News

Update on Akie Property 2010 Exploration Program â€" 2 More Holes Completed and Encounter Mineralization

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Thursday, September 23, 2010 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to provide a further update on the  2010 diamond drill program currently underway on its Cardiac Creek SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposit. The deposit, which is on the Company’s 100% owned Akie property, is located approximately 260 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Mackenzie in northeastern British Columbia.  

2010 Akie Property Drill Program

Subsequent to the news release dated September 2, 2010, the drilling of two additional holes has been completed – for a total of three drill holes (2,078.78 metres) testing priority targets along the northwest edge and central area of the Cardiac Creek deposit.  The Company is pleased to report that all 3 holes have encountered variable widths of Cardiac Creek style lead-zinc sulphide mineralization. One drill rig has now relocated to the North Lead Anomaly to complete a single 775 metre drill hole which will further test observed mineralization intercepted in earlier drill holes.

Objectives of the 2010 drilling program include testing the prospective Gunsteel Formation shales for the continuation of the Cardiac Creek deposit in the “NW Extension” and to further explore the potential of the highly prospective “North Lead Anomaly” located 2 km northwest along strike of the deposit.

To date, 10 diamond drill holes (5,304.90 metres) have been completed. Of these, 4 holes (1,464 metres) tested the “NW Extension” target while a further 3 holes (1,762.12 metres) continued to test the “North Lead Anomaly”. All drill holes have intersected mineralized shales of the Gunsteel Formation, the primary host of the Cardiac Creek deposit. The sulphide mineralization occurs at the same stratigraphic horizon as the deposit.

Assay results are pending for all drill holes.  All drill core is logged for geology, structure, mineralization, RQD and photographed. Sections of sulphide mineralization are marked for sampling with a series of standards, duplicates and blanks inserted into the sample stream for QA/QC purposes. Samples are split by a diamond saw, tagged and bagged and forwarded to Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C. for analysis. All remaining drill core is stored at the Akie exploration camp.

In addition to the exploration drilling, a brief geotechnical program will commence shortly involving trail construction to the proposed portal site and geotechnical drilling.  The information obtained from this program will assist the Company in advancing the property towards a potential underground exploration program.

It is anticipated that the exploration activity on the Akie property will continue until mid October.

About the North Lead Anomaly

The North Lead Anomaly is a large (200m x 1000m), open-ended, lead-in-soil (70 to 624 ppm lead) anomaly located approximately 2km north of the nearest Cardiac Creek deposit drill hole. Previous drilling has encountered massive sulphide mineralization containing sphalerite and galena (0.8 metres grading 11.6% zinc and 9.05% lead), sulphide replacement (pyrite, sphalerite and galena) of an underlying footwall carbonate debris flow and quartz-carbonate alteration of footwall rocks, all suggestive of proximity to a vent zone. 

About the Akie Property

The Akie zinc-lead property is situated within the southern-most part (Kechika Trough) 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 Inmet Mining Corporation during the period 1994 to 1996 and by Canada Zinc Metals since 2005 has identified a significant body of baritic-zinc-lead SEDEX mineralization (Cardiac Creek deposit).  The deposit is hosted by variably siliceous, fine grained clastic rocks of the Middle to Late Devonian ‘Gunsteel’ formation.  The Company has outlined a NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 23.6 million tonnes grading 7.6% zinc, 1.5% lead and 13.0 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut off grade). 

Two similar deposits, Cirque and Cirque South Cirque, located some 20 km northwest of Akie and owned under a joint venture by Teck Resources and Korea Zinc, are also hosted by Gunsteel rocks and have a combined geologic inventory in excess of 50 million tonnes (not 43-101 compliant) grading  approximately 10% combined zinc + lead.

In addition to the Akie property, Canada Zinc Metals Corp. controls a large contiguous group of claims which comprise the Kechika Regional project. These claims are underlain by geology identical to that on the Akie property (Cardiac Creek deposit) and Cirque. This project includes the  100% owned Mt. Alcock property, which has yielded a historic drill intercept of 8.8 metres grading 9.3% zinc+lead, numerous zinc-lead-barite occurrences,  and several regional base metal anomalies.

Qualified Person

Peter Dadson, B. Sc., P. Geol., is the Qualified Person for the Company, as defined by NI 43-101, and is responsible for the technical 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