American West Metals is dialling up the heat on its critical minerals ambitions, with a new exploration blitz aimed at unlocking copper, molybdenum, gallium and indium at its 100 per cent-owned West Desert Project in Utah.
In the wake of United States President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing all government agencies to fast-track domestic mineral production, the company has wasted no time moving to drill-ready status - armed with permits and a portfolio of metals that read like a Pentagon wish list.
Top of that list is indium, a rare but essential metal used in smart devices, defence tech and solar panels, which the US currently imports in full. American West’s West Desert project already has the country’s largest undeveloped indium resource and sits within Utah, ranked the world’s number one mining jurisdiction by the Fraser Institute.
The project’s existing JORC resource includes 33.7 million tonnes grading 3.83 per cent zinc, 0.15 per cent copper and 9.08 grams per tonne (g/t) silver for 1.29Mt of zinc, 49,053t of copper and nearly 10M ounces of silver. Silver recently came very close to achieving $US35 (A$54) an ounce for the first time in years.
A further JORC-compliant resource for indium contains 23.8M ounces, yet only 35 per cent of historical drill samples have been assayed for the metal - giving American West plenty of room to grow the figure.
But it’s the company’s recent focus on molybdenum and gallium that’s likely to catch attention. Molybdenum is vital to strengthen high-performance alloys, widely used in missiles, fighter aircraft and advanced manufacturing, and recent West Desert intercepts have raised eyebrows.
New drilling results include 417.55 metres at 0.02 per cent Mo, 194.14m at 0.05 per cent Mo, including 19.66m at a high-grade 0.2 per cent, and a 10.5m hit at a serious grade of 1.03 per cent Mo, with an internal hit of 1.67m at a blistering 4.05 per cent Mo. American West says a maiden molybdenum resource model is now underway.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “West Desert already displays the scale and quality of many of the large western US mineral systems. A significant JORC compliant zinc-copper-indium-silver-gold resource has been defined at the project. With only 10% of the project area explored with drilling and several minerals not yet included in the JORC resource, there is outstanding potential for resource growth and value creation.”
Gallium - another US-imported critical metal - was intersected across a staggering 628m, with hits including 10.4m at 40.9g/t and 4.12m at 65.95g/t. Notably, less than 10 per cent of the project has been assayed for gallium to date, highlighting the upside potential.
While the critical metals narrative builds, the company is also advancing a new high-grade copper zone — including hits such as 17.22m at 1.04 per cent copper, 0.58g/t gold and 12.46g/t indium and 3.05m at 2.58 per cent copper, 0.91g/t gold, 10.7g/t silver and 36.31g/t indium, sitting just outside the current resource envelope.
Even the iron ore at West Desert may not go to waste. The project’s zinc-copper-silver-indium mineralisation is hosted in magnetite skarn, which has already shown potential to yield an iron ore concentrate grading up to a very significant 68 per cent iron as a byproduct. This is well above the international iron ore benchmark of 62 per cent.
Outside the known deposit, drilling continues to hit high-grade sniffs. One hole delivered 0.92m at 20.42 per cent zinc, 0.76 per cent copper, 1.04g/t gold, 33.13g/t silver and 54.47g/t indium in a previously untested zone.
Another historic hole encountered 3m at 3.5 per cent copper, 7.65 per cent zinc and 28g/t silver from nearly 900m depth beneath the circa-1900 Utah mine.
The company says it is weighing up a potential spin-out or earn-in deal for West Desert, which would allow it to maintain its focus on its flagship Storm Copper Project in Canada. A 10-year mine plan for the project has already been tabled, and a PEA has modelled a net present value of US$149 million (A$230M), annual EBITDA of US$46.8M and a US$47.4M capex.
With drilling imminent, federal support rising and wars raging, American West’s push for a critical metals stronghold on US soil could be coming at just the right time.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
