American West Metals will roll in a third drill rig to ramp up exploration at its Storm project in Canada with ground geophysical surveys also set to kick off in March.
A combination of diamond and RC drilling will etch out multiple shallow high-grade copper deposits suitable for low-cost open-pit mining, along with expanding the company’s recent discovery of a potentially large sediment-hosted copper system.
The results from American West’s maiden probe at its 2750N Zone identified an extensive package of near-surface copper and doubled the volume of the area’s mineralisation. Headline results include a 2m section going almost 16 per cent copper from 70m inside a larger 19m parcel at 2.08 per cent copper from 58m downhole.
Many of the company’s holes struck broad parcels of copper mineralisation including 41m at 4.17 per cent from 38m and 57m at 2.5 per cent from 8m.
Notably, the company says the site’s mineralisation is still open to the west and remains the focus of upcoming resource drilling owing to its shallow nature and high grades.
American West hopes to probe a pair of nearby target areas known as 2200N and 4100N.
Both areas are believed to host high-grade, massive sulphide copper-style mineralisation with legacy drilling turning out 6.4m running at 7.38 per cent copper from surface at 2200N and a 15m intercept grading 3.88 per cent copper at 4100N.
Drilling at both targets will look to extend historical shallow intercepts along strike and dip extents.
In addition at 2200N Zone, drilling will test an intriguing deep electromagnetic anomaly that coincides with a strong gravity anomaly. The company believes the coinciding geophysical anomalies highlight a major graben structure, which is an ideal setting for sedimentary copper mineralisation.
Further drilling is also slated to chase up American West’s major copper discovery along strike of the 4100N Zone where drilling intercepted multiple zones of copper-rich mineralisation at depth suggestive of a sedimentary-hosted system.
The company will commence its exploration onslaught with several high-resolution geophysical surveys over the known prospects whilst also pushing into untested territory to further define the prospective footprint of copper mineralisation at the project.
Blizzard, Tornado and Tempest round off a trio of hopeful regional prospects the company is keen to investigate, the latter of which has a known copper gossan exposed at surface that has assayed up to 32 per cent copper.
The company is putting the finishing touches on the multi-faceted program as it steers towards a preliminary economic evaluation at Storm that could support a low-footprint direct shipping ore, or “DSO” operation.
Material flagged as amenable to DSO can be dispatched directly to buyers after minor processing, including a simple blend of crushing, screening, sorting and ore blending.
Previous processing on samples derived from American West’s wider Storm project yielded a DSO product with a grade of over 53 per cent copper using minimal processing methods.
Whilst the copper price is trading well below the lofty peaks of 2022, it is continuing in an upward trend closing at a seven-month high of US$9,340 per tonne. One of the globe’s most prominent investment banks Goldman Sachs believes the price of the commodity will climb over the long term owing to the material's critical role in the green energy transition.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
