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IPos One of the final new listings of 2021, American West
has started its maiden drilling programme at West
Desert in Utah

West is best for

intrepid geo

merican West Metals Ltd managing Tintic skarn and carbonate replacement de- the dial for investors.”
Adirector Dave O’Neill boldly describes posits were about 17mt, so in terms of scale O’Neill also sees a potential near-term
the amount of upside at the company’s flag- we’re already bigger,” O’Neill told Paydirt. development opportunity for the company’s
ship West Desert project in Utah as “spine- “None of these porphyries have been Copper Warrior project which is just 15km
tingling” despite the complex polymetallic drilled out. There’s a copper-molybdenum from Lisbon Valley, Utah’s second largest
deposit already boasting close to 60mt in porphyry, we’ve got high-grade copper and copper mine.
resource. molybdenum veins at depth where we in- It is understood that most of the key pits
Containing a healthy mix of zinc, cop- tersect the skarn and we’ve got drill holes at Lisbon Valley have been exhausted and
per and silver, as well as the world’s larg- along strike from the deposit that have high- new sources of ore are required to keep the
est undeveloped resource of indium, West grade copper, zinc and lead mineralisation, mill ticking over. O’Neill believes Copper
Desert is situated in the heartland of the and some silver. We know this will expand Warrior presents the next best option.
Sevier orogenic belt which is home to the because these things traditionally form in “You’ve got one side of the valley where
large Bingham Canyon copper deposit and clusters. they’ve got their deposits and across the
prolific Tintic mining district. “West Desert is attached to other parts other side we’ve got exactly the same min-
American West acquired 100% of the of the porphyry…and where it comes in ing units exposed at our project,” O’Neill
project – described in the company’s pro- contact you have also got skarn mineralisa- said.
spectus as a large zinc-polymetallic skarn tion. It’s actually spine-tingling the amount “It’s going to be a volume equation. If
and carbonate replacement deposit – from of upside.” we’ve got the volume there and we can
a cash-strapped Canadian explorer. The O’Neill and his St George Mining Ltd show some resources fairly quickly, then
historical resource contains a high-grade chairman and colleague John Prineas are Lisbon Valley will need ore so there’s a
core of 16.5mt @ 6.3% zinc, 0.3% copper the founders of American West, which list- potential commercial opportunity for us.
and 33 g/t indium which O’Neill believes ed on the ASX in December. West Desert is Rather than build a plant, we can potentially
could represent the “true value” of the as- one of three assets in the company’s port- send it down the road because we hear
set. folio alongside Copper Warrior (Utah) and they’re desperate.”
However, being a geologist, O’Neill can- Storm-Seal (Nunavut, Canada). Like West Desert, exploration at the
not help but draw comparisons between the West Desert was brought to the pair’s Storm-Seal copper-zinc project in the
current resource numbers at the undevel- attention while undertaking due diligence north of Canada has been limited over re-
oped West Desert and its more established on potential acquisition opportunities for cent years due to both funding issues and
neighbours. St George as part of a business develop- weather constraints.
“The skarn attached to the porphyry at ment partnership with nickel miner Western Boasting both a high-grade copper dis-
Bingham Canyon was only 45mt and the Areas Ltd. However, it was decided any in- covery (Storm) and zinc deposit (Seal), the
terest in North America would be better off project is proximal to the longstanding Po-
American West Metals Ltd housed in a new vehicle, allowing the origi- laris lead-zinc mine and is serviced by two
nal company to remain focused on nickel
drill rigs and a 35-man camp.
ASX: AW1 exploration in Western Australia. O’Neill insisted American West had the
American West began a 7,500m dia- available resources to keep all projects
Listing date: December 13 mond drilling programme at West Desert ticking over in parallel, with programmes
IPO amount: $15 million last month, with results to be used to update in each jurisdiction to be dictated by the re-
Share price range since listing: the resource to JORC reporting standards spective weather seasons.
“West Desert is going to be continuous
before undertaking detailed mining studies.
11.5-17.5c O’Neill said the company would look to news; exploration and development, and
Address: Level 2, 28 Ord Street, West complete what the previous owners could Copper Warrior and Storm-Seal will dove-
Perth WA 6005 not due to a lack of available funding for Ca- tail into that,” he said.
Tel: +61 8 6109 6653 nadian explorers at the time. “The seasonal nature of Storm and Seal
Website: www.americanwestmetals.com “They could only raise enough money to is a no-brainer, we can only do that in the
Social media: @AmericanWest_ drill every 2-3 years so when you’re trying Arctic summer at this point, but it’s effective-
to expand a 60mt deposit and you can only
ly a turnkey operation. We’ll be using Apex
Email: info@aw1group.com drill five holes, you’re obviously not going to Geoscience who have the geologists, the
Key personnel: John Prineas (non- add much value, even though they did,” he drillers, the camp managers, etc. We give
executive chairman), Dave O’Neill said. them the programme and they execute it
(managing director), Michael Anderson “This is the value I see at West Desert 100%. They know the project well, they’ve
(non-executive director) – they [previous owners] drilled five holes been working up there for the last 10 years.”
Focus: Copper and zinc, US and Canada and four of them were outside the re- – Michael Washbourne
source and had high-grade intersections.
But they could only drill every two years
which is not going to be enough to move

Page 32 FeBRUaRY 2022 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT