Figure 1: Plan view of Zone 4100N showing the interpreted footprint of copper mineralization (defined by drilling), surface EM anomalies and drilling, overlaid on regional geology.
Figure 2: Current drilling exclusively targets near-surface mineralization in Zone 4100N and subsequently in Zones 2750N and 2200N. Geologists suspect that these occurrences are expressions of an underlying layer of sedimentary copper that is extensively present on the Storm project.
Figure 3: Geological cross-section view at 465,000E showing the interpreted mineralization envelope (>1% Cu) and visual observations from recent drill holes.
Parallel to exploration, American West continues its ore sorting and processing tests for a potential Direct Shipping Operation (DSO). Results for these will be available shortly.
Conclusion: The Storm Copper Project offers everything a junior explorer could wish for. It is strategically located and, with more than 4,000 km², large enough to (eventually) attract the interest of major players. At the same time, the initial high-grade copper discoveries in the combined 0.4 km² zones 4100N, 2750N and 2200N present themselves as a possible starter project that even a junior with limited budget could handle. Three elements come together in an almost ideal way: First, thick, near-surface packages with high copper grades; second, a favorable, flat-lying stratigraphy and – to date – good continuity of the deposits; and third, the extremely high proportion of the copper mineral chalcocite, which, due to its high copper content, could enable extraction through simple crushing and sorting for direct shipping operations (DSO). Tests for this are already underway. These factors could have an extremely positive impact on the level of investment, future operating costs, and even the project’s CO2 footprint. Instead of an estimated $300 million in investments for an underground mine, American West < might need only $20 million for a DSO open-pit project. Instead of $60 to $100 per ton underground, the operating costs for open-pit/DSO could be $5 to $10 per ton. The actual data, including the initial resource, is expected to be incorporated into a first scoping study as early as this fall. Until then, it will be extremely exciting! Because all other major exploration targets on the Storm Project, such as the Blizzard, Tornado and Tempest properties, are still additional upside potential. American West is absolutely right to speak of the world-class potential of its Storm Project. We recommend our readers to put American West on their watchlist and expect ongoing further updates.
