Empire Metals Share News (EEE)

(Sharecast News) - Empire Metals said in an update on Tuesday that it has made strong progress across multiple development workstreams at its Pitfield titanium project in Western Australia, positioning the company to start metallurgical pilot testing ahead of a scoping study targeted for later in 2026.

In an update on the project, the AIM-traded explorer said recent flotation test work had confirmed the selective recovery of titanium minerals while rejecting high levels of unwanted gangue material.

Whole-of-ore flotation, tested as an alternative to conventional gravity and flotation circuits, delivered concentrate grades of more than 34% titanium dioxide with recoveries of around 70%, while simplifying the overall process flowsheet.

The company also reported encouraging results from atmospheric sulphuric acid leaching of flotation concentrates, which operates at significantly lower temperatures and with simpler equipment than the previously tested acid bake-water leach route.

Empire said optimisation of the product finishing stage was underway, targeting anatase and rutile pigment products as well as feedstock suitable for titanium metal production.

At the same time, the company said it had signed a non-binding cooperation agreement with the Mid West Ports Authority to facilitate discussions on future port access, while environmental baseline studies are progressing and identifying opportunities to reduce permitting risk and environmental impacts.

Managing director Shaun Bunn said the pace and quality of work across the project continued to accelerate.

"The ongoing achievements of our metallurgical and environmental teams continue to impress," he said, adding that flotation performance and low-temperature leaching options had the potential to materially enhance project economics.

He said engineering, mining and marketing studies were now underway to support completion of a scoping study later this year, strengthening Pitfield's position as a globally significant titanium development project.

Looking ahead, Empire said metallurgical test programmes on the weathered ores were nearing completion, with a preferred process flowsheet expected by the end of the first quarter.

That would allow continuous pilot-scale testing to begin, generating the data required to assess capital and operating costs, product quality and by-product potential, and to advance project scoping and engineering design work.

At 1336 GMT, shares in Empire Metals were down 8.66% at 38.63p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.