Fireweed Metals nets $41.7M Lundin-backed financing for Yukon crit-mins exploration

Fireweed Metals (TSXV: FWZ) has boosted a private placement to $41.7 million to fund this year’s exploration in the Macpass critical minerals district of Yukon.

The share offering supported by the Lundin family trusts was originally planned to raise $30 million, the company said on Friday. Fireweed holds the Macpass zinc-lead-silver project and the Mactung tungsten project within its 977-sq.-km land package.

The proceeds will mainly fund a 14,000-metre drilling and regional exploration program at Macpass, Fireweed CEO Peter Hemstead said in a release. 

“This funding enables Fireweed to execute this year’s planned program without the need for additional capital,” Hemstead said.

Shares of Fireweed Metals rose less than 1% by mid-Friday in Toronto to $1.17 apiece for a market capitalization of $175 million. The company has traded between $0.88 and $1.77 over the past 52 weeks.

The financing sees the company issue about 12.7 million common shares at $1.10 per share, and 16.1 million flow-through common shares through a charitable donation arrangement, Fireweed said. 

Top zinc resource

The Macpass project is hailed as one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc resources, hosting four mineralized occurrences — Tom, Jason, Boundary and End zones — plus other exploration targets over a 940-sq.-km area.

To date, only the Tom and Jason mineralized zones have resource estimates, totalling 11.2 million indicated tonnes at 9.61% zinc-equivalent (6.59% zinc, 2.48% lead and 21.33 grams silver per tonne) and 39.5 million inferred tonnes at 10% zinc-equivalent (5.84% zinc, 3.14% lead and 38.15 grams silver per tonne).

Next to the Macpass project is Fireweed’s Mactung project, which hosts a tungsten discovery dating to the 1960s. A 2023 resource estimate established Mactung as the world’s largest high-grade tungsten resource, with 41.5 million indicated tonnes at 0.73% tungsten trioxide (WO₃₎ and 12.2 million inferred tonnes at 0.59% WO₃.