Storm Copper

The Storm Copper Project is located on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Project covers an area of over 2,200 square kilometres within the Polaris mineral district, and is just 120km south of Resolute Bay, the regional community and logistics hub.

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 and Nanisivik zinc – lead mines.

Excellent facilities, including a 50-person camp, are in place to enable exploration and resource activities to be undertaken.

American West owns 80% of the Storm Project, and partners with Aston Bay Holdings (TSX:BAY) who own 20% of the Project.

Maiden Resource Estimate

American West delivered a maiden independent JORC Code - 2012 Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE)¹ for the Storm Project in January, 2024. The MRE consists of 17.5Mt @ 1.2% Cu and 3.4g/t Ag, which includes 205Kt of copper and 1.9Moz of silver.

The maiden MRE for the Storm Project has delivered the foundations to what American West Metals believe will be a globally significant copper district.

Immediate Resource Upside Potential

The shallow copper mineralisation within the Storm Deposits is open in all directions. The host stratigraphy and structures have been shown to be laterally and vertical extensive and therefore rank as high priority areas for resource growth.

Additionally, the high-grade 2023 copper discoveries at Thunder (48.6m @ 3% Cu in ST23-03), Lightning Ridge (15.2m @ 2.3% Cu and 15.2m @ 2.1% Cu in ST23-52) and Cyclone North (7.6m @ 1% Cu in ST23-55) are not yet included in the MRE. These target areas present as immediate opportunities to further expand the resources at Storm.

Growth and Exploration Strategy

There is also outstanding potential to grow the mineralised footprint of copper mineralisation at the Storm Project.

Only 5% of the 100km long prospective copper belt within the project area has been explored with focused geophysics and drilling, with numerous surface copper rich gossans already discovered in the regional Tornado, Blizzard and Tempest Prospect areas.

Exploration and drilling during 2024 will be focused on two clear strategies:

• Expansion of existing, and definition of new copper resources in the Storm area, and,
• Exploration to generate and test new targets within the Storm area, and to expand the exploration into the Tornado, Blizzard and Tempest areas.

This strategy will aim to deliver organic resource growth and exciting new discoveries of high-grade copper as we demonstrate the global significance of the Storm Project.

Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) potential

The near-surface mineralisation at Storm is high-grade and amenable to simple beneficiation techniques. Test work using a full scale Steinert ore sorter has produced spectacular results from typical Storm mineralisation by generating a >53% copper product.

This technology and process pathway has the potential to remove the need for a traditional floatation plant and associated tailings facility, reducing the operating footprint and significantly lowering capital.

Scoping level activities are currently underway to optimise and refine the process further. 

American West Metals believes there is an outstanding opportunity to expand the copper resources at Storm and make new discoveries that will support a high margin, low cost open pit mining scenario.