The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Mining Explorers 2015: Canadian Zinc Corp.

czn:TSX

chairman, President and CEO: John Kearney

vp, exploration & coo: Alan Taylor

VP, Permitting and Environmental Affairs: David Harpley

Canadian Zinc Corp. is focused on optimizing the economics of its Prairie Creek Mine in Northwest Territories with the aim of putting the zinc-lead-silver project into production as soon as possible.

In March, the company incorporated drilling completed from 2012 through 2014 into an updated mineral resource estimate that also considered new engineering parameters for the pending underground operation.

This resource outlined 6.6 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 10.2 percent zinc, 9.5 percent lead and 147 grams of silver per metric ton, plus 7.09 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 11.7 percent zinc, 9.6 percent lead and 117 g/t silver.

A 5,484-meter underground drill program completed early in 2015 successfully upgraded a portion of the inferred resources to the measured and indicated category for potential inclusion in an update of the preliminary feasibility study.

In this area of the mine, the mineralization occurs either in the Main Quartz Vein, a high-grade fault structure that hosts the majority of the defined reserves and resources; or in the Stockwork Zone, a series of narrow high-grade veins occurring at an oblique angle to the Main Vein.

One hole intersecting MQV cut 3.03 meters grading 30.5 percent zinc, 27.5 percent lead and 289 g/t silver.

Another hole targeting a lower portion of MQV cut two veins about eight meters apart that averaged 9.7 percent zinc, 22.7 percent lead and 226 g/t silver over 8.4 meters; and 3.5 percent zinc, 14 percent lead and 194 g/t silver over 5.1 meters.

One hole drilled at Stockwork cut 2.4 meters grading 32.7 percent zinc, 24.7 percent lead and 311 g/t silver.

The drilling also encountered a previously unknown fault structure about 75 meters in the MQV footwall.

The hole that discovered this structure cut 5.4 meters averaging 19.8 percent zinc, 8.3 percent lead and 150 g/t silver.

PCU-15-72, the northern-most hole drilled in 2015, cut a 7.5-meter vein intercept grading 33.7 percent zinc, 17.8 percent lead and 247 grams per metric ton silver; immediately followed by a 24.5-meter intersection of stockwork-style mineralization averaging 12 percent zinc, 6.9 percent lead and 116 g/t silver; and subsequently followed by the intersection of a second vein that averaged 3.8 percent zinc, 5.6 percent lead and 88 g/t silver over 4.5 meters.

As a result of this drilling, an updated resource calculated in September increased the measured and indicated mineral resource at Prairie Creek by 32 percent.

The underground mine project now hosts to 8.7 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 9.5 percent zinc, 8.9 percent lead and 136 g/t silver; and 7 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 11.3 percent zinc, 7.7 percent lead and 166 g/t silver.

Canadian Zinc said the upgraded resource should result in a longer mine life and more higher grade reserves available in the early years of an optimized mine plan for Prairie Creek.

Cash and short-term deposits: C$6.3 million (June 30, 2015)

Working capital: C$5.9 million (June 30, 2015)

Market capitalization: C$17.4 million (Sept. 18, 2015)

1710 - 650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 4N9

Tel: 604-688-2001 • Fax: 604-688-2043

http://www.canadianzinc.com

 

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