Fireweed intersects 38 meters of 8.73% Zinc, 7.62% Lead and 129 g/t Silver

Aerial view of the Macmillan Pass Project in Yukon, Canada. — Photo courtesy Fireweed Zinc Ltd.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FIREWEED ZINC LTD. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV:FWZ) is pleased to announce the final and best results from its 2017 verification and step out drill program on the Macmillan Pass Project in Yukon, Canada.

Highlights

• Hole TS17-07 intersected the widest high-grade mineralization drilled this year. The intersection consisted of 8.73% Zinc, 7.62% Lead and 129 g/t Silver over 38 meters (true width) including 10.62% Zinc, 10.32% Lead and 178 g/t Silver over 25 meters (true width). These results confirm the very high historic grades in the Tom East Zone.
• Drill hole TS17-06 was a 100 meter step out at depth below the Tom West Zone and intersected a wide zinc-dominant section of 5.27% Zinc and 0.70% Lead over 28.5 meters (true width) including 8.45% Zinc and 0.41% Lead over 5.0 meters (true width). These results confirm that the Tom West Zone continues to depth with significant grades and width.
• Overall verification drill holes reported from the 2017 program confirmed historic grades and widths of mineralization, with some holes providing notably better results, and 2017 step out drill holes demonstrated that zones like Tom West continue to be open for additional drilling.  All these results will contribute to the new mineral resource estimate being prepared now and to a PEA in 2018.

Drill hole TS17-007 was drilled to fill an 80m gap between historic drill holes in middle of the Tom East Zone and intersected very high-grade mineralization over a much wider section than historic holes in the area. Prior to drilling, the projected true-width of TS17-007 was expected to be 14m but the actual intersected true-width came in at 38m, 170% wider than modelled in the historic resource.

Drill hole TS17-006 was a big step out hole below the Tom West Zone and extends the zone about 100m to depth where it remains open for further drilling.

Fireweed CEO Brandon Macdonald stated, “These results confirm the very high-grade nature of the Tom East Zone but much wider than projected from historic drilling. This hole and the other exceptional drill results from 2017 will be used to produce a new mineral resource estimate by January which will lead to a PEA to gauge the economics of the project.”

Future Plans – NI43-101 Compliant Mineral Resource and PEA

With the drilling and re-sampling of historic core completed and all results received, work is now focused on writing of a NI43‑101 compliant mineral resource report for the Tom and Jason areas to update the 2007 historic mineral resource (see Fireweed news release dated June 1, 2017 for details). The new mineral resource will upgrade the 2007 historic resource with:

• Results from an additional 25 drill holes (11 by Hudbay Minerals in 2011 and 14 by Fireweed in 2017), a number of which cut wider and/or higher grade intersections than predicted by historic drill results, and others which were step-outs that expand on previous drilling
• More accurate survey locations for historic drill holes than were available for the 2007 report
• New bulk density determinations obtained during the 2017 field season that, when coupled with both new and historical assay data, will allow better estimates of rock bulk density than were available for the 2007 report.
• Completion of the new mineral resource is expected early Q1/2018.

After publication of the updated mineral resource report, Fireweed will then use the new mineral resource estimate in writing a NI43‑101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment to evaluate future mine planning, metallurgy and project economics.

Concurrently, interpretation of the results of the drilling, mapping, geochemistry and geophysics work from the 2017 field season are being carried out toward identifying high priority areas for exploration toward future new discoveries. Plans for the 2018 work program will include a larger drill program to further step out from the drilling done to date, drilling of other known zones, and field work toward development of new exploration targets on the large property.

Notes on sampling and assaying:

Drill intersections are all HQ3 (split tube) size core (61.1mm / 2.4-inch diameter) with recoveries typically above 85%. After drilling, the core is logged for geology, structure and geotechnical characteristics, marked up for sampling, and photographed on site. The cores for analyses are marked for sampling based on geological intervals with individual samples 1.5 meters or less in length. They are cut in half lengthwise with a rock saw or core splitter at the core facility on site, with half-core samples bagged and sent by reliable transport to the laboratory, and the other half-cores are stored on site for future reference. A total of 5% assay standards and 5% blanks are inserted into every sample shipment as a quality control measure and, after analyses were received, were found to be acceptable.  Samples are sent to the Bureau Veritas (formerly Acme Labs) preparation laboratory in Whitehorse, Yukon where the samples are crushed and pulverized to 85% passing 200 mesh size pulps. A 250-gram split of each pulp is then sent to the Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. and analyzed by 1:1:1 Aqua Regia digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-ESI/ICP-MS) multi-element analyses (BV Code AQ270). Over-limit Pb (>4%) and Zn (>20%) samples are analyzed by 4 Acid Digestion followed by “ore grade” Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (BV Code MA404) and double over-limit Pb (>20%) and Zn (>30%) is analyzed by Titration (BV Codes GC817(Pb), GC816(Zn)). Over-limit samples with high Pb and barite were assayed by reverse aqua regia digestion followed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (BV Code RA410 (Pb)). Bureau Veritas (Vancouver) is an independent, international ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory.

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Brandon Macdonald, P.Geo, a ‘Qualified Person’ as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43‑101.

About Fireweed Zinc Ltd.

Fireweed Zinc is a new public mineral exploration company focused on zinc and managed by a veteran team of mining industry professionals. The Company is advancing its Macmillan Pass Project where it has an option to acquire 100% of the Tom-Jason property in Yukon, Canada which is host to the large, advanced Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits, and an option on the adjacent large MAC claims which cover projected extensions of mineralization from the Jason area and where previous exploration identified zinc, lead and silver geochemical anomalies in critical host geology.

Additional information about Fireweed Zinc and its Macmillan Pass Project, can be found on the Company’s website at www.FireweedZinc.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.