Fireweed to Exercise Property Options and Accelerate Ownership of the Macmillan Pass District

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FIREWEED ZINC LTD. (“Fireweed” or the “Company”) (TSXV: FWZ) is pleased to announce that it is accelerating and exercising three property option agreements to acquire 100% interest in its Macmillan Pass Zinc-Lead-Silver Project. A map of the acquired properties is attached to this news release.

CEO Statement
Brandon Macdonald, CEO, stated, “Our Macmillan Pass property is host to one of the largest undeveloped zinc resources in the world but it also covers an enormous under-explored 544 km² district where previous operators and our geological team have identified many other exploration targets. With exercise of these property options under favourable terms, Fireweed will now own 100% of the entire district and its great potential for new discoveries. Major and junior companies have been trying to consolidate this district for decades to allow efficient exploration across property boundaries. One significant prospect was named End Zone because exploration of its extensions was limited by an old property boundary.  We are glad that it is Fireweed that has finally consolidated this project leading to a new era of unhindered district-wide exploration on this highly prospective ground.”

Option Agreement Amendments and Exercise Terms:

MAC Claims
On June 24, 2017 Fireweed signed an option agreement on the MAC claims covering 167 km² northwest of the Tom and Jason deposits. Under the agreement, one payment of $115,000 remained to be paid to Maverix Metals Inc. to exercise the option. Fireweed and Maverix have now signed an amending agreement for a payment of $2,500 and 225,000 Fireweed shares to exercise the option. Upon exercise Fireweed will own 100% interest in the MAC claims subject to production royalties to Maverix of 0.25% NSR on base metals, 1% NSR on silver and 3% NSR on gold per the original option agreement.

NS and BR Claims
On April 24, 2018 Fireweed signed an option agreement on the NS and BR claims covering 127 km² southwest of the Tom and Jason deposits. Under the agreement, payments totaling $350,000 and 200,000 shares remained to be paid to Golden Ridge Resources Ltd. to exercise the option. Fireweed and Golden Ridge have now signed an amending agreement for a payment of 900,000 Fireweed shares to exercise the option. Upon exercise Fireweed will own 100% interest in the NS and BR claims subject to production royalties to Golden Ridge of 0.5% NSR on base metals and silver, and 2% NSR on all other metals including gold but excluding cobalt, per the original option agreement. The Company maintains a right of first refusal on the sale of any NSR royalty from the BR and NS claims by Golden Ridge. There is a third party 3% NSR on any future cobalt production from the BR and NS claims. The Company will have the right to purchase one‑half of these NSR royalties (excluding the cobalt royalty) for $2,000,000 at any time prior to the commencement of commercial production. Also the Company will pay an additional $750,000 in cash or equivalent in shares to Golden Ridge, upon receiving a resource calculation of at least 2.0 million tonnes of indicated (or better) resource on any part of the BR and NS claims.