Aston Bay and American West Metals Confirm Discovery of Sediment Hosted Copper System at Depth and 76m of 2% Cu from 32m at Thunder from the Storm Copper Project, Canada

Discovery of large sediment hosted copper system confirmed by diamond drilling:

• Assay results for diamond drill holes ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 indicate that all three holes have intersected sediment hosted copper beneath the near-surface copper deposits at Storm
• ST23-02 has intersected a 24 metre (m) thick interval of copper sulfides at depth with copper values up to 2.7% Cu, indicating the potential of the deeper system to host high-grade mineralization
• The wide-spaced location of the holes - between 600m to 2 kilometre (km) spacing - highlights the broad lateral scale of the sediment-hosted copper system
• The results confirm the correlation between the sediment-hosted copper and gravity anomalies, highlighting large-scale exploration potential with more than 14km prospective strike untested by drilling

High-grade new near-surface discovery at Thunder:

• Diamond drill hole ST23-03 has returned assays of:
  • 76m @ 2% Cu from 32.4m, including
  • 48.6m @ 3% Cu from 32.4m, and including,
  • 20m @ 6.2% Cu from 40.8m
• The Thunder discovery - located 1km from the known near-surface Storm copper deposits - highlights the resource expansion and exploration potential of the near-surface mineralization

"I am pleased to report the exploration diamond drill holes have confirmed the presence of the sediment hosted copper sulfide mineralization at depth at Storm," stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay. "The assays confirm the presence of copper, locally over wide intervals up to 24m thick, in widely spaced drill holes that suggest lateral extent and continuity. With values up to 2.7% copper, these results point to the size and grade potential of this deeper mineralization. Mineralogical zonation at Storm suggests the intercepts are on the periphery of the system and provide a vector toward anticipated higher copper grade within this large copper mineralized system."

"Every deep exploration drill hole has intersected sulfide mineralization as predicted by both the geological and geophysical models. We clearly have a powerful exploration toolkit for discovery at Storm. Kilometre-scale geophysical anomalies in highly prospective stratigraphy remain untested, and planning has already begun for a major drill program in 2024 to determine the extents of the system and target grade and size."

"In addition to the deep discovery, the near-surface Thunder Prospect has yielded high grades up to 49.6% copper. Just discovered this season, Thunder highlights the resource potential in the near surface, with grades rarely seen in open pit mining opportunities."

HIGH-GRADE POTENTIAL OF SED-HOSTED COPPER SYSTEM CONFIRMED

Diamond exploration drill holes ST23-01, ST23-02 and ST23-03 were part of four holes completed during the 2023 season to confirm the sediment-hosted copper model, with each of the holes designed to test different geophysical and structural targets (Figure 2). The drill holes are widely spaced between 600m and 2km apart. Results from the fourth hole, ST23-04, are pending.

Significantly, all drill holes have intersected copper sulfide mineralization up to 24m thick at the same stratigraphic level, with grades up to 2.7% Cu (ST23-02) indicating the potential of the system to host high-grade mineralization. The copper mineralization and geology within the drill holes is highly similar and suggests that the stratigraphy of the deeper mineralized system is laterally very extensive.

The Storm area shows clear geological similarities to many of the world's major sediment-hosted copper systems, including the deposits of the Kalahari Copper Belt (Botswana) and Central African Copper Belt (DRC, Zambia). These copper deposits typically have metre scale thicknesses and kilometre scale strikes of the ore zones.

DRILL HOLE ST23-01 DETAILS

In addition to intersecting the sediment-hosted system at depth, ST23-01 has intersected strong copper intervals within the near-surface 4100N Zone with assays returning:

• 7.2m* @ 2.2% Cu from 58.1m, including,
  • 0.9m* @ 12.8% Cu from 58.1m
    • 1.9m* @ 1% Cu, 0.8% Zn from 75.6m
    • 6.8m* @ 1.2% Cu from 80.7m

ST23-01 was drilled to a downhole depth of 416m and intersected two main zones of copper mineralization (Figure 4). The drill hole was designed to test the northern extent of the high-grade 4100N Zone, and to test the large gravity anomaly at depth, below the near-surface copper mineralization.

The first zone of copper mineralization encountered within ST23-01 is located near-surface within the 4100N Zone and consists of 16.9m of very strong breccia and fracture-hosted chalcocite and minor chalcopyrite (Figure 4) over three major intervals from 58.1m downhole. This mineralization is typical of the near-surface copper mineralization at the 4100N Zone and indicates that the mineralization remains open to the north.

The deeper zone of mineralization was intersected at 332m downhole, is 15m thick and consists of mosaic breccia and replacement-style chalcopyrite cement. Assays up to 0.48% Cu (at 342m downhole - Figure 3) confirm the presence of chalcopyrite. Sphalerite (up to 0.6% Zn) is present within the lower part of the sequence.

Mineralization at Storm is clearly zoned, with a core of chalcocite mineralization grading into zones bornite±covellite, then chalcopyrite, pyrite and into an outer sphalerite±galena zone, reflecting progressive reduction of the metal-bearing fluids by interaction with hydrocarbons in the permeable zones of the rock.

Importantly, the deeper mineralization encountered in ST23-01 suggests this drill hole intercepted the outer chalcopyrite/pyrite/sphalerite zone of the sediment hosted system.

Table 1: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole ST23-01 (>0.2% Cu).

DRILL HOLE ST23-02 DETAILS

Drill hole ST23-02 was drilled to a downhole depth of 602m and assays have confirmed that it intersected a 24m thick zone of copper mineralization from 346m downhole (Figure 6).

The assay results have confirmed the presence of chalcocite and highlight the potential for the deeper stratigraphic horizon to host economic copper mineralization. This is a significant milestone for the project and confirms the large sediment-hosted copper system potential.

The mineralized interval is variably brecciated and fractured with chalcocite as the dominant copper sulfide mineral. The lower section of the interval contains very strong mineralization in a number of narrow bands with grades up to 2.7% Cu (356.5m downhole). Sphalerite (zinc sulfide) occurs with chalcocite in the lower part of the mineralized sequence with grades of 1.7% Zn (also at 356.5m downhole).

The presence of chalcocite suggests that drill hole ST23-02 is potentially vectoring to the higher-grade portions of the copper system.

Table 2: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole ST23-02 (>0.2% Cu).

HIGH GRADES CONFIRMED AT THUNDER

DRILL HOLE ST23-03 DETAILS

ST23-03 was drilled to a downhole depth of 396m and intersected two main zones of copper sulfide mineralization. The drill hole was designed to test a near-surface MLEM conductor approximately 1km to the west of the high-grade copper 2750N Zone, and the edge of a moderately dense gravity anomaly close to the Southern Graben Fault (Figure 2).

The upper zone of copper mineralization encountered within ST23-03 is a 48.6m thick interval of strong breccia and vein-style copper sulfides grading 3% Cu, with broad zones of semi-massive to massive sulfide from 34.4m downhole. The massive sulfides are dominantly chalcocite, with bornite and chalcopyrite (Figure 7), and represent a significant new discovery of the near-surface mineralization. An 11.4m zone of less dense copper sulfide veining is located at the base of the mineralized zone. The entire mineralized interval is 76m @ 2% Cu from 32.4m downhole.

The thickness and intensity of the mineralization at Thunder - and the Lightning Ridge, 2750N and 2200N Zones to the east - suggests that this high-grade mineralization and structural setting may be directly related to their proximity to the Southern Graben Fault. These faults are interpreted to be the primary source of plumbing for both the near-surface, and deeper copper mineralization.

Five significant, fault-related and widely spaced copper prospects have now been confirmed by drilling in the southern graben area. All of these discoveries are located at, or close to surface and have only been tested to a depth of approximately 100 vertical metres.

Over 10km of prospective structures have been identified in the southern graben area alone, highlighting the exploration potential along strike, and at depth below the known copper mineralization (Figure 2). The Storm Graben faults can be also traced for over 6km south-east into the Tornado and Blizzard Prospect areas, where there is widespread copper geochemical anomalism at surface.

The Thunder discovery continues to highlight the effectiveness of EM as a targeting tool and the correlation with strong copper sulfides. Other high-priority EM targets have been tested during this drilling program with assay results pending.

The lower zone of mineralization was intersected at 272.7m downhole and is interpreted to correlate with the sediment-hosted copper mineralization intersected in drill holes ST22-10, ST23-01 and ST23-02. The 2m mineralized interval consists of broad fractures and dense anastomosing veins of chalcocite, bornite and chalcopyrite (Figure 8) with grades up to 1.84% Cu (between 272.7-273.15m).

The copper sulfides are hosted within a sequence of organic-rich and vuggy dolomudstones that are visually very similar to ST22-10, ST23-01 and ST23-02. Despite the relatively narrow intervals, the high copper grades are further evidence of the potential of the deeper mineralization to host potentially economic accumulations of copper sulfides.

Table 3: Summary of significant drilling intersections for drill hole ST23-03 (>0.2% Cu).