Aston Bay and American West Metals Announce Drilling and Geophysics Underway at the Storm Copper Project, Canada

22 April 2024

Targeting growth through drilling

(April 22, 2024) TORONTO, Ontario – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company”) is pleased to announce the commencement of high-impact drilling and exploration activities at the Storm Copper Project (“Storm” or the “Project”) on Somerset Island, Nunavut. The program will be conducted by American West Metals Limited (“American West”), who is the operator of the Project.  American West has completed the required expenditures to earn an undivided 80% interest in the Project. American West will be solely responsible for funding the program.

Highlights

  • The 2024 exploration and resource definition program has commenced at the Storm Copper Project
  • Track-mounted Reverse-Circulation (RC) drilling is underway and is initially focused on:
    • Testing new, high-priority exploration targets proximal to the known Storm mineralized zones to discover new zones of near-surface high-grade copper mineralization
    • Resource definition drilling of the 2023 high-grade copper discovery at Thunder where discovery hole ST23-03 delivered 48.6m @ 3% Cu from 32.4m within a broader interval of 76m @ 2% Cu from 32.4m
    • Drilling electromagnetic (EM) targets adjacent to the Cyclone Deposit – including an EM target with a very high modeled conductivity of 17,000 Seimens – with the aim of finding additional mineralization
  • Additional drill rigs will join the program in the coming weeks and will focus on:
  • Expansion and infill drilling of the Cyclone (formerly the 4100N) and Chinook (formerly 2850N) Zones
  • Exploration below the known copper mineralization within the Storm area
  • Drilling of large-scale copper targets at the underexplored Tornado, Blizzard, and Tempest Prospects
  • High-powered Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) geophysical survey is also now underway to define potential extensions to known areas of high-grade copper mineralization and to define new exploration targets, both in the near-surface and at depth

This drilling program is designed to expand and infill an upcoming maiden mineral resource estimate for the Storm Project that is currently being constructed to CIM standards and is expected to be presented in May, 2024. The 2024 drilling is also designed to bring the new 2023 discoveries of high-grade copper mineralization into potential additional resources later in the year and explore numerous high-priority copper sulfide targets within the >2,000 sq km project area to discover new copper mineralization.

“We are very excited to be drilling again at Storm,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. “This is the first of two significant drill programs our partner, American West, will be conducting this spring and summer, expanding on the known zones of mineralization and drilling for new discoveries.

“The drill bit has proven the effectiveness of Moving Loop Electromagnetics, so we are pleased to see this geophysical program underway again as well. By tweaking the parameters and increasing the power used in the survey, we believe we will investigate deeper with more confidence. This could uncover geophysical anomalies related to deeper-seated mineralization – excellent targets for diamond drilling in the summer season.”

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