News

Canada Zinc Metals Receives Underground Exploration Permit from BC Government

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Friday, August 19, 2011 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce it has received an underground drill permit from the BC government for the Akie project which will facilitate advanced exploration of the Cardiac Creek deposit. The 100% owned Akie property, which includes the Cardiac Creek SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposit, is located approximately 260 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Mackenzie in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

The underground drill permit is valid for a period of three years and is the main construction permit required to build the surface and underground infrastructure required for a comprehensive diamond drill definition program on the Cardiac Creek deposit. The underground exploration program, as currently planned, is comprised of 1,600 metres of underground development and 16,000 metres of underground diamond drilling designed to upgrade the current 43-101 compliant inferred resource to the measured and indicated category. Drill cores from underground would also be used in a systematic metallurgical sampling program intended to ensure metallurgical sampling across the full spectrum of the deposit. Underground development would also provide important engineering data for future mine design.

Work is anticipated to commence shortly to upgrade the present road access to the planned portal site. The Company also plans to build a small waste dump, a settling pond and the portal pad required to support equipment required for construction of the main decline. Diamond drilling is anticipated to commence in 2012 after sufficient advance of the underground decline has been achieved.

"We are very pleased to receive this permit for our planned underground program at Akie. This is a significant milestone in the advancement of the project as we move the Akie Project toward feasibility," commented Mr. Peeyush Varshney, Chairman & CEO of Canada Zinc Metals.

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 siliceous, carbonaceous, 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