North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Fireweed Zinc Ltd. Nov. 23 announced an update from the 2021 drilling program at Macmillan Pass in Yukon, Canada, with a substantial intersect cutting 16.1 meters of 10.4% zinc and 15.7 grams per metric ton silver in a step-out hole at Boundary West target.

Accessible by road next to the Northwest Territories border, the 940-square-kilometer (363 square miles) Macmillan Pass property that covers a 55-kilometer (34 miles) trend of potential zinc, lead and 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.

Roughly 15 road-kilometers (nine miles) west of Jason, the Boundary Zone has shown consistent results comparable to the high-grade mineralization found at Tom and Jason.

Fireweed first drilled Boundary in 2019 and 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.

The latest batch of results are from five holes drilled at Boundary West, a strong gravity high anomaly that extends roughly 800 meters west from the higher-grade core of Boundary, into an area of no outcrop.

The best hole, NB21-008, intersected a wide zone of mineralization grading 5.41% zinc, 0.19% lead, and 10.5 g/t silver over 73.35 meters, including 10.39% zinc, 0.16% lead, and 15.7 g/t silver over 16.09 meters – extending mineralization to depth.

Boundary West has now been demonstrated to be a significant exploration target with zinc mineralization being confirmed over a strike length of at least 250 meters, and near surface to at least 350 meters vertical depth. This mineralization remains open in multiple directions, including to the south and at depth in the north.

The zinc mineralization there has been encountered in at least three discrete stratiform zones, with variable true thicknesses that aggregate to approximately 30 to 50 meters and are separated by barren or very low-grade zinc material.

"This year's results from Boundary Zone and Boundary West have clearly demonstrated that our exploration thesis was correct – there is high-grade laminated barite-hosted zinc-lead-silver mineralization as well as zones of massive sulfides and very wide intervals of vein-hosted mineralization at Boundary West," said Fireweed Zinc CEO Brandon Macdonald. "We've now discovered all these styles of mineralization and many new zones in a large zinc system at Boundary Zone."

"The great results in 2021 continue to demonstrate that Boundary Zone is a key piece of the Macmillan Pass project alongside the high-grade deposits at Tom and Jason," he finished.