In global hunt for battery minerals, there are few more remote locations than the uninhabited Somerset Island in Canada’s “great white north”. Covering an area of 24,786km2, it is the 46th largest island in the world and located above the Arctic Circle in Nunavut Province – where the temperatures can get as low as -45.6°C.
The island is probably best known as a rescue base for the famous Arctic exploration vessel the HMS Fury in 1825. Somerset garnered some short-lived mining interests in the early 1960s and ‘70s when a “diamond rush”, saw explorers – which included the world famous De Beers company – seek out Peuyuk kimberlite at Somerset.
Interest eventually waned in the mineral potential of the area until recently when a joint venture between Canada’s Aston Bay Holdings Ltd (TSXV: BAY) and Australia’s American West Metals (ASX: AW1) began reporting several exciting results from the Storm Copper Project on Somerset Island.
Storming to success
Aston Bay Holdings and American West Metals have attracted growing attention this year with their drilling success during the 2022 drill season. The 2022 drilling programme was American West’s maiden drilling programme at Storm after listing on the ASX in December 2021. It has an exclusive option to acquire 80% of the Nunavut projects.
The latest assays from Storm Copper Project have continued to define near surface high-grade copper at Storm, more than doubling the mineralized envelope at the 2750N Zone and substantially enhancing the resource potential.
The JV partners are very confident that further exploration work will continue to grow the project significantly, with potential to further define near-surface, high-grade copper deposits.
Future plans include drilling of the 2200N and 4100N zones where multiple intersections of massive copper sulphides were discovered by historical drilling.
“These drill results confirm the near-surface high grade copper mineralization at the 2750N Zone, likely doubling the volume of mineralization, once again demonstrating the enormous potential of the Storm Project,” Aston Bay CEO, Thomas Ullrich, said.
“We look forward to next season’s drill campaign, which aims to define further resources at the 2750N Zone as well at other areas of near-surface high-grade copper mineralization, such as the 2200N and 4100N Zones.
American West Managing Director, Dave O’Neill, said the company’s first drill programme at Storm was a huge success.
“In a relatively short programme, we have intersected extremely high-grade copper near-surface and likely doubled the volume of mineralization at the 2750N Zone, and discovered a potential large, new sedimentary copper system below the near- surface mineralization.
“Work will continue to progress the near-surface mine development and exploration/discovery paths for the Storm Project in parallel.
“Exploration activities including drilling and geophysics are planned to follow-up the significant new discovery of sediment hosted style copper mineralization, which is associated with a large EM anomaly to the west of the previously recognized and highly mineralized 4100N Zone at Storm.
“With six EM anomalies similar to that intersected remaining to be tested, there is strong potential for multiple large-scale mineral system to occur at these deeper levels.”
The Nunavut property consists of 117 contiguous mining claims and six prospecting permits covering an area of approximately 302,725ha on Somerset Island. The Storm Project comprises both the Storm Copper Project, a high-grade copper discovery (intersections including 110m @ 2.45% Cu from surface, 56.3m @ 3.07% Cu from 12.2m, 19m @ 3.41% Cu from surface, 15m @ 3.88% Cu from 72.4m and 6.84m @ 8.98% Cu from surface) as well as the Seal Zinc-Silver Deposit (intersections including 14.4m @ 10.58% Zn, 28.7g/t Ag from 51.8m and 22.3m @ 23% Zn, 5.1g/t Ag from 101.5m).
There are numerous underexplored targets within the 120km strike length of the mineralized trend, including the Tornado copper prospect where 10 grab samples yielded >1% Cu, and up to 32% Cu in gossans.
Utah excitement
American West Metals has also made headlines for exploration success – this time in a vastly different location in the US state of Utah. In Utah, the summers are hot, and the state has a population of around 3.3M – a long way from the ice of the uninhabited Somerset Island.
American West’s major focus on the West Desert deposit in Utah really paid off recently when the US government elected to pour some significant funding into further activities there.
Via the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) the West Desert Project has received a US$300,000 Federal grant to study critical and strategic metals in the project area.
Large resources of zinc, an essential component for many metal alloys, and copper, one of the most important commodities for electric vehicles and efficient energy grids, have been defined at West Desert.
Significantly, the West Desert deposit also contains unusually high levels of indium – which is classified as a critical metal in the US and widely used in the defence, energy, and telecommunications sectors. No indium was produced in the US in 2021.
Dr Stephanie Mills, senior geologist with the UGS, said the West Desert deposit is the only established domestic resource of indium and is ideally positioned to potentially provide long-term supply of this critical metal to the US market.
“We are excited for the opportunity to study the unique geology of this deposit and learn more about why so many important critical mineral resources are concentrated here,” Dr Mills said.
“This study is a great example of government and industry collaboration and knowledge sharing to further a common goal: understanding what domestic mineral resources we have and what we can learn from them towards finding future deposits.”
American West’s Dave O’Neill noted that geopolitical alignment of supply chains in the resources sector has emerged as an important global issue for governments.
“This study is recognition of the unique characteristics of West Desert and its importance to the supply of critical and strategic metals in the US.
“West Desert is uniquely placed in the US as an exciting development opportunity with outstanding exploration upside.
The US$300,000 grant will run over three years, with the UGS research focusing on how the West Desert deposit formed, the deportment of the indium throughout the deposit and mineral district, and exploration indicators that may help find similar deposits in the future.
The collaboration will allow UGS unprecedented access to geological information and data related to West Desert, and support research into how this important deposit formed.
The results of the study will be shared with American West throughout the duration of the project and will be used to assist in project development and exploration targeting.
Indium
Indium is considered a critical and strategic mineral because of its use in the aerospace, defence, energy, and telecommunications sectors.
In 2021, the US was a 100% net importer reliant on indium from China, Canada, South Korea, and France.
The West Desert Project is located 160km southwest of Salt Lake City in Utah. It is 100% owned by American West Metals and contains a historical and foreign resource (Ni 43-101 compliant) of over 59Mt, which contains a higher-grade core of approximately 16.5Mt @ 6.3% Zn, 0.3% Cu and 33g/t In (1.03Mt Zn, 45Kt Cu, and 545t In).
