VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Mining Corp. (“West” or the “Company”) (CSE: WEST) (OTC: WESMF) is pleased to report the completion of an initial 7 diamond drill holes on the Kena Copper Zone area of its 100% owned Kena gold and copper project in southeastern British Columbia. All of the holes intercepted strong zones of alteration and silicification along with variable pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization throughout.
The Kena Copper Zone is identified by a significant copper geochemical anomaly associated with a strong zone of high chargeability, lying within mafic volcanic and subvolcanic diorites of the Rossland Group Elise Formation. The soil anomaly has dimensions of 2.5 kilometres in length by an average of 450 metres in width as outlined by the 300 ppm copper contour. Within the anomaly there are numerous soil samples assaying between 1,000 and 5,000 ppm copper. Between 1981 and 2010, a total of nine wide spaced historic drill holes tested the copper target. Broad zones of low grade copper mineralization (0.1 to 0.5% copper) were intersected by this historic drilling.
Volcanic rocks in the Kena Copper Zone are comprised of andesitic to basaltic crystal tuff, lapilli tuff and flows. The area is characterized by the dominant northwest-southeast steeply dipping foliation seen across the northern half of the Kena property. Mineralization in the copper zone appears to conform to this fabric in the main body of the copper porphyry. Cutting this fabric is a series of quartz veins roughly perpendicular to the NW-SE trend. In the core, many of the veins are quartz with pink calcite or amethyst, strong clots of chlorite and abundant coarse pyrite, chalcopyrite and malachite. Malachite is often found on fractures even at depths greater than 100 metres. These late extensional veins were targeted in several historic workings found along the northeastern side of the main copper porphyry body. These workings include 5 adits, 2 shafts and several pits.
All drill holes, with the exception of KC21-03 and KC21-07, are angled at -50o dip with azimuths of 040o in order to cross the foliation controlling mineralization at close to true width angles. The other two drill holes are vertical holes to facilitate deeper drilling depths.
“We are excited to be drilling the underexplored robust Kena Copper Zone. Core logging has shown broad zones of visible copper mineralization throughout the drill holes and we are anxious to receive the assay results,” stated Nicholas Houghton, President and CEO. “Data we have shows previous drill programs alluded to a copper porphyry deposit but it was never persued. I believe the initial holes described below show a strong probability that our geological team interpreted the information correctly.”
KC21-01, drilled to 122 metres, intercepted mafic volcanics, crystal and lapilli tuff throughout. This hole goes through wide rubbly chloritized zones and ended in very fractured blocky rock. 1% pyrite occurs with zones of disseminated and banded pyrite up to 10%, locally. From 44.3-53.75 metres, there is up to 1% finely disseminated chalcopyrite.
KC21-02, drilled to 201.37 metres and KC21-03 drilled to 670.73 metres, were drilled from the same pad and both intersected the top 50 metres of the foot wall of the interpreted porphyry copper zone that strikes NW-SE, and dips steeply to the SW. This is seen as a 50 metres wide (true width) zone of strongly silicified mafic volcanics with 1-20% pyrite and trace-3% chalcopyrite. The strongest mineralization is at the top of the hole indicating the need to step back to the southwest to intersect more of the mineralized zone. Hole KC21-03 intersected intermittent silicified zones with strong pyrite and sporadic chalcopyrite down to 650 metres.
KC21-04, drilled to 265.6 metres, is the eastern most hole drilled. The top 114 metres (true width) of this hole is moderately to strongly silicified with 1-15% pyrite and tr-2% chalcopyrite disseminated throughout and along fine fractures. The sulfides are generally extremely fine grained suggesting there may be more present than is being estimated.
Hole KC21-05, drilled to 236.0 metres, was drilled from the same pad as historic hole 10CK-01 which was a vertical hole that intersected wide zones of copper mineralization to 250 metres depth. The top 158 metres of KC21-05 is dominated by moderate to strong silica-carbonate alteration with 2-15% pyrite and trace to 3% chalcopyrite disseminated very finely and in fractures and veinlets.
Hole KC21-06, drilled to 367.0 metres, is a due diligence twin of 1990 historic drill hole K90-4, which intersected wide zones of copper mineralization to its total depth at 391.95 metres, including 57 metres of 0.27% Cu, 18 metres of 0.41% Cu and 12 metres of 0.35% Cu (BC Assessment Report 20894; Lewis, W.J and Silversides, D.A). KC21-06 intersected several zones of mineralization: 55-67 metres with 5-10% pyrite and 0.3-0.5% chalcopyrite; 100-224 metres of strong quartz-carbonate alteration with 5-20% pyrite and 1-3% chalcopyrite; 291-332 metres with fine chalcopyrite up to 3%. A 40 centimetres true width quartz vein at 314 metres has 15% coarse chalcopyrite. As with other holes, the sulfides are generally extremely fine grained and may be underestimated.
Hole KC21-07, drilled to 509 metres, is a vertical hole drilled from the same pad as KC21-06. It intersected strong mineralization in silicified zones from 103-195 metres and 200-235 metres with 3-15% pyrite and trace to 3% chalcopyrite. Very fine grained disseminated chalcopyrite is seen throughout the entire depth of the hole as well as semi-massive pyrite-chalcopyrite-quartz-carbonate veinlets running at low angle to core axis.
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below:
The 9000 hectare Kena Project, consists of the Kena, Daylight and Athabasca Properties which trend along a 20 kilometres long favourable mineralized belt. The Kena Copper Zone is a porphyry system located only 1500 metres south of the Kena Gold Zone, included in the recent gold resource estimation. The resource estimate on the Kena Property (Bird, 2021; NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Kena and Daylight Properties) shows an indicated 561,000 ounces gold and an inferred 2.77 million ounces gold at a 0.25 g/t cutoff within an open ended portion of this robust system (see News Release dated May 11, 2021).
Along with West’s current 5 year “area based” Mines Act Permit issued on September 8, 2021, West has also obtained a 5 year Forestry Licence to Cut and has negotiated a Road Use Maintenance Agreement with the timber holder Atco Wood Products Ltd.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control (“QA/QC”)
West’s QA/QC procedures include one each of blank, field duplicate and standard inserted into the sample stream for every 20 drill core samples. Core samples are split, bagged, zip-tied and trucked to Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. (“BV Labs”) in Burnaby, British Columbia for analyses. The field inserted standards (certified reference materials) and blanks were purchased from CDN Resource Laboratories Ltd. of Langley, British Columbia.
Samples are analyzed at BV Labs facilities for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish and 48 additional elements using a multi-acid digestion with an ICP-ES finish.
BV Labs are registered to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 17025:2017 accreditations for laboratory procedures. In the laboratory, blanks (analytical and method), duplicates and standard reference materials are internally inserted in the sequences of client samples. Using these inserted quality control samples each analytical batch and complete job is rigorously reviewed and validated by BV Labs prior to release.
Linda Dandy, P.Geo., a "Qualified Person" for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
About West Mining Corp.
West Mining Corp. is a mineral exploration company acquiring and developing advanced and prospective early-stage exploration projects. It is fully focused on its 100% owned, 9000 hectare Kena Project located in southeastern British Columbia. The Kena Project comprises three adjoining Properties: Kena, Daylight and Athabasca. A recent NI43-101 resource estimate for the Kena Project gave 561,900 oz Au indicated and 2,773,100 oz Au inferred in the Gold Mountain, Kena Gold and Daylight Zones. The Kena Property also hosts the large Kena Copper Zone, along with with the historic Euphrates and Gold Cup gold-silver mines. The Daylight property contains the historic past producing Daylight, Starlight, Victoria, Irene and Great Eastern gold mines. Along trend to the north is the Athabasca Property, with the historic Athabasca Gold Mine. The historic mines and known mineralized zones on these three properties are structurally controlled along a 20 kilometres strike as identified by strong geophysical signatures.
For additional information, please refer to the Company’s public disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
West Mining Corp.
Nicholas Houghton
President & CEO
The Canadian Securities Exchange accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Certain statements contained in this press release constitute “forward-looking information” as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words “may”, “would”, “could”, “should”, “potential”, “will”, “seek”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect” and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company’s current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to them, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation: the potential of the Company’s mineral properties; the estimation of capital requirements; the estimation of operating costs; the timing and amount of future business expenditures; and the availability of necessary financing. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. Such factors include but are not limited to: changes in economic conditions or financial markets; increases in costs; litigation; legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; and exploration or operational difficulties. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect forward-looking information. These and other factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.
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