VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Sep. 2, 2009 (Marketwire) -- Canadian Zinc Corporation (TSX:CZN)(OTCBB:CZICF) announces that it is commencing a diamond drill exploration program on the Tuvatu Gold Project ("Tuvatu") on the island of Viti Levu, in Fiji.
The diamond drill, contracted from Radial Drilling Fiji Pty Ltd., has been mobilized to the Tuvatu property. Canadian Zinc has a six month option to evaluate the Tuvatu property and to acquire Tuvatu, at any time up to October 31, 2009. This exploration program will assist the company in further assessing the property.
The exploration program has been designed to test for extensions of previously defined gold bearing zones, and to further investigate some recently discovered gold anomalies located elsewhere on the large area of the Tuvatu property. The gold mineralization, in the main zone surrounding the underground workings, appears to be structurally controlled by faults and/or joints. Similar features, which have the potential to be extensions of the known structures, have now been identified in surface trenches exposed through recent excavations, south of the presently defined resource. These features represent potential hosts to gold mineralization and are targeted in the upcoming drill program. A number of gold anomalies have been found within two to three kilometres of the main resource and some of these are also targeted for drill testing.
The historically defined mineral resource on the Tuvatu Property is hosted within a number of separate steeply dipping gold bearing lode structures. Recent trenching, along a southern strike projection of the existing resource, has located similar potential gold hosting structures within the intrusive rock. The current drill program will explore for the near surface southern potential extensions of the adjacent defined lodes. While the majority of the defined resource is geologically hosted within an intrusive complex, there have been numerous prospective zones containing gold mineralization located within the surrounding volcanic rocks, up two kilometres distance from the current defined resource. Some of these prospective zones are also targeted for drill testing.
The Tuvatu Property
The Tuvatu project consists of two adjoining Special Prospecting Licences which comprise a total area of approximately 3,265 hectares. Tuvatu lies near the west coast on the main island of Vitu Levu in Fiji, approximately fifteen kilometres by road from Nadi International Airport, the main international gateway to Fiji. Tuvatu is located approximately 37 kilometres southwest of the Vatukoula Gold Mine.
A reported 51,484 metres of surface diamond drilling, 13,407 metres of underground diamond drilling and 9,265 metres of reverse circulation drilling has previously been completed on the Tuvatu property by Emperor Mines Ltd.
