Commencement of Second Phase Drilling at Red Star

RNS Number : 0387L

Phoenix Copper Limited

28 April 2020

 

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

28 April 2020

Phoenix Copper Limited

("Phoenix" or the "Company")

Phoenix commences second phase of drilling at Red Star silver/lead deposit

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLF), the AIM quoted North American focused base and precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that it has commenced a second phase of drilling at its Red Star silver / lead deposit, building on the initial drilling results from December 2018.

Highlights

· Recent fundraise fully funds a 20 hole (1,500 metre) drilling programme at Red Star

· Objective is to build resource inventory of silver, lead, gold and other minerals at Red Star by step out drilling along strike and at depth

· Assays from drilling results expected from June 2020 onwards

· Updated NI 43-101 compliant resource for Red Star expected in Q3 2020 with a development decision shortly thereafter

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Having cut the required drill roads and prepared the drill pads ready for this season's drill programme, I am pleased to announce that we collared the first drill hole of the 2020 Red Star drilling programme on 27 April 2020. The 1,500-metre, 20-hole drilling programme will be a combination of reverse-circulation and diamond drilling with the intent of following the Red Star vein along strike and at depth. These drill holes, together with the channel samples collected and assayed in late 2019, will add to the maiden resource reported last year. Our objective is to generate an updated resource as quickly as possible and move forward with the development of the Red Star project."

Red Star

Red Star is located approximately 330 metres north-northwest of the Empire open pit resource area within the Empire patented claim boundary.  This boundary is contiguous with the Horseshoe Block to the north and west. A map showing the area can be found on the Company website at www.phoenixcopperlimited.com   in the   "News" section.  The Red Star Zone was discovered during field mapping and reconnaissance of the northern patented claim boundary and adjacent Horseshoe Block.  Channel samples were collected from the Red Star outcrop itself and results reported by the Company in October 2018.  Three reverse circulation drill holes targeting the area at depth were completed and assay results were published in December 2018.  In May 2019, Hard Rock Consulting estimated a maiden inferred resource at Red Star of 103,000 tonnes grading 173.4 g/t silver, 0.85 g/t gold, and 3.85% lead, with minor copper and zinc.

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 future Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) platform.

 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 until the release of this announcement.

Contacts

For further information please visit www.phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:

Phoenix Copper Limited	Ryan McDermott Dennis Thomas Richard Wilkins	Tel: [phone]  Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]
SP Angel (Nominated Adviser)	David Hignell / Caroline Rowe	Tel: [phone]
Brandon Hill Capital (Joint Broker)	Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield	Tel: [phone]
WH Ireland (Joint Broker)	Harry Ansell / Adam Pollock / Katy Mitchell	Tel: [phone]
Blytheweigh (Financial PR)	Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall / Megan Ray	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a North American focused, base and precious metal explorer and developer, which has carried out a drilling programme and generated a copper, gold, silver and zinc resource on which it is carrying out a feasibility study to bring the historically producing Empire Mine in Idaho, USA, back into production. It is also evaluating the silver and gold resources around three other past producing mines within the 23 km²  Empire claims block as well as cobalt in two claims blocks north of Empire in Idaho.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder Creek mining district. This district includes the historical Empire, Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and tungsten from underground mines in the first half of the twentieth century. Additionally, the district includes Navarre Creek a Carlin-trend gold discovery which hosts a 6.1 km gold strike length within a 9.8 km² area.

Phoenix acquired an 80% interest in the historical Empire Mine property in 2017 and, based on a total of 320 drill holes, an oxide resource was completed in late 2017. A NI 43-101 compliant PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine was completed in April 2018. In 2018 a further 8,600 metres in 93 holes was completed to upgrade the oxide resources, provide samples for ongoing metallurgical test work, geotechnical and hydrological studies and condemnation drilling for the heap leach pad site, waste dump and plant site. An updated NI 43-101 compliant resource was completed in early May 2019.

Since acquiring the Empire project, Phoenix has increased the claim area from 818 acres to 5,717 acres, mainly to the northwest and west, and in so doing has increased the potential for additional oxide and sulphide copper resources, as well as the potential for stand-alone gold and silver resources, along a strike length of approximately 5.4 km towards the other brownfield mines of the Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines now within the property boundary.  In particular, a new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres north west of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed sulphide ore and from three shallow exploration drill holes a NI 43-101 compliant maiden resource of 1.6 million silver equivalent ounces was reported.

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.

More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PXC's website at www. phoenixcopperlimited.com .

 

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