Aston Bay and American West Metals Announce Emerging Camp-Scale Opportunity at the Storm Copper Project, Canada

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 11, 2023 / The latest assay results for the Lightning Ridge Prospect and the 2200N Zone confirm thick, high-grade intersections of copper that further expand the footprint of near-surface copper mineralization at Storm.

HIGHLIGHTS

Lightning Ridge:

• Drill hole SR23-52 at Lightning Ridge has intersected:
  • 15.2m @ 2.3% Cu from 30.5, including,
    • 1.5m @ 4.5% Cu from 32m, and,
    • 1.5m @ 4.5% Cu from 44.2m
  • 15.2m @ 2.1% Cu from 77.7m, including,
    • 1.5m @ 7.6% Cu from 77.7m
• The Lightning Ridge results confirm the presence of high-grade copper in a previously unexplored area between the 2200N and 2750N Zones and highlight the outstanding exploration and growth potential.
• The prospective structures that host the high-grade copper mineralization newly discovered at the Thunder and Lightning Ridge Prospects extend laterally for more than 10km and remain largely untested by drilling.

2200N Zone:

• Drilling during 2023 has returned assays with high-grade copper commencing close to surface, including:
  • Drill hole SR23-50 has intersected:
  • 29m @ 1.5% Cu from 4.6m, including,
    • 6.1m @ 2.9% Cu from 4.6m, and,
    • 6.1 @ 3% Cu from 25.9m
  • 3m @ 2.8% Cu from 53.3m

The successful exploration and resource definition drilling of the near-surface copper mineralization, together with regional targets within a dominant landholding of more than 2,200 sq km, underscore the camp-scale copper mining opportunity emerging at Storm.

Emerging copper camp:

The successful resource definition drilling of the near-surface copper mineralization, together with regional targets within a dominant landholding of more than 2,100 sq km, underscore the camp-scale copper discovery and mining opportunity emerging at Storm.

"Once again, Storm is delivering impressive results with high-grade, near-surface copper mineralization and confirmation of a new discovery," stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. "The new, thick, high-grade zones at Lightning Ridge point to the discovery potential at Storm and highlight the potential for discovery to add significant volumes of potentially economic near-surface copper mineralization at Storm.

"Combined with the confirmation of copper mineralization from new drilling at the 2200N Zone, the Storm project is demonstrating the potential for a camp-scale copper discovery and mining opportunity."

Figure 1: Massive chalcocite boulders exposed in the gully below the Lightning Ridge Prospect. The continued addition of new high-grade copper zones is significantly adding to the camp scale potential of the near-surface mineralization at Storm. The boulders are massive chalcocite (a copper sulfide mineral containing approximately 79.8% Cu with a thin weathering rind of green malachite (copper carbonate)).

Drilling results continue to expand the large-scale sediment-hosted copper system at Storm - a system that outcrops at the surface and has also been confirmed at a depth of 300m by diamond drilling in 2023.

The extensive near-surface, high-grade copper and deeper copper occurrences are interpreted to have been formed by the same fluids and mineralization processes. The confirmation to date of high-grade copper over an area of more than 15km², together with more than 80km of underexplored prospective stratigraphy including high-priority gravity targets, underscores the regional, multi-km scale potential of this copper system.

Resource and exploration drilling in 2023 has been successful in confirming the continuity of the near-surface deposits over a significant lateral extent. The near-surface deposits are being assessed for their potential to support a potential low-cost, fast-tracked open pit mining operation with very low capital expenditure and low operating costs.

Preliminary test work on mineralization from the near-surface copper zones has already produced a potential direct shipping product with grades up to 53% Cu. Studies for a potential mining operation at Storm are underway, including resource modeling and estimation, beneficiation test work, environmental assessment, and operation logistics.

LIGHTNING RIDGE COPPER PROSPECT

Exploration drilling of high-priority electromagnetic (EM) anomalies and key geological features during 2023 has further expanded the footprint of the near-surface, high-grade copper mineralization at Storm.

The recent Lightning Ridge and Thunder discoveries (see September 26, 2023, Aston Bay press release) continue to highlight the effectiveness of EM as a targeting tool and the correlation of EM anomalies with semi-massive and massive copper sulfides (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Plan view of the Storm area showing the known copper prospects and interpreted copper mineralization footprint (defined by drilling, MLEM and VTEM) for the near-surface discoveries, and drilling overlaying topography.

DRILL HOLE SR23-52 DETAILS

Exploration Reverse Circulation (RC) drill hole SR23-52 was drilled to a depth of 119m and completed in a largely untested area of significant outcropping chalcocite (Figure 1 and Table 1). The drill hole was designed to test an airborne VTEM target in an area with a single, shallow historical drill hole (ST97-06 2.6m* @ 6.83% Cu from 35.4m), midway between the high-grade 2750N and 2200N Zones.

Table 1: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-52 (>0.5% Cu).

Figure 3: Geological section view at 466,060E showing drill hole SR23-52 details, the interpreted mineralization envelopes, and outcropping chalcocite locations. Stated drill hole intersections are all down hole length, and true width is expected to be 60% of stated length.

The VTEM target was successfully tested and resulted in the intersection of two main zones of high-grade copper mineralization for a combined interval thickness of 30.4m (See Table 1; true width is expected to be 60% of stated length). The copper sulfide mineralization consists of dense breccia and vein-hosted chalcocite.

The Lightning Ridge area is located to the south of the 2750N Zone and across a large E-W gully. Outcropping massive chalcocite is visible on the steep slope near the gully ridge line and in boulders at the base of the scree slope (Figure 3). Its proximity to the gully and the style of mineralization is strongly suggestive that the mineralization is fault-related and steeply dipping, as is seen at the high-grade 2750N and 2200N Zones.

Five significant, fault-related copper prospects have now been identified in the southern graben area. All of these discoveries are located at, or close to surface and have only been tested to a depth of approximately 100 vertical metres. Further exploration will look to explore deeper and along strike of the vast fault network in the area. Approximately 10km of prospective structures have been identified in the southern graben area alone.

2200N ZONE - EXPANDING THE NEAR-SURFACE COPPER FOOTPRINT

The 2200N Zone is located in the Southern Storm Graben area and is located approximately 600m to the south of the 2750N Zone (Figure 2). The area is characterised by extensive outcropping copper gossans over several hundred metres of strike.

The high-grade 2200N zone is interpreted to have a similar genesis to the 2750N, 3500N, Thunder and Lightning Ridge copper zones. All of these copper mineralized areas are structurally controlled and located along the major faults of the large graben system, which is an important metal and fluid source for the mineralization.

DRILL HOLE DETAILS

Drill holes SR23-24, SR23-25, SR23-26, SR23-27, SR23-49, SR23-50 and SR23-51 have been successfully completed within the 2200N Zone during 2023. These drill holes were the first to be drilled into the 2200N Zone by American West and were planned to infill key areas and examine the copper zone to test the orientation of the mineralization and major faults in the area. All drill holes have intersected copper sulfides.

Drilling has defined a series of discrete, fault-related, high-grade copper sulfide zones within a broad matrix of minor veining and brecciation. The mineralized package is interpreted to be sub-vertical in nature and offset in places by faulting. The copper mineralization is chalcocite dominant with extensive exposure at surface. The mineralization is open at depth and east-west along strike.

Historical drill holes at the 2200N Zone includes 6.4m* @ 7.38% Cu from surface and 22.35m* @ 1.56% Cu from 22.9m downhole (ST97-03), and 5.1m* @ 11.8% Cu from surface (ST97-02).

Figure 4: Plan view of the 2200N Zone showing interpreted copper mineralization footprint (defined by drilling), historical and recent drilling details, overlaying regional geology. Stated drill hole intersections are all down hole length, and true width is expected to be 50% to 100% of stated length.

Most of the drill holes completed at the 2200N Zone during 2023 were designed to develop a better understanding of the geometry and controls of the copper mineralization. This strategy led to a range of different drill hole orientations and with multiple drill holes using the same drill collar locations (Figure 4).

Drill holes SR23-24 and SR23-36 were completed to the north of the main 2200N Zone and were planned to test the potential for parallel lenses to the north of the E-W orientated fault system. The drill holes intersected minor veinlets of fracture-controlled copper sulfides and require follow-up drilling.

Drilling at the 2200N Zone has now defined near-surface, high-grade copper mineralization over an east-west strike of 450m. Follow-up drilling will be designed to infill and explore for mineralization along strike and at depth.

Tables 2 - 9 below summarise the significant intersections in drilling. Intersections are expressed as downhole widths and are interpreted to be approximately 50-100% of true width. A cut-off grade of 0.2% copper is used to define a significant intersection and is based on copper mineralogy, mineralization habit and expected beneficiation and processing performance.

Table 2: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-24 (>0.2% Cu).

Table 3: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-25 (>0.2% Cu).

Table 4: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-26 (>0.2% Cu).

Table 5: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-27 (>0.2% Cu).

Table 6: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole SR23-48 (>0.2% Cu).