Results of Metallurgical Testing at Empire Mine

Phoenix Copper Limited

04 September 2023

 

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

4 September 2023

Phoenix Copper Limited

('Phoenix' or the 'Company')

Results of Metallurgical Testing at Empire Mine, Idaho

 & Drilling Update at Navarre Creek

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLY), the AIM-quoted USA-focused base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company is pleased to announce the results of its metallurgical testing of Empire Mine ('Empire') open pit oxide material. The test work, completed by Resource Development Inc/Forte Dynamics of Wheat Ridge, Colorado ('Forte'), has further demonstrated the robust copper, gold, and silver recoveries possible at Empire using non-cyanide leaching technologies.

Forte has completed test work consisting of crushing, grinding, flotation, and both sulphuric acid and ammonium thiosulfate ('ATS') leaching on drill core composites collected from the 2022 Empire Mine metallurgical core drilling programme. While testing the use of ATS as a prospective sole reagent on material representative of the Empire Mine deposit, Forte also tested and developed flow sheets for flotation alone, as well as the hybrid processes of flotation followed by sulphuric acid leaching and flotation followed by ATS leaching to recover gold, silver, and copper.

The results of the test work to date have identified two potential processes which merit further optimisation, namely flotation plus ATS and flotation plus sulphuric acid leach. Both of the proposed leach circuits would be confined in agitated tanks. The metal recoveries and calculated gross metal value for each flowsheet are shown in Table 1.

Forte will now optimise both these processes and apply operating and capital costs to the optimisations.

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, said: "The results of the metallurgical test work completed thus far on the Empire open pit oxide deposit have further solidified the Company's confidence in the project.

"When Phoenix became involved with Empire in 2017, the Empire Mine was considered a copper project only. As a result of further drilling and test work conducted since that time, the Empire Mine has evolved into a robust polymetallic deposit consisting of copper, gold, and silver. These recent metallurgical results show that a number of processes exist, allowing for the recovery of all three metals.

"The flotation process is an industry standard for the metal extraction of sulphide copper deposits. By taking the time to test this process on Empire's oxide material, we believe we have set ourselves up for success both in the short and medium term. We are continuing down this path with the expectation that a flotation-based process will further improve the economics and Environmental, Social and Governance credentials of the Empire open pit, while potentially streamlining the later development of the Company's deeper underground sulphide mineralization.

"Additional optimization and costing of the flotation plus leaching scenarios will define the best process design for the Empire open pit. Continued test work and mine plan development will also determine whether it will be possible for the Company to minimize the Project's footprint by constructing the agitated leach tanks on private property adjacent to the pit, which may offer significant environmental and economic benefits. The results of the continuing optimization work are anticipated in Q4 2023.

"I am also pleased to announce that the drilling campaign on our Navarre Creek property is well underway. Thus far, we have drilled a total of 9,825 feet. We anticipate initial drill hole assays to begin arriving from ALS Laboratories beginning in early Q4. I look forward to sharing these assay results when they become available."

Deepak Molhatra, Metallurgical Engineer, Forte Dynamics, said: "The data we have collected from the metallurgical test work completed on the Empire Mine project thus far is very encouraging. All test work completed to this point has been performed in what is referred to as 'open cycle'. In the coming months, we will continue working to optimize the results using 'locked cycle' testing. Locked cycle testing will more closely simulate an active mine environment in which there is a continuous and stable process flow. It is not uncommon to see recovery improvements resulting from locked cycle testing."

Process flowsheet option	Cu Recovery	Au Recovery	Ag Recovery	Gross Revenue (USD/metric Ton)
Flotation Only	37.3%	48.8%	44.6%	35.54
Flotation plus ATS Leach of Flot Tails	66.5%	92.7%	73.0%	64.42
Flotation plus Acid Leach of Flot Tails	87.8%	48.8%	44.6%	57.80

Table 1: Metal recovery flowsheet options

Note: Revenue based on $1,875/oz gold, $4/lb copper, and $18.75/oz silver

Qualified Person

The foregoing technical information in this news release has been reviewed and verified by Dennis Thomas, ACSM, FIMMM, FGS, CEng, Eurlng, co-founder of Phoenix Copper Limited and Member of the Company's Advisory Board.  Mr. Thomas has held both executive and non-executive roles in a number of international private and public natural resources companies and is a chartered mining engineer from the Camborne School of Mines. He is a Qualified Person under the AIM Rules and consents to the inclusion of the information in the form and the context in which it appears.

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance

Phoenix is committed to meeting and exceeding the environmental standards required by law as a core value of the Company. The baseline environmental data collected to date will be used for furthering the permitting process, but as importantly, will be used as the building blocks for the Company's ongoing Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) platform, overseen by the Company's ESG & Sustainability Committee. The Company has recently published its inaugural Sustainability Report, which can be viewed on the Company's website.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The Company deems the information contained within this announcement to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014, which has been incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Contacts

For further information please visit https://phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:

Phoenix Copper Limited	Ryan McDermott Brittany Lock Richard Wilkins	Tel: [phone]  Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser)	David Hignell / Kasia Brzozowska	Tel: [phone]
Tavira Financial Limited (Joint Broker)	Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield	Tel: [phone]
WH Ireland (Joint Broker)	Harry Ansell / Katy Mitchell	Tel: [phone]
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)	John Prior / Hugh Rich / Ailsa Macmaster	Tel: [phone]
EAS Advisors (US Corporate Adviser)	Matt Bonner / Rogier de la Rambelje	Tel: [phone]
BlytheRay (Financial PR)	Tim Blythe / Megan Ray	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a USA focused, base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, initially targeting copper, gold and silver production from an open pit mine.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder Creek mining district, at the 80% owned Empire Mine property, which historically produced copper at grades of up to 8%, as well as gold, silver, zinc and tungsten, from an underground mine.

Since 2017, Phoenix has carried out extensive drill programmes which have defined a NI 43-101 completed PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine, which was updated in October 2020. From the 2020 PEA, the measured and indicated resource is: 22,909,059 tonnes at an average grade of 0.38% copper, 0.324 grammes per tonne ("g/t") gold, 10.3 g/t silver, and 0.19% zinc. The contained metal for the measured and indicated resource is 87,543 tonnes of copper, 238,406 ounces of gold, 7,595,198 ounces of silver and 43,871 tonnes of zinc.

In addition to Empire, the district includes the historic Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and tungsten from underground mines. A new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres northwest of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed high grade silver / lead sulphide ore, and from three shallow exploration drill holes a maiden inferred resource of 103,000 tonnes containing 173.4 g/t silver, 0.85 g/t gold and 3.85% lead (1.6 million ounces silver equivalent) was reported in an NI 43-101 technical report published in May 2019. Additionally, the district includes Navarre Creek, a volcanic-hosted precious metals target in a 14.48 sq km area. The Company's total land package at Empire comprises 8,034 acres (32.51 sq kms).

At Empire, it is estimated that less than 1% of the potential ore system has been explored to date and, accordingly, there is significant opportunity to increase the resource through phased exploration. The stated aim of the Company is to fund this phased exploration through free cashflow generated by its initial mine. A Plan of Operations in respect of the initial open pit mine was filed with the relevant regulatory authorities in June 2021.

Phoenix also has two wholly owned cobalt properties on the Idaho Cobalt Belt to the north of Empire. An Earn-In Agreement has been signed with Electra Battery Materials, Toronto, in respect of one of those properties.

Phoenix is listed on London's AIM (PXC), and trades on New York's OTCQX Market (PXCLF and PXCLY (ADRs)). More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PXC's website at https://phoenixcopperlimited.com/

 

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