Fireweed Zinc Ltd (CVE:FWZ) (OTCMKTS:FWEDF) (FRA:20F) says it is poised to become a 'first mover' when it undertakes a muon tomography survey this summer at its giant Macmillan Pass zinc project in the Yukon.
The company is partnering with Ideon Technologies, which developed the technology and is a pioneer in the space. It uses naturally occurring cosmic-ray muons to measure density contrasts and identify subsurface anomalies such as dense bodies of zinc mineralization.
It can provide high-resolution, straight-line imaging up to 1 kilometer (km) beneath the surface and will be deployed at the project's Boundary Zone and Tom East and may guide future drilling.
READ: Fireweed Zinc set to start 2021 exploration at its Macmillan Pass Property in the Yukon
"Muon tomography as a science has been around for decades but the new technological breakthrough for mineral exploration is building a compact muon detector that can fit inside a drill hole and image up to 1 km underground to then generate high-resolution 3D subsurface models," said Brandon Macdonald, CEO of Fireweed.
"This is potentially game-changing technology that we are leveraging to become a first mover in using borehole muon tomography surveys for zinc exploration. We see value in using this technology to model the dense bodies of mineralization during early stages of drilling to maximize the efficiency of drilling out a deposit.
"We also see great potential in using muon tomography to discover new zones that may have evaded detection by more traditional exploration methods."
Significantly, the technology has potential to detect new exploration targets, provide detailed imaging of existing targets, and reduce the overall cost of exploration by saving drill-metres.
Unlike field geophysical methods such as gravity and magnetic surveys, muon detectors provide directional imaging, allowing anomalies to be located in 3D space by combining measurements from several detectors positioned at different locations underground.
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