Canada Zinc posts strong results from Cardiac Creek (October 20, 2008)

Vancouver–The first set of assay results from the ongoing drill program at the Akie property, in northeastern B. C., returned well-mineralized intercepts for Canada Zinc Metals (CZX-V, CZXMF-o).

The company, known until late September as Mantle Resources, is working to expand Akie’s Cardiac Creek deposit with a 10,000-metre drill program. Of the first five holes reported, four have extended the deposit just over 100 metres updip of the previous limit of mineralization. The fifth hole extended the mineralized zone 100 metres along strike to the southeast.

The best intercept from the updip drilling came from holes 54 and 57. The former hit 14 metres grading 8.14% zinc, 2.98% lead and 18.62 grams silver per tonne from 285 metres depth, including 9.3 metres of 10.17% zinc, 1.75% lead and 12.45 grams silver. The latter hole returned 12.72% zinc, 2.04% lead and 14.45 grams silver over 9 metres within a 23.1-metre interval averaging 7.95% zinc, 1.34% lead and 10.71 grams silver, starting 271 metres down-hole.

Hole 55, the on-strike stepout, cut 10.1 metres grading 6.67% zinc, 1.24% lead and 9.61 grams silver, including 4.2 metres of 7.59% zinc, 1.51% lead and 11.12 grams silver.

All widths are true widths. This first set of results indicates that Cardiac Creek strikes for at least 1 km and stretches along a 600-metre dip extension. Seven additional holes have already been drilled in the program, which is now over half complete, and all have hit mineralization.

In April, the company completed the first National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate for Akie. The report put inferred resources at Cardiac Creek at 23.6 million tonnes grading 7.6% zinc, 1.5% lead and 13 grams silver, at a 5% zinc cutoff.

Akie sits in the southernmost part of the Selwyn basin, an area known as the Kechika trough. The Selwyn basin is known for SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposits, of which Cardiac Creek is one, as well as for stratiform barite deposits. Two deposits similar to Cardiac Creek, called Cirque and South Cirque, lie 20 km to the northwest and are jointly owned by Teck (TCK. B-T, TCK-n) and Korea Zinc.

Canada Zinc has one drill rig working at Cardiac Creek, while another probes the North Lead anomaly, located some 2.3 km northwest of the edge of Cardiac Creek. It’s a spot where Inmet Mining (IMN-T, IEMMF-o) encountered Gunsteel formation-hosted massive sphalerite-galena-pyrite-barite mineralization in 1996 and where soil sampling indicates a lead-zinc anomaly 200 metres wide by 1 km long. Results from the North Lead zone are pending.

And over the summer, the company completed the 9 km of road and almost 4 km of trail needed to improve access to the Cardiac Creek area. Previously, the area was accessible by helicopter only.

While awaiting the road, Canada Zinc spent its time conducting a regional exploration program in the area between the Akie property and its Mount Alcock property, 70 km northwest. Prospecting, data compilation, geological mapping, and soil sampling indicate several new targets hosted by the same geology as seen at Akie.

In early October, Canada Zinc announced the closing of a $6-million private placement wherein the company issued 6.75 million flow-through shares at 90 apiece. Along with news of the first assay results from Akie, the company announced that it will be raising an additional $1 million, by issuing another 1.1 million flow-through shares at 90.

News of the drill results came on another day of uncertainty in the markets and Canada Zinc closed down 3 at 40. The company has a 52-week trading range of 35-$1.42 and has 69.1 million shares issued.