Latest news with #AmericanWestMetals
West Australian
5 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
American West to leverage US executive order with critical minerals cocktail in Utah
American West Metals is dialling up the heat on its critical minerals ambitions, with a new exploration blitz aimed at unlocking copper, molybdenum, gallium and indium at its 100 per cent-owned West Desert Project in Utah. In the wake of United States President Donald Trump's March executive order directing all government agencies to fast-track domestic mineral production, the company has wasted no time moving to drill-ready status - armed with permits and a portfolio of metals that read like a Pentagon wish list. Top of that list is indium, a rare but essential metal used in smart devices, defence tech and solar panels, which the US currently imports in full. American West's West Desert project already has the country's largest undeveloped indium resource and sits within Utah, ranked the world's number one mining jurisdiction by the Fraser Institute. The project's existing JORC resource includes 33.7 million tonnes grading 3.83 per cent zinc, 0.15 per cent copper and 9.08 grams per tonne (g/t) silver for 1.29Mt of zinc, 49,053t of copper and nearly 10M ounces of silver. Silver recently came very close to achieving $US35 (A$54) an ounce for the first time in years. A further JORC-compliant resource for indium contains 23.8M ounces, yet only 35 per cent of historical drill samples have been assayed for the metal - giving American West plenty of room to grow the figure. But it's the company's recent focus on molybdenum and gallium that's likely to catch attention. Molybdenum is vital to strengthen high-performance alloys, widely used in missiles, fighter aircraft and advanced manufacturing, and recent West Desert intercepts have raised eyebrows. New drilling results include 417.55 metres at 0.02 per cent Mo, 194.14m at 0.05 per cent Mo, including 19.66m at a high-grade 0.2 per cent, and a 10.5m hit at a serious grade of 1.03 per cent Mo, with an internal hit of 1.67m at a blistering 4.05 per cent Mo. American West says a maiden molybdenum resource model is now underway. Gallium - another US-imported critical metal - was intersected across a staggering 628m, with hits including 10.4m at 40.9g/t and 4.12m at 65.95g/t. Notably, less than 10 per cent of the project has been assayed for gallium to date, highlighting the upside potential. While the critical metals narrative builds, the company is also advancing a new high-grade copper zone — including hits such as 17.22m at 1.04 per cent copper, 0.58g/t gold and 12.46g/t indium and 3.05m at 2.58 per cent copper, 0.91g/t gold, 10.7g/t silver and 36.31g/t indium, sitting just outside the current resource envelope. Even the iron ore at West Desert may not go to waste. The project's zinc-copper-silver-indium mineralisation is hosted in magnetite skarn, which has already shown potential to yield an iron ore concentrate grading up to a very significant 68 per cent iron as a byproduct. This is well above the international iron ore benchmark of 62 per cent. Outside the known deposit, drilling continues to hit high-grade sniffs. One hole delivered 0.92m at 20.42 per cent zinc, 0.76 per cent copper, 1.04g/t gold, 33.13g/t silver and 54.47g/t indium in a previously untested zone. Another historic hole encountered 3m at 3.5 per cent copper, 7.65 per cent zinc and 28g/t silver from nearly 900m depth beneath the circa-1900 Utah mine. The company says it is weighing up a potential spin-out or earn-in deal for West Desert, which would allow it to maintain its focus on its flagship Storm Copper Project in Canada. A 10-year mine plan for the project has already been tabled, and a PEA has modelled a net present value of US$149 million (A$230M), annual EBITDA of US$46.8M and a US$47.4M capex. With drilling imminent, federal support rising and wars raging, American West's push for a critical metals stronghold on US soil could be coming at just the right time. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
Daily Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Telegraph
Break it Down: American West Metals
Don't miss out on the headlines from Stockhead. Followed categories will be added to My News. Stockhead's Break it Down brings you today's leading market news in under 90 seconds. In this episode, host Tylah Tully unpacks American West Metals' (ASX:AW1) latest news, where the company has raised $5.9 million via a single tranche placement, part of a broader $14.4 million dollar funding initiative to advance its Storm Copper Project in Canada. Watch the video to find out the latest. Originally published as Break it Down: AW1 locks in another $5.9M to accelerate copper project
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Break it Down: AW1 locks in another $5.9M to accelerate copper project
American West Metals has raised almost $6 million to add to its funding pool to advance the Storm project in Canada.
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Break it Down: Optiscan progresses real-time telepathology platform to minimum viable product stage
Stockhead's Break it Down brings you today's leading market news in under 90 seconds. In this episode, host Tylah Tully looks at the latest from Optiscan (ASX:OIL), who have progressed its cloud-based telepathology streaming software project to minimum viable product stage. Watch the video to find out the latest. While Opitscan is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this content. Originally published as Break it Down: Optiscan progresses real-time telepathology platform to minimum viable product stage Stockhead Copper's running hot and Telstra's chasing better returns, as markets ride a tariff breather out of Europe. Stockhead Optiscan and its Canadian partner are at the advanced stage of developing software that will enable surgeons to 'talk' to remote pathologists in real time. Stockhead American West Metals has raised almost $6 million to add to its funding pool to advance the Storm project in Canada.
West Australian
20-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
American West to restart Canadian copper-zinc search within weeks
American West Metals will start its 2025 exploration program at the company's Storm copper-zinc project in Canada within weeks, aiming to further define high-grade copper discoveries and rapidly grow its mineral resource potential in the Somerset Island region. Notably, the company says only a fraction of Storm's 110-kilometre-long fertile copper belt has been tested by a drill bit. Having recently focused on delivering a preliminary economic assessment for the project, a royalty funding deal and a new strategic alliance, American West now has its 2025 exploration campaign firmly in its sights. The company has prioritised three large-scale targets, including two within 5km of the Storm deposit, for this season's drilling program. Exploration is slated across the Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor, where previous drilling identified copper for more than 20km. The Tornado-Blizzard target within that corridor hosts a 3.2km by 1.5km geochemical copper anomaly and two large electromagnetic plates that are yet to be drilled. At the Midway target, a single historical hole intersected 58 metres of visible copper sulphide. Meanwhile, Tornado South to the south of Tornado-Blizzard, offers a large structural hotspot presenting a textbook setting for copper mineralisation. American West also has high-grade discoveries ready for resource definition drilling, which could potentially help the company quickly increase its mineral resource estimates. It also plans to follow up some tantalising drill intercepts at its Cyclone Deeps deposit, which recorded a headline 10m at 1.2 per cent copper from 311m, including a 0.5m slice at 3.7 per cent copper from 325.5m. Previous drilling at The Gap returned 20m at 2.3 per cent copper from 28m, including an 8m hit at 5.3 per cent copper from 39.6m, after a strong electromagnetic anomaly was confirmed as a priority copper target. The company also wants to throw a drill bit into its Cirrus Deeps deposit, which has a high-priority electromagnetic target with a similar geological setting to Cyclone Deeps. The massive 2200-square-kilometre Storm project currently holds a total resource of 20.6 million tonnes at 1.1 per cent copper and 3.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, equating to 228,500t of contained copper and 2.2M ounces of silver. Importantly, less than 5 per cent of its massive 110km prospective stratigraphy has been systematically explored to date. The majority of American West's work so far has focused on the immediate Storm estimated mineral resource area, however O'Neill said the wider region also offers enormous potential for significant discoveries. He said the high-priority Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor could add multiple Storm-style discoveries to the company's current tally. To help get drilling underway, American West has progressed development activities on site, including relatively cheap but important geotechnical, resource, processing and environmental studies for an ongoing pre-feasibility study. A fourth-quarter sealift operation to the Somerset Island site in Canada's Nunavut province delivered bulk supplies to streamline the logistics, reducing the 2025 program costs by about $4 million. It also meant a shorter lead time to kick-off drilling. The company will also undertake geophysics work to generate new targets within the area and to build a pipeline of targets for drill testing. American West's to-do list also includes an airborne mobile magneto-telluric (MMT) survey over Storm and wider areas of interest along Storm's 110km prospective copper horizon. The survey is designed to show a greater contrast between host rocks and potential accumulations of conductive material, such as metalliferous sulphides, with better spatial and depth resolution. The company says the method may be useful for occurrences of copper sulphides deeper than 200m at Storm. The survey is scheduled to start at the same time as camp preparation and opening, allowing for the results to feed into subsequent drill targeting and prioritisation. Earlier this year, American West entered a partnership and funding agreement with United Kingdom-based trading services company Ocean Partners, which will provide up to 80 per cent of the initial capex for Storm's development in return for a 100 per cent offtake of the project's copper and silver production. The partnership was accompanied by a $2M capital raising by Ocean Partners in April. The preliminary economic assessment at Storm projected a US$149M (A$232.4M) net present value and 46 per cent post-tax internal rate of return for a 10-year open-pit mining scenario. The known deposits at Storm remain open and the company is well funded to advance towards production now. Its upcoming exploration plans give American West plenty of scope to grow the mineral resource and expand its mine life once production begins with minimal drilling. It seems there is no shortage of targets to go after in this mineral-rich region. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
