The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - July 24, 2024
Samples from RC drilling at Storm Copper being loaded on a plane for delivery to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
American West Metals Ltd. July 24 announced that visual copper mineralization cut by all nine holes drilled so far this year at Thunder provides compelling evidence that this prospect will soon be elevated to another deposit that contributes to the resources at the high-grade Storm Copper project in Nunavut.
According to a calculation completed in January, four deposits within a roughly 10-square-kilometer (3.9 square miles) area of the Storm property host 17.5 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.
Thunder lies along an extensive fault system that hosts three deposits in the southern area of Storm, including Chinook, a deposit about 700 meters to the east that hosts 2.2 million metric tons of the overall Storm resources averaging 1.5% (72.1 million lb) copper, and 4 g/t (282,300 oz) silver.
A geophysical survey carried out by American West identified a strong electromagnetic (EM)anomaly near a historical drill hole that cut 7.6 meters averaging 1.6% copper at Thunder. Hole ST23-03, drilled last year to test this EM anomaly, cut 48.4 meters averaging 3% copper.
The initial 2024 drilling at Thunder includes nine widely spaced holes designed to test the strike extent and potential geometry of the high-grade mineralization cut in ST23-03. American West reports that all these holes cut copper mineralization, including thick intervals of very strong visual copper sulfides cut by three holes drilled within the interpreted main zone.
This includes 121.2 meters of continuous copper mineralization from a depth of 18.3 meters in hole SR24-034 and 73.2 meters of continuous copper mineralization from a depth of 45.7 meters in hole SR24-042.
Assays are pending from all nine holes drilled this year at Thunder.
"The Thunder drilling is continuing to impress. The initial resource definition drilling has extended the envelope of the known copper mineralization, with the high-grade zone now identified for more than 300 meters along strike," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill. "The drilling demonstrates that there is significant potential to convert the 2023 discovery into additional high-grade resources, which will quickly grow the copper endowment of Storm."
The company also reported that thick intervals of visual sulfides have been cut in holes drilled at Cyclone, the largest of the deposits within the current Storm Copper resource.
Cyclone currently hosts 12.1 million metric tons of resources averaging 1.2% (191.4 million lb) copper and 3.8 g/t (934,700 oz) silver.
This year's drilling includes both resource expansion and definition drilling at this largest of the Storm Copper deposits delineated so far. The company reports that two holes drilled northeast of Cyclone have extended copper mineralization in that direction and another two holes drilled within the southern and western resource areas have also cut visual copper mineralization.
"The drilling within the Cyclone deposit continues to highlight the continuity and growth potential of the resource with every drill hole to date intersecting visual copper sulfide mineralization," O'Neill said.
So far, American West has completed 8,300 meters of drilling during the 2024 summer program at Storm – 7,660 meters in 60 reverse circulation holes and 677 meters in six diamond holes – putting the company on pace to exceed the 20,000 meters of planned drilling.
The company expects to receive the first assays from the summer drill program within two weeks.
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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