Fireweed intersects 4.76% zinc over 43.7 metres at Yukon project
Fireweed Zinc Ltd. [FWZ-TSXV] on Thursday February 25 released the final results from 2020 drilling from its Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project in the Canadian Yukon.
The latest results are from Boundary Zone West, discovered last year with a 360-metre step-out hole drilled on a gravity anomaly 15 road-km west of the Tom-Jason deposits and includes discovery of a new lower sequence hosted in older host rocks than mineralization found at Macmillan Pass.
The Boundary Zone has now been traced over a strike length of 630 metres, both upper and lower sequence mineralization remains open for expansion along strike and down dip.
Drilling highlights include Hole NB20-009, which intersected a dense upper sequence of 4.76% zinc, 0.43% lead and 18.9 g/t silver over 43.7 metres, including a high-grade stratiform zone of 26.5% zinc, 5.21% lead and 53.4 g/t silver over 2.19 metres from a vertical depth of 40 metres from surface.
Fireweed shares declined on the news, falling 7.4%% or $0.07 to 88 cents. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 30.5 cents and $1.31.
Located in eastern Yukon 350 km northeast of Whitehorse, Macmillan Pass is thought to be one of the world’s leading undeveloped zinc projects. Indicated resources in the Tom and Jason zones are 11.21 million tonnes of 9.61% zinc equivalent or 6.59% zinc, 2.48 g/t silver, including 1.63 billion pounds of zinc, 610 million pounds of lead and 7.69 million ounces of silver.
Inferred resources are 39.47 million tonnes of 10% of zinc equivalent, including 5.84% zinc, 3.14% lead, 38.15 g/t silver or 5.08 billion pounds of zinc, 2.73 billion pounds of lead and 48.41 million ounces of silver.
A PEA in May, 2018 stated that material can sustain a mining operation for 18 years with average yearly contained metal production would be 85,000 tonnes of zinc, 48,000 tonnes of lead and 2 million ounces of silver. The total project cost is estimated to be $1.05 billion, including pre-production capital expenditures of $404 million.
Teck Resources Ltd. [TECK.A, TECK.B-TSX; TECK-NYSE] recently increased its stake in Fireweed to 9.9%.
“These first few holes into the new Boundary West discovery have shown the near-surface sequence to have significant widths and grade, not just in the newly discovered massive sulphide zone, but also within the barite-hosted stratiform mineralization which in NB20-009 has shown grade potential rivalling the best of Ton & Jason,” Fireweed CEO Brandon Macdonald.