American West has kicked off a 5000m diamond drilling program at its wholly owned West Desert project in Utah in the US, chasing multiple high-priority indium and gallium targets beyond the company’s existing resource footprint.
The program will run 24/7 with Major Drilling Group International on the levers to find new resources of strategic and critical metals outside the company’s existing West Desert mineral resource.
In early 2023, the company announced a maiden indicated and inferred resource estimate for its West Desert project, totalling 33.7 million tonnes at 3.83 per cent zinc, 0.15 per cent copper and 9.1 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, in both open pit and underground resources.
A December 2023 update added 23.8 million ounces of indium and 119,000 ounces of gold to the existing 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper and 10 million ounces of silver at West Desert.
The company says it has built a pipeline of key targets it believes could deliver meaningful resource growth, led by a cluster of indium-rich skarns, including copper, gold and silver targets in its largely untested Goldilocks Zone.
It will also probe gallium targets referred to as “Apex-style” along the Juab Fault and other geophysical anomalies similar to those noted at its West Desert resource.
The West Desert project is characterised as a porphyry-related zoned mineral system with an inner intrusive porphyry zone that hosts copper, gold, silver and indium, with molybdenum also present occasionally.
The West Desert resource appears to occupy the marginal contact zone of the intrusive porphyry and includes typical skarn-hosted copper and zinc. It also includes replacement-style silver-lead mineralisation, which was mined in the early 1900’s.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “The drilling program will focus on expanding the already world-class critical metals endowment at West Desert. High-grade indium, copper, silver, gold, and gallium mineralisation has been discovered outside of the current West Desert resource by drilling, and we will look to significantly expand these zones of sought-after metals.”
Recent resampling of historical drill core outside the mineral resource has yielded standout grades of up to 324 grams per tonne (g/t) indium, 4.9 per cent copper, 155g/t silver, 5.4g/t gold and 41.9g/t gallium.
The Goldilocks Zone sits deeper and almost vertically beneath the Main Zone of the West Desert resource, tracking the same skarn margin of the intrusive porphyry.
Drilling at Goldilocks shows it comprises multiple high-grade lenses within a broader envelope of chalcopyrite-dominant mineralisation.
The mainly copper-gold mineralisation at Goldilocks also contains silver, indium and gallium, which the company says will need further work to develop a reliable picture of its overall extent and metal associations.
Following previous drilling at West Desert, which returned gallium assays up to 77.3g/t gallium, the company is now lining up its first gallium-focused drill holes along the Juab Fault, a steeply-inclined structure which runs between its Main and Deep Zones.
The program will test for possible “Apex-style” settings similar to Utah’s historic Apex gallium-germanium mine, a carbonate deposit 300km south of West Desert.
Adding extra spice, American West’s drilling plans to test large gravity and magnetic anomalies with geophysical signatures that management says resemble the area hosting its West Desert resource.
In parallel with its drilling, the company is finalising an expanded resampling program across historical core and old mine waste dumps from the historic Utah, Emma and Galena mines within its tenure.
Assays from that work are expected within the next five weeks and according to management, are likely to outline additional high-grade critical metal zones and refine targeting ahead of drilling results.
The timing of the company’s program couldn’t be more opportune. American West says the US has no domestic production of either gallium or indium, and recent moves by Washington have again shone a bright light on the nation’s need to secure a local supply of strategic metals.
With drilling now underway and a steady stream of assays due shortly from the campaign, the company’s West Desert project looks set for a busy few months as it hunts for the next indium and gallium hotspot.
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By Doug Bright
