Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1012424
48 www.resourceworld.com A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 MINING with an average grade of 58.4% zinc and 88 g/t silver with recover- ies of 88.9% zinc and 22% silver. 2) A lead concentrate with an average grade of 61.5% lead and 688 g/t silver with recoveries of 75.4% lead and 59% silver. "Many aspects of this study were completed at a level even higher than that required for a PEA study, and we will continue to strive to present the most comprehensive work that shows the robustness of our project," stated Macdonald. The envisioned operation sees an initial three-year open-pit mine followed by an underground operation utilizing the follow- ing mining methods: long hole stope (10%); Sub Level Retreat (31%), Alimak Stope (3%) and Vertical Crater (56%). Fireweed Zinc reports there is still significant upside to improve the economics of the project. For example, there are still numer- ous mineralized zones that remain open for expansion, including two high-grade areas. In addition, the newly consolidated land package remains largely untested using modern exploration methods. The Tom deposit of the Macmillan Pass Project was originally discovered in the 1950s and the Jason deposit in the 1970s. Since that time, and up until 2017, past operators have sunk a total of 39,191 metres (135 drill holes) into the Jason claims and 34,431 metres (219 holes) tested the Tom claims. In addition, between 1971 and 1982, the Tom West deposit area has seen 3,423 metres of underground development to assist exploration as well as for a bulk sampling program. The main risks that have plagued the potential economic devel- opment of this project over the years have been its remoteness and the lack of infrastructure. In September 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the Government of Canada is committed to contributing up to $247,381,000 to the Yukon Resource Gateway Project that proposes upgrades of existing infrastructure to two key areas of high mineral potential and active mining in Yukon. Following the development of project agreements with affected First Nations and environmental and socio-economic review, the Government of Yukon would contribute up to $112,802,000, and industry would contribute up to $108,662,000. The Macmillan Pass Project is situated in eastern Yukon, near the border with the Northwest Territories about 400 km northeast of the city of Whitehorse. As a result, successful economic modelling has boiled down to improving its overall grade and metallurgical recoveries as well as increasing the size of the deposit and optimizing the poten- tial mining process. Naturally, higher commodity prices help, but they tend to be ephemeral over the long term. The Macmillan Pass Project is highly leveraged to metals prices: a 15% increase in prices improves the Pre-Tax NPV by 74%. The flipside, of course, has a negative effect. A project such as this one, with a potential mine life of at least 18 years, cannot rely on commodity prices alone. Fireweed Zinc has been making progress on these fronts and believes it will continue to improve the overall economics of the project. The Macmillan Pass Project is a significant sediment- hosted, exhalative SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposit hosted in the Devonian-aged Selwyn basin. Mineralization in these types of deposits is interpreted to have been formed at or close to the sea- water-sediment interface either proximal or distal to submarine exhalative vents. Metallurgy of SEDEX deposits can often be complex and recov- eries low. Metallurgical studies at Macmillan Pass have begun to optimize recoveries by blending the mineralization of Tom and Jason deposits. Fireweed reports there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, higher grade lead and zinc miner- alization has shown better recoveries, therefore geometallugical domaining may help adapt to the mine plan. Geometallurgy is defining and determining how each geological zone behaves met- allurgically and then optimizing the mine schedule. Fireweed Zinc currently has a market capitalization of $43.4 million with 30.17 million shares outstanding and about $12 mil- lion in its coffers. n