Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Monday, April 11, 2016 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (“Canada Zinc Metals” or “the Company”, TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce the Company is now in receipt of approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mines extending the drill permit for the Akie Property to December 31, 2020.

The Company owns 100% 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. 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 the 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.

Akie Property

This latest approval enables the Company to establish long term exploration goals and carry them out in a time effective manner without having to re-apply or renew existing permits on an annual basis. The amended permit provides multi-year approval for drill programs on a number of drill targets on the Akie property, including the Cardiac Creek deposit which will continue to facilitate advanced exploration efforts.

The Company is also pleased to note there was no concurrent increase in the reclamation security bond. The progressive reclamation completed by the Company on an annual basis was recognized by the issuing authority as satisfactory and suitable to maintain the bond at the current levels.

"We are very pleased to receive this extended, multi-year area based permit for our planned program at Akie. This is another significant milestone in the advancement of the Cardiac Creek deposit and allows us flexibility to drill test other viable Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization zones on the Akie property,”  commented Mr. Peeyush Varshney, Chairman & CEO.

The drill permit will allow the Company to follow up on the successful 2015 exploration program which included the completion of 5,350 metres of drilling resulting in 8 new intersections into the Cardiac Creek deposit. Testing along the down-dip extents of the deposit returned high-grade results as evidenced by hole A-15-121 with 17.06% combined Zn+Pb and 28.98 g/t Ag over 12.98 metres (true width) and hole A-15-124 with 17.20% combined Zn+Pb and 26.43 g/t Ag over 11.09 metres (true width). The drilling did not close off any portion of the deposit and it remains open for further exploration and expansion to the northwest, southeast and down-dip.

Kechika Regional Project

The Company had previously announced in December 2015 it was in receipt of four amended drill permits for various project areas that effectively extends the duration date of activity to December 31, 2019, with the ability to renew beyond if warranted. These project areas are Pie, Yuen, Mt. Alcock and the Kechika North properties.

Along with the Akie permit, the Company is now in receipt of five drill permits that cover the high-priority drill-ready targets on the largest tenure holdings within the Kechika Trough, and will allow additional drill testing to take place at a progressive and measured pace as new anomalies are identified and confirmed as drill targets.

The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag Project

The 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 12.7 million tonnes grading 8.4% zinc, 1.7% lead and 13.7 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 16.3 million tonnes grading 7.4% zinc, 1.3% lead and 11.6 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 AARSHNEY, LL.B
CEO & CHAIRMAN