Canada Zinc Metals Engages Structural Consultant for 2017 Exploration Program

Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (“Canada Zinc Metals” or “the Company”, TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to provide an update on its 2017 exploration plans for the Akie and Kechika North projects.

The Company has engaged Murphy Geological Services to conduct a structural interpretation and analysis of the Company’s high-resolution satellite imagery across several properties including Akie, Yuen North and Mt. Alcock. This work will be initiated in early April and will provide valuable targeting data in advance of this year’s regional and drilling exploration programs. Planning for the Company’s previously announced 2017 exploration program, including up to 7,500 metres of drilling, is currently entering the final detail phase.

2017 Exploration Plan

Kechika Trough Structural Interpretation

The Company has engaged Murphy Geological Services of Midleton, Cork, Ireland to conduct a detailed structural interpretation of the Company’s high-resolution satellite imagery across several of its properties including Akie, Mt. Alcock and Yuen North. This work is anticipated to begin in early April with final products to be delivered in advance of the exploration program set to begin in early June.

In 2013, the Company acquired 1-metre resolution Pleiades satellite imagery over the Kechika Trough mineral tenures. The imagery has been used extensively for interpretation and planning purposes. This work by Murphy Geological Services will utilize the Pleiades satellite imagery as well as Landsat-7 and Sentinel-2 imagery in order to establish the regional structural framework. The interpretation will identify the presence of all regional scale and other major first-order fault structures as well as characterizing the nature and timing of these structures. This will be followed by a detailed interpretation over the Company’s properties that will identify both second and third-order structures as well as other structurally significant features.

This interpretation will be integrated and assessed in conjunction with data from the Company’s extensive digital database which includes topographical datasets, additional imagery datasets, geophysical datasets (including the 2012 and 2013 airborne VTEM survey and the 2015 airborne gravity gradiometry survey), geological datasets and geochemical datasets.

Top ranked targets will be generated as a result of the interpretation and data synthesis, and specific areas of interest will be assessed during the upcoming exploration program to determine their viability as drill targets. At a future date the Company may expand the scope of this interpretation to include all the property blocks in the Kechika Regional project including Bear/Spa, Driftpile South and Saint.

Mr. Peeyush Varshney, President and CEO, of the Company stated, "The results from the structural interpretation will provide important structural data allowing us to refine and prioritize Akie and regional future drill targets and will enhance our understanding of how the Cardiac Creek deposit resides within regional structural framework.”

Diamond Drilling Program

Planning for the previously announced 2017 exploration program has reached the detail stage with contract tenders prepared and sent out for costing. The plan is to mobilize two drills to the Akie property to complete an extensive and aggressive diamond drill program of up to 7,500 metres for 2017. Approximately 5,000 metres of drilling is planned to target the Cardiac Creek deposit with a focus on expanding the down-dip limits of the high-grade core of the deposit as well as other expansion targets down-dip and along strike. Up to 2,500 metres of drill testing is planned as infill targets across the deposit with the primary purpose of providing additional material for subsequent metallurgical lab testing. The diamond drill program is expected to start early June and continue through to the end of September.

In addition to the drilling, the Company is also considering a ground gravity survey over select targets as well as additional geochemical sampling to expand upon open-ended anomalies located on the eastern edge of the property associated with the Sitka Showing. These data, coupled with existing airborne gravity data, airborne VTEM data, structural analysis and a recently revised regional geological base map will be used to prioritize additional drill targets on the Akie property.

The Kechika Regional Project

The Company is the 100% owner of eleven, large, contiguous property blocks that comprise the Akie and Kechika Regional projects. The Company’s flagship Akie Project is host to the Cardiac Creek deposit and remains the primary corporate focus. The Kechika Regional Project includes the Pie, Yuen, Cirque East and Mt. Alcock properties extending northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres along strike of the highly prospective Gunsteel Formation shale; the main host rock for known SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposits in the Kechika Trough of northeastern British Columbia. These projects are located approximately 260 kilometres north northwest of the town of Mackenzie, British Columbia, Canada. The generative portfolio of Kechika Regional properties offer shareholders and interested exploration companies high-potential opportunities for new discoveries in the Kechika Trough.

Pie Option Agreement

The Pie, Yuen and Cirque East properties are the subject of an option agreement concluded on September 9, 2013 with Teck and its JV partner, Korea Zinc Co., Ltd. ("Korea Zinc" KRX:KorZinc 010130). Under the terms of the option agreement, Teck and Korea Zinc can acquire up to a 70% interest in the Pie, Yuen and Cirque East properties for $8.5 million of cumulative exploration expenditures.

Teck has incurred $3.0 million of exploration expenditures to the end of 2016 on the Pie Option Properties using an integrated approach to exploration to decrease risk and maximize the potential for discovery. In accordance with the Option Agreement Teck and Korea Zinc must spend an additional $0.5 million by the end of 2017 to exercise the “First Option” and earn an undivided 51% interest in the Pie Option Properties.

Upon exercising the First Option, Teck and Korea Zinc would have an additional option (the "Second Option") to acquire a further 19% interest in the properties for a total interest of 70%, by incurring an additional $5.0 million in exploration expenditures on or before December 31, 2019.

Akie Property

The Company’s flagship Akie property is situated within the Kechika Trough, the southernmost area of the regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn Basin, 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-silver SEDEX mineralisation 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 19.6 million tonnes grading 8.2% zinc, 1.6% lead and 13.6 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 6.8% zinc, 1.1% lead and 11.2 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

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