Visual copper hints at shallow deposit for American West

Perth-based American West Metals could be onto a shallow, high-grade copper resource at its Storm project on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada, after unveiling strong visual mineralisation from the company’s first two diamond holes at the operation.

The explorer launched the probe at a highly prospective area known as “2750N”, where historical intercepts include 110m at 2.45 per cent copper from surface and 3.07 per cent copper from 12.2m.

American West says the first hole struck 72.1m of mineralisation, including a parcel of more than 20m of breccia and massive copper sulphides across a suite of intervals.

The second bore delivered a similarly impressive 80m patch of anomalous mineralisation, underlined by yet another 20m plus interval of breccia and copper sulphide intervals over a range of depths.

Management has hailed the results from the two holes arguing the visual hits demonstrate a robust continuity of broad copper intervals at 2750N. The explorer is looking to carve out a high-grade, near-surface resource at Storm that could support a low-footprint direct-shipping ore, or “DSO” operation.

DSO ore essentially means the product can be shipped directly to customers after a relatively simple and inexpensive processing that can include crushing, screening, sorting and blending.

Recently American West announced that initial ore sorting test work supported the plan with copper from Storm able to deliver a DSO product with a healthy grade of 53 per cent copper that is impurity-free.

The company suggested at the time the extraordinary results could be a “game changer” and believed Storm could be fashioned into an environmentally friendly low-cost operation given the lack of waste material in the operation’s ore.

Following the visual copper definition at Storm American West aims to keep the drill rods spinning at 2750N with the company drawing up plans to probe the project’s eastern extensions of mineralisation.

It is also gearing up to evaluate a fleet of high-priority electromagnetic, or “EM” conductors defined through a 2021 fixed-loop electromagnetic survey run across the wider Storm project area.

The survey outlined a group of near-surface anomalies that are consistent with EM reactions of previously defined chalcocite mineralisation at Storm that curiously coincide with outcropping copper deposits in some areas.

The 2021 survey also uncovered a range of flat-lying EM conductors the company believes could suggest a deeper, geological source of copper mineralisation is at play.

Despite the price of copper touching 20-month lows amidst growing global fears of a recession the commodity is very much part of the electric vehicle revolution. Every Tesla uses about 20kg of the material in its construction.

Given the current figures and the present operating climate, if American West Metals can develop Storm into a high-grade, near-surface resource, the company may be adding another quiver to its bow.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au