The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Aussie begins exploration of Nunavut project with EM survey North of 60 Mining News – December 17, 2021
Oxidized copper found on the surface at Aston Bay's Storm Copper project on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
An electromagnetic survey has identified both shallow and deep conductors alongside faults and related to high-grade copper encountered in drilling and on the surface at Storm.
Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. Dec. 13 announced that the preliminary results of recent ground electromagnetic geophysical surveys identified numerous conductive anomalies across its high-grade Storm Copper project on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
"The initial results of the 2021 geophysical surveys demonstrate the efficacy of ground EM as an exploration tool at Storm, and further reinforce our belief that undiscovered, blind zones of high-grade copper mineralization exist in underexplored areas of the project," said Aston Bay Holdings CEO Thomas Ullrich.
Carried out by American West Metals Ltd., an Australian mineral exploration company that optioned the adjoining Storm Copper and Seal Zinc projects from Aston Bay earlier this, the 2021 geophysical surveys targeted extensions along strike and at depth of known mineralization, as well as following up on previous geophysical anomalies.
Previous electromagnetic surveys have successfully identified several strong conductive anomalies associated with known copper mineralization at Storm, including a large conductive anomaly related to the high-grade 4100N zone. One historical hole at 4100N, ST99-47, cut 67.6 meters averaging 1.33% copper from a depth of 43.4 meters.
This year's electromagnetic survey has identified 14 untested conductors, seven of them shallow and seven that are deeper.
The shallow conductors include one immediately west of the drilled area of 4100N; two along strike to the northwest of 4100N; two east along strike from the 2200N and 2750N zones, which are about 2,000 meters southeast of 4100N; and one northeast of the 3500N zone, which is about 2,000 meters southwest of 4100N.
Aston Bay says all seven untested shallow conductors are located along or in close proximity to the bounding faults at Storm and in areas of elevated density identified by the 2017 airborne gravity gradiometry carried out in 2017.
The conductors east of the 2200N and 2750N zones are also associated with significant copper-in-soil geochemical anomalies. Highlights from previous drilling at 2750N include 110 meters averaging 2.45% copper from surface in hole ST97-08 and 56.3 meters averaging 3.07% copper from a depth of 12.2 meters in hole ST99-19.
Six of the seven untested deeper conductors are also located along or adjacent to the bounding faults at Storm. The geometry and mostly gentle dips of the modeled deep conductors suggest that they may be related to stratiform type targets and may be indicative of traditional sedimentary type copper mineralization at depth.
"Utilizing modern instrumentation capable of resolving anomalies with improved resolution and at greater depth than previous surveys has enabled our partners at American West to identify multiple new conductors warranting follow up work, including several drill-ready targets," Ullrich said. "We look forward to continuing our work with American West's technical team to refine targets identified by the 2021 survey, and to plan additional geophysical surveys and new targets ahead of a proposed 2022 drill campaign."
American West Metals, which began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol AW1 on Dec. 13, has the option to earn an 80% interest in Storm by investing C$10 million into exploration across the Nunavut copper and zinc project over a period of nine years.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(0)