American West Launches Major Drill Hunt for US Indium and Gallium in Utah
American West has initiated a significant 5000-metre diamond drilling campaign at its wholly owned West Desert polymetallic project in Utah, USA. This intensive program, operating around the clock with Major Drilling Group International, aims to uncover new resources of strategic and critical metals, specifically targeting high-priority indium and gallium deposits beyond the company's existing mineral footprint.
Expanding on Established Resources
In early 2023, the company announced a maiden indicated and inferred resource estimate for the West Desert project, totalling 33.7 million tonnes at 3.83 per cent zinc, 0.15 per cent copper, and 9.1 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, encompassing both open pit and underground resources. A subsequent update in December 2023 added 23.8 million ounces of indium and 119,000 ounces of gold to the existing inventory, which includes 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper, and 10 million ounces of silver.
American West has developed a pipeline of key targets believed to drive meaningful resource growth. This includes a cluster of indium-rich skarns, along with copper, gold, and silver targets in the largely untested Goldilocks Zone. Additionally, the program will probe gallium targets, referred to as "Apex-style," along the Juab Fault and other geophysical anomalies similar to those observed at the West Desert resource.
Geological Characteristics and Drilling Focus
The West Desert project is characterised as a porphyry-related zoned mineral system. It features an inner intrusive porphyry zone hosting copper, gold, silver, and indium, with occasional molybdenum presence. The existing resource occupies the marginal contact zone of the intrusive porphyry and includes typical skarn-hosted copper and zinc, as well as replacement-style silver-lead mineralisation historically mined in the early 1900s.
Dave O'Neill, managing director of American West Metals, emphasised the program's goal: "The drilling program will focus on expanding the already world-class critical metals endowment at West Desert. High-grade indium, copper, silver, gold, and gallium mineralisation has been discovered outside of the current West Desert resource by drilling, and we will look to significantly expand these zones of sought-after metals."
Recent resampling of historical drill core outside the mineral resource has yielded standout grades, including up to 324 g/t indium, 4.9 per cent copper, 155 g/t silver, 5.4 g/t gold, and 41.9 g/t gallium. The Goldilocks Zone, located deeper and almost vertically beneath the Main Zone, tracks the same skarn margin of the intrusive porphyry and comprises multiple high-grade lenses within a broader envelope of chalcopyrite-dominant mineralisation.
Strategic Importance and Additional Initiatives
The timing of this drilling campaign is particularly opportune, as the United States currently has no domestic production of gallium or indium. Recent policy moves by Washington have highlighted the nation's urgent need to secure a local supply of these strategic metals, underscoring the project's significance.
In parallel with the drilling, American West is finalising an expanded resampling program across historical core and old mine waste dumps from the historic Utah, Emma, and Galena mines within its tenure. Assays from this work are expected within the next five weeks and are likely to outline additional high-grade critical metal zones, refining targeting ahead of drilling results.
The program will also test large gravity and magnetic anomalies with geophysical signatures that management says resemble the area hosting the West Desert resource. Following previous drilling that returned gallium assays up to 77.3 g/t, the company is now lining up its first gallium-focused drill holes along the Juab Fault, a steeply-inclined structure between its Main and Deep Zones, to explore for possible "Apex-style" settings similar to Utah's historic Apex gallium-germanium mine.
With drilling underway and a steady stream of assays anticipated shortly, American West's West Desert project is poised for a busy period as it seeks to identify the next indium and gallium hotspot, potentially bolstering US domestic supply chains for these critical materials.
