The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Despite delays, company begins largest program at Macmillan North of 60 Mining News – July 29, 2022
Located just west of Canada's Northwest Territories border, Fireweed Metals' Macmillan Pass project in the Yukon covers deposits and prospects enriched with zinc, lead, and silver.
Fireweed Metals Corp. July 26 announced the start of its 2022 diamond drilling program at the Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project in Yukon, Canada.
The 544-square-kilometer (210 square miles) Macmillan Pass property blankets a roughly 55-kilometer (34 miles) trend of zinc, lead, and silver mineralization just west of the Northwest Territories border.
Two of its more advanced deposits – 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.
"We are finally drilling! After a delayed start-up mainly due to a late spring, drilling has begun," said Brandon Macdonald, CEO of Fireweed Metals.
This year's program is expected to have four drills turning, targeting over 7,000 meters between four zones, a reduction from the expected 8,000 meters initially announced due to the late start.
You can read the initial announcement for its 2022 drilling program at Fireweed Zinc drilling is now underway in the June 20, 2022, edition of North of 60 Mining News.
"The first two of our four drills are turning with the final drill arriving at site shortly," added Macdonald. "Even with the late start we anticipate drilling over 7,000 meters this summer to make it the largest drill program Fireweed has ever carried out at the project."
With the Boundary zones open in every direction, the 2022 program has been designed to test step-outs around the peripheries of both Boundary and Boundary West, in addition to testing a potential connection between the two zones.
The step-outs will include testing down-dip continuation of the recently discovered high-grade stratiform mineralization at Boundary West and testing for additional massive sulfide mineralization near-surface.
Three rigs will operate at Boundary and Boundary West, where most of the drilling will occur.
The fourth rig will drill Tom West, Tom North, Jason and Jason South subzones targeting select extensions and other parts of these four zinc-lead-silver deposits. The holes at Tom West will focus on providing infill within high-grade zones where the current mineral resource is supported by small-diameter historic diamond drill holes with very poor recovery in the higher-grade portions of the holes.
The company says it sees potential to increase zinc, lead, and silver grades in these areas by drilling modern larger diameter holes, as demonstrated in previous Fireweed drill programs.
The drilling at Tom North will target a step-out of the near-surface mineralization that is potentially amenable to open-pit mining, while the drilling at Jason and Jason South will target high-grade step-outs.
By the end of the 2022 campaign, Fireweed will have four seasons of additional drill data to inform new mineral resources for Macmillan, including an inaugural resource for the Boundary, Boundary West, End Zone, and Tom North zones, and an updated resource for Tom West, Tom East, Tom Southeast, as well as Jason and Jason South.
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