Fireweed drills high-grade zinc in Jason Main Zone including 13.2% zinc and 3.4% lead

Tom Jason deposits area. — Photo courtesy Firewood Zinc Ltd.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FIREWEED ZINC LTD. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FWZ) is pleased to announce additional drill results from its 2017 verification and step out drill program on the Macmillan Pass Project in Yukon, Canada. These results are the second set of drill assays from the Jason Main Zone which is a wide zone of zinc-dominant mineralization. New results included 13.24% zinc and 3.38% lead over 13.1 meters (true width) including 25.06% zinc and 5.00% lead over 1.8 meters (true width) which demonstrates the very high grades that the mineralizing system was capable of achieving. Additional drilling has been completed and results are pending from the nearby Tom zones.

These holes at Jason Main were infill holes to verify results of nearby historic drill holes which will allow the results to be used in the modelling of a new updated NI43-101 mineral resource. Jason Main remains open for expansion as well as the nearby high-grade Jason South Zone which was not drilled in 2017. Previously reported verification and step out holes at the Jason Main Zone and the Tom West Zone reported wide, high-grade zinc-lead-silver intersections including 12.16% Zinc and 3.13% Lead across 7.0 meters true width at Jason Main and 10.20% Zinc, 6.28% Lead and 87.7 g/t Silver over 24.4 meters true width at Tom West (see Fireweed news releases dated October 10, 2017 and September 12, 2017 for details). Additional holes have been completed in the Tom area and will be reported as they are received and interpreted.

Future Plans – NI43-101 Compliant Mineral Resource and PEA

With the completion of the drilling and re-sampling of historic core completed, work on an updated NI43‑101 compliant mineral resource report for the Tom and Jason areas will integrate new assays from the 2017 work as they are received. Completion of the report is expected by year end. After publication of the updated mineral resource report, Fireweed plans to undertake a NI43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment to evaluate future mine planning, metallurgy and project economics. During the coming months compilation and interpretation of the results of the drilling, mapping, geochemistry and geophysics work from the 2017 field season will also be carried out toward identifying high priority areas for exploration toward new discoveries.

Notes on sampling and assaying:

Drill intersections are all HQ3 (split tube) size core (61.1mm / 2.4-inch diameter) with recoveries typically above 85%. After drilling, the core is logged for geology, structure and geotechnical characteristics, marked up for sampling, and photographed on site. The cores for analyses are marked for sampling based on geological intervals with individual samples 1.5 meters or less in length. They are cut in half lengthwise with a rock saw or core splitter at the core facility on site, with half-core samples bagged and sent by reliable transport to the laboratory, and the other half-cores are stored on site for future reference. A total of 5% assay standards and 5% blanks are inserted into every sample shipment as a quality control measure and, after analyses were received, were found to be acceptable. Samples are sent to the Bureau Veritas (formerly Acme Labs) preparation laboratory in Whitehorse, Yukon where the samples are crushed and pulverized to 85% passing 200 mesh size pulps. A 250-gram split of each pulp is then sent to the Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. and analyzed by 1:1:1 Aqua Regia digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-ESI/ICP-MS) multi-element analyses (BV Code AQ270). Over-limit Pb (>4%) and Zn (>20%) samples are analyzed by 4 Acid Digestion followed by “ore grade” Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (BV Code MA404) and double over-limit Pb (>20%) and Zn (>30%) is analyzed by Titration (BV Codes GC817(Pb), GC816(Zn)). Bureau Veritas (Vancouver) is an independent, international ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory.

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Brandon Macdonald, P.Geo, a ‘Qualified Person’ as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43‑101.

Fireweed Zinc is a new public mineral exploration company focused on zinc and managed by a veteran team of mining industry professionals. This Company is advancing its Macmillan Pass Project where it has an option to acquire 100% of the Tom-Jason property in Yukon, Canada which is host to the large, advanced Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits, and an option on the adjacent large MAC claims which cover projected extensions of mineralization from the Jason area and where previous exploration identified zinc, lead and silver geochemical anomalies in critical host geology.

Additional information about Fireweed Zinc and its Macmillan Pass Project, can be found on the Company’s website at www.FireweedZinc.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On behalf of Fireweed Zinc Ltd.,

“Brandon Macdonald”

CEO & Director