The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 16, 2024
The diamond drill crew at the Chinook deposit at the Storm Copper project in Nunavut, Canada.
American West and previous explorers have identified several high-grade and zinc targets across the 541,796-acre Storm property.
American West Metals Ltd. Aug. 15 reported that its first assays from the summer field program at Storm Copper demonstrate the potential to upgrade and expand the resources within Cyclone and Chinook, deposits that were included in a recent direct shipping ore study for this high-grade copper project in northern Nunavut.
"The first assays from the summer drilling program have now been received and continue to impress, confirming further intervals of high-grade copper mineralisation within and around the Cyclone and Chinook deposits," said American West Metals Managing Director Dave O'Neill.
Cyclone and Chinook are two of four deposits that have been outlined so far within a roughly 10-square-kilometer (3.9 square miles) area of the Storm property that hosts 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.
Cyclone hosts 4.88 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.26% (135.8 million lb) copper, plus 7.21 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.2% (191.4 million lb) copper and 4.03 g/t (934,700 oz) silver.
Upgrading and expanding this deposit is one of the goals for the 20,000 meters of drilling slated for Storm during the summer program.
American West says assay results from the first 12 reverse circulation (RC) holes drilled at Cyclone this summer demonstrate consistent grades that highlight the excellent lateral continuity of the high-grade copper mineralisation within the deposit.
Highlights from the first batch of summer 2024 assays from Cyclone include:
• 15.2 meters averaging 1.4% copper and 2.4 g/t silver from a depth of 103.6 meters in hole SR24-09, including 6.1 meters averaging 2.7% copper and 2.7 g/t silver from 108.2 meters.
• 19.8 meters averaging 1.2% copper and 3 g/t silver from a depth of 12.2 meters, and three meters averaging 3.2% copper and 8.5 g/t silver from 59.4 meters in hole SR24-11.
• 13.7 meters averaging 2.1% copper and 7.9 g/t silver from a depth of 67.1 meters in hole SR24-21, including 7.6 meters averaging 3.2% copper and 12.2 g/t silver from 70.1 meters.
"The drilling within the Cyclone deposit continues to demonstrate the exceptional continuity and upgrade potential of the resource, with very high-grade copper intersected within a number of the drill holes," said O'Neill.
Hole SR24-09 was drilled across a fault that marks the southern edge of the currently defined Cyclone deposit. American West says the high-grade copper encountered in this step-out highlights the potential for significant resource expansion potential in an underexplored area southwest of the deposit known as Central Graben.
"The drilling also highlights growth potential of Cyclone, with thick intervals of copper sulphides intersected in step-out drilling to the south of the Southern Graben Fault," O'Neill added.
The company also received assays from four infill holes drilled at Chinook, a deposit that hosts 2.19 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.47% (71.2 million lb) copper and 4 g/t (282,300 oz) silver.
SR24-10, the best of the four holes, cut 3.1 meters averaging 1.3% copper and 6 g/t silver from a depth of 38.1 meters, and 1.4 meters averaging 2.4% copper and 3 g/t silver from 89.9 meters.
So far, American West has completed 15,500 meters of drilling in 100 RC and 12 diamond holes. The RC rigs are continuing the resource definition and exploration activities at Storm and have expanded to regional targets. The first regional target being tested is Tempest, a prospect about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Storm Copper resource, where rock samples collected last year returned grades as 38.2% copper and 30.8% zinc.
American West and previous explorers have identified several high-grade and zinc targets across the 541,796-acre Storm property.
With the first batch of assays from the lab, American West expects to be reporting a steady stream of results from the summer program over the next few months.
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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