Name of the Project
Macmillan Pass project.

Location
Yukon, Canada.

Client
Fireweed Zinc.

Project Description
The preliminary economic assessment is based on a mine plan for the delivery of 32.66-million at a diluted head grade of 9.07% zinc equivalent (5.31% zinc, 3.56% lead and 43.41 g/t silver) delivered to the processing plant. 

Initial material will be recovered at 5 000 t/d using conventional truck-and-shovel surface mining from the Tom and Jason deposits. During the third year, production will transition to underground mining using Avoca-style sublevel retreat longhole (LH) stoping, vertical crater retreat (VCR) and alimak stoping. Stopes will be filled with a combination of waste rock and paste and cemented rock fill.

Openpit mining will account for 13% or 4.2-million tonnes of the 32.7-million tonnes of material mined and processed. VCR and LH methods account for 75% of the material mined and processed by underground methods. Mining recovery and dilution factors have been executed according to the mining method. Average openpit mining recovery and dilution are 95% and 10% respectively. Average underground mining recovery and dilution are 92% and 21% respectively.

The project incorporates a standard comminution, flotation-separation flowsheet, and includes a primary crusher feeding a semiautogenous mill, a ball mill and selective two and three-stage flotation to produce two concentrate products for shipment to offsite smelters.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
In the base case the project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of C$779-million and an internal rate of return of 32%, with a payback of about 3 years.

Value
Preproduction capital expenditure is estimated at C$404-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Fireweed Zinc plans to start a large drilling campaign using three drills, to upgrade priority zones to measured and indicated resources, expand known zones through step-out holes, and drill new targets to discover and define new deposits. 

Mapping, geochemistry and geophysics will be conducted toward new discoveries and guiding exploration of known zones. Baseline environmental studies will continue towards advancing and further permitting of the project.

Further, work will be continued towards an upgraded economic study on the project.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
JDS Energy and Mining (PEA) and Knight Piésold Consulting (tailings and water studies).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Fireweed Zinc, tel +1 604 646 8360 or email info@Fireweedzinc.com.