American West Metals is set for an exploration blitz with a new rig at its Storm copper project in the Canadian territory of Nunavut and has scheduled a 10,000m RC and diamond drill campaign to begin within days.
The company says its initial phase of drilling is designed to define maiden JORC resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N zones where high-grade copper mineralisation starts from surface.
Exploration is also planned to start at a major sedimentary copper system identified last year, with the upcoming program to include ground gravity, electromagnetics and diamond drilling.
The results from American West’s maiden probe at its 2750N Zone identified an extensive package of near-surface copper and doubled the volume of the area’s mineralisation. Headline results include a 2m section going 15.98 per cent copper from 70m inside a larger 19m intercept at 2.08 per cent copper from 58m downhole.
The two additional zones are believed to host high-grade, massive sulphide copper-style mineralisation with historical drilling at 2200N turning out 6.4m at 7.38 per cent copper from surface and a 15m intercept at 4100N going 3.88 per cent copper.
The 4100N area will be the first cab off the ranks, where additional historical results include 27.2m at 1.9 per cent copper from 78.8m and a 5.8m hit going 3.6 per cent copper rom 38.6m.
The company says the RC rig to be used for its initial resource drilling will be the first of its kind at the Storm project. It will allow it to cover ground more quickly while geophysics will be used to home in on enriched mineralised zones and to define targets for resource drilling.
About 30 holes are planned across the three zones to test to a depth of between just 50m and 150m because of the shallow mineralisation of the area. The company says the site’s mineralisation is still open to the west and remains the focus of upcoming resource drilling owing to its shallow nature and high grades.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “We are pleased to report that the mobilisation of the RC drill rig and geophysical equipment is well advanced at the Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada. It’s a busy time on site and the exploration and drilling activities are scheduled to begin at the start of April.”
New areas for exploration will include the company’s Blizzard, Tornado and Tempest prospects. American West is particularly impressed with the prospectivity of Tempest, which has a known copper gossan exposed at surface that has assayed up to 32 per cent copper. The company says the three prospects highlight the extensive nature of the prospective copper horizon at Storm due to their proximity within the project area.
Diamond drilling will be used to test these high-priority targets and will begin once the resource definition program at Storm is completed.
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By Michael Philipps
