News

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Thursday, January 16, 2014 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce that it has added additional mineral claims to its 100% owned Kechika Regional Project. The new property, designated Yuen North, lies between and is contiguous with the Mt. Alcock property to the north, and the Yuen property to the south.

The Yuen property, along with the Cirque East and Pie properties, are the subject of an option agreement entered into with Teck Resources Limited (“Teck” TSX: TCK.B) and Korea Zinc Company Ltd. (“Korea Zinc”), pursuant to which Teck and Korea Zinc can spend up to $8.5 million to acquire up to 70% interest in the Pie, Cirque East and the Yuen properties. The new Yuen North property is not included in the option agreement.

The Akie property is the Company’s flagship exploration project and host to the Cardiac Creek SEDEX Zn-Pb-Ag deposit. The Kechika Regional Project, represented by a series of contiguous property blocks including Pie and Mt. Alcock, extends northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres covering the highly prospective Gunsteel Formation shale. The southernmost project boundary is located approximately 260 kilometres northwest of the town of Mackenzie, in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

Yuen North

The Yuen North property measures approximately 2,687 hectares and extends claim coverage over an inferred western panel of Gunsteel Formation shale by a strike length of approximately 5 kilometres. The interpreted western panel is along strike of Teck’s Cirque deposit located approximately 14 kilometres to the southeast.

The Yuen North area was coincidently flown this summer by the Company as part of its 2013 VTEM Airborne Geophysical Survey. Preliminary examination of the data shows several strong parallel linear conductive trends similar to the distinctive EM signature of the Gunsteel Formation shale known from the Akie and Pie properties. The conductive trends connect the Yuen property to the Mt Alcock property, adding a collective 15 kilometres of strike extent of the prospective western panel of interpreted Gunsteel Formation shale.

The conductive trend on Yuen North demonstrates several interesting bulge features, adjacent to longer conductive trends, which may represent fault intersections or structural folds. These features have been recommended for further evaluation, in particular because they align with Ba-Pb±Zn soil geochemical anomalism from historical soil data.

The Company conducted a reconnaissance hydrogeochemistry survey in 2013 on parts of Yuen North to infill sample gaps between Mt. Alcock and Yuen. The results returned highly anomalous sulphate levels in several streams that drain from the Yuen North property and will be evaluated in context with the historical sampling, mapping and the data acquired from the 2013 VTEM survey. This information will be used to focus future exploration on the new property.

Historical Exploration on Yuen North

The eastern half of the Yuen North property was explored by three modest programs by Cominco Ltd. (Cominco) in the 1980’s that consisted of geological mapping, widely spaced soil sampling and reconnaissance rock and silt geochemical surveys. In total about 2,700 soil samples were taken over an area of about 2,314 hectares, which covers better than half of the eastern extent of the new property.

Preliminary geological mapping in 1980 identified the prospective Gunsteel Formation shale in two thrust panels that is host to numerous barite showings. A soil sampling program demonstrated that these showings are coincident with several linear barium-lead ± zinc anomalies.

Follow-up work in 1981 by Cominco consisted of detailed geological mapping, prospecting and closer spaced soil sampling to better delineate the soil anomalism from 1980. Geological mapping further defined the regionally significant baritic Gunsteel Formation shale stratigraphy in two adjoining easterly thrusted panels across the centre of the property. The infill soil sampling confirmed the linear lead-barium ± zinc anomalies and extended the strike length of the westernmost anomaly by approximately 4 kilometres.

Cominco resumed exploration on the property in 1985 with rock lithogeochemical analysis to assist with geological mapping of the main units and trace elemental analysis for key pathfinders for SEDEX deposits. A total of 257 samples were taken on traverses selected to cross the Gunsteel Formation stratigraphy. The work further refined the geological map of the central core of the property.

In 2008, Megastar Development Corp. acquired mineral claims over the area and completed an airborne magnetometer survey. The survey was successful in helping to locate major faults and better constrain the structurally controlled Gunsteel Formation shale.

Peeyush Varshney, President and CEO of Canada Zinc Metals, states "The Yuen North property is a natural addition to the Company's Kechika Regional Project. We see favorable geology and positive historical geochemical survey results coupled with conductive trends from the current VTEM geophysical survey data, similar to our Cardiac Creek zone on the Akie property. With over 23 square kilometres of mineral claims, the new Yuen North property provides coverage of the western panel of interpreted Gunsteel shale and even better positions us to find new mineral discoveries."

The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag Project

The 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 Canada Zinc Metals 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 has outlined a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource at Cardiac Creek, including an indicated resource of 12.7 million tonnes grading 8.4% zinc, 1.7% lead and 13.7 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 16.3 million tonnes grading 7.4% zinc, 1.3% lead and 11.6 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.
 
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