News

September 04, 2008

Canadian Zinc Continues To Unravel The Green Tape Around The Prairie Creek Zinc Property

By Rob Davies

As a demonstration of how the world has really changed in the three decades since the last major commodities boom, the story of the Prairie Creek property owned by Canadian Zinc works pretty well. This property sits in the Northwest Territories of Canada, and was owned by the Hunt brothers. They wanted the 5.2 million tonne deposit not for the 11.4% zinc and 10.9% lead it contained, but for the 176 grammes per tonne silver content, since they were rather partial to the metal, as older readers will be well aware. Unfortunately, just a few weeks before production was due to start in 1982 the siblings were called in by the FBI to answer a few questions about their dealings in the silver market. And that was the end of mine development, even though a virtually complete mill and process plant had been built on the site and substantial underground development had already been done.

The current owners bought the mine out of receivership in 1991 and have done some more development and exploration drilling. However, anti-mining sentiment has grown over the years, and Canadian Zinc is now deep into an ongoing struggle to get the crucial Type A Water Licence, the last piece of green tape the mine needs in order to become fully permitted. In total the company now has six of the seven permits required. Investor Relations officer John Kocela is not authorised to say how long the...