American West Metals Limited (ASX: AW1) has received “exciting” results from the first diamond drill hole completed as part of the company’s inaugural 7,500m drilling programme at the West Desert Project in Utah.
Drill hole WD22-01 was designed to test the continuity of high-grade mineralisation in a key section of the historical West Desert deposit. A total of 288m of zinc, copper, lead and molybdenite mineralisation has been visually identified in the drill core.
The mineralisation is distributed through ten major intervals and provides a positive indication of the continuity of the historical resource and its development potential.
Managing Director, Dave O’Neill, said the mineralisation shows visual similarities to that encountered in historical drill holes. The drill hole has also intersected two new zones of mineralisation south of/underneath the Deep Zone and outside of the current resource.
“We are very pleased to provide an update on the drilling and report that we have successfully completed the first drill hole of our 7,500m drilling campaign,” Mr O’Neill said.
“The visual observations from WD22-01 show ten main zones of zinc and copper mineralisation, including two new discoveries to the south and below the existing deposit.
“Importantly, with our first drill hole we have highlighted the scale and quality of the West Desert Deposit. It has significantly increased our confidence that West Desert will be amenable to high-grade development by indicating continuity of the orebody in this wide, previously untested drill section.
“The discovery of additional mineralisation outside the current orebody highlights the excellent potential to grow the resource inventory at West Desert.”
West Desert hosts a large historical and foreign resource (Ni 43-101 compliant) of over 59Mt, including a higher-grade core of approximately 16.5Mt @ 6.3% Zn, 0.3% Cu and 33g/t In. Significantly, the resource remains open at depth and along strike.
A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) dated May 2, 2014 prepared in compliance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 outlined the economic potential for the West Desert deposit.
WD22-01 is the first drill hole of American West’s 7,500m programme which is drilling a number of key high-grade zinc and copper zones, and also acquiring material for metallurgical test work in the oxide and transitional zones.
The drill hole was designed to test the continuity of ore within one of the largest gaps in drilling of the historical resource. The distance between historical drilling in this section is greater than 90m.
Forward Programme
Assays for WD22-01 are pending and can be expected in the next four to five weeks. The drilling results of WD22-01 and other holes planned in the drill programme underway will be used to prepare a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate and for metallurgical test work.
The second drill hole (WD22-01C) has commenced and is located on the same section as WD22-01. This drill hole will be angled below WD22-01 and target a wider section of the porphyry/skarn contact and copper-gold-molybdenum-silver-indium rich lenses.
Historical copper intersections in this zone include 17m @ 1% Cu, 2.2g/t Au, 15g/t Ag incl. 2.3m @ 2.3% Cu, 3.6g/t Au, 30g/t Ag, 61g/t In, 0.17% Mo (C07-02), and 14.1m @ 2.5% Cu, 31g/t Ag (CC-9).
The porphyry contact in this location has very little drilling, is open along strike to the west and at depth and is outside the historical resource. Further copper-gold rich mineralisation in this location has the potential to add significant value to the current resource. A further eight diamond drill holes are planned in this program, with drill hole depths ranging from 450m to 800m.
Additional drill holes will be added as required and a second drill rig is expected to join the program in the coming months. The second drill rig will be used for resource extension and to test a number of the exciting West Desert look-alike exploration targets in the near mine area.
Mr O’Neill said the discovery of additional mineralisation outside of the resource envelope by WD22-01 highlights the potential of these new exploration targets.
For further information please visit: https://www.americanwestmetals.com/
