American West, Aston Bay drill deep copper targets at Storm project, Nunavut

Diamond drilling at the Storm copper project intersected new zones of copper at depth and outlining a 1,300 x 500 metre anomaly for drill testing. The project is owned 80% by Australian American West Metals (TSX: AW1) and 20% by Canadian Aston Bay Holdings (TSXV: BAY).

Hole ST24-01 intersected a combined total of 21.3 metres of visual copper mineralization, including 6.4 metres from 293.7 metres downhole, 2.4 metres  from 302 metres, and 12.5 metres from 311 metres.

Hole ST24-02 intersected a combined total of 99.2 metres of visual copper sulphide, including 1.1 metres from 195.5 metres, 1.3 metres 204 metres, and 17.1 metres from 404.3 metres.

The Storm project is located on Sommerset Island, Nunavut, about 20 km from tidewater at Aston Bay. The deposit is a strata-bound and structurally-hosted zone of copper mineralization, hosted in the dolomitic sediments of the Allen Bay formation. Historic exploration has occurred since the 1960s.

Drilling has an impressive 100% hit rate when it comes to copper, said American West managing director Dave O’Neill. “The scale of the target horizon is now very impressive with these drill holes covering an area of over 10 km².  Zeroing in on the strongest parts of the mineralization will be the focus of the deep exploration going forward. 

“The scale and strength of some of the new anomalies, and the low false positive rate when using EM systems at Storm, make them compelling targets that are now being tested with drilling,” he added.

American West prepared the first resource estimate to Australian JORC standards for the Storm project in January 2024. Unfortunately, the company reported only the aggregate number for both indicated and inferred resources: 17.4 million tonnes grading 1.2%  copper and 3.4 g/t silver, containing 452.9 million lb. of copper and 1.9 million oz. of silver. High-grade copper assays from the Thunder, Lightning Ridge, and Cyclone North were not included in the estimate.

Additional information is posted on www.AmericanWestMetals.com.