The updated mineral resource estimate for the Mactung project contains 41.5 million tonnes of indicated resources and 12.2 million tonnes of inferred resources of (WO3) tungsten trioxide and includes estimates for copper and gold
Fireweed updates Mactung project mineral resource. (Credit: Albert Hyseni on Unsplash)
Canadian mining company Fireweed Metals has announced a new mineral resource estimate for its Mactung project, located in Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada.
Garth Kirkham from Kirkham Geosystems has completed the mineral resource estimate, using commercial mine-modelling and geostatistical software.
The current mineral resource at Mactung indicates the largest high-grade tungsten resource worldwide and deviates in terms of grade and contained metal.
The updated mineral resource estimate contains 41.5 million tonnes of indicated resources and 12.2 million tonnes of inferred resources of (WO3) tungsten trioxide.
In addition, it has identified an exploration target of 2.5 to 3.5 million tonnes at a grade ranging from 0.4% to 0.6% WO3, within the mining shapes that constrain mineral resources.
The resource estimate also includes estimates for copper and gold, while the company’s ongoing metallurgical test work aims to determine the recoveries of the by-product metals.
Fireweed Metals CEO Brandon Macdonald said: “In one year we have gone from signing an initial Letter of Intent to a Definitive Asset Purchase Agreement to the publication of new mineral resource for Mactung.
“We have taken the historic resource through a process involving re-logging, resampling, and a rigorous, modern estimation methodology, and confirmed an impressive and world-class tungsten resource at Mactung.
“This not only reaffirms Mactung’s unmatched combination of grade and scale but establishes it as a truly strategic critical minerals project for the West with the underground resource alone able to supply much of North America’s expected demand for decades.”
The Mactung project is located 13km north of Fireweed’s Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project and airstrip, which offers the potential for future project synergies.
It is a tungsten skarn deposit associated with Tombstone-Tungsten suite granitic intrusions, broadly related to several gold and tungsten deposits across Yukon-Northwest Territories.
The deposit is located within the territories of the Kaska Dena Nation and First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, and the Sahtú Settlement Area.
It is sub-divided into an upper and lower zone that both occur at the surface and extend to around 400m depths from the mine surface.
Brandon added: “Fireweed is looking forward to collaborating with federal, territorial, and Indigenous governments to advance Mactung through the permitting and detailed engineering stages of this unique project.”