Zurich chat with AW1, my review of the webinar
Storm is a coarse grained - sedimentary hosted copper deposit, occurs in dolomite, main copper mineral is chalcocite.
60-man camp, Storm is on the coast of Somerset Island, plenty of operational and historic mines in the region
You can mine 12 months of the year, 24 hours a day, with 3-4 months shipment window for resupply or exporting DSO.
Massive M&A land grab in Nunavut region, of interest BHP is looking for porphyry copper and sedimentary hosted copper, with this region under-explored for sedimentary hosted copper.
Nunavut permitting - 4 years to permit based on the Nunavut database but on average its 2 - 4 years depending on the scale of your operation.
Storm prospect is really only explored to 100 vertical metres depth; all discovered prospects are suitable for open pit mining methods.
The Copper footprint is rapidly growing -Thunder deposit is measuring 50 metres at 3% Cu (included in updated MRE this year) & also Lightning Ridge deposit will be included in the updated MRE.
This year's discoveries of "Squall & The Gap" will be the focus of the 2025 exploration program by drilling them out and add to the growing copper resource inventory.
Highlights 'Cyclone' is a large flat, laterally extensively deposit. AW1 has identified mineralisation zones of 23 metres at 8% Cu outside the current resource which sets up Cyclone resource size to grow at the Graben Fault zone and Central Graben where identical mineralisation at depth has been found. Therefore, Cyclone deposit occurs further to the south and will likely grow or even double its known 15-20 million tonne resource size. That implies Cyclone 'shallow & deeps' resource size will be 30-40 million tonnes @1.2%Cu (long term target or 360,000 to 480,000 tonnes of Copper metal at Cyclone - worth a few billion).
Dave said, "Storm is a pinprick in the tenement holding", more copper is sticking out of the ground at Tornado and Blizzard!!!! It is shaping up to be a 100 km long copper horizon, only 5% explored with drilling and we own 100% of it with our partnership with Aston Bay Holdings. Tornado / BlizzardDistance from Storm is ~10km. Extensive geophysical and copper anomalies along the SE extension of the Storm Graben. Ground geophysical surveys have highlighted EM anomalies at depth.
~40km away from Storm is Tempest, EM and field mapping has now extended the strike of the Tempest gossan to over 4km. Rock sampling has returned >30% Cu with RC reconnaissance drilling results expected shortly. (something to look out for).
DSO - Development
Excellent upgrade characteristics for the chalcocite ore, from 1.5% Cu to 55% Cu grade via mineral processing flowsheet is possible.
The DSO proposed circuit upgrades the primary crusher ore via two mineral processing streams.
- +10mm particles are Ore sorted and then crushed
- -10mm particles pass through the DMS / Jig circuit
- Both streams are recombined making a 16-22% Cu final product for sale.
Dave mentioned, rough calculations, if you put in 2,000,000 tonnes of ore, the circuit produces 20,000 tonnes of copper (metal equivalent).
- From a metallurgical perspective, that is 2,000,000 x 1.5%Cu = 30,000 Cu metal units in feed, Treatment at an average 65% recovery, gives 19,500 Cu metal units recovered. All contained in at DSO product at 19% Cu would be ~103,000 tonnes of DSO material for shipment each season. (19,500 / 19% = 102,632 tonnes).
- For sale of the DSO product, Europe or Canadian copper smelter like the Horne copper smelter could be a customer. This is a Glencore operation located in Quebec. Dave said they are talking with other larger companies / mines in the region (Raglan / Voisey Bay) who are familiar with arctic bulk commodity logistic economics.
The DSO plant has No tailings, no reagents, no chemicals, very positive ESG project (low environmental footprint) that is LOW in capital that AW1 can fund themselves and organically grow this project over the next 10-15 years.
- Ore Sorters cost about $2 million each, this 1.5 Mtpa (base case plant) requires 4x units = $8 million. Hence, the process plant design allows a low capital mineral processing facility to be operated for this chalcocite ore type. No $250 million - $500 million flotation plant is required.
- However, if they wanted to go down the flotation route (high capital path), then a flotation circuit can easily produce a final concentrate product at 42% Cu and an impressive 92% copper recovery.
Next moves,
- Resource upgrade from 2024 drilling campaign, Storm maiden resource to grow from 17.5 Mt at 1.2% Cu to a larger number. I would expect something in the order of 35 Mt with inclusion of Lightning Ridge and Thunder prospects.
- PEA / PFS (Q1 2025) - huge document that unlocks permitting, discussions with smelters, de-risking the project to show how 'high' margin & low capital this project will be.
- March to October 2025 exploration program - could start exploration earlier than March.
AW1 is shaping up to be a huge copper play in a globally significant underexplored region, and the company’s strategy makes it well-positioned for growth. With high-grade copper, low environmental impact, and a solid development path, AW1’s Storm project is getting more interesting by the day.
Webinar:
https://www.gowebcasting.com/events/precious-metals-summit-conferences-llc/2024/11/11/american-west-metals-ltd/play/stream/39434
