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

On the heels of a productive exploration season in 2021 at the MacMillan Pass Project in Yukon Territory, Fireweed Zinc Ltd. has attracted additional capital from lead shareholders, including Australia-based Ibaera Equity Group and Teck Resources Ltd.

The new infusion of capital – C$9.7 million in March and C$5.2 million in December – acknowledges the giant-sized zinc-lead-silver potential of the 940-square-kilometer package of mining claims now emerging in a fertile corridor located off the Robert Campbell Highway in southeast Yukon. The funds will be spent to further exploration of the project.

It also reflects dawning recognition of the importance of critical minerals, such as zinc and silver, in the world's transition to clean energy sources driven mainly by demand for electric vehicles, according to Ibaera's principal, Jon Hronsky.

Global demand for minerals and key metals is expected to grow four-fold by 2040, according to Hronsky.

"As oil was in the 20th Century, future-facing minerals will be in the 21st," he predicted.

As a result, Ibaera focuses on the geological upside of mineral projects around the world, and believes zinc specifically is "an underappreciated component of the clean energy transition," Hronsky said

Further, the investment group has concluded after a global analysis that Fireweed's MacMillan Pass is the best zinc project in the world not held by a major due to the presence of four large deposits already identified on the project and significant potential for more large deposits; as well as its potential for multiple mine lives and Tier 1 location in Canada, he said.

"That's what the big boys want," he told investors recently.

In the financing that closed in March, Ibaera increased its equity stake in Fireweed Zinc to 11.3% from 8.3%, while the junior's other lead investor, Teck, boosted its ownership interest to 9.2% from 4.9%. A third investor, a high net-worth individual whose name Fireweed did not disclose, also committed C$2.5 million to the project.

Fireweed said the funds it raised in December allowed the company to secure drillers and contractors, expected to be in short supply during the 2022 field season in Yukon. However, plans for this year's exploration program will not be complete until interpretation of the explorer's 2021 field work is finished and budgets are approved.

Progress in 2021

In early March, Fireweed reported diamond drilling results from the last two holes of its 2021 field program at Macmillan Pass and provided a summary of last year's exploration results and work program on the project.

Highlights of the latest drill results include:

Step-out hole NB21-009 at Boundary West, which intersected 14% zinc, 0.2% lead, and 57 grams per metric ton silver over 3.05 meters within a broader stratiform zone grading 4.9% zinc, 0.7% lead, and 34 grams per metric ton silver over 21.6 meters.

Several narrow (0.85 - 2.0 meters wide) intervals of high-grade (greater than 10% zinc) vein mineralization intersected in a broader interval of vein mineralization grading 3.5% zinc over 28.3 meters in hole NB21-009.

Hole NB21-010 extends mineralization to a strike length of over 400 meters at Boundary West.

Overall, Fireweed completed 13 diamond drill holes covering 3,850 meters in the Boundary, Boundary West, and Tom East zones at Macmillan Pass in 2021, intersecting multiple wide zones of high-grade mineralization including stratiform layers, massive sulfides, veins, stockworks and replacements.

The explorer hit mineralization in every hole at the Boundary and Boundary West zones, including wide massive sulfide zones in three holes and a hole completed at the Tom East zone.

Expanding footprint at Boundary

Zinc mineralization in the Boundary area has a significant footprint, extending over 1,500 meters of strike length and over 800 meters width. Two distinct mineralization centers defined by 15 holes at Boundary West and 16 holes at Boundary Zone.

Boundary Zone, extending at least 350 meters along strike and drilled at least 300 meters down-dip, is approximately 185 to 250 meters true thickness, and occurs from surface beneath a five to 10-meter-thick blanket of till. Intersections that cut through the complete thickness of Boundary Zone are over 200 meters in length and range in grade from 2.35% to 4.51% zinc and contain many shorter high-grade intervals.

In 2021, step-out hole NB21-005 successfully extended zinc mineralization to depth and intersected a two-meter interval of 1.54% copper and 5.42% zinc – the first occurrence of significant grade copper mineralization at Boundary Zone. The exploration target at Boundary Zone remains open in all directions.

Multiple zones at Boundary West

Boundary West is over 400 meters along strike and extends from 20 meters below surface to more than 300 meters down-dip. Boundary West contains multiple stratiform layers that form discrete zones of zinc mineralization, including a laminated zone, a massive sulfide zone, a volcanic-hosted zone, and a "Howard's Pass"-style zone.

The high-grade laminated zone discovered in 2021, with an intersection in NB21-002, returned 23.77% zinc, 3.44% lead, and 75.7 g/t silver over 10.42 meters and is similar in texture and mineralogy to the Tom and Jason deposits.

In 2018, Fireweed reported NI 43-101-compliant resource estimates for the combined Tom and Jason deposits of 11.21 million metric tons averaging 9.61% zinc equivalent (6.59% zinc, 2.48% lead, and 21.33 g/t silver) in the indicated category; and 39.47 million metric tons of 10.0% zinc-equivalent (5.84% zinc, 3.14% lead, 38.15 g/t silver) in the inferred category.

Following this calculation, a positive preliminary economic assessment for the MacMillan Pass project was published.

In 2021 drilling, Fireweed intersected the massive sulfide zone at Boundary West multiple times with grades ranging from 4.8% to 6.5% zinc near surface to 8.2% to 10.4% zinc at depth, with a true width of 22 to 27 meters. Drilling intersected the volcanic-hosted zone in hole NB21-008, grading 5.4% zinc over 73.4 meters, and the zone shows rapid lateral thickness changes.

Boundary West is open in all directions, with a general trend of increasing grade with depth and other geological indications of getting closer to the feeder with depth, where higher grades may be.

Fireweed's geologists say mineralization in the Boundary area is analogous to that found at the Teck-operated Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska, and that world-class zinc operation should be a model for future exploration.

Drilling highlights in step-out holes included 8.22% zinc and 53 g/t silver over 60.68 meters; and 7.71% zinc and 32 g/t silver over 46.96 meters. A new discovery at Boundary West assayed 23.77% zinc, 3.44% lead, and 75.7 g/t silver over 10.42 meters in stratiform mineralization similar in style to mineralization in the Tom and Jason deposits.

A step-out drill intersection at the Boundary Zone also returned the project's first significant copper results of 1.54% copper and 5.42% zinc over two meters.

More exploration ahead

Infill drilling at Tom East intersected 11.7 meters of 6.9% zinc, 5.0% lead and 48.7 g/t silver.

Fireweed said all zones on the project remain open for extension.

The junior also conducted a program of ground gravity geophysics, airborne VTEM geophysics, geological mapping, and geochemical sampling in 2021 and successfully identified new drill targets.

Brandon Macdonald

"The 2021 work was highlighted by new discoveries and excellent results especially at Boundary West," said Fireweed Zinc CEO Brandon MacDonald. "We continued to intersect wide, high-grade zones over a large area and in multiple rock formations with a variety of mineralization types – massive sulphides, veins, stockworks, and another new zone of laminated, stratiform mineralization, similar in style to our large Tom and Jason deposits. All zones remain open for extension building on what is already one of the largest undeveloped zinc resources in the world at just Tom and Jason."

Looking ahead, Fireweed said the main goal of its 2022 program will be to complete sufficient work to update the project's mineral resource to include the Boundary and Boundary West zones and other results collected since 2018, and then update the project's PEA in 2023.