Lougher to chair American West Metals

American West Metals has appointed current non-executive director and 40-year mining veteran Dan Lougher as non-executive chairman of the company. Lougher has a track record of developing and operating large-scale base and precious metals assets in Australia, North America, Africa and Europe and will oversee American West as it looks to develop its potentially massive Storm copper project in Northern Canada.

In addition to his role at American West, Lougher is a non-executive director of Perseus Mining and Blackstone Minerals. 

John Prineas, whose day job is to run rapidly advancing battery metals explorer St George Mining will step down from the chair in the transition to Lougher but will continue with the company as a non-executive director.

American West Metals managing director David O'Neill said: “Dan’s credentials as a mine builder and operator are outstanding and we are fortunate to have someone of his calibre in a leadership role for the Company. Our achievements in 2023 have gained global recognition for American West Metals as we define one of the world’s most exciting new copper growth stories. Dan’s deep knowledge of the mining sector will be of great value to the Company as we continue our rapid growth as an explorer and developer.”

Last year was a defining one for the company’s exploration department, with news flow from its Storm copper prospect on Somerset Island in Nunavut – the most northern territory in Canada – cementing the deposit as the company’s flagship.

Assays from drillholes at Storm turned heads across the industry and investors jumped on the buy-side thick and fast, giving the company’s share price a 772 per cent boost from a low of 4.3 cents in March to peak at 37.5 cents in August.

American West describes its Storm deposit as “camp-scale” with near-surface, high-grade copper drill hits defining the mineralisation along a strike of more than 1300m and a width of 400m.

Some of those copper assays, and there are a lot of good ones to choose from, went 1.5m at 7.1 per cent from 82.3m within a broader mineralised horizon that is 9.1m thick grading 2.5 per cent from 79.3m and a 1.5m section at 5.1 per cent from 79.3m, again within a broader 9.2m thick section grading 2.2 per cent from 71.6m. The highest-grade assay was 1.5m at 8.2 per cent copper from 86.9m.

Other results include 3m at 5 per cent copper from 86.9m within a broader 29m mineralised horizon going 1.2 per cent from 62.5m. Further assays from the batch peaked at 3m at 3.7 per cent copper from 82.3m and 1.5m at 6.5 per cent from 76.2m.

Management says the company plans to continue with exploration drilling programs across its Nunavut projects this year as it looks to top up its portfolio of prospects while maturing Storm towards a maiden mineral resource estimate – which the market will no doubt be looking out for.

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