Canada Zinc posts strong results from Cardiac Creek (October 08, 2008)

Vancouver – The first set of assay results from the ongoing drill program at the Akie property in northeast BC returned well mineralized intercepts for Canada Zinc Metals (CZX-V).

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 23.1 metres averaging 7.95% zinc, 1.34% lead, and 10.71 grams silver, starting 271 metres downhole.

Hole 55, the on-strike step out, 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 streches along a 600-metre dip extent. Seven additional holes have already been completed 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 acknowledged Cardiac Creek to hold 23.6 million tonnes grading 7.6% zinc, 1.5% lead, and 13 grams silver, at a 5% zinc cut-off.

Akie sits in the southern-most 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 Cominco (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, which is located some 2.3 km northwest of the edge of Cardiac Creek. It’s a spot where Inmet Mining 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, which lies 70 km to the 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 a piece. 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 the day down 3 at 40. The company has a 52-week trading range of 35 to $1.42 and has 69.1 million shares issued.