American West Metals Limited announced the assay results from the first diamond drill hole completed by the Company at the West Desert Project in Utah. Drill hole WD22-01 was designed to test the upper continuation of high-grade mineralization in a key section of the historical West Desert deposit. The drill hole has intersected multiple lenses of high-grade copper and zinc mineralization within broader halos of lower grade mineralization.

Significantly, a number of these high-grade zones lie outside of the current resource on this drill section. The drilling has also highlighted the exploration potential of the porphyry system with exceptional molybdenum mineralization encountered at depth. DRILL HOLE WD22-01 DETAILS: The drill hole was completed to a depth of 792.56m and encountered multiple thick zones of skarn and porphyry style mineralisation (Figure 1 & Table 1).

The samples for WD22-01 were processed by American Assay Laboratories in Reno, Nevada, with the final assays received by American West on 23rd of April, 2022. The assays have confirmed the high tenor of the strong sulphide mineralisation identified as initially reported. Several mineralised intervals have returned assays that exceeded the visual estimate.

This is particularly true for some of the sphalerite zones which can be challenging to identify within highly altered skarns. The intersections are expressed as downhole widths and are interpreted to be close to true widths within the Skarn and approximately 85% of the downhole widths within the CRD dominant ore zones. The first zone of mineralisation encountered within WD22-01 was not recognised in the initial logging due to its highly weathered nature, and contains intermittent bands of zinc rich oxide mineralisation up to 10.8% Zn.

The thickest interval within this zone is 3.5m @ 3.2% Zn. The second zone was visually identified as a 44m thick interval of intermittent and finely disseminated sphalerite within dolomite. The relative low zinc grades (<1% Zn) reflect these initial observations and this mineralisation has not previously been included in historical resource estimations.

The third major interval from WD22-01 is interpreted to form part of the Main Zone of the West Desert Deposit and was encountered at approximately 150m downhole. The interval of magnetite rich skarn contains two main zones of strong zinc and indium mineralisation within a 78m thick lower-grade halo. Intersections from the higher-grade areas include 6.4m @ 11.42% Zn, 0.53% Cu, 0.26g/t Au, 14.66g/t Ag and 48.23g/t In, and 5.18m @ 8.66% Zn, 0.54% Cu, 0.17g/t Au, 16.05g/t Ag and 60.57g/t In, and highlight the broad and continuous nature of the ore body in this area.

The higher-grade zones consist of semi-massive sphalerite with disseminated and vein hosted chalcopyrite. A 20m thick zone of massive magnetite skarn with intermittent chalcopyrite and gold occurs below this zone from approximately 228m, becoming stronger towards the bottom of the interval from approximately 240m downhole. The next major interval contains high-grade, copper rich mineralisation hosted by hornfelsed dolomite in contact with monzonite porphyry from approximately 306m downhole.

This interval contains semi-massive chalcopyrite with grades up to 8.98% Cu (309.2m). Strong molybdenite veining overprints the skarn mineralisation with grades up to 0.55% Mo (308.9m). This copper and molybdenum rich mineralisation is located outside of the current West Desert resource.

The Deep Zone of the West desert Deposit is mostly comprised of skarn and carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) style mineralisation. The sulphide mineralisation in this part of the orebody is stratiform and mostly comprised of concordant bands of zinc and silver rich mineralisation within the layered sedimentary units. The drill hole lifted (reduced in dip) during drilling as it approached the Deep Zone, deviating slightly away from the targeted area.

However, a number of significant intervals were encountered. Intervals within the Deep Zone includes some discrete, but very high-grade mineralisation, including 10.46% Zn over 1.68m from 512.95m, where the drilling has intersected the upper portions of previously defined CRD lenses. The drill hole also intersected a 14m thick CRD lens that is more typical of other mineralisation within the Deep Zone.

This lens contains bands of massive CRD up to 1.52m thick and with exceptional grades up to 13.3% zinc and 193g/t indium, within zones of more narrow banding and generally lower grades. Weak and intermittent zinc-silver mineralisation towards the end of the hole is outside of the current resource and highly significant as it indicates that the mineralised system is open at depth. This portion of the mineral system is disrupted by porphyry intrusives and intense quartz - pyrite - molybdenite veining.

Extensive molybdenum mineralisation: Drill hole WD22-01 has intersected thick and high-grade molybdenum mineralisation within and immediately adjacent to the quartz monzonite porphyry. The intersection of 21.5m @ 0.6% Mo, 23.4g/t Ag from 758.46m contain grades up to 4.05% Mo (768.67m) with significant precious metals credits, and is hosted by a series of sub-vertical veins and disseminations that appear to overprint the West Desert mineralisation. Molybdenum ore bodies have typical grades between 0.1-0.25% Mo, with the molybdenum resource at the giant Bingham Canyon mine in Utah averaging 0.017% Mo.

As has been discussed previously, the skarn and CRD mineralisation at West Desert is likely to be only one element of a very large porphyry related mineral system. The porphyry and molybdenum rich zones have had very little drilling and the discovery of further mineralisation at depth has significant implications for the regional growth potential of the Fish Springs Mineral District, where American West holds 100% of the prospective ground.