Fireweed Metals Corp (FWEDF)

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FIREWEED METALS CORP. is pleased to announce the results of the first metallurgical and ore-sorting test work from Boundary Zone, an emerging zinc discovery at Macmillan Pass, Yukon, Canada.

Vancouver, British Columbia: FIREWEED METALS CORP. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FWZ; OTCQB: FWEDF, formerly known as Fireweed Zinc Ltd.) is pleased to announce the results of the first metallurgical and ore-sorting test work from Boundary Zone, an emerging zinc discovery at Macmillan Pass, Yukon, Canada.

Highlights

- Open circuit cleaner flotation tests show up to 97% zinc recovery.
- Zinc concentrates show high grades ranging from 53% to 63% zinc.
- A coarse grind size yields excellent recovery, with up to 99% in rougher tests.
- Three critical minerals are present in concentrates: zinc, germanium, and gallium.
- Selective use of ore sorting only on low-grade material shows promising results for potentially increasing feed grades, decreasing processing costs, and reducing tailings volumes whilst preserving the value in the abundant high-grade zones at Boundary.

CEO Statement

Brandon Macdonald, CEO, stated “The first metallurgical results from Boundary Main are back and show excellent results. The coarse nature of the sphalerite means that a relatively coarse grind size is all that is needed to produce a high-grade zinc concentrate with high recoveries. We have shown that Boundary Zone, like Tom and Jason, can produce high-quality zinc concentrates that we anticipate would be attractive to global markets. High concentrations of germanium and moderate concentrations of gallium in the zinc concentrates highlight the potential for recovery of these critical metals as by-products during the zinc smelting process. Even though we see by far the most potential economic value in the zinc, the addition of germanium and gallium to the mix brings the total of different critical metals present at Boundary Zone to three. This elevates the potential of the Macmillan Pass project to be one of Canada’s leading critical minerals projects.”

Plain Language Summary

Preliminary test work has been carried out on samples from Fireweed’s new zinc discovery at Boundary Zone at the Macmillan Pass project, Yukon. These tests provide an initial impression of how the zinc- and lead-bearing rocks may respond to crushing, grinding, and processing to produce zinc and lead concentrates. The test results are very promising: the rocks have a moderate to moderately high hardness; a reasonably coarse grind size is sufficient to liberate zinc and lead minerals; and high-grade zinc concentrates can be produced from most of the material tested from Boundary Zone with only small amounts of zinc loss during processing.

Lead is only a minor component of the mineralization at Boundary Zone and only samples with appreciable amounts of lead were metallurgically tested with a dedicated lead circuit. Lead test work results were variable and generally poorer than for zinc. With the relatively low lead content of Boundary Zone shown to date, this likely limits the overall economic importance of lead. Likewise, there is limited silver in much of Boundary Zone Main, and the samples showed low silver grades.

This metallurgical testing showed variable results for the limited silver in the material tested, however silver has never been of material economic importance in this zone. Ore sorting is a process where mined material is scanned for various properties, including density and metal concentration, and then sorted to remove waste before milling.

The test work results showed that the low-grade material that surrounds the higher grade zones at Boundary Main has properties which make it suitable for ore sorting, and there exists an exciting possibility of deploying this technology to reduce costs and improve economics at the project. Higher grade zones would likely not be sorted to prevent any losses of the higher-value material during the sorting process. The test work is preliminary in nature, and further testing is required to more accurately predict the behaviour of Boundary Zone material during processing. However, the results suggest metallurgical performance for zinc could be excellent and should not be an impediment in demonstrating reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.

Read more at:
https://fireweedmetals.com/news/fireweed-announces-positive-metallurgy-from-boundary-zone-macmillan-pass/