Aston Bay / American West Announce Drilling and Exploration set to Commence at Storm Copper Project, Nunavut

30 March 2023

TORONTO, Ontario, March 30, 2023 – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company”) reports that drilling and geophysical activities are set to commence at the beginning of April at the Storm Copper Project (“Storm” or the “Project”) on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada. This will be the second drilling program for American West Metals Limited (“American West”), who are the project operator, since entering an option agreement with Aston Bay in March 2021.

Highlights

  • Up to 10,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond drilling planned for the 2023 field season
  • RC drilling of near-surface high-grade copper targets is scheduled to commence shortly at the 4100N Zone focused on resource definition
  • Historical drilling at the 4100N Zone has intersected large volumes of high-grade copper including:
    • 15m* @ 3.88% Cu from 72.4m (ST99-47)
    • 27.2m* @ 1.9% Cu from 78.8m (ST00-62)
    • 5.8m* @ 3.6% Cu from 38.6m (ST99-53)
  • Resource drilling at the 2750N and 2200N Zones will follow the 4100N program and is designed to target extensive, previously identified high-grade copper mineralization
  • Moving Loop Electromagnetics (MLEM) will be completed to assist targeting for the resource definition drilling and identify new targets
  • Diamond drilling and ground gravity survey planned to follow up the major 2022 discovery of stratabound sedimentary copper sulphides at depth

“We are excited to have our exploration partners American West Metals embark on this significant exploration program this season,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay.

“The initial phase of drilling will utilize an RC drill rig to assist in defining maiden resources within the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N Zones, where near-surface high-grade copper mineralization has been demonstrated in historic core drilling. The RC rig will allow for rapid and cost-effective drilling, and we are pleased to see this type of drilling used for the first time at Storm. We believe the drilling will confirm a significant copper resource with the potential to support a low-cost, ore sorting operation at Storm.

“The surface geophysical work will be used to refine drill targeting for both the resource definition and core diamond drilling for discovery in new areas. We are very excited to follow up on the breakthrough 2022 discovery of sedimentary copper mineralization, where we may have intersected the margin of a potentially large stratiform sedimentary hosted copper system, just one of several similar targets indicated by the historical geophysics.”

The 2023 exploration program will initially aim to drill out maiden copper resources at the 4100N, 2750N and 2200N Zones, and test key exploration targets. Surface electromagnetics will be used to highlight enriched zones of mineralization and to refine targets ahead of the resource drilling.

Exploration will also commence to follow up a major stratiform sedimentary copper system within the Storm Project area that was identified over the course of the 2022 field season. This program will consist of ground gravity, electromagnetic geophysics, and diamond drilling.

Approximately 10,000m of drilling is planned for 2023.

See American West Release here. 

Aston Bay release is linked below. 

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