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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Second 2021 hole cuts "three very significant intersections" North of 60 Mining News – September 17, 2021
Looking west over the Tom zone at Fireweed's Macmillan Pass project within the Selwyn Basin, a broad region of the Yukon known for its world-class zinc-lead-silver deposits.
Fireweed Zinc Ltd. Sept. 16 reported that the second hole drilled this year at the Boundary West target at its Macmillan Pass project in eastern Yukon has cut three distinct zones of zinc-lead-silver mineralization.
"This step-out hole at Boundary West has delivered not one, but three very impressive intersections over significant widths," said Fireweed Zinc CEO Brandon Macdonald. "Encouragingly, these three intersections represent three separate zones of mineralization, including the first full intersection through the newly discovered Tom-Jason style laminated stratiform mineralization."
A road-accessible project next to the Northwest Territories border, the 940-square-kilometer (363 square miles) Macmillan Pass property covers a 55-kilometer (34 miles) trend of potential zinc-lead-silver mineralization.
Two deposits at Macmillan Pass – Tom and Jason – host 11.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.59% (1.63 billion pounds) zinc, 2.48% (620 million lb) lead, and 21.33 grams per metric ton (7.7 million ounces) silver; plus 39.5 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.
Lying about 15 road-kilometers (nine miles) west of Jason, the Boundary zone is shaping up to be a large zinc-lead-silver deposit with the potential to significantly expand these resources.
Fireweed first drilled Boundary in 2019. The second hole, NB19-002, cut 230 meters averaging 4.14% zinc, 0.3% lead, and 9.7 g/t silver from surface; including 100 meters averaging 7.94% zinc, 0.1% lead, and 11.1 g/t silver.
A ground-based geophysical program carried out identified a strong gravity high anomaly that extends 800 meters west and 200 meters east of the 2019 drilling.
NB20-004, the first hole to test the Boundary West anomaly, cut 76.5 meters averaging 4.22% zinc, 0.34% lead, and 25.6 g/t silver.
Drilled from the same pad as NB20-004 but at a shallower angle to cut across the mineralization above the Boundary West discovery hole, NB21-001 cut 47 meters averaging 7.71% zinc, 0.7% lead, and 32.1 g/t silver.
NB21-002, the second hole drilled at Boundary West this year, cut:
• 40.2 meters averaging 4.57% zinc, 7.9 g/t silver, and minor lead from a depth of 87.1 meters.
• 33 meters averaging 9.91% zinc, 1.64% lead, and 39.6 g/t silver from a depth of 175 meters.
• 60.7 meters averaging 8.22% zinc, 0.71% lead, and 66.7 g/t silver from a depth of 316.4 meters.
The broad zone of vein-hosted mineralization in the upper section included a 13.4-meter higher-grade zone averaging 9.99% zinc, 0.06% lead, and 17.4 g/t silver.
The second intercept includes a newly discovered zone of high-grade laminated stratiform mineralization similar in style to the Tom and Jason deposits. This 10.4-meter subsection averaged 23.77% zinc, 3.44% lead, and 75.7 g/t silver.
The lower intercept cut massive to semi-massive sulfides under the stratiform interval, including a 40.1-meter higher-grade massive sulfide subsection that ran 8.22% zinc, 0.71% lead, and 53.6 g/t silver.
"This hole demonstrates that the new zone has very high grades of zinc, lead, and silver and opens up the rest of the Boundary area to exploration for this style of mineralization," said Macdonald. "We are also very pleased to see the grades increasing with depth in the massive sulfide mineralization and in the vein-hosted mineralization. This suggests that at Boundary West there is great expansion potential at depth, where even higher grades may be anticipated."
"The discovery of yet another high-grade zone this summer further reinforces my belief that Fireweed's Macmillan Pass project is one of the most exciting exploration projects I have ever been involved with," added Fireweed Metals Chairman John Robins.
The company says it has completed 3,850 meters of drilling in 13 holes at Macmillan Pass this year, wrapping up the drilling portion of the 2021 program.
Fireweed says all 10 holes drilled this year at Boundary and Boundary West, and one hole drilled at the Tom East target cut mineralization.
Assays are pending from 11 holes of the 2021 drill program at Macmillan Pass.
"A very successful 2021 drill program is now wrapped up after hitting mineralization in each of the ten holes drilled at Boundary Zone and we eagerly await the assay results from the remaining holes," said Macdonald.
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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