The Macmillan Pass Project is located in Yukon, Canada. — Photo courtesy Fireweed Zinc Ltd. FIREWEED ZINC LTD. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV:
The Macmillan Pass Project is located in Yukon, Canada. — Photo courtesy Fireweed Zinc Ltd.
FIREWEED ZINC LTD. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FWZ) is pleased to announce assays from additional drill holes at the Macmillan Pass Project in Yukon, Canada.
Brandon Macdonald, CEO, stated, “2019 drill results continue to impress. Tom East contributed another hole with high grades over a wide zone despite the hole going off course. Tom North returned more potential open-pit results that could improve current PEA economics. We next look forward to the release of drill results from other zones tested this summer including Boundary Zone that have potential to expand on our current resources, which are already among the largest undeveloped zinc resources in the world.”
Tom East is the highest grade zone discovered to date on the property. In 2018, drilling extended the zone to depth with the deepest hole intersecting 16.4 m grading 21.14% Zinc, 13.55% Lead and 243 g/t Silver (see Fireweed news release dated September 20, 2018 for details). 2019 drill hole TS19-007 was planned to test the potential extension of the zone but the hole deviated from its planned course and drilled multiple down-dip intersections passing in and out of mineralization at a very low angle to the zone. These high-grade infill results provide geological information that will inform geological modelling for resource expansion and exploration in the structurally complex Tom East zone. The potential extension of the high-grade mineralization discovered in 2018 remains untested and Tom East is open at depth.
Historic trenching and very shallow, low-recovery drilling in 1952 indicated the presence of near-surface mineralization at Tom North. The 2019 drilling at Tom North confirms that mineralization extends to depth, and the results define a near-surface zone of zinc-lead mineralization that is potentially amenable to open‑pit mining. The Tom North target has mineralization demonstrated over a strike length of at least 500 metres, and a true thickness between 6 and 23 metres (average of 12 metres). The down-dip extent has been tested to 190 metres and remains open to depth. The mineralization is stratiform and comprises laminated fine-grained sphalerite-galena-pyrite-barite. Tom North is a distinct zone separated from the Tom West zone by faulting.
No mineral resource has been estimated for Tom North yet and the zone is not included in the current mineral resource estimate for the property (described in Fireweed news release dated January 10, 2018). Tom North represents potential for a significant expansion to the Tom mineral resources, for extension of open-pit and underground mine life, and improvement of project economics described in the current Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) (see Fireweed news release dated May 23, 2018). The current PEA includes a three-year open-pit mine life at Tom West over the course of an overall 18-year mine life.
The 2019 drill program is complete. A total of 16 diamond drill holes were drilled for a total of 2,357 metres. Targets tested were Tom North, Tom East, Tom West, Jason North, Target A, Target G, Target R, and Boundary Zone. Assays are pending for additional holes.
The drill core logging and sampling program is carried out under a rigorous quality assurance / quality control program using industry best practices. Drill intersections in this release are all HQ3 (split tube) size core (61.1mm / 2.4-inch diameter) with recoveries typically above 85%. After drilling, core is logged for geology, structure and characteristics, marked for sampling, and photographed on site. The cores for analyses are marked for sampling based on geological intervals with individual samples 1.5 metres or less in length. Drill core is cut lengthwise in half with a core saw; half-core is sent for assay, the other half is stored on site for reference. A total of 5% assay standards or blanks and 5% core duplicates are included in the sample stream as a quality control measure and reviewed, after analyses are received. Standards and blanks in 2019 drill results to date have been approved as acceptable. Duplicate data add to the long-term estimates of precision for assay data on the project and precision is deemed to be within acceptable levels. Samples are sent to the Bureau Veritas (formerly Acme Labs) preparation laboratory in Whitehorse, Yukon, where the samples are crushed and a 500 g split is pulverized to 85% passing 200 mesh size pulps. Clean crush material is passed through the crusher and clean silica is pulverized between each sample. The pulps are 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-ES/ICP-MS) multi-element analyses (BV Code AQ270). All samples are also analyzed for multiple elements by lithium borate fusion and X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) finish (BV Code LF725). Over-limit Pb (>25.0%) and Zn (>24.0%) were analyzed by lithium borate fusion with XRF finish (BV Code LF726). Silver is reported in this news release by method AQ270, and zinc and lead are reported by LF725 or LF726. Bureau Veritas (Vancouver) is an independent, international ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory.
Technical information in this news release has been approved by Gilles Dessureau, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and a ‘Qualified Person’ as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43‑101.
Fireweed Zinc is a public mineral exploration company focused on zinc and managed by a veteran team of mining industry professionals. The Company is advancing its district-scale 544 km2 Macmillan Pass Project in Yukon, Canada, which is host to the 100% owned Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits with current Mineral Resources and a PEA economic study (see Fireweed news releases dated January 10, 2018, and May 23, 2018, respectively, and reports filed on www.sedar.com for details) as well as the Tom North Zone, Boundary Zone and End Zone which have significant zinc-lead-silver mineralization drilled but not yet classified as mineral resources. The project also includes option agreements on large blocks of adjacent claims (MAC, MC, MP, Jerry, BR and NS) which cover exploration targets in the district where previous and recent work identified zinc, lead and silver prospects, and geophysical and geochemical anomalies in prospective host geology.
Additional information about Fireweed Zinc and its Macmillan Pass Zinc Project including maps and drill sections can be found on the Company’s website at www.FireweedZinc.com and at www.sedar.com.
