News

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Thursday, February 6, 2020 – ZincX Resources Corp. (“ZincX Resources” or “the Company”, TSX Venture Exchange: ZNX) is pleased to provide an update on the tenure status of the Akie Project and the Kechika Regional Project.

The Company is the 100% owner of its extensive mineral tenure holdings in the Kechika Trough SEDEX zinc-lead district of northeastern British Columbia. The tenure holdings consist of 230 contiguous mineral claims covering an area totaling 79,780 hectares and have an approximate strike extent in excess of 140 kilometres. Within this large tenure package, the Akie property block consists of 46 mineral claims covering a total area of 11,583.4 hectares.  

The Company recently filed a Statement of Work with the Mineral Titles branch of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources that recorded the value of the 2019 exploration program for claim maintenance purposes. Total exploration expenditures of $1,223,930 from the 2019 drill program on the Akie Property have been applied to the Company’s tenure holdings which includes the Akie property. The Ministry has confirmed and accepted the filing and the Company is pleased to report the contiguous claim block of 230 mineral claims is now in good standing until October 21, 2029.

The Company has 90 days to file a report on the 2019 exploration program that meets the requirements of the Mineral Tenure Act of BC. The report will be completed shortly and filed in the coming weeks.

Peeyush Varshney, President and CEO of ZincX Resources, commented; “We have a district-scale land position with no annual holding costs for the next 10 years which enables us to plan and move forward on key milestones with respect to advancement of the Cardiac Creek deposit. The Akie Project is one of the premier global zinc projects in a top-tier jurisdiction with a demonstrated high-grade, large-tonnage, minable-scale deposit with expansion potential and enormous district exploration prospectivity."

There are 162 drill holes on the Akie Property with a total core length of 68,796 metres. Of these, 120 drill holes, totaling 54,287 metres, are within close enough proximity of the mineral resource block model to contribute to the estimation of the mineral resources for the Cardiac Creek deposit. The remaining 42 drill holes test the Cardiac Creek horizon zone over a total strike length of almost 7 kilometres, test other exploration targets on the property, or were abandoned due to deviation issues. The four drill holes completed in 2019 provide additional close-spaced drill intercepts to help define the central and southeastern areas of the deposit.

A total of 2,346.80 metres of drilling were completed in 5 drill holes (1 abandoned) as part of the 2019 diamond drilling program on the Akie property. The drilling tested the up-dip, down-dip and southeast boundaries of the deposit’s high-grade core. Results continued to expand the known boundaries of the high-grade core as well as confirm the consistency of mineralisation throughout this key area of the deposit. Select results from the high-grade core include 23.68 metres (true width) of 10.04% Zn+Pb, and 14.0g/t Ag from hole A-19-150 along the Southeast boundary; 22.93 metres (true width) of 17.24% Zn+Pb, and 24.1g/t Ag from A-19-153 along the down-dip edge; and 11.97 metres (true width) of 10.25% Zn+Pb, and 15.4g/t Ag from A-19-154 along the up-dip edge.

Additional drilling has been recommended on the Cardiac Creek deposit to further define the high-grade core. The deposit remains open at depth and to the northwest, but particularly down-dip in the vicinity of drill hole A-17-137 which returned 11.79% Zn+Pb and 19.1 g/t Ag over a true width of 57.79 metres including 14.51% Zn+Pb and 23.4g/t Ag over a true width of 37.06 metres.

Separately, the Company has granted a total of 2,355,000 stock options to directors and officers of the Company, exercisable for a period of 10 years, at a price of 12 cents per share. 

Previously granted stock options to a number of employees and consultants to acquire 1,850,000 common shares at a price between 30 cents per share and 40 cents per share expiring between December 27, 2023 and February 9, 2028 have been repriced to 12 cents per share. 

These transactions are subject to regulatory approval. 

The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag Project

The 100% owned Akie property is situated within the Kechika Trough, the southernmost area of the regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn Basin and 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 ZincX Resources since 2005 has identified a significant body of baritic-zinc-lead SEDEX mineralization 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 updated the estimate of mineral resources for the Cardiac Creek deposit in late 2017 based on additional drilling completed in 2017, as follows:

5% Zinc Cut-Off Grade					Contained Metal
Category	Tonnes (million)	Zn (%)	Pb (%)	Ag (g/t)	Zn (B lbs)	Pb (B lbs)	Ag (M oz)
Indicated	22.7	8.32	1.61	14.1	4.162	0.804	10.3
Inferred	7.5	7.04	1.24	12.0	1.169	0.205	2.9

The Company announced robust positive results from the 2018 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). The PEA envisages a conventional underground mine and concentrator operation with an average production rate of 4,000 tonnes per day. The mine will have an 18-year life with potential to extend the life-of-mine (LOM) through resource expansion at depth. Key parameters for the PEA are as follows:

 

Parameter	Base Case1
Tonnes Mined	25.8 Mt
Mined Head Grades	7.6% Zn; 1.5% Pb; 13.08 g/t Ag
Tonnes Milled	19.7 Mt
Milled Head Grades (after DMS2 upgrade)	10.0% Zn; 1.9% Pb; 17.17 g/t Ag
Total Payable Metal (LOM)	$3,960M3
Initial CAPEX	$302.3M including $45.7M contingency
LOM Total CAPEX	$617.9M including $58.5M contingency
All-in Total OPEX	$102.4 per tonne milled
Pre-Tax NPV7%	$649M
Pre-Tax IRR	35%
Pre-Tax Payback	2.6 years
After-Tax NPV7%	$401M
After-Tax IRR	27%
After-Tax Payback	3.2 years

1. The base case used metal prices are calculated from the 3 year trailing average coupled with two year forward projection of the average price; and are: US$1.21/lb for zinc, US$1.00/lb for lead and US$16.95 for silver. A CDN$/US$ exchange rate of 0.77 was used. The NPV discount rate is 7%. 2. DMS = dense media separation. 3. All dollar amounts expressed in Canadian dollars.

The PEA is considered preliminary in nature and includes mineral resources, including inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not yet demonstrated economic viability. Due to the uncertainty that may be attached to mineral resources, it cannot be assumed that all or any part of a mineral resource will be upgraded to mineral reserves. Therefore, there is no certainty that the results concluded in the PEA will be realized.

Kechika Regional Project

In addition to the Akie Project, the Company owns 100% of eight of eleven large, contiguous property blocks that comprise the Kechika Regional Project including the advanced Mt. Alcock prospect. The Kechika Regional Project also includes the Pie, Yuen and Cirque East properties within which the Company maintains a significant 49% interest with partners Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.B) and Korea Zinc Co. Ltd. These properties collectively extend northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres covering 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.

Ken MacDonald P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release. Mike Makarenko P.Eng, JDS Energy and Mining, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the PEA 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

ZINCX RESOURCES CORP.

“PEEYUSH VARSHNEY”

                                                           

PEEYUSH VARSHNEY, LL.B
CEO & CHAIRMAN