The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - July 1, 2024
A track-mounted RC rig tests a high-grade copper target during winter drilling at Storm.
Map of the deposits, targets, and results of the five holes drilled during the 2024 winter program at Storm Copper.
American West Metals Ltd. July 1 announced that one hole drilled during its spring program cut three meters of 7% copper at the underexplored Gap target on the company's Storm Copper project in Nunavut.
According to an inaugural resource calculated in February, four deposits within a roughly 10-square-kilometer (3.9 square miles) area of the Storm property host 17.48 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant indicated and inferred resources averaging 1.17% (452 million lb) copper and 3.38 grams per metric ton (1.9 million oz) silver.
Gap lies about midway between two of the deposits included in these resources, Cirrus and Corona, which are about 3,500 meters apart.
One hole drilled at Gap in 2018 cut 1.5 meters averaging 4.4% copper, and two meters averaging 2.5% copper.
American West tested a strong electromagnetic (EM) geophysical anomaly at Gap during a five-hole drill program carried out at Storm this spring.
One of the holes drilled at Gap, SR24-03, cut 20 meters averaging 2.3% copper from a depth of 38 meters, including a three-meter subsection averaging 7% copper.
"Results for the spring phase of the program have immediately built on last year's great discovery record and confirmed a new zone of thick, near-surface copper mineralization at the Gap prospect, with grades over 7% copper," said American West Metals Managing Director Dove O'Neill.
The company says the high-grade copper encountered in hole SR24-03 further confirms the strong correlation between EM targets and very high-grade copper mineralization at Storm. The strong copper mineralization also underscores the potential along the South Graben fault system where Gap, the Cirrus and Corona, and several other priority copper targets are found.
"Multiple high-priority EM targets are yet to be tested in this area, highlighting the exceptional exploration upside and potential for further discoveries," said O'Neill.
Map of the deposits, targets, and results of the five holes drilled during the 2024 winter program at Storm Copper.
After taking a break during the spring thaw in Canada's North, American West has kicked off a summer program that is expected to include more than 20,000 meters of drilling. This drilling includes the introduction of the first tracked reverse circulation drill rig to be used at Storm, which does not require helicopter transport to move between drill hole locations,
"The summer drilling will now aim to build on this with a significantly expanded work program that will initially see two reverse circulation (RC) rigs and one diamond drilling rig operating 24/7," said O'Neill. "The introduction of the track mounted RC drill rig this year has exceeded our expectations in terms of production capacity and operational flexibility, and this will help us achieve over 20,000 meters of planned drilling during the season."
The summer drill program is slated to include:
• Resource definition drilling at Thunder, a high-grade discovery about midway between the Corona deposit and Gap, where one hole drilled last year (ST23-03) cut 48.6 meters averaging 3% copper from a depth of 32.4 meters.
• Resource definition and extension at the Cyclone deposit, which hosts 12.1 million metric tons of resources averaging 1.2% copper and 3.8 g/t silver, and the Chinook deposit, which hosts 2.2 million metric tons of resources averaging 1.5% copper and 4 g/t silver.
• Shallow, high-priority EM targets within the core area at Storm.
• Large-scale copper targets below the Cyclone Deposit where drilling during 2023 discovered high-grade copper sulfides with grades as high as 2.7% copper at a depth of roughly 300 meters.
• Bulk sampling for prefeasibility-level processing and development studies.
In addition to drilling, American West is carrying out additional deep penetrating, high-resolution surveys over the existing Storm deposits as well as regional targets across the larger Storm property.
"The immediate focus of the survey is to search deeper, below the known copper deposits for a repeat of the Cyclone style mineralization at depth, and then to extend the EM coverage into Tornado, Blizzard, and Tempest," O'Neill explained.
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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