Seal Zinc and Silver Deposit
American West Metals’ Seal Project is located on the uninhabited Somerset Island, located in north Nunavut, Canada. The tenure is within the established Polaris mineral district and just 122km south of Resolute Bay, the regional community and logistics hub.
Seal is currently owned by Aston Bay Holdings Ltd (TSX-V: BAY). American West has an exclusive option to acquire 80% under the Storm Option Agreement.
Geology
At Seal, stratabound Mississippi Valley type zinc and silver mineralisation has been discovered with historical intercepts including:
- 14.4m @ 10.58% Zn, 28.7g/t Ag from 51.8m
- 16m @ 6.62% Zn, 27.1g/t Ag from 76.6m
- 22.3m @ 23% Zn, 5.1g/t Ag from 101.5m
- 2.4m @ 15.13% Zn, 91.9g/t Ag from 133.5m
These discoveries are hosted within a mineralised sequence that has a strike length of 120km. Less than 5% of the mineralised trend has been tested by drilling, providing an opportunity for American West to potentially extend the footprint of mineralisation through further exploration.
Existing Resource
Aston announced an initial resource for Seal in its Technical Report of January 17, 2018 issued in compliance with NI 43-101. The resource estimate is 1Mt @ 10.24% Zn, 46.5g/t Ag for 103kt Zn, 1.5Moz Ag.
The mineralisation at Seal has been confirmed to be of the same age and event that formed the world class Polaris Zinc-Lead Deposit, and is open at depth and along strike.
Widespread zinc soil anomalies, including the Typhoon Zinc Prospect, have been identified along the extensive prospective horizon.
American West believes these targets provide the potential for additional discoveries of further high-grade zinc and silver deposits within the Project area.
Logistics in Place
Excellent facilities are in place to enable exploration activities to be undertaken.
A 35-man exploration camp has been established at the project area. Two drill rigs are maintained on site and are available for immediate target testing.
Aston Bay is a deep-water bay located on the Northwest Passage, a seasonal ice free waterway historically used to ship concentrate from the World Class Polaris (Cominco) and Nanisivik (Breakwater Resources) zinc – lead mines.
