American West Metals Limited (ASX: AW1) has obtained promising results from the recent ground electromagnetic (EM) surveys completed at the high-grade Storm Copper and Seal Zinc-Silver Projects on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.
These geophysical surveys are the first to be completed since American West Metals became project operator under the option agreement with Aston Bay Holdings.
The EM surveys have successfully identified numerous conductive anomalies throughout the Storm Copper prospect area, including multiple anomalies previously untested by drilling. A small survey was also completed over the high-grade Seal Zinc-Silver Deposit.
Managing Director, Dave O’Neill, said this survey was the first of its type at Seal and was used to test the response of the zinc-silver sulphides to this method of exploration.
“The results of the latest EM surveys over Storm have better defined the known prospects and highlighted new high-priority targets along strike of known mineralisation, and in areas with favourable geology,” he said.
“It has reinforced our belief in the outstanding growth potential of the project and that further, undiscovered zones of high-grade copper minseralisation exist in unexplored areas of the Project.
“The scale and strength of some of the new anomalies, and the low false positive rate when using EM systems at Storm, make them compelling targets that are ready to be tested with drilling.”
The fixed loop EM (FLEM) surveys that targeted extensions along strike and below known mineralisation, and over previously defined geophysical anomalies. The surveys were designed to provide greater definition of the existing targets, and to identify new targets ahead of the proposed 2022 drilling campaign.
Previous EM surveys have successfully identified several strong conductive anomalies that are associated with known copper mineralisation in the Storm Project area.
One of these is a large (>750m in strike) conductive anomaly associated with the 4100N Zone where previous high-grade intersections include 15m @ 3.88% Cu from 72.4m in hole ST99-47.
A strong conductive anomaly was also recognised at the 2750N Zone where previous high-grade intersections include 110m @ 2.45% Cu from surface in hole ST97-08, and 56.3m @ 3.07% Cu from 12.2m in hole ST99-19.
The new 2021 EM surveys have confirmed the correlation between the previous anomalies and high-grade copper mineralisation at the main Storm Copper showings. Numerous shallow conductors have been modelled that are coincident with mineralisation confirmed by drilling.
The known high-grade copper mineralisation at Storm lies along and adjacent to the margins of a ~1 km wide, fault-bounded valley or graben.
Significantly, inversion and plate modelling of the new EM data has also defined multiple high-priority conductors associated with the Storm graben within areas previously untested by drilling.
Seven untested shallow conductors were identified (Figures 1, dark blue rectangles). All seven shallow conductors are located along, or in close proximity to the bounding faults of the Storm graben, and in areas of elevated density identified by a 2017 airborne gravity gradiometry (AGG) survey.
The conductors east of the 2200N and 2750N zones are also associated with significant copper in soil geochemical anomalies and mapped surface gossans, making them compelling targets for the discovery of further copper sulphides.
Seven untested deeper conductors of interest were also identified in the Storm Copper area by the 2021 surveys. Six of the seven anomalies are located along or adjacent to the bounding faults of the Storm graben.
The geometry and mostly gentle dips of the modelled deep conductors suggest that they may be related to stratiform type targets and may be indicative of traditional sedimentary type copper mineralisation at depth.
Given the highly resistive nature of the host geology (dolomites), even subtle conductors are considered to be prospective when combined with coincident geochemical or airborne gravity anomalies.
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