American West Metals has uncovered 8 kilometres of outcropping copper gossans at its giant Storm Copper project in Nunavut, Canada, alongside thick visual copper sulphides in ongoing drilling at its flagship Cyclone deposit.
The outcrops were identified across its Tornado area, adrift from the main resource, with the promising shows underscoring the vast potential of the district-scale 2200 square kilometre address to continue to deliver high-grade copper discoveries.
The company’s regional exploration program was designed to follow up on a recent mobile magneto-telluric (MMT) survey, which highlighted multiple conductive anomalies as potential new discovery horizons.
Early results of the program have mapped extensive chalcocite and malachite outcrops along major fault networks in the Tornado area, with portable X-ray analysis confirming high-grade copper sulphides across the massive 8km strike.
American West says it is now gearing up for reverse circulation (RC) drilling to probe the fault-related targets in the coming days, adding firepower to an already extensive campaign of diamond drilling at the Cyclone deposit.
The company says Cyclone has delivered some even more promising and unexpected results. Two geotechnical drill holes designed for an ongoing pre-feasibility study intersected thick zones of visual copper sulphides on the deposit’s margins.
The first hole hit a considerable 43 metres of combined sulphide mineralisation, including semi-massive chalcocite and chalcopyrite across five zones. A second hole intersected 49.5m of sulphides, with a notable 12.5m portion of semi-massive chalcocite, which was observed to run at more than 5 per cent chalcocite or 60 per cent copper.
The intercepts were hosted in fractured dolomudstones of the Allen Bay Formation, suggesting significant resource expansion potential beyond Cyclone’s current 13-million-tonne mineral resource grading 1.1 per cent copper.
American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “Phase one of the MMT survey defined a series of large conductive features in favourable geological and structural locations along the Midway-Storm Tornado Corridor… The scale and extent of the mineralisation highlight our belief that the Tornado area could host a very large copper deposit at depth.”
The company says its reverse circulation drilling program is also charging ahead, with 21 holes completed for 3194m. Twelve holes have targeted resource upgrades at American West’s Thunder, Lightning Ridge, Cirrus, Cyclone and Corona deposits, while two test holes were plunged into extensions at Cyclone.
Seven exploration holes were separately drilled into high-priority prospects such as The Gap, Cyclone West, Squall and Hailstorm.
The reverse circulation rig will now shift to the Tornado area to test some of its 8km of near-surface copper potential. The company expects to receive assays from the completed holes in four to six weeks.
The MMT survey, which identified six conductive anomalies in the Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor, continues to guide drill targeting, as on-going 3D modelling refines deeper prospects at scale.
Located on Somerset Island, 120km south of Resolute Bay, Storm is close to the Northwest Passage, a seasonal ice-free shipping route historically used by world-class zinc-lead mines such as Polaris and Nanisivik.
The project’s preliminary economic assessment last year projected a US$149 million (A$228.5 million) net present value and a 46 per cent internal rate of return (IRR) for a low-capex, 10-year open-pit operation, with potential for a 135 per cent pre-tax IRR with debt financing.
An 80 per cent initial capital commitment from Ocean Partners Holdings, secured via a 100 per cent off-take agreement, further de-risks the project’s path to production as global copper prices close in on the all-time highs.
With thick new sulphide intercepts, a new 8km copper gossan and 100km-plus of untested targets, American West looks to be uncorking the vast potential at Storm at just the right time. No doubt punters will be looking out for this not-so-little copper player, given the red metal is white hot.
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By Andrew Todd
