fresh news
Aston Bay hits Cu mineralization in fourth Storm hole
2023-08-17 10:22 ET - News Release
Mr. Thomas Ullrich reports
ASTON BAY AND AMERICAN WEST METALS ANNOUNCE FOURTH DIAMOND DRILL HOLE HITS THICK INTERVAL OF VISUAL COPPER SULFIDES AT THE STORM COPPER PROJECT, CANADA
Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. has provided an update on a significant new visual copper sulphide mineralization intercept from the fourth diamond drill hole at the Storm copper project on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada. The program, still underway, is being conducted by American West Metals Limited ("American West"), who are the project operator since entering an option agreement with Aston Bay in March 2021
"This is a phenomenal success rate for testing blind targets that once again points to the immense potential for new discoveries at Storm" stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. "The evidence mounts for a regional-scale copper system as predicted by our geological model. We are hitting copper in the same stratigraphic horizon in every widely spaced drill hole.
"The ground gravity geophysical survey conducted by Scott Smith's team at Initial Exploration this spring has proven its mettle as a robust and effective method for delineating sulphide mineralization in the subsurface at Storm. A critical upshot of this is that the new gravity data indicates that the large gravity anomalies from the historic surveys, previously thought to be too deep to be of interest, are potentially well within reach. We are pleased that American West is advancing the development potential of the high-grade, near-surface copper mineralization at Storm, and extremely excited for the advances made in the game-changing discoveries of the sediment hosted copper mineralization we predicted lurked in the subsurface."
DIAMOND DRILLING SUCCESS SUPPORTS LARGE-SCALE COPPER SYSTEM
Diamond drill hole ST23-04 has been completed in an untested area of the Storm Project and over 2km west of the recent Thunder zone discovery (August 7, 2023 Aston Bay news release).
The drill hole is the fourth hole to be completed in the current diamond drill program and was designed to test a strong gravity anomaly and to also intersect one of the main interpreted structures in the area, the Southern Graben Fault. Both targets were successfully tested and provide further evidence of a regional scale copper sulphide system within the Storm Project area.
ST23-04 intersected two zones of visual copper mineralization. The first, a wide sulphide-bearing fault zone, is interpreted to be the Southern Graben Fault. Though only minor copper is present within the fault zone, the results confirm the presence of copper mineralization and fluid movement within this regionally important and laterally extensive structure. Significantly, the drill hole intersected the fault zone over 700m along strike from the near-surface high-grade copper mineralization at the 3500N Zone (where intersections include 35.4m (core length) @ 1.73% Cu in ST99-43). This highlights the structure as an important plumbing system for copper mineralization and points to the potential relationship between the lower sediment-hosted style and upper, near-surface copper mineralization.
The second zone of visual sulphide copper mineralization intersected within ST23-04 is an 18.5m thick zone containing chalcopyrite and chalcocite which is interpreted to correlate with the same distinctive sediment-hosted mineralized horizon as encountered within diamond drill holes ST22-10, ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 (Figures 2 & 3).
Significantly, drill hole ST23-04 is located immediately north of a large, untested 880m x 470m FLEM anomaly that was defined during the 2022 field season (Figure 3). Similar conductive anomalies elsewhere at Storm have been confirmed by drilling to contain sulphide mineralization.
The repeated intersections of copper sulphide within this predictable stratigraphic horizon, and ongoing success of the gravity data as a reliable targeting tool, has enormous implications for the potential for further discoveries within the Storm area.
DRILL HOLE ST23-04 DETAILS
Diamond drill hole ST23-04 was drilled to a downhole depth of 476m and has intersected a large copper-enriched breccia/fault zone and a thick interval of visual sediment hosted copper sulphide mineralization. The drill hole was designed to test a gravity anomaly south of the Southern Graben Fault, as well as test the large fault system itself (Figures 2 & 3).
The upper zone of pyrite and copper mineralization is hosted within a 48m thick, calcite-rich fault zone that is interpreted to be the Southern Graben Fault (Figure 7). The fault zone is comprised of a matrix-supported clast breccia with the matrix locally replaced with calcite cement and locally milled and silty dolomudstone (Figure 4). The fault zone contained a large, ice-filled cavity and local occurrences of pyrite cement with anomalous copper (confirmed with portable XRF).
Breccia and fracture-fill-related copper is the likely source of copper anomalism within the fault zone. The presence of copper within this major structure is highly significant and confirms the ability of the structure to act as a source of plumbing for copper-rich fluids. This supports the potential for further high-grade copper mineralization similar to the 2750N, 2200N, 3500N and Thunder Zones along this extensive regional structure.
The lower zone of mineralization was intersected at 339m downhole and is interpreted to correlate with the sediment-hosted copper mineralization intersected in drill holes ST22-10, ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 (Figure 7).
The broad mineralized interval consists mostly of chalcopyrite blebs, veinlets, and crackle breccia (Figure 5), with chalcocite present in the lower part of the sequence (Figure 1 & 6). Like previous drill holes, the copper sulphides are hosted within a sequence of organic-rich dolostones. This association confirms the extensive and predictable nature of this prospective stratigraphic horizon.
The strong presence of chalcopyrite in the lower copper intersection of ST23-04 suggests that the drill hole has potentially intersected the edge of the copper sulphide system: the mineralization at Storm shows a distinct zonation with a large copper-rich core (chalcocite, bornite and covellite) that gives way laterally and vertically to thinner peripheral zones of copper-iron (chalcopyrite, dominant in this intersection), iron (pyrite), zinc (sphalerite) and minor lead (galena). This spatial association of peripheral-style chalcopyrite mineralization is supported by the location of the intersection at the margin of the targeted gravity anomaly.
Density measurements (specific gravity) conducted on the drill core have shown the sulphide-mineralized intervals to be the only plausible source for the modeled gravity anomalies. The recently completed high-resolution ground gravity surveys are clearly effective at identifying hidden sulphide mineralization within this stratigraphic setting. This provides a highly effective targeting tool and suggests that all of the large gravity anomalies previously identified in the 2017 airborne gravity survey are prospective copper targets.
Furthermore, the three-dimensional modeling of the new ground gravity data indicates that the extensive historic airborne gravity anomalies, which previously modeled at a depth exceeding 1km, are likely much shallower at approximately 300m depth, well within reach of the diamond drill. As a result, the large fault-bounded gravity anomalies to the east and southeast of Storm are now high-priority targets for the 2024 geophysical and drilling programs.