American West gears up for copper drilling deluge | Australian Markets

American West Metals is charging into exploration season at its flagship Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, with the drill bits primed to probe a bevy of deep, high-grade copper targets throughout its large 2200-square-kilometre tenure.

Topping the company’s hit checklist is Cirrus Deeps, a high-priority electromagnetic (EM) anomaly beneath its current Cirrus deposit. It sits in the identical stratigraphic candy spot because the project’s largest deposit, Cyclone.

Cirrus is linked to the mineral-rich Southern Graben Fault. Early drilling intersected fractured zones of sporadic copper sulphides, offering an encouraging signal of a vital mineralisation host.

The company additionally appears buoyed by its Cyclone Deeps goal, the place a deep diamond gap final 12 months struck 10 metres at 1.2 per cent copper from 311m. The hit was significantly deeper than the primary Cyclone deposit’s depth, suggesting a faulted extension that would run for more than 5km in strike.

Closer to floor, a reverse circulation drilling program will goal useful resource growth actions at American West’s Thunder, Lightning Ridge and Corona deposits, alongside high-grade prospects similar to The Gap that final 12 months returned a stellar 20m at 2.3 per cent copper.

The company says it’s rolling out a regional cell magneto-telluric survey to check for indicators of deeper copper sulphide targets throughout the 110km copper belt. The survey guarantees sharper decision than historic geophysics, doubtlessly lighting up new drill targets within the Midway-Storm-Tornado hall and past.

Discovery of additional high-grade copper mineralisation at depth beneath the identified deposits has the potential to verify the stacked copper horizon model and to shortly outline giant areas for additional useful resource growth. Early success in these areas will help to prioritise and focus the rest of the deep diamond drilling program. The RC drill rig will goal to maneuver shortly by initial useful resource goal areas after which onto a more expansive and exploration-focused program.

The Storm project has a mineral useful resource of 20.6 million tonnes grading 1.11 per cent copper and three.34 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, equating to 228,500 tonnes of contained copper and a pair of.21 million ounces of silver. With much less than 5 per cent of the 110km belt systematically explored, American West is betting on a string of high-grade discoveries to raise Storm to a district-scale copper system.

A strong financial evaluation already pegged Storm with a US$149 million web current worth and a two-year payback time for its low-capex, 10-year mining operation. The company is flat out making ready its camp for exploration season, focusing on a pipeline of prospects that would considerably develop the project’s already spectacular useful resource base.

Management is pushing forward within the meantime with pre-feasibility examine work to doubtlessly lock-in 100 per cent debt financing. It has already sewn up 80 per cent of its initial capex because of a 100 per cent offtake settlement with United Kingdom-based trading providers company Ocean Partners Holdings.

As drilling ramps up and the upcoming cell survey delivers new targets, American West seems poised to develop its already appreciable useful resource base at Storm. The project appears to be shaping up as a low-risk, high-reward copper development play with a lot of useful resource upside.

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