The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Assays reveal 4100N remains open for resource expansion North of 60 Mining News – November 10, 2023
Reverse circulation resource delineation drilling in 2023 at the 4100N Zone at the Storm property in Nunavut.
Plan view of the 4100N Zone showing the interpreted footprint (defined by drilling, MLEM and VTEM) for the near-surface copper mineralization and drilling, overlaying regional geology.
American West Metals Ltd. Nov. 6 announced that its 2023 drilling has tapped more impressive near-surface mineralization in expansion targets at the 4100N Zone on its Storm Copper project in Nunavut.
Located within the far northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Storm Copper project covers more than 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) of the Polaris mineral district.
This year, the company aimed for up to 10,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling to establish near-surface resources, along with geophysics and diamond drilling to follow up what appears to be a major sedimentary copper discovery made at depth last year.
"This year's drilling program continues to impress with the remainder of the reverse circulation drilling results now received," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill. "The results continue to expand the large-scale copper footprint at the 4100N Zone with new thick zones of near-surface copper mineralisation. Now we have the complete picture of the resource drilling to date, it is clear that all of the near-surface high-grade copper zones are continuous and remain open with outstanding growth potential."
A total of 9,756 meters were drilled in 63 holes during the 2023 drilling program. This included 56 reverse circulation holes focused on defining a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant resource around near-surface zones of high-grade copper, plus seven diamond drill holes to test deeper geophysical targets that appear to be the source of the high-grade surface mineralization.
The RC drilling included 39 holes that confirmed a large volume of copper mineralization with outstanding resource potential at 4100N.
The latest assays confirm thick intervals of copper mineralization on the margins of 4100N, giving strong indications that the zone remains open laterally in most directions.
Highlights from the latest batch of assays at 4100N include:
• 24.4 meters averaging 1.1% copper from a depth of 48.8 meters in hole SR23-38, including 6.1 meters averaging 2.8% copper.
• 12.2 meters averaging 1.1% copper from 118.9 meters in SR23-41, including three meters averaging 4% copper.
• 1.5 meters averaging 1% copper from 51.8 meters; and 1.5 meters averaging 1.6% from 64 meters; and 3.1 meters averaging 2.7% copper from 76.2 meters; and 1.5 meters averaging 1% copper from 80.8 meters in hole SR23-43.
"The case for a potential low-cost, high margin DSO (direct shipped ore) production scenario at Storm continues to grow," added O'Neill. "Our exploration has also been highly successful in delivering new discoveries of near-surface copper as well as confirming the presence of high-grade sediment hosted copper sulphide mineralisation at depth."
Of particular note, drill hole SR23-55 was targeted to test a moderately conductive fixed loop electromagnetic (FLEM) anomaly to the north of 4100N.
In 2021, FLEM surveying highlighted two distinct anomalies approximately 200 meters and 500 meters north of the known copper mineralization at 4100N.
SR23-55, a single hole drilled to test the southernmost anomaly, intersected a 24.4-meter-thick interval of breccia and vein copper sulfide mineralization that included a stronger sulfide breccia interval of 7.6 meters averaging 1% copper
American West says that less than 2% copper mineralization is interpreted to be the source of the EM anomalism. Significantly, a FLEM anomaly located over 300 meters to the north of drill hole SR23-55 has a higher conductivity and could represent larger volumes of greater than 2% copper mineralization.
These two anomalies cover an area of approximately 16 hectares (40 acres) and have the potential to host significant volumes of additional mineralization. These EM targets and the expansion of the 4100N Zone are a priority of the 2024 exploration and drilling program.
"These achievements point to the significant scale potential of the project and highlight clear similarities of Storm to the large-scale copper deposits in the Congo and Botswana," the managing director said. "We look forward to reporting further news from Storm in the coming weeks, including the fourth diamond drill hole, the Tempest surface sampling and magnetic survey results, and preparations for the 2024 field season."
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