Diamond Drilling to Commence & Grant of Options

Empire Metals Limited

29 February 2024

 

Empire Metals Limited / LON: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources

29 February 2024

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

Diamond Drilling to Commence at Pitfield:

Focused on Mineralogical and Metallurgical Samples to Advance Process Development

& Grant of Options to Employees

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of the next major exploration campaign at the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'), with a total of 800 metres of Diamond Core drilling planned to be completed in March. This will be followed up mid-March with a 40 hole Reverse Circulation ('RC') drilling campaign covering 6,000m, expected to take approximately 10 weeks.

Highlights

·    These drill programmes will quantify two high-grade titanium-mineralised zones, selected for resource evaluation work in areas that show potential to support shallow open pit mining.

·    The diamond drilling will also provide additional core for further mineralogical analysis and metallurgical test work that will allow the Company to accelerate the economic assessment and development of the Project.

·    The diamond drilling programme will consist of four angled, 200m deep, diamond core drill holes focused on confirming the continuation of near surface, high-grade titanium mineralisation identified by previous drilling and surface sampling.

·    The next phase of RC drilling, the third campaign to date, will further test and delineate the two known zones of high-grade, bedded mineralisation as well as test new targets identified along the length of the coincident magnetics-gravity anomaly.

·    As part of Empire's policy to attract and retain high-calibre personnel, the Company has agreed to issue options at a 14p and 18p strike price.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am delighted to announce that we have commenced drilling the first of the next four diamond core holes we have planned for Pitfield. The diamond core drilling, the second campaign of diamond drilling at Pitfield, represents the start of a major project development push, aimed at providing key samples for mineralogical and metallurgical characterisation, with a view to establishing an economic processing route to produce high-value products.

"The diamond core holes are focussed in areas of known titanium-enriched mineralisation, based on the results of our previous drilling campaigns, and the information we will gain from these four, 200m deep, drill cores will be invaluable in terms of increasing our understanding of the nature of the titanium minerals and their metallurgical characteristics."

The Pitfield Project

Located within the Mid West region of Western Australia, near the northern wheatbelt town of Three Springs, Pitfield lies just 313km north of Perth and 156km south of Geraldton, the Mid West region's capital (refer Figure 1).

Western Australia is ranked as one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world according to the Fraser Institute's Investment Attractiveness Index published in 2023, and has mining-friendly policies, stable government, transparency, and advanced technology expertise. Pitifled has existing connections to port (both road & rail), HV power substations, and is nearby to natural gas pipelines as well as a green energy hydrogen fuel hub, which is under planning and development (refer Figure 1).

Figure 1. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure and Services

Drilling Programme

Empire completed a maiden 21-hole RC drill programme in April 2023, which resulted in the discovery of titanium rich mineralisation within the hydrothermally altered sediments. The majority of the maiden drill holes were located in the north, near Mt Scratch (a historical copper working).  Three deeper diamond drill holes were completed during September-October 2023, covering targets to the north (Mt Scratch), 30km to the south (Thomas property) and in the central zone (Cosgrove property). All three diamond holes intersected wide, high grade TiO₂ mineralisation down to a vertical depth of 350m (each hole ending in mineralisation). During November-December 2023, Empire conducted a 40-hole RC drill programme focusing on near surface, high grade targets within the mid and southern portions of the tenements, these targets being up-dip from the high-grade intersections encountered in the diamond drill holes.

The focus of the drilling at Pitfield has shifted from the original discovery area at Mt Scratch to two large, shallow, high-grade zones which were identified by surface sampling and subsequently confirmed by recent RC and diamond core drilling programmes (refer Figure 2). With the addition of the latest RC drill results there is good evidence that the high-grade, sandstone-rich beds found within each zone are continuous across several kilometres of strike length and come to surface. There is also evidence that additional strike-extensive, thick, high-grade sandstone-rich beds are present and parallel to these high-grade sandstone-rich beds. The upcoming drilling programme aims to accelerate the economic development of Pitfield, with additional drilling data that will support further delineation, sampling, mineralogical studies and metallurgical testing of these two thick, high-grade mineralised bedded zones, each of which has an approximate 7km continuous strike extent.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Figure 2. Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity data showing location of newly planned Diamond and RC drill holes, highlighting the shallow, high-grade bedded sandstone zones being targeted for advanced project work.

Options

As part of Empire's policy to attract and retain high-calibre personnel, the Company has agreed to issue options over a total of 8,500,00 ordinary shares of no-par value in the capital of the Company ('Share Options') to employees of the group. Further details on the option terms are as follows:

Exercise price (£)	14 pence	18 pence
Number of options granted	6,500,000	2,000,000
Vesting	6 months from date of issue	12 months from date of issue

The Share Options represent in aggregate 1.4% of the existing issued ordinary share capital of the Company and have been issued to a number of employees and contractors of the Company and its operating subsidiary, Eclipse Exploration Pty Ltd, in line with the Group's ongoing incentive plans. Following the grant of the Share Options, in aggregate there will be 65,973,333 ordinary shares of no par value of the Company under option to directors and employees of the Company, representing 11% of the existing issued ordinary share capital of the Company.

Competent Person Statement

The technical information in this report that relates to the Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an employee of Eclipse Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Mr Faragher is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Faragher has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Mr Faragher consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, as incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.empiremetals.co.uk  or contact:

Empire Metals Ltd Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel	Tel: [phone]
S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nomad & Broker) Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl / Kasia Brzozowska	Tel: [phone]
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker) Damon Heath	Tel: [phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR)                                          Susie Geliher / Ana Ribeiro	Tel: [phone]

About Empire Metals Limited

Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and resource development company with a project portfolio comprising copper, titanium and gold interests in Australia and Austria.

The Company's strategy is to develop a pipeline of projects at different stages in the development curve. Its current focus is on the Pitfield Project in Western Australia, which has demonstrated to contain a newly recognised giant titanium-rich mineral system that hosts a globally significant titanium discovery.

The Company also has three further exploration projects in Australia; the Eclipse Project and the Walton Project in Western Australia, and the Stavely Project in the Stavely Arc region of Victoria, in addition to three precious metals projects located in a historically high-grade gold producing region of Austria.

 

 

END