American West Metals’ stock touched an all-time high of 31 cents during today’s intraday trading, up from last night’s close of 20c after making a fresh copper discovery at its Storm project in Canada – including 45.5m of visual sulphides in one hole.
The company’s new share price high since its ASX listing in 2021 represented an increase of more than 129 per cent in the past year after it was trading at 13.5c cents last August. Management says its latest discovery exhibits similarities to many of the world’s major sediment-hosted copper systems, including deposits within the Kalahari and Central African copper belts.
Chasing a big gravity target, American West plunged two diamond drill holes some 680m apart and, remarkably, both struck copper sulphides. The company believes the continuity of the mineralisation and the size of its gravity anomaly, which is currently more than 5km long and up to 1km wide, suggests its latest work has potentially locked onto a significant new discovery.
The first hole delivered 45.5m of visual sulphides, with 30.5m of breccia-style visual copper sulphide from 45m downhole and a further 15m of visual breccia and vein-style copper sulphide from 332m. The second hole hit another 37m of visual breccia-style copper sulphide from 333m.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “We are very excited to announce that the diamond drilling has had immediate success and produced spectacular results confirming the presence of a major copper system within the Storm Project. These outstanding results are the product of systematic and persistent exploration, and further highlight the quality and huge exploration potential of the landholding. The first two drill holes have discovered a new copper deposit below the near-surface mineralisation with both holes intersecting thick intervals of copper sulphide at the same stratigraphic horizon.”
The company believes the effectiveness of its technique for exploration targeting is highlighted by the fact that mineralisation was intersected in both holes at the top of its modelled gravity anomaly. Management also argues that gravity targets similar to that intersected by the latest diamond drillholes cover an extensive area at Storm and remain untested by drilling, supporting the potential for a major, regional-scale copper system.
Meanwhile, the drillbit is continuing to bite for American West, with diamond drilling testing key copper targets in the Storm area. The third exploration drill hole is underway in an area with limited previous drilling and is collared approximately 1.7km south of the second hole from the company’s latest program and 1km west of its high-grade 2750N Zone. Results are expected in the next four weeks.
American West is also waiting for results from the reverse-circulation (RC) drilling that is continuing in the Storm area, with assays from the 2750N and 2200N zones expected shortly. The company’s exploration is also aiming to expand its 4100N zone and is testing several new, near-surface copper targets, with those assays due in within three weeks.
The copper price has been on the rise of late – before a marginal cooling this week – and is currently at a level not seen since April. Global market analysts believe the metal could continue its strong growth on the back of increasing optimism over China’s demand and mounting supply risks in Chile.
With the red metal central to everything green energy, its perhaps easy to see why the market got excited at the prospect of another significant copper discovery in the pipeline at a time when demand is expected to continue to go north. And the crowd watching over American West as it continues to spin the drillbit will only get bigger if the company continues to deliver on such potential.
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By Steve Kaless
