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Boundary Main and Boundary West systems are now one zone North of 60 Mining News – July 28, 2023
With more than 8,000 meters already drilled in its planned 16,000-meter largest drill program, Fireweed Metals is already excited about the game-changing results from its first assays.
Fireweed Metals Corp. July 26 announced the first batch of assays from its largest drill program ever at the Macmillan Pass project in Canada's Yukon have already delivered game-changing news that links the Boundary Main and Boundary West targets into one continuous zinc-rich zone.
A road-accessible project adjacent to Yukon's border with Northwest Territories, the 940-square-kilometer (363 square miles) Macmillan Pass project blankets a roughly 55-kilometer (34 miles) trend of zinc, lead, silver, and copper mineralization.
According to the most recent resource calculation for two of its more advanced deposits on this district-scale property, the Tom and Jason deposits 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.
Utilizing five diamond drill rigs, this "largest drill program" is slated to include more than 16,000 meters of drilling between Tom, Jason, and Boundary – which is more than double the roughly 7,000 meters drilled last year. Fireweed has already drilled more than 8,000 meters thus far this year.
The 2023 drill program began by targeting a gap in the drilling between two of Fireweed's best‑ever drill holes at Boundary Zone, NB22-002 (124 meters averaging 12.3% zinc, 1.3% lead, 45.9 g/t silver) and NB22‑023 (298 meters averaging 4.5% zinc, 1.4% lead, and 30.9 g/t silver, including 9.6 meters averaging 24.5% zinc, 15.1% lead, and 323.3 g/t silver), where Fireweed has been testing a high-grade feeder zone target that was interpreted to link Boundary West and Boundary Main within a sediment-hosted massive sulfide system.
Assay results for the first three holes of the 2023 drilling program at Boundary include:
• 38 meters (19 meters true-width) averaging 9.12% zinc, 1.5% lead, and 52.6 g/t silver from a depth of 173 meters in hole NB23-001, including 20 meters (10 meters true-width) averaging 15.32% zinc, 2.53% lead, and 86.2 g/t silver.
• 36.3 meters (true-width unavailable) averaging 3.31% zinc, 0.08% lead, and 10.2 g/t silver from 224.74 meters in NB23-002, including 4.2 meters (2.1-meters true width) averaging 18.71% zinc, 0.3% lead, and 47.1 g/t silver – (Fireweed notes this interval had core recovery less than 85%).
• 71.9 meters (40 meters true-width) averaging 6.48% zinc, 3.09% lead, and 97.8 g/t silver from 208 meters in NB23-003, including 22 meters (12 meters true-width) averaging 10.7% zinc, 6.96% lead, and 178.6 g/t silver.
What really has Fireweed excited is the geometry and stratigraphic sequence intersected in the first 18 holes that have tested the target between Boundary Main and Boundary West, strongly suggests that intersections of laminated stratiform mineralization and massive sulfide zones are part of the same geological layer and support the interpretation of spatial and grade continuity between the drill holes, connecting the Boundary West and Boundary Main in three dimensions.
Furthermore, high lead-silver grades and the presence of galena suggest that a feeder zone is present in this connector area.
"The first results of the season have already been a game-changer for Fireweed, demonstrating the presence of a high-grade layer of massive sulphides and stratiform mineralization feeder system which connects Boundary West and Boundary Main in one single zone which we are now just calling Boundary," said Fireweed Metals CEO Brandon Macdonald.
Additional step-out drilling in the area between the Boundary Main and Boundary West zones has continued to intersect wide intervals of zinc-lead mineralization with assays pending.
Fireweed adds that this is a preliminary interpretation of the available geological data and will be further tested by additional drilling in 2023, with additional step-outs to provide a deeper test of the stratiform layer.
"We are delighted with the 2023 drill program so far, and we are excited to continue drilling step-outs in and around this potential feeder, as well as the other step-out targets at Boundary, Tom, Jason, and beyond," said Macdonald.
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