American West Metals has hit bonanza copper grades at its Storm project in Canada with a 0.3m intercept at a whopping 42.8 per cent copper from 67m, in addition to identifying a new zone of mineralisation.
The impressive hit at the company’s 4100N zone was contained within a 46m section going 2.2 per cent copper from 64m that also included a 15.6m segment grading 4.2 per cent from 65m.
A second hole sunk into the operation’s 2750N zone recorded a 27.4m hit at 1.5 per cent copper from surface, including 7.6m going 4 per cent copper from 7.6m. The same hole also recorded a deeper 27.4m section grading 1.3 per cent copper from 30.5m, including 9.1m reading 2.15 per cent copper from 33.5m.
Management says a single exploration reverse-circulation (RC) drillhole made another discovery of near-surface mineralisation in a large, underexplored area between its 2750N, 2200N and Thunder prospects. The new discovery has been named “Lightning Ridge” and sits in an area of outcropping massive chalcocite and large-scale faulting.
The discovery hole was targeting a previously untested historical airborne versatile time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) anomaly. Several other EM anomalies and more than 10km of prospective strike of similar faults have been identified in the southern graben area and remain untested by drilling.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “The continuity and consistency of mineralisation at the 4100N Zone has been confirmed by the latest drilling results, including extremely rich zones with assays up to 43% copper. This is the highest-grade assay result to date at the 4100N Zone. Importantly, it is located in a key area that will underpin the resource classification of this prospect.”
The Storm project sits within a 4145-square-kilometre land package that also includes the Seal zinc project on Somerset Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Together, Storm and Seal constitute the Nunavut projects and are currently owned by Aston Bay Holdings.
American West became the project operator under an option agreement that also gives it the opportunity to acquire an 80 per cent interest in the Nunavut projects. The area has undergone extensive historical drilling and two separate copper sulphide systems have been discovered with multiple near-surface high-grade copper zones identified at several target zones in drilling across 15sq km.
The area’s historical drill highlights include 19m at 3.41 per cent copper from surface and 110m at 2.45 per cent copper from surface.
The explorer says its initial phase of drilling is designed to define maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface.
With more assays pending from its latest drill campaign, the market will be keeping a close eye on American West’s upcoming results to see if it can continue to deliver with its impressive copper results.
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By Michael Philipps
