Mining News: Northern Neighbors: Prairie Creek drilling cuts high grades

Canadian Zinc Corp. Aug. 11 reported additional significant zinc-lead-silver intercepts from the final seven holes of a 5,484-meter underground drill program completed at the Prairie Creek Mine in Northwest Territories. PCU-15-72, the northernmost hole drilled in 2015, returned some of the highest grades and thicknesses of the 2015 program, including a 7.5-meter vein intercept grading 33.7 percent zinc, 17.8 percent lead and 247 grams-per-metric-ton silver; immediately followed by a 24.5-meter intersection of stockwork style mineralization averaging 12 percent zinc, 6.9 percent lead and 116 g/t silver; and subsequently followed by the intersection of a second vein that averaged 3.8 percent zinc, 5.6 percent lead and 88 g/t silver over 4.5 meters. Additional indications of a second vein system were also intercepted in PCU-15-69 where an initial 10.3-meter vein intercept grading 7.8 percent zinc, 8.5 percent lead and 129 g/t silver was followed by another vein cut 56 meters further downhole that averaged 28.2 percent zinc, 21.5 percent lead and 452 g/t silver over 13 meters. Canadian Zinc said multiple intercepts of stockwork mineralization were cut in all targeted holes, including PCU-15-68 where a 4.9-meter stockwork interval averaged 20.7 percent zinc, 11 percent lead and 173 g/t silver. The mineralization system that has been defined in detail during this year’s 21-hole program remains open-ended to the north, where wide spaced drilling has previously defined an inferred resource.

- Shane Lasley