Mr. Peeyush Varshney reports
ZINCX RESOURCES COMMENCES 2018 DRILL PROGRAM AT AKIE
Drilling has commenced on Zincx Resources Corp.'s Akie project. The company is now executing on its planned 2,500-metre large-diameter HQ diamond drilling program that will focus on high-priority targets along strike of the Cardiac Creek deposit and on the eastern Akie Gunsteel panel.
2018 drill objectives:
Drill test the southeastern strike extent of the Cardiac Creek deposit beyond the current limits of the resource model; Drill test the downdip extent of the north lead target where previous drilling intersected extensive intervals of bedded pyrite mineralization and a thin massive sulphide lens that are highly anomalous in zinc and lead;drill targeting guided by a new facies model developed from the mineralization on Akie and Mount Alcock properties; Shallow drill targets at the Sitka showing to test the zinc-lead-barite mineralization outcropping at surface where previous channel sampling in 2013 returned high-grade assay results.
Drilling has commenced on the Sitka target. Subsequent drilling will shift to test the mineralized Cardiac Creek horizon northwest and southeast of the Cardiac Creek deposit. The Sitka showing was discovered in 2013 and is located on the eastern Gunsteel thrust panel. The target is characterized by a zone of massive barite mineralization in a vein or healed fault structure associated with abundant galena (lead sulphide) and visible sphalerite (zinc sulphide). The showing is situated along the highly prospective contact between the Earn group (Gunsteel formation shale) and Silurian siltstone.
Channel and grab sampling on and along strike of the Sitka showing returned significant grade zinc-lead-silver-barite results indicative of a new sedex (sedimentary exhalative) horizon on the eastern Gunsteel panel. Significant channel assay results reported in 2013 from Sitka sampling include 5.1 per cent Zn over 0.7 metre from channel 1, 1.9 per cent Zn over 0.8 metre from channel 5, and 0.9 per cent Zn, 1.6 per cent Pb and 4,014 parts per billion silver over 2.4 metres from channel 3. Grab samples taken along strike of the main showing returned high-grade zinc-lead values including 43.55 per cent Zn and 48.95 per cent Pb. The discovery of sedex-style mineralization in this locale has provided impetus for more focused exploration on the largely underexplored eastern Gunsteel panel on the Akie property.
The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag project
The 100-per-cent-owned Akie property is situated within the Kechika trough, the southernmost area of the regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn basin and one of the most prolific sedimentary basins in the world for the occurrence of sedex zinc-lead-silver and stratiform barite deposits.
Drilling on the Akie property by Zincx Resources (formerly Canada Zinc Metals Corp.) since 2005 has identified a significant body of baritic-zinc-lead sedex mineralization known as the Cardiac Creek deposit. The deposit is hosted by siliceous, carbonaceous, fine-grained clastic rocks of the Middle to Late Devonian Gunsteel formation.
With additional drilling completed in 2017, the company has updated the estimate of mineral resources at Cardiac Creek, as shown in the associated table.
ESTIMATE OF MINERAL RESOURCES AT CARDIAC CREEK5% zinc cut-off grade Contained metal Category Tonnes Zn Pb Ag Zn Pb Ag (million)(%)(%)(g/t)(Blb)(Blb)(Moz)Indicated22.7 8.32 1.61 14.14.1620.804 10.3Inferred7.5 7.04 1.24 12.01.1690.2052.9
The company announced robust positive results on June 20, 2018, from the 2018 preliminary economic assessment (PEA). The PEA envisages a conventional underground mine and concentrator operation with an average production rate of 4,000 tonnes per day. The mine will have an 18-year life with potential to extend the life of mine (LOM) through resource expansion at depth.
Pretax After taxNPV7%IRR NPV7% IRR$649M35% $401M 27%
The base case parameters for the PEA used $1.21 (U.S.)/pound zinc, $1 (U.S.)/pound lead and $16.50 (U.S.)/ounce Silver
See news release from June 20, 2018, for important disclosures with respect to the Cardiac Creek PEA.
The PEA is considered preliminary in nature and includes mineral resources, including inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not yet demonstrated economic viability. Due to the uncertainty that may be attached to mineral resources, it cannot be assumed that all or any part of a mineral resource will be upgraded to mineral reserves. Therefore, there is no certainty that the results concluded in the PEA will be realized.
Kechika regional project
In addition to the Akie project, the company owns 100 per cent of eight of 11 large, contiguous property blocks that comprise the Kechika regional project including the advanced Mount Alcock prospect. The Kechika regional project also includes the Pie, Yuen and Cirque East properties within which the company maintains a significant 49-per-cent interest with partners Teck Resources Ltd. and Korea Zinc Co. Ltd. These properties collectively extend northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres covering the highly prospective Gunsteel formation shale, the main host rock for known sedex zinc-lead-silver deposits in the Kechika trough of northeastern British Columbia. These projects are located approximately 260 kilometres north-northwest of the town of Mackenzie, B.C.
Ken MacDonald, PGeo, vice-president of exploration for the company, is the designated qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release. Mike Makarenko, PEng, JDS Energy and Mining, is the designated qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the PEA technical information contained in this release.
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