News

Canada Zinc Metals Reports Commencement of Exploration at the Akie Project

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce that diamond drilling has commenced on its 100% owned Akie property, which hosts the Cardiac Creek SEDEX Zn-Pb-Ag deposit. The property is located approximately 260 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Mackenzie, in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

Exploration permits were received mid-May and exploration crews, a heli-portable diamond drill and a helicopter were mobilized to the Akie camp on June 4th. Drilling commenced on June 8th. The 2011 drilling program will continue to explore for additional Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization on strike from the Cardiac Creek deposit, both to the northwest and southeast. The target areas include the North Lead Anomaly, the NW Extension and SE Extension.

Drilling on the NW Extension will test the SEDEX style Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization encountered in A-10-69, which intersected 18.5m of thickly bedded pyrite and minor sphalerite, including 12.4m of 0.9% combined Zn+Pb & 2.7 g/t Ag. The style of mineralization encountered in A-10-69 is strikingly similar to the Cardiac Creek deposit. It is anticipated that this mineralization will continue to develop along strike and down-dip, as observed at the Cardiac Creek deposit. In addition, drilling will test the Zn-Ni mineralization encountered in A-10-72, which intersected 1.17m of 2.69% zinc & 0.60% nickel, and returned anomalous values in Au, Pb, Cu, Mo, Sb & other elements. This style of mineralization is similar in nature to the Zn-Ni-PGE mineralization of the Nick deposit in the Yukon. This intersection may represent the first known occurrence of Nick style mineralization within the Kechika Trough.

The North Lead Anomaly remains a high priority target on the Akie property. Drilling will test the down-dip and strike extents of the large intervals of interbedded Gunsteel Formation shale & thickly bedded pyrite mineralization encountered in A-10-68 and A-10-76. These holes returned highly anomalous Zn with values reaching 2.1%. Mineralization from this zone occurs at the same stratigraphic horizon and is similar in nature to the proximal style pyrite mineralization of the Cardiac Creek deposit.

Drilling will be initiated on the SE Extension of the Cardiac Creek zone. Geotechnical drilling conducted in April, 2011, along the centerline of the proposed portal access road, intersected narrow but persistent, sphalerite-mineralized, SEDEX-style sulphides The hole was located approximately 825m southeast along strike from the Cardiac Creek deposit. Mineralization consists primarily of interbedded sulphides and shale, characteristic of up-dip, proximal facies mineralization seen at the Cardiac Creek deposit. Individual sulphide beds appear to be on the order of 10-40 centimeters thick, with an aggregate thickness in excess of 10 meters. Sampling of the interval is underway and results are pending. Similar up-dip mineralization found at the Cardiac Creek deposit is known to give way at depth to improved grades and thicknesses.

In addition to the Akie drill program , a regional mapping and sampling program will be conducted on several outlying properties, including the West Pie, West Akie and Mt Alcock. The regional work will enhance the understanding of the general geology of the Kechika project area, providing insight into the prospectivity of the previously mapped Gunsteel shales.. This work will help identify future drill targets.. Follow-up work will also be conducted on the Pie Breccia showing and the GPS showing discovered in 2009.

The Akie surface drill and regional program is expected to continue until October 2011.

Peeyush Varshney, President of Canada Zinc Metals, states: "The 2011 Akie diamond drill program and the Kechika regional mapping program are two important elements of an overall program of aggressive and systematic exploration on the extensive Company land holdings in the Kechika Trough. The work is aimed at finding and developing additional ore bodies along the strike extent of the prospective Gunsteel Formation shale sequence, the known host to the Cardiac Creek deposit. We are fortunate to have skilled exploration and management staff that can simultaneously implement the summer 2011 exploration program while maintaining focus on engineering, planning and permitting for underground exploration at Cardiac Creek, anticipated to commence in late summer/fall 2011.”

The Company has tendered the underground decline and is awaiting bids from qualified contractors. The road and surface works tender is scheduled to be issued shortly.

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.

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.

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