American West unveils thick visual sulphides at Canadian copper project

American West Metals has revealed a sizeable new copper target at its Storm project in Nunavut, Canada, with a historical drilling program intersecting thick intervals of visual copper sulphides at its newly titled Midway prospect. 

American West has prioritised Midway, which is 5 kilometres west of Storm’s copper resources, for further interrogation after reviewing historical drill results that unveiled copper hosted within brecciated dolomites in the Allen Bay Formation. The mineralisation is similar to that at the project’s 10-million-tonne flagship Cyclone deposit.

The company says a 2018 drill hole intersected 58 metres of visual copper sulphides, primarily chalcocite, with intervals containing up to 2.5 per cent visual sulphide content. 

The hole is one of five yet to be assayed. Management believes the prospect exhibits a flat-lying profile consistent with its large sediment-hosted copper resource at Cyclone and presents an opportunity to delineate new resource targets following the receipt of all-important lab results. 

American West says Midway lies within the 20km Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor, a structurally controlled zone along the Storm Graben Faults known for its propensity to host high-grade copper mineralisation.

American West Metals managing director Dave O’Neill said: “An area of immediate priority for the 2025 regional exploration program will be the Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor – a highly prospective section of the copper belt with all the ingredients of a large-scale mineralised system. We believe there is strong potential to discover more copper deposits in this corridor and to quickly build on the resource base of the Storm mining camp.”

The massive 2200-square-kilometre Storm project currently holds a total 20.6 million tonnes at 1.1 per cent copper and 3.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver resource, equating to 228,500t of contained copper and 2.2M ounces of silver. 

It spans a massive 110km of prospective stratigraphy, with less than 5 per cent having been systematically explored to date. 

American West recently entered a partnership and funding agreement with United Kingdom-based trading services company Ocean Partners to provision up to 80 per cent of the initial capex for Storm’s development in return for a 100 per cent offtake of the project’s copper and silver production. The partnership was accompanied by a $2M capital raising by Ocean Partners earlier this month.

The preliminary economic assessment at Storm projected a US$149M (A$232.4M) net present value and 46 per cent post-tax internal rate of return for a 10-year open pit mining scenario.

The company says its 2025 exploration program will now focus on additional regional targets, including its Midway, Tornado and Blizzard prospects, also along its prospective Graben trend.

Tornado lies 5km east of the Storm deposits and is defined by a 3.2km by 1.5km copper geochemical anomaly with chalcocite and malachite boulders. Recent moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) surveys identified deep, flat-lying anomalies, while historical drilling logged visual copper oxides, which are also pending assay confirmation. 

At Blizzard the structural and stratigraphic characteristics, with coincident gravity and EM anomalies indicate the potential for significant copper mineralisation. The company hopes it can quickly convert the anomalies to resources it can add to its economic studies for a quickly developing production scenario at the project.

American West says it will soon conduct a mobile magneto-telluric (MMT) survey to enhance target identification ahead of a drilling program late this year. The helicopter-borne survey to cover the Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor is designed to detect copper sulphides at depths exceeding 200m with improved resolution, addressing the limitations of prior geophysical methods in resistive host rocks.

A follow-up drilling program is planned for last year’s high-grade discoveries at its Squall and The Gap prospects. 

The company says it remains well-funded to advance Storm toward production. With its low capital requirements being a significant bonus to American West, it looks as if Storm could be the next copper development to quickly supply growing demand in North America.

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