The program was conducted by American West(as defined below), who is the operator of the Project. Aston Bay is also pleased to report that American West has successfully completed the minimum exploration expenditure required to earn an 80% undivided interest in the Project.
As previously disclosed, Aston Bay entered into an Option Agreement dated
The Expenditures were completed during the 2023 drilling program and American West is expected to exercise the Option in accordance with the terms of the Option Agreement, as amended. Upon exercise of the Option, American West and Aston Bay will form an 80/20 unincorporated joint venture and enter into a joint venture agreement. Under such agreement, Aston Bay shall have a free carried interest until American West has made a decision to mine upon completion of a bankable feasibility study, meaning American West will be solely responsible for funding the joint venture until such decision is made. After such decision is made, Aston Bay will be diluted in the event it does not elect to contribute its proportionate share and its interest in the Project will be converted into a 2% net smelter returns royalty if its interest is diluted to below 10%.
'The highlights outlined above speak to the quality of the work completed by American West and to their commitment to the partnership,' stated
'In addition to the discoveries made this season, two developments are critical: we have both a confirmed predictive geological model, as well as geophysical methods that produce anomalies that can only be explained by sulfide mineralization. This combination is very powerful in exploration, already providing discoveries and, we anticipate, more to come.
'We believe we have tapped into a significant stratiform sediment hosted copper system at depth at Storm but have so far only grazed the edge. The deep holes drilled this season have intersected chalcocite and other copper sulfides, confirming the model, but we believe this may be just a hint of what is to come. The combination of the predictive geological model, known mineralogical zonation and proven geophysical methods will allow refinement of our drill targeting to get to the cores of these mineralized zones in future programs.
'We are very pleased that American West has so successfully advanced Storm in such a short time. It is no surprise, given the calibre of their leadership. We look forward to further advancement and additional discovery with our ongoing partnership. With no expenditures required by Aston Bay until a positive production decision, Storm offers excellent optionality with potentially significant upside for Aston Bay's shareholders.'
STORM PROJECT - AN EMERGING COPPER OPPORTUNITY WITH GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE
Storm is located approximately 20km from the coast with access to a deepwater bay and a designated shipping route, providing robust logistics. The land package at Storm comprises 219,257 hectares and hosts over 110km strike length of prospective stratigraphy, representing a rare, district-scale opportunity.
Exploration at Storm has focused on two clear strategies: exploring the sediment-hosted copper potential predicted by the geological model, as well as defining a maiden resource and expanding the footprint of the high-grade, near-surface copper mineralization.
A broad range of geophysics has been deployed - including high-resolution Electromagnetics (EM), ground gravity and ground magnetics surveys - to establish targets for both resource expansion and exploration drilling. Approximately 11,290m of RC and diamond drilling have been completed by American West for a total of 73 drill holes.
Geophysics has proven to be a very effective targeting tool with the discovery of the regional scale sediment-hosted copper system as well as with expansion of the footprint of the near-surface mineralization, including the discovery of the Thunder and
Under the new joint venture agreement, Aston Bay and American West plan to increase both the exploration and resource development programs at Storm with a ramp-up of activities during 2024.
EMERGING REGIONAL-SCALE SEDIMENT HOSTED COPPER SYSTEM
The exploration completed by
Five deep diamond exploration drill holes have tested the deeper system to date, one completed in 2022 and four drilled during the 2023 season, all to test the deeper stratiform sediment hosted copper system, with each of the holes designed to test different geophysical and structural targets. The drill holes were widely spaced between 600m and 2km apart over approximately two square kilometres. Significantly, all drill holes have intersected visual copper sulfide mineralization, including chalcocite (assays are still pending for the 2023 drill holes). The copper mineralization and geology within the drill holes are highly similar and suggest that the stratigraphy of the deeper mineralized system is laterally very extensive and potentially represents a stratiform system.
About the Storm Copper and Seal Zinc-Silver Projects,
The
Storm Discovery and Historical Work
High-grade copper mineralization was discovered at Storm in the mid-1990s by
Following the merger of
In 2016 Aston Bay entered into an earn-in agreement with BHP, who conducted a 2,000-station soil sampling program and drilled 1,951m of core in 12 diamond drill holes, yielding up to 16m @ 3.1% Cu. BHP exited the agreement in 2017 and retains no residual interest in the project. Aston Bay conducted a property-wide airborne gravity gradiometry survey in 2017 and drilled 2,913m in nine core holes in the Storm area in 2018 yielding a best intercept of 1.5m @ 4.39% Cu and 20.5m @ 0.56% Cu.
Agreement with
An earn-in agreement for the Storm and Seal properties was signed with
Recent Work
American West completed a fixed loop electromagnetic (FLEM) ground geophysical survey in 2021 that yielded several new subsurface conductive anomalies. A total of 1,534m were drilled in 10 diamond drill holes in the 2022 season, yielding several impressive near-surface intercepts including 41m @ 4.1% Cu as well as 68m of sulfide mineralization associated with a deeper conductive anomaly.
In
In
The summer 2023 program planned further delineation drilling of the near-surface high-grade copper zones to advance them toward maiden resource estimates by late 2023 or early 2024. Diamond drilling is planned to test new high-priority gravity targets and environmental baseline studies will be initiated.
Stated drill hole intersections are all core length, and true width is expected to be 60% to 100% of core length.
QA/QC Protocols
The analytical work reported on herein was performed by ALS Global ('ALS'),
About
Aston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for high-grade copper and gold deposits in
The Company is 100% owner of the
About
Led by a highly experienced leadership team, our strategic initiatives lay the foundation for a sustainable business which aims to deliver high-multiplier returns on shareholder investment and economic benefits to all stakeholders.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Statements made in this news release, including those regarding the exercise of the Option, entering into the joint venture and each party's interest in the Project pursuant to the agreement in respect of the joint venture, management objectives, forecasts, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future may constitute 'forward-looking statement', which can be identified by the use of conditional or future tenses or by the use of such verbs as 'believe', 'expect', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'project', 'plan', and words of similar import, including variations thereof and negative forms. This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect, as of the date of this press release, Aston Bay's expectations, estimates and projections about its operations, the mining industry and the economic environment in which it operates. Statements in this press release that are not supported by historical fact are forward-looking statements, meaning they involve risk, uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although Aston Bay believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which apply only at the time of writing of this press release. Aston Bay disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by securities legislation.
Contact:
Tel: (416) 456-3516
Email: thomas.ullrich@astonbayholdings.com
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