AW1 declares copper Exploration Target between 646kt & 2.2Mt of copper

Our Investment American West Metals (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) just released its first exploration target for its copper project in Canada.

AW1’s owns 80% of the project which we already know:

• Has a 28.2Mt @ 1.0% copper and 3.3g/t silver resource resource
• A Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) showing a post-tax NPV of US$233M from from US$81M CAPEX and
• That the project was once under JV with with BHP and Antofagasta.

We’ve always thought that for for BHP and Antofagasta to have been be interested in the past, AW1’s asset must have genuine size/scale potential.

Way beyond its existing resource.

And now AW1’s put a number to that potential with a Maiden Exploration Target released:

(source)

Here is the area the exploration target covers relative to AW1’s current resource:

(source)

We said in our last note (check that out here) that we think we think the big upside for AW1’s copper project is if it can drill out the rest of the ~110km belt (where only ~5% of the area has been drilled).

We think that with some cash directed at drilling out the Xkm belt - AW1 could convert the exploration target into resources.

See our deep dive on the copper project here: AW1: The biggest indium resource in the USA + a PFS-stage copper project with US$233M NPV... capped at $34M.

(source)

We think the copper project more than backfills AW1’s current current ~$36M market cap.

BUT…

AW1 also holds 100% of the USA’s biggest Critical Mineral indium project

AW1’s project in Utah has the biggest indium resource in the USA, a metal the US is 100% import-reliant on and China dominates.

AW1's project is already fully permitted for an open-pit mine and exploration shaft construction.

The project might also contain critical minerals gallium and germanium too.

(a historic core sample showed a combined total of 518m of gallium intersections with peak grade of 77.3g/t).

So AW1's project could actually have three critical minerals the USA mines none of.

(China refines 70% of the world's indium, 98% of the world's gallium, and 60% of the world's germanium.)

AW1 has been drilling this project over the course of this year and has already hit extensions way outside of its resource including a new discovery to the west of the resource.

The bigger kicker was that the extensions to the east validated AW1’s theory that its resource could actually extend all the way across a ~4km long magnetic anomaly:

(source)

So with one drill result, AW1 has opened up potential extensions ~4km to the east and shown that the resource average grade could be a lot higher too.

We think that as AW1 drills out its project and is able to define an even larger resource - its attractiveness as a potential source of a critical mineral where the US has no current domestic supply becomes a lot harder to ignore.

What’s next for AW1?

Canadian copper project

The next major catalyst for AW1’s copper project will be converting the PFS into a DFS (Definitive Feasibility Study).

At the same time we want to see AW1 permit its project.

Here are the milestones we are tracking for the project:

• ✅ Pre-Feasibility Study + maiden Ore Reserve
• 🔲 Environmental studies and permitting milestones
• 🔲 Final mining application (targeted Q4 2026)
• 🔲 Definitive Feasibility Study (2027)

US indium project (West Desert, Utah)

Here we want to see AW1 run its upsized drill program, grow its resource and hopefully define a gallium & germanium resource to go with it.

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

• ✅ Drilling commenced
• 🔄 Assays from holes 6 & 7 ("1 to 2 weeks" from 30 October)
• 🔄 Assays from hole 8 (4-6 weeks from 30 October)
• 🔲 Updated West Desert JORC resource estimate

We also want to see AW1 market its project in the US and potentially land some sort of Strategic / Government funding.

Here are things AW1 already complete and things we want to see the company do:

• 🔄 Defense Production Act Title III funding applications
• ✅ Briefed US government officials at the White House Complex (June)
• ✅ AW1 hired Washington based advisors to lead US government engagement
• 🔲 Formal US government funding deal / offtake / stockpile inclusion
• 🔲 Potential US listing