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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
To focus drilling on areas with direct shipping ore potential North of 60 Mining News – June 24, 2022
Oxidized copper at the Storm project in Nunavut.
American West Metals Ltd. June 22 announced plans for its 2022 exploration program at the high-grade Storm Copper and Seal Zinc projects on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
Australia-based American West, which optioned Storm and Seal from Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. early last year, plans to launch a major diamond drill program in July to test high-grade copper targets at Storm.
One of the primary targets will be to define areas of high-grade copper mineralization with the potential to produce direct shipping ore.
Tests carried out on samples of drill core from 4100N Zone at Storm produced a commercial-grade direct shipping ore (DSO) product averaging 53.9% copper.
American West says this DSO material has no impurities and could form the basis for an inexpensive development option for Storm with a small environmental footprint.
This year's drilling at Storm will focus on defining high-grade copper resources in previously drilling areas and exploring high-priority electromagnetic targets defined by geophysical surveys, including one completed by American West last year.
"The drill program has a dual strategy. Firstly, to define resources that may support an initial low-footprint mining proposal utilising a DSO model that produced a 53% Cu product in our initial test work," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill. "Secondly, to confirm the outstanding growth potential of the Project by identifying further, undiscovered zones of high-grade copper mineralisation in unexplored areas."
This includes resource definition drilling at 2750N Zone, where historical drilling has encountered near-surface, high-grade copper mineralization.
Highlights from historical drilling at 2750N include:
• 110 meters averaging 2.45% copper from surface in hole ST97-08.
• 56.3 meters averaging 3.07% copper from a depth of 12.2 meters in hole ST99-19.
American West says the copper mineralization at 2750N Zone, which remains open at depth and along strike, is likely to be well-suited for producing direct shipping copper ore with a sorter.
The company plans to complete roughly 1,500 meters of initial drilling in and around 2750N in holes that range between 100 and 150 meters to test the near-surface mineralization found there.
During 2021, American West carried out an electromagnetic geophysical survey that identified numerous conductive anomalies associated with copper mineralization at Storm.
This survey 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 3500N Zone, which is about 2,000 meters southwest of 4100N.
The seven previously undrilled shallow conductors are in close proximity to the bounding faults at Storm and in areas of elevated density identified by the 2017 airborne gravity gradiometry geophysical survey carried out in 2017.
The conductors east of the 2200N and 2750N zones are also associated with significant copper-in-soil geochemical anomalies.
American West says areas with significant copper-in-soils geochemical anomalies and outcropping copper mineralization associated with the newly defined EM conductors offer compelling undrilled targets that will be tested during the upcoming program.
The company says the seven deeper conductors, which may represent the source of the near-surface high-grade copper confirmed by shallow drilling, represent compelling large-scale exploration targets that will be tested during the 2022 drill program.
"We are excited to have our earn-in partner American West so swiftly advance the Storm Project," said Aston Bay Holdings CEO Thomas Ullrich. "The ground geophysical program completed last season has been instrumental in defining high-priority drill targets for this year, and the outstanding result of a (more than) 53% Cu direct ship product from ore-sorting tests conducted over the winter is conducive to low-impact mining."
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.
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