TORONTO, Ontario, April 22, 2024 – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company”) is pleased to announce the commencement of high-impact drilling and exploration activities at the Storm Copper Project (“Storm” or the “Project”) on Somerset Island, Nunavut. The program will be conducted by American West Metals Limited (“American West”), who is the operator of the Project. American West has completed the required expenditures to earn an undivided 80% interest in the Project. American West will be solely responsible for funding the program.
Highlights - The 2024 exploration and resource definition program has commenced at the Storm Copper Project
- Track-mounted Reverse-Circulation (RC) drilling is underway and is initially focused on:
- Testing new, high-priority exploration targets proximal to the known Storm mineralized zones to discover new zones of near-surface high-grade copper mineralization
- Resource definition drilling of the 2023 high-grade copper discovery at Thunder where discovery hole ST23-03 delivered 48.6m @ 3% Cu from 32.4m within a broader interval of 76m @ 2% Cu from 32.4m
- Drilling electromagnetic (EM) targets adjacent to the Cyclone Deposit – including an EM target with a very high modeled conductivity of 17,000 Seimens – with the aim of finding additional mineralization
- Additional drill rigs will join the program in the coming weeks and will focus on:
- Expansion and infill drilling of the Cyclone (formerly the 4100N) and Chinook (formerly 2850N) Zones
- Exploration below the known copper mineralization within the Storm area
- Drilling of large-scale copper targets at the underexplored Tornado, Blizzard, and Tempest Prospects
- High-powered Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) geophysical survey is also now underway to define potential extensions to known areas of high-grade copper mineralization and to define new exploration targets, both in the near-surface and at depth
This drilling program is designed to expand and infill an upcoming maiden mineral resource estimate for the Storm Project that is currently being constructed to CIM standards and is expected to be presented in May, 2024. The 2024 drilling is also designed to bring the new 2023 discoveries of high-grade copper mineralization into potential additional resources later in the year and explore numerous high-priority copper sulfide targets within the >2,000 sq km project area to discover new copper mineralization.
“We are very excited to be drilling again at Storm,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. “This is the first of two significant drill programs our partner, American West, will be conducting this spring and summer, expanding on the known zones of mineralization and drilling for new discoveries. “The drill bit has proven the effectiveness of Moving Loop Electromagnetics, so we are pleased to see this geophysical program underway again as well. By tweaking the parameters and increasing the power used in the survey, we believe we will investigate deeper with more confidence. This could uncover geophysical anomalies related to deeper-seated mineralization – excellent targets for diamond drilling in the summer season.” 
Figure 1: High-priority Electromagnetic (EM) and Induced Polarization (IP) target areas, current copper mineralized areas, overlaying aerial photography. PHASE 1 DRILLING Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling with a track-mounted RC rig has commenced on high-priority Electromagnetic (EM) and Induced Polarisation (IP) targets as well as areas of potential extensions within the Storm area (Figure 1). This is the first time a tracked RC rig has been deployed at Storm. This rig can move autonomously instead of requiring helicopter mobilization and is expected to provide operational and production benefits, with up to 12,000m of RC drilling initially planned.
Phase 1 of the exploration drilling will target existing EM and IP anomalies that are ranked highly due to nearby copper sulfides in drilling and areas of strong copper geochemical anomalism at surface. These compelling targets include an EM target to the immediate east of the Cyclone Deposit where an EM anomaly has been modeled with a very high conductivity of over 17,000 Siemens.
EM anomalies tested to date in the Storm area have been strongly correlated with higher-grade, >2% copper mineralization. Several IP anomalies that have been drill tested also show a positive correlation with copper sulfide mineralization in the range of 0.5-2% Cu.
Figure 2: Plan view of the Storm area showing the initial planned MLEM survey areas (configured for shallow and deep exploration) and location of the known copper mineralization and prospects, overlaying aerial photography. PHASE 1 MOVING LOOP ELECTROMAGNETICS (MLEM) The drilling program is running in parallel with a high-powered Moving Loop EM (MLEM) survey, which is initially being used to highlight the priority areas for expansion of the higher-grade copper mineralized areas and to identify new targets for drill testing (Figure 2).
The initial MLEM surveys at Storm will use 100m N-S line spacings, 100m sensor stations, and 200m x 200m loops. This configuration has been optimal in defining the known high-grade copper mineralization at Storm to date.
Several 200m spaced lines will also be surveyed using 400m x 400m loops to look deeper, below the known copper mineralization.
PLANNED PROGRAM - Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling is in progress in the Storm area testing geophysical targets and expanding zones of known copper mineralization.
- EM surveys continue to investigate near surface and deeper areas of interest within the Storm area. The surveys will then move to the Tornado and Blizzard copper prospect areas.
- Preparations are underway to add two drill rigs at site – one RC rig and one diamond core rig – increasing the planned drill metres for 2024 to more than 20,000m.
- Planning is complete and preparations are underway for a broad range of environmental monitoring and survey activities during 2024.
- A maiden CIM (2014, 2019) compliant mineral resource estimate for the Storm Project is expected to be released in May, 2024.
- Final assessment and reporting is being completed on a range of beneficiation processing methods on a variety of mineralization types from the Cyclone and Chinook Deposits.