Aston Bay and American West Metals Announce Summer Exploration Program Set to Commence at the Storm Project, Nunavut, Canada Drilling of large-scale regional copper prospects and resource expansion targets
Aston Bay and American West Metals Announce Summer Exploration
Program Set to Commence at the Storm Project, Nunavut, Canada
Drilling of large-scale regional copper prospects and resource expansion targets
Highlights:
• High-grade copper discoveries ready for resource definition drilling. Potential to rapidly increase
the Initial Mineral Resource Estimate (“ MRE” – see March 3, 2025, Aston Bay news release ) through
resource definition drilling of recent discoveries, including:
o Cyclone Deeps – potential continuation of the large Cyclone Deposit at depth with drill
intercepts such as 10 metres (“m”) @ 1.2% copper (“C u”) from 311m (including 0.5m @
3.7% Cu from 315.5m)
o Cirrus Deeps – high-priority electromagnetic (“ EM”) target with stratigraphic setting similar
to Cyclone Deeps
o The Gap – a strong EM anomaly confirmed as a priority copper target with drilling that
returned 20m @ 2.3% Cu from 28m (including 8m @ 5.3% Cu from 39.6m)
• Advancing regional exploration opportunities . Exploration of large -scale targets is prioritized for
drilling, including:
o Tornado/Blizzard – located 5km east of the Storm copper deposits , the area hosts a 3.2km x
1.5km geochemical copper anomaly and two large EM plates yet to be drilled
o Midway – discovered by a single historical drill hole that intersected a total of 58m of visual
copper sulfide, located approximately 5km to the west of the Storm MRE area
o Tornado South – A large structural hotspot representing a textbook setting for copper
mineralization has been identified south of the Tornado/Blizzard area
• Geophysics planned to generate new targets. A large airborne Mobile Magneto -Telluric (MMT)
survey is scheduled for early in the season in the Storm MRE area and other areas of interest along
the 110 km prospective copper horizon in 2025, with results expected to inform drill targeting and
prioritization this season.
Preparations for the 2025 field season are well advanced. The sealift operation, completed in Q4 2024,
delivered bulk supplies to Storm in preparation for the 2025 field season, significantly streamlining logistics
to enable a short lead time for the start of drilling in 2025 and reducing 2025 costs by approximately $4.0m
TORONTO, Ontario, May 21, 2025 – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: BAY) (OTCQB: ATBHF) ("Aston
Bay" or the "Company ") is pleased to provide an update on the planned 2025 regional exploration
activities set to commence at the Storm Copper Project ( "Storm" or the "Project") on Somerset
Island, Nunavut. American West Metals Limited ("American West"), the Project operator, is
conducting the exploration program . Aston Bay and American West have formed a 20/80
unincorporated joint venture with respect to the Storm Project property, with Aston Bay
maintaining a free carried interest until a decision to mine is made upon completion of a bankable
feasibility study.
Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer of Aston Bay, commented:
"2025 has witnessed several milestones for the Storm Copper Project. Together with our partners
American West, we have delivered the National Instrument 43 -101 on the Initial Mineral Resource
Estimate at Storm, satisfied the second phase of our royalty agreement with Taurus bringing
$1million to Aston Bay, and entered into a strategic alliance with Ocean Partners securing both
technical expertise and the majority of funding for development of the near -surface copper
mineralization at Storm.
“With this significant progress achieved, we are pleased to announce that work is continuing with a
substantial summer program that will advance the development story , while focusing on
accelerating exploration for discoveries along this 110 km-long prospective belt. This is a vast area
that has already yielded significant discoveries for follow-up, and geophysics will enhance targeting
and expand the search space even further at depth. Drilling will also aim to develop the resource on
the margins of known deposits and expand on discoveries made last season.
“In addition to results from this exploration and development activities this summer, investors can
also look forward to the completion of a Preliminary Economic Analysis for the near -surface
mineralization at Storm , currently underway. We expect the second half of 2025 to be even more
impactful than the first.”
Figure 1: View from the Storm camp, looking west toward the coast.
DISCOVERY FOCUSED REGIONAL EXPLORATION PROGRAM
The Project covers stratigraphy with a strike of over 110km that is host to multiple deposits and
occurrences of copper and zinc sulfides (Figure 2). While the majority of work on the Project in the
past has been focused on the immediate area of the Storm MRE, regional exploration has
confirmed the prospectivity of the entire stratigraphic horizon.
A pipeline of regional prospects has been identified , with each having the potential to yield the
discovery of another Storm-style mineralization camp.
Figure 2: Prospect location map of the Storm Project highlighting the primary prospective
copper and zinc stratigraphic horizons.
EXPLORATION DRILLING AND GEOPHYSICS PROGRAM
The immediate focus for the 2025 regional exploration will be to drill along the highly prospective
Midway-Storm-Tornado corridor. This 20 km+ mineralized trend is centred on the known Storm
copper deposits and is controlled by the large -scale and laterally extensive Storm Graben. There is
strong geological and geophysical support for the prospectivity of this area, as well as the potential
for the discovery of additional significant copper mineralization.
A regional -scale Mobile Magneto -Telluric ( MMT) survey is planned to cover the Storm and wider
exploration areas during the 2025 program (Figures 3 and 4). MMT surveys utilize natural source
energy to capture a broader range of electromagnetic (EM) frequencies than the techniques used at
Storm to date. The survey is designed to show a greater contrast between the host rocks and
potential accumulations of conductive material (i.e. metalliferous sulfide) with improved spatial
and depth resolution. This is potentially very useful for deeper (>200m) occurrences of copper
sulfide at Storm , where the resistive host rocks cause a decreased signal -to-noise ratio and
reduced confidence in interpretation with depth in historical geophysics.
The initial MMT survey will be completed over the Midway -Storm-Tornado area as an orientation
survey to determine the response of the known deposits before extending the survey into more
regional areas. The survey is scheduled to begin at the same time as the camp preparation and
opening, allowing for results to inform drill targeting and prioritization this season.
The pipeline of regional targets already includes:
1. Blizzard/Tornado – an area with abundant chalcocite and malachite boulders within a 3.2km x
1.5km geochemical copper anomaly. The Tornado and Blizzard areas exhibit a compelling
coincidence of favourable structural and stratigraphic settings, strong gravity and EM anomalies,
and copper geochemistry, located just 5 km along strike from the Storm MRE area.
2. Midway – recently identified as an area of high -priority following a re -interpretation of historical
drilling, which identified thick intervals of visual copper sulfides. Drill hole AB18 -04 was completed
during the 2018 drilling program and was drilled to test the geology approximately 5km to the west of
the known Storm Deposits. The drill hole encountered a total of 58.49m of visual mineralization,
which included two intervals with up to 2.5% of sulfide logged.
The visual copper sulfides are hosted within heavily brecciated dolomites of the Allen Bay
Formation, in a similar setting and stratigraphic level to the significant Cyclone Deposit.
3. Tempest – a 4km long zone of gossans located approximately 40km south of the Storm MRE, with assays
from surface samples returning grades up to 38.2% Cu and 30.8% Zn.
Figure 3: Plan view of the Midway-Storm-Cyclone Corridor, which will be the focus of exploration
and resource expansion activities during 2025. Drilling has intersected copper sulfides over 20km
of strike within this highly prospective structural zone.
Visual estimates of mineral abundance should never be considered a proxy or substitute for
laboratory analyses where concentrations or grades are the factor of principal economic interest.
Laboratory assays are required to determine the presence and grade of any contained
mineralization within the reported visual intersections of copper sulfides. Portable XRF is used as
an aid in the determination of mineral type and abundance during the geological logging process.
Figure 4: Proposed MMT survey showing the planned Phase 1 and Phase 2 survey lines,
overlaying topography, and regional geology.
STORM RESOURCE EXPANSION AND UPGRADE