The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2020 - Published January 19, 2021
Fireweed Zinc's short but intense 2020 drill program at Macmillan Pass included 10 core and nine RC holes at the zinc-rich project along Yukon's eastern border.
Fireweed Zinc Ltd. targeted the expansion of known zones of high-grade zinc mineralization and exploration of new targets during a late-2020 season program at its 544-square-kilometer (210 square miles) Macmillan Pass project in eastern Yukon.
Two deposits at Macmillan Pass – Tom and Jason – host 11.21 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.59% (1.63 billion pounds) zinc, 2.48% (610 million lb) lead and 21.33 grams per metric ton (7.7 million ounces) silver; plus 39.47 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.84% (5.08 billion lb) zinc, 3.14% (2.73 billion lb) lead and 38.15 g/t (48.4 million oz) silver.
Boundary, a zone about 15 road-kilometers (nine miles) west of Jason with the potential to expand and upgrade these resources, was the primary target of Fireweed's 2020 drilling.
A 2019 hole drilled at Boundary cut 100 meters of 7.94% zinc from surface, including 6.4 meters of 42.88% zinc.
A ground-based geophysical survey completed ahead of 2020 drilling outlined a strong gravity high anomaly that extends roughly 800 meters west from the higher-grade core of Boundary into an area of no outcrop that had not previously been drilled.
Gravity anomalies such as this mark known mineralization at MacMillan Pass, including the Tom and Jason deposits.
"The broad gravity anomaly extending from Boundary zone into untested ground presents an intriguing opportunity for expansion of an already large zone there," said Fireweed Zinc CEO Brandon Macdonald.
With this intriguing discovery and the completion of C$2 million in financing in September, Fireweed completed 10 diamond holes – nine at Boundary and one in a target between Tom and Jason. The company also drilled nine reverse circulation holes at Tom and Jason.
"It has been a short but intense exploration season at Macmillan Pass, where we had three drills working," said Macdonald.
The one core hole testing the 240 Mile target between Tom and Jason was drilled to a depth of 632 meters before being suspended due to encroaching winter weather. It did not encounter the target horizon, and Fireweed says further geological and geophysical interpretation of this area is required.
While assays were pending at the time of this report, Fireweed said the drilling at Boundary cut wide zones of zinc-lead mineralization within the gravity anomaly detailed with the 2020 geophysics, significantly extending the footprint of the zone.
The company said the infill holes at Tom and Jason has demonstrated the potential to use RC drilling as a low-cost alternative to diamond drilling for future upgrading of resource categories at shallow depths.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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