Fireweed Zinc Ltd (TSX-V:FWZ) has hailed the results of a step-out hole at the Boundary West target at its Macmillian Pass zinc-lead-silver project in Yukon, which, the company said hit three "distinct zones of zinc-lead-silver mineralization" and has opened up the rest of the Boundary area for exploration.
The diamond drill hole hit high-grade laminated stratiform mineralization similar in style to the Tom and Jason deposits, said Fireweed, with assays including 23.77% zinc, 3.44% lead, and 75.7 grams per ton (g/t) silver over 10.42 metres (m) from a depth of 175.01m.
At shallower depths, from 87.10m, the hole also hit vein hosted mineralization with results including 4.57% zinc, 0.02% lead, and 7.9 g/t silver over a width of 40.24 m.
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A third zone showed massive to semi-massive sulphides, starting from a depth of 316.39m, with an intercept of 60.68m showing 8.22% zinc, 0.71% lead, 53.6 g/t silver. That included a higher-grade massive-sulphide zone of 10.36% zinc, 0.94% lead, and 66.7 g/t silver over a length of 40.08m.
"This step-out hole at Boundary West has delivered not one, but three very impressive intersections over significant widths," said Brandon Macdonald, CEO of Fireweed in a statement.
"Encouragingly, these three intersections represent three separate zones of mineralization, including the first full intersection through the newly discovered Tom-Jason style laminated stratiform mineralization. This hole demonstrates that the new zone has very high grades of zinc, lead, and silver and opens up the rest of the Boundary area to exploration for this style of mineralization."
MacDonald also noted the company was pleased to see "grades increasing with depth in the massive sulphide mineralization and in the vein-hosted mineralization."
"This suggests that at Boundary West there is great expansion potential at depth, where even higher grades may be anticipated," he added.
"A very successful 2021 drill program is now wrapped up after hitting mineralization in each of the ten holes drilled at Boundary Zone and we eagerly await the assay results from the remaining holes."
The drilling part of this year's field program at Macmillan Pass has now been completed for a total of 3,850m in 13 holes.
The soil sampling grid over the Kobuk gravity anomaly has been completed, in addition to a small follow-up detailed grid over an area of anomalous lead-in-soil just north of End Zone, the company added.
Macmillan is a district-scale 940 square kilometre property, which hosts the Tom, Jason, Boundary Zone, and End Zone zinc-lead-silver deposits.
Tom and Jason already comprise a combined indicated resource of 11.21 million tonnes (Mt) of 9.61% zinc equivalent, 6.59% zinc, 2.48% lead, 21.33 g/t silver, with the potential to expand further.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com