NorZinc Ltd. announced the initiation of a feasibility study level metallurgical test program on its Prairie Creek Project located in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The Company has engaged SGS Canada Inc., one of the leading technical services providers, to conduct a full and comprehensive test program with the objective of finalizing milling parameters and performance characteristics for the planned first 3-5 years of production. Drilling, which commenced in June 2022, remains well underway with drillcore samples already out for delivery to an assay laboratory September 13, 2022.

Running concurrently with this drill program is a geotechnical study utilizing the same holes, aimed at improving dilution estimates for mineralized material to be extracted during the same first 3–5-year time period in the mine plan. The geotechnical program involves acquiring oriented structural data through the use of oriented drillcore, acoustic and optical downhole televiewer scanning, manual geotechnical logging, and rock mechanics testing of all relevant lithologies. The field data collection program is being carried out by Terrane Geosciences with oversight by Mining One and Mostert Consulting.

The drill program, which the Company announced and commenced earlier this year on June 19, is approximately 2/3 complete with 3,700m drilled to date. Another 1,000m-1,500m of drilling is still planned with successful completion of the drill campaign aimed at generating the final amount of material required for comprehensive metallurgical testing of 3 composites by SGS as follow-up work. As the geotechnical study requires fewer holes than required for the metallurgical program, it is expected the field component of the geotechnical study will conclude near the end of this month.

All drillcore samples from these programs will be fed into metallurgical testing with SGS Laboratories but will initially be submitted for various rock mechanics and traditional base and precious metal assays in the coming weeks, with assays being handled by ALS Laboratories in North Vancouver. Final assay results are expected in late November, with metallurgical testing to be initiated immediately after. Results will be incorporated into updated resource and reserve models, in order to provide an updated mine plan incorporating the additional confidence these summer field programs are expected to bring.

In addition, the Company expects to follow up on the above drill programs with a smaller <1,000m channel twinning program if weather conditions allow, using the on-site surface drill rigs to core into the Main Quartz Vein ("MQV") near the historical underground channel samples, to confirm the validity of that dataset.