Canada Zinc Metals Announces Completion of Structural Analysis for Akie and Southern Kechika Trough
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Investor Relations Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Phone (604) 684-2181 (No.2017-07-11)
Canada Zinc Metals Announces Completion of Structural Analysis for Akie
and Southern Kechika Trough
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Tuesday, July 11, 2017 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX
Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce that it has received the fi nal report on the structural
interpretation of satellite imagery for the Akie and southern parts of the Kechika Regional Project.
The Company owns 100% of eleven, large, contiguous property blocks that comprise the Akie and Kechika
Regional projects. The Company’s flagship Akie Project is host to the Cardiac Creek deposit. The Kechika
Regional Project includes the Pie, Yuen, Cirque Eas t and Mt. Alcock properties extending northwest fro m
the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres along strike of the highly prospective Gunsteel
Formation shale; the main host rock for known SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposits in the Kechika Trough of
northeastern British Columbia. These projects are located approximately 260 kilometres north northwest of
the town of Mackenzie, British Columbia, Canada.
BACKGROUND
The image processing, interpretation and final repo rt was prepared by Francis Murphy, Ph.D., P.Geo., o f
Murphy Geological Services (Ireland), in collaborat ion with Mark Fitzpatrick of IMAGIS Data Imaging. D r.
Murphy is widely regarded in his main field of specialty; structural analysis as applied to mineral exploration.
The project was designed in order to define the str uctural framework of the district and assist with t he
identification of regional scale and other major first-order fault structures as well as characterizing the nature
and timing of these structures. A detailed interpre tation at a finer scale was undertaken to identify both
second and third-order structures and other structu rally significant features. The principal objective of this
study was to generate exploration targets for SEDEX mineralization over a large regional framework in a
cost-effective manner.
The project involved an interpretation of a 6,162 s q. km area centered between the Akie property to th e
south and the Mount Alcock property to the north an d was undertaken at variable scales of 1:15,000 to
1:25,000 using Sentinel-2 and Landat-7 imagery. Fifty centimetre resolution Pleiades-1A data, centered on
the properties, was interpreted in greater detail a t up to 1:2,500 scale. Landsat-7 imagery was also
processed for haematitic and jarositic iron oxides as well as generalized clay alteration.
STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK & KEY FINDINGS:
The Kechika Trough is recognized as a NW-SE trendin g southward extension of the Selwyn Basin which
evolved as an extension basin in the Late Proterozoic and Palaeozoic and contains a series of half grabens
which controlled local sedimentation. The Earn Grou p was deposited during increased extension and
deepening of the basin in the Middle to Late Devoni an. This black shale dominated sequence is the most
important stratigraphic interval for SEDEX minerali zation, particularly within the Gunsteel Formation.
Extensional faults are considered to have been the feeder structures for the SEDEX mineralization.
Inversion of the Kechika Trough occurred during Lat e Jurassic to Middle Cretaceous as the area became
incorporated into the Rocky Mountain Fold and Thrust Belt due to NE-SW directed compression.
The interpretation has identified six major fault o rientations with NW-SE trending thrust faults as th e most
prevalent. There are subsidiary WNW-ESE and NNW-SSE trending thrust faults and other fault trends that
are mostly related to transverse faults that cross-cut the belt. The thrusts have curvilinear to sinuous surface
traces and most have a northeast transport direction. However, a zone of southwest directed thrusts occurs
along the eastern margin of the properties. Northea st directed thrusts return to dominance farther to the
east. The change to southwest directed thrusts may be related to an intra-basinal horst block. It is
considered that this horst block had an important c ontrol on the local thrust geometries. The southwes t
downthrowing extensional faults on its western marg in would have been reactivated as northeast directe d
thrusts/reverse faults whereas the northeast downthrowing structures on its eastern flank would have been
reactivated as southwest directed thrusts/reverse faults during basin inversion.
The thrust faults are cross-cut by a number of NE/N NE trending major transverse faults that have linear to
sinuous surface traces. It is likely that many of the transverse faults probably originated from the reactivation
of basement structures during the extension of the Kechika Trough. They may have acted as transfer faults
during extension, allowing the extensional displacement to be transferred between adjacent faults and the
development of sub-basins within the Kechika Trough . The geometry of those with strongly curvilinear t o
sinuous surface traces may have been modified by co ntractional deformation during inversion of the
Kechika Trough. The main feeders for SEDEX mineralization are likely to be breached relay zones between
overlapping major extensional faults and the intersection zones between transfer faults and block bounding
extensional faults. These would have represented zones of high fracture permeability and may have acted
as conduits for hydrothermal fluid circulation.
EXPLORATION TARGETS:
A total of 41 exploration targets have been identif ied within the detailed study area based on the res ults of
the interpretation. The targets were evaluated usin g a number of criteria including the presence of th e
Gunsteel Formation, proximity to the flanks of the intra-basinal horst block, presence of major thrusts which
may have formed due to reverse reactivation of extensional faults during inversion, pronounced short strike
length swings along thrusts that may represent brea ched relay zones in the original extensional fault
architecture, intersections between major thrusts a nd transverse faults which may have originally
represented the intersections between extensional a nd transfer faults, proximity to known mineral
occurrences and deposits, presence of geochemical a nomalies, mapped exhalative barite horizons and
Landsat derived alteration anomalies.
Top ranked targets will be prioritized and specific areas of interest will be assessed in the field at the earliest
opportunity. This interpretation will be integrated and assessed in conjunction with data from the Company’s
extensive digital database which includes topographical datasets, additional imagery datasets, geophysical
datasets (including the 2012 and 2013 airborne VTEM survey and the 2015 airborne gravity gradiometry
survey), geological datasets and geochemical datasets.
One such high priority target is a possible vent co mplex identified in the southeast of the Yuen North
Property within a complex zone of thrusting which is interp reted to have formed due to the reverse
reactivation of a breached relay zone between two N W-SE trending extensional faults. A number of
exhalative lenses occur in the vicinity as well as a high intensity clay anomaly. Geochemical sampling by
the company in this target area in 2014 returned highly anomalous barite from rock sampling in baritic shale,
and a long linear northwest trending zinc-lead-bari te soil anomaly that aligns closely to mapped cover age
of the prospective Gunsteel Formation (see Press Release August 20, 2014).
The 2013 airborne VTEM survey from this target area confirmed a coincident linear conductive trend wit h
several interesting bulge features which at the tim e (2014) were postulated to represent fault interse ctions
or structural folds and are now interpreted as a po ssible breached relay zone. If this feature does in deed
represent a breached relay zone it is speculated that it might represent a vent complex responsible for the
formation of proximal SEDEX mineralization in its i mmediate vicinity. The interpreted section is part of the
western Gunsteel panel which is along strike of Teck’s Cirque deposit located approximately 14 kilometres
to the southeast.
Additional high priority targets coincide with historical drilling at Mt. Alcock and Akie and represent attractive
targets to potentially extend known mineralization. More work is required to determine the significanc e of
the fault complexity in these zones.
A field based structural analysis is being consider ed to verify/revise and further develop the structu ral
model. Follow up work on the various exploration ta rgets identified from this study will be planned. T he
Company is also considering expanding the scope of this interpretation to include all the property blocks in
the Kechika Regional project including Bear/Spa, Dr iftpile South and Saint which lie to the north of t he
current study area.
The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag Project
The Company’s flagship Akie property is situated within the Kechika Trough, the southernmost area of the
regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn Basin, one of the most prolific sedimentary basins in the world for
the occurrence of SEDEX zinc-lead-silver and stratiform barite deposits.
Drilling on the Akie property by Canada Zinc Metals since 2005 has identified a significant body of ba ritic-
zinc-lead-silver SEDEX mineralisation known as the Cardiac Creek deposit. The deposit is hosted by
siliceous, carbonaceous, fine grained clastic rocks of the middle to late Devonian Gunsteel Formation.
The Company has outlined a NI 43-101 compliant mine ral resource at Cardiac Creek, including an
indicated resource of 19.6 million tonnes grading 8 .2% zinc, 1.6% lead and 13.6 g/t silver (at a 5%
zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 6.8% zinc, 1.1% lead and
11.2 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade).
Ken MacDonald P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration , is the designated Qualified Person as defined by
National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release.
Francis Murphy, Ph.D., PGeo. (EurGeol), principal o f Murphy Geological Services, is responsible for th e
structural geological related information contained in this release.
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CANADA ZINC METALS CORP.
“PEEYUSH VARSHNEY”
PEEYUSH VARSHNEY, LL.B
CEO & CHAIRMAN