Aston Bay is advancing high-grade copper in Nunavut and gold in Virginia.
Aston Bay (TSX.V: BAY, OTCQB: ATBHF) is an exploration company focused on discovering high-grade copper, zinc, cobalt, and gold in North America. Aston Bay makes the energy metal discoveries that the mining industry then takes to the next stage.
Aston Bay is exploring two very different geographical regions, Nunavut in Canada and the state of Virginia in the US. Both are Tier 1 jurisdictions, and Aston Bay has made exciting discoveries in both areas.
Storm Copper: High-grade copper advancing toward production
At the Storm Copper project in Nunavut, Aston Bay has partnered with ASX-listed American West Metals (ASX: AW1) and has undertaken an aggressive reverse circulation (RC) drilling to delineate high-grade near-surface copper resources to support the potential development of a low-impact, small-footprint ore-sorting type of mining operation.
A significant exploration programme, incorporating 10,000m of RC drilling, has been completed this past spring/summer. Several intersections demonstrate the extensive and high-grade nature of the mineralisation, such as 41m length of core running 4.18% copper from 38m depth.
A maiden ore resource report is anticipated for Q1 2024, as well as beneficiation studies on the mineralisation and a scoping study for the development plans. Mineralisation commences at, or very close to, surface level and can potentially be accessed with open-pit mining. This near-surface mineralisation is open in all directions; a significant drilling programme is planned for 2024 to significantly expand the maiden resource and drill for new near-surface discoveries in this belt-scale opportunity. Planning for a potential open-pit operation is underway.
Storm Copper: Deeper potential for ‘Congo-style’ copper in Canada
In addition to this ongoing development work at Storm, Aston Bay geologists have predicted that the near-surface mineralisation delineated in the copper resource may indicate a potentially significant amount of copper hidden in the rocks at depth. This geologic model is the same as that of the very large and high-grade copper deposits of Central Africa, such as Kamoa-Kakula.
Gravity and electromagnetic geophysics have yielded several compelling drilling targets that corresponded well to the geological model, a very prospective combination. Deep diamond drilling this past summer confirmed the presence of the predicted copper mineralisation at depth in widely spaced drill holes, amplifying the prospects of discovering a significant, deeper, regional-scale copper system.
Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay, says the discovery has been some time in the making: “We’ve known about copper at the surface at Storm since the work conducted by Cominco and Teck in the late nineties, and we are rapidly advancing plans to extract that copper with a low-cost mine. That alone will add significant value to Aston Bay. Even more exciting, however, is that our geological model has predicted the presence of copper hidden deeper in the subsurface – the discovery of this past summer proves it. The copper is there.”
These are exciting days for the Storm project, with additional geophysics and deep drilling planned for this coming season.
Virginia: High-grade gold and copper-cobalt potential
The company has made two recent discoveries in Virginia: a high-grade gold vein and SEDEX-style zinc-copper-cobalt mineralisation. The high-grade gold (e.g., 24.73 g/t gold over 3.57m core length) vein is unusual for Virginia, more typical of a ‘Kirkland Lake’ style quartz vein, with mineralisation remaining open at depth and along over 1.6km strike length.
The discovery of cobalt mineralisation is also new and unusual for Virginia, providing the potential for a significant discovery of energy metals in the US. Drill programmes for both the gold and base metals projects are planned for 2024.
For more information, please visit the Aston Bay website: www.astonbayholdings.com
Please note, this article will also appear in the seventeenth edition of our quarterly publication.
