Reviewed by Alex SmithJun 21 2022
Fireweed Zinc Ltd. is happy to declare that the first field teams have been dispatched to the Macmillan Pass Property in Yukon, Canada, in preparation for a significant 2022 drill program. Considerable enhancements are being made to the camp to back the four-rig 2022 program. Core scanning, diamond drilling, and a muon tomography survey are about to commence in the following weeks after the access road opens.
Map 1: Macmillan Pass Project. Drilling will commence at Boundary Zone, which is open in every direction, as well as at the Tom and Jason deposits to inform an updated resource and subsequent PEA. Image Credit: Fireweed Zinc Ltd.
Highlights
- Advanced hyperspectral scanning equipment will be used to scan all 2022 core, as well as core from earlier programs and historical core
- In the next few months, field crews will perform due diligence and validation work at the nearby Mactung Tungsten Project in preparation for the scheduled Mineral Resource update and PEA economic analysis
- At Boundary Zone and Boundary West, two-thirds of the meters will be step-out and infill, with the remaining meters split between Tom and Jason for high-grade step-out and infill holes
- With 8,000 m of diamond drilling planned, this will be Fireweed’s greatest drill program to date
- Muon detectors will be used at Boundary West to assist in identifying the geometry of the recently discovered huge and high-grade laminated sulfide zones and to efficiently target step-outs
V.P. Exploration Statement
We are very excited to start our 2022 season. It will be the largest and most ambitious program ever carried out by Fireweed at the Macmillan Pass Project. We are also excited to use innovative new technologies, such as muon tomography and hyperspectral imaging to guide exploration.
Gilles Dessureau, Vice President, Exploration, Fireweed Zinc Ltd.
Dessureau added, “The main objectives of the 2022 field program will be to define and expand the known mineralized zones toward an updated mineral resource study this winter followed by an updated preliminary economic study.”
2022 Diamond Drill Program
The drill program for 2022 will use four diamond drill rigs to complete about 8,000 m of drilling throughout the zones. Boundary Zone is open in all directions, and the 2022 program was created to test step-outs on the outskirts of Boundary Main and Boundary West, as well as a possible link between the two zones.
Testing for the possible down-dip continuation of the newly found high-grade stratiform mineralization at Boundary West as well as testing for further massive sulfide mineralization near the surface will be among the step-outs. Three of the rigs will stay in Boundary Zone, where Fireweed plans to drill 5,800 m.
Between these four significant zinc-lead-silver deposits, the fourth rig will drill Tom West, Tom North, Jason Main, and Jason South, with a target depth of roughly 2,300 m.
The holes at Tom West will be focused on infilling high-grade zones where the present mineral resource is supported by small-diameter historic diamond drill holes with a poor recovery in the higher-grade sections of the holes.
As evidenced in earlier Fireweed drill programs, drilling large HQ diameter holes with triple-split tubes to optimize recovery has the potential to raise zinc, lead, and silver grades in these locations.
The drilling at Tom North will be aimed at a step-out of near-surface mineralization that might be mined open-pit. High-grade step-outs will be targeted while drilling at Jason Main and Jason South.
Fireweed will have four seasons of new drill data by the end of the 2022 campaign, which will be used to notify a new global mineral resource, including an initial resource for the Boundary Main, Boundary West, End Zone, and Tom North zones, as well as an updated resource for the Tom West, Tom East, Tom Southeast, Jason Main, and Jason South zones.
The new resource will be used by Fireweed to drive a new project Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
2022 Core Scanning Program
GeologicAI was hired by Fireweed to scan all of the 2022 drill core, as well as a large amount of the core from prior Fireweed operations and some of the historic core from previous operators.
High-resolution digital photography, LiDAR topography, shortwave, visible, and near-infrared hyperspectral images, and X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) scans will all be part of the scanning. By improving the next PEA, Fireweed plans to use this information to build geometallurgical models of the deposits that have the potential to deliver value.
2022 Muon Tomography Survey
Fireweed will install muon detectors in two drill holes at Boundary West in collaboration with Ideon Technologies. These detectors will be used to determine the geometry of current zinc mineralization at Boundary West, as well as to search for further mineralization in the region.
Muon tomography is a down-hole geophysical technique that employs naturally occurring cosmic-ray muons to detect subsurface abnormalities such as dense masses of zinc mineralization by measuring density contrasts.