Success on Copper Project Storm to be Repeated
On the Epworth Copper-Silver Project, located in the Canadian province of Nunavut, Aston Bay (TSX.V: BAY, FSE: 6AY, WKN: A2AUFP) has begun the planned airborne geophysical surveys. Simultaneously, the controlled area has been expanded by 119 square kilometers to now 890 km² through the acquisition of nine additional claims.
Aston Bay Holdings has now completed its prospecting, sampling, and mapping program on the high-grade Copper-Silver Epworth Project. A total of nearly 400 rock samples and 44 lake sediment samples were taken. An additional 50 samples are available for petrological studies. The work was carried out by an exploration team from Emerald Geological Services, and Dr. Elizabeth Turner has completed her first mapping program.
The work conducted by Emerald Geological Services spanned a period of 35 days and focused on the three priority identified deposits: Metallic South/Payback, Northwest Claims, Southwest Claims, and the historical CBC Showing areas. The program was very successful, as understanding of the historical deposit was improved and new significant copper mineralization was identified in previously unexplored zones.
Understanding of the Deposit Has Been Deepened
Dr. Elizabeth Turner, technical advisor to Aston Bay Holdings, conducted a seven-day helicopter-supported mapping program and literature review in early August. She collected 50 samples for petrological studies and also carried out regional mapping and stratigraphic studies. Both were done with the aim of better defining the Epworth mineralization and placing it in a regional geological context.
The next step now is to align the results of the program with the ongoing geophysical surveys and Dr. Turner’s studies, and to identify the best target areas for future ground work and initial drilling on the four zones. These are planned for the year 2025.
Encouraged by the initial feedback from the mapping team and the discoveries made, Aston Bay Holdings has staked an additional 119 km² as new claims in the northwestern area of the project. This increases the total area of claims controlled by the company to 890 km².
Map of Nunavut with various resource projects and mines; Source: Aston Bay Holdings
Aston Bay Holdings Aims to Repeat Positive Experiences from Storm on Epworth
The geophysical MobileMT survey has now begun. It is intended to cover the entire property and will be carried out using helicopters. A total of 8,105 line kilometers are to be flown to identify further copper exploration targets and delineate regional and property-related structures. The work is being carried out by Expert Geophysical Systems.
The survey will be conducted in the northern half of the claim block with individual lines planned to be flown at a spacing of 100 meters. In the southern half, the lines are planned to be flown at a spacing of 200 meters.
The MobileMT technique uses naturally occurring electromagnetic fields generated by lightning discharges on Earth. It uses the electromagnetic fields and the currents they induce to understand variations in the electrical resistivity of the subsurface.
MobileMT is thus able to provide geoelectric information from shallow depths to depths of more than a kilometer with high spatial and resistivity resolution. The MobileMT system detects resistivity contrasts of geological structures and helps determine the boundaries of individual forms.
The Chance for Gold and Cobalt Mineralization is Also Present
Encouraged by the positive experiences that Aston Bay Holdings has had together with partner American West on the Storm copper project, also located in Nunavut, the company believes that the results of the geophysical survey will significantly improve the understanding of the geological environment.
In conjunction with newly digitized historical geophysical data and new geological interpretations in the development of targets for further work, it should thus be possible to determine the most attractive targets for initial drilling, which is planned for the coming year.
Aston Bay Holdings now hopes to achieve similar successes on Epworth as they have been able to achieve together with American West on the Storm project over the past two years. The chances for this are good, as Epworth demonstrably exhibits high-grade copper-silver-zinc mineralization at the surface. It is very similar to that of the Storm project. In addition, however, Epworth also shows interesting cobalt and gold occurrences.
