American West Metals has shifted into high gear at its West Desert project in Utah, significantly upscaling its diamond drilling program to fast-track the hunt for a suite of strategically vital critical metals.
Backed by a recently completed A$10 million institution-led strategic placement, the company is now preparing to sink up to 10,000 metres of drill core into a pipeline of high-priority exploration targets that currently sit outside its resource estimate.
In particular, the drill bit will be pointed at its promising Meteor prospect to follow up on a massive 4km-long magnetic anomaly. The first hole of the season intersected an eye-watering 77.65 metre interval of visual skarn mineralisation from 471 metres downhole.
The company’s geos noted strong visual magnetite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite, suggesting the zone has significant potential to host indium. While laboratory assays are pending, American West says the results have validated the use of magnetic imagery as a powerful targeting tool across the project's untested 5.6km-long strike.
Beyond the magnetic trends, the American West is also zeroing in on the Goldilocks high-grade critical metals zone, also sitting outside the company’s current mineral resource estimate. Past drilling here has confirmed high-grade lenses with indium grades of 324 grams per tonne, 4.9 per cent copper and 5.4 grams per tonne gold.
The company is also hunting for "Apex-style" gallium along a structure known as the Juab fault. This fault is believed to control the weathering processes necessary to super-enrich gallium grades, mirroring the Apex mine, the highest-grade gallium deposit in the US.
Previous intercepts at West Desert have already confirmed massive widths, including a combined 518 metres of gallium mineralisation with a peak grade of 77.3grams per tonne gallium oxide.
The aggressive campaign marks the busiest phase of exploration since the company took the reins at West Desert, strategically positioned in the heart of the prolific Sevier Orogenic Belt.
The expanded program aims to build on a solid base, with West Desert already hosting a JORC-compliant resource of 33.7 million tonnes grading 3.83 per cent zinc, 0.15 per cent copper and 9 grams per tonne silver.
Notably, the project is also home to the largest undeveloped indium resource in the United States, containing a staggering 23.8 million ounces of the critical metal.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “Our recent $10 million strategic placement allows us to significantly expand drilling and exploration at West Desert.”
The skarn and carbonate replacement system at West Desert shares its geological DNA with the nearby, world-class Bingham Canyon mine, which has produced more than 19 million tonnes ofcopper since 1906. The same rocks were also responsible for the prolific Tintic mineral district, a historical powerhouse with a track record of 285 million ounces of silver and 2.8 million ounces of gold.
While West Desert takes centre stage, American West maintains a diversified portfolio including its high-grade Storm copper project and the Seal zinc-silver project in Canada.
Next steps include securing a second diamond drill rig to accelerate testing of the Juab fault targets and reporting assay results from the Meteor prospect discovery hole.
With ten million bucks in the bank and the drill rods spinning in the shadows of some of Utah's most famous mining districts, American West is looking like a company on a mission.
If the pending assays catch up to the visual results, things could get very interesting indeed for this critical metals hunter.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Murray Ward
