VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 10, 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 first drill holes from the Jason Main Zone which is a wide zone of zinc-dominant mineralization. Additional drilling has been completed and results are pending from both the Tom and Jason areas. Results from the first four drill holes on the Jason Main Zone are as follows:
JASON MAIN ZONE DRILL RESULTS1
| Hole No. | From | To | Interval | Estimated True Width2 | Zinc | Lead | Silver |
| (meters) | (meters) | (meters) | (meters) | (%) | (%) | (g/t) | |
| JS17-01 | 172.30 | 183.26 | 10.96 | 7.0 | 12.16 | 3.13 | 1.6 |
| JS17-02 | 155.18 | 172.76 | 17.58 | 10.5 | 7.82 | 1.39 | 1.3 |
| Including: | 165.00 | 172.76 | 7.76 | 4.6 | 11.19 | 1.94 | 1.2 |
| JS17-03 | Drill hole abandoned before reaching main zone3 | ||||||
| JS17-04 | 154.19 | 179.00 | 24.81 | 11.2 | 9.07 | 1.60 | 0.7 |
| Including: | 170.70 | 179.00 | 8.30 | 3.7 | 14.03 | 1.29 | 1.1 |
Notes to table:
- Maps of the drill hole locations are attached to this news release or available on the Fireweed website at www.FireweedZinc.com.
- True Width is estimated from the company’s current understanding of the orientation of the mineralized body in the area of the drill intersection and will be refined when the final geological model for the planned mineral resource report is completed.
- Drill hole JS17-03 was abandoned before reaching the main zone due to drilling and survey problems.
Figure 1. Tom Jason Deposits Area
Figure 2. Jason Deposit Area
These first holes at Jason Main were infill holes and verified results of nearby historic drill holes which will allow them to be used in the modelling of a new updated NI43-101 mineral resource. Previously reported verification holes at the nearby Tom West Zone reported wide, high-grade zinc-lead-silver intersections including 10.20% Zinc, 6.28% Lead and 87.7 g/t Silver over 24.4 meters true width (see Fireweed news release dated September 12, 2017 for details). Additional verification, step-out and metallurgical holes have been completed in the Tom and Jason areas and will be reported as they are received and interpreted.
Completion of Airborne Surveys and Fieldwork
The Phase One exploration program at the Macmillan Pass Project has now been completed. In addition to the drilling, airborne surveys and fieldwork were carried out on the property.
The airborne geophysics survey has been completed and the data is now being compiled and interpreted. The purpose of the airborne geophysics program was to rapidly cover the entire area of the Tom and Jason claims as well as the southern portion of the adjacent MAC claims with the objectives of helping to map critical subsurface geology and identify drill targets for new discoveries and extensions of known mineralization. The geophysics work employed a state-of-the-art helicopter-borne Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM) system and a high sensitivity magnetometer. Parallel lines were flown at 100 meter spacing on a north-northeast bearing for a total of about 1,000 line kilometers.
A program of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) surveying was carried out and completed surveying the Jason half of the property before it was suspended due to weather. The LiDAR work will be completed when conditions allow. The purpose of the LiDAR survey is to produce a very accurate topographic map of the property for engineering and mapping work as well as aid in the mapping of geological features. High definition aerial photography is also carried out during the survey to aid in geological and engineering work.
Exploration field work was carried out including surface geological mapping and geochemical sampling in the search for new discoveries in the Tom and Jason deposit areas. Assays are pending and the mapping has resulted in a better understanding of the geology which will be used in planning of future exploration programs.
Future Plans – NI43-101 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 zones 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 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%) is analyzed by Pb Titration (BV Code GC817). Bureau Veritas (Vancouver) is an independent, international ISO/IEC 17025:2005 credited 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.
About Fireweed Zinc Ltd.: 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.
