Immediately following the completion of its oversubscribed capital raise of an additional 3 million AUD (at 0.105 AUD), the Australian copper explorer American West Metals (ASX: AW1; OTCQB: AWMLF, FRA: R84) is taking action on its Storm Project in Nunavut. The company is preparing a series of diamond drill holes to test the recently discovered geophysical targets directly below the known copper occurrences. The company has selected five main targets (see Figure 1) and plans approximately 2,500 m of drilling with hole depths between 400 m and 600 m.
In parallel, the company continues to report high-grade results from the ongoing reverse-circulation drilling in the productive Zone 4100N. Four of the six drill holes now published confirm further thick and high-grade near-surface copper intersections. The best drill hole, SR23-17, delivered 15.3m @ 1.6% Cu from 59.4m, including 7.6m @ 2.9% Cu from 64m, including 3.1 m @ 4.8 % Cu from 64 m. So far this season, a total of 18 holes have already been drilled in Zone 4100N. The drill results show that copper mineralization in Zone 4100N is open in all directions (Figure 2). American West is also receiving 250,000 CAD in financial support from the Government of Nunavut for its drilling on the large-scale, sediment-hosted copper targets.
Dave O’Neill, Managing Director of American West Metals, commented: “Zone 4100N has developed into a significant copper project. The results of the latest round of surveys and the geophysical interpretation show that the copper mineralization is now over 1.3 km long, 300 m wide, and open in all directions. Additional expansion and resource drilling is being conducted to further increase the footprint. We are also pleased to announce that diamond drilling will begin in the coming days to test the geophysical targets below the known near-surface copper deposits. These new targets represent an important breakthrough in the exploration of the sediment-hosted copper system, which is interpreted as a potential source of the high-grade copper discovered at the surface. The largest of the geophysical targets is located directly below Zone 4100N and immediately adjacent to the large fault that we interpret as the main conduit for the copper mineralization reaching the surface. The target is visible in both gravity and IP data. It is an extremely significant association indicating both a dense and electrically chargeable body. The only known dense and chargeable geological feature at depth in the Storm area is sulfides.”
Conclusion: Even the latest drilling results from Zone 4100N have not been able to determine the boundaries of the horizontal, near-surface copper mineralization. Rather, they show that this part of the project is growing and can continue to grow in all directions. However, what market participants are currently much more concerned about than the almost expected good results from the RC drilling are the upcoming diamond drill holes into the underlying gravity anomaly. The geophysical signature spatially coincides with the interpreted graben fault architecture and known copper sulfide mineralization at Storm. The known geological features suggest a typical sediment-hosted copper model, similar to those found in the large copper deposits in central and southern Africa. The first copper target is a large and dense body located below Zone 4100N, interpreted as a potentially larger accumulation of copper sulfides. The target begins at a depth of about 200 m, is about 2.3 km long, and is intersected by a strong IP anomaly at its upper contact. A drilling success in this target would definitively be a game-changer for American West. Exploration can hardly be more exciting.
