Fireweed Zinc (FWZ.V) released some assay results from Tom East and Tom North about two weeks ago and although the assay results came back positive, the market shrugged it off as the appetite for zinc stories clearly still isn’t there.
While we are waiting for the assay results from other holes to come in (which could be any day now), the three holes that were reported in the middle of September were good. At Tom East, the situation got a bit more complicated as the drill bit deviated and started drilling down-dip. This resulted in two amazing intervals containing high-grade mineralization over in excess of 60 meters, but as Fireweed doesn’t care about fooling the market (which is probably smarter than that anyway), it’s commendable it draws the attention to the true width of these intervals. Although the exact true width is difficult to establish, the range of 10-20 meters is pretty good as well considering the average grade is consistently higher than 10%ZnPb with around 30—120 g/t silver on top of that.
The two holes from Tom North that were reported on contained similar intervals with a true width of 11-12 meters, but the average grade was quite a bit lower. The zinc grade fell to around 5%, but the lead valued dropped off a cliff and remain below 1%. That makes the net recoverable rock value per tonne substantially lower than the Tom East zone, but considering the mineralization at Tom North started at just 34 and 11 meters downhole, those grades are good enough for a mine plan based on an open pit.
Good results, but the market couldn’t care less as Fireweed Zinc is now trading below its IPO price. Perhaps the next batch of assay results (including the Boundary Zone) will draw more attention to the story, but for now it looks like only value-focused investors with a very long-term horizon that are willing to give Fireweed a decent look. And that’s not Fireweed’s fault. Seeing how other zinc companies like Tinka Resources (TK.V) are also trading at multi-year lows, it looks like the appetite for zinc stories (and base metals in general actually) just isn’t there.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Fireweed Zinc.
