Last checked at 
(Sharecast News) - Empire Metals updated the market on its full year of operations on Friday, after it 'significantly expanded' its exploration footprint across "highly prospective" areas of its target jurisdiction in Australia, as its loss for the year widened slightly to £0£0.59m from £0.57m.
The AIM-traded firm, which remains pre-revenue, appointed its "highly experienced" managing director Shaun Bunn in June, in a bid to advance its rapid expansion strategy/
It also bolstered its core technical team through the appointment of two exploration professionals - exploration consultant Ed Baltis, and exploration geologist Louisa Stokes.
A "comprehensive" drilling and exploration programme was conducted at its proven discovery, the Eclipse Gold Project.
Empire completed a 4,589 metre reverse circulation drilling programme over 44 holes in February last year, including an intercept of 24 metres at 1.44 grams of gold per tonne near the old working at Jack's Dream.
It also completed a fully funded 1,893 metre reverse circulation drill programme over 19 holes and 3 PQ core diameter drill holes for 201 metres in July, which identified a new mineralised lode at the Twin Shafts.
A "strategic technical review" was completed in December, highlighting the potential for "significant additional mineralisation discovery" within the licence area, and a follow-up large-scale exploration programme was now underway.
Since the end of 2021, the company acquired the Gindalbie Gold Project, adjacent to Eclipse, resulting in a 200% expansion of the high-grade gold exploration camp, followed by the expansion of its overall Australian exploration footprint from 9.5 square kilometres to 1,728 square kilometres through the strategic acquisition of three "highly-prospective" copper-gold projects.
The firm concluded the "definitive and binding" sale and purchase agreement over the Bolnisi Project in Georgia, for total cash of $3.3m in June last year.
Finally, an oversubscribed placing raised £1.7m post period end, resulting in a cash at bank of £2.7m to support exploration programmes throughout 2022 and 2023.
"This has been a pivotal year for Empire and it has been an incredibly exciting time to be part of the team," Shaun Bunn commented.
"I had the pleasure of joining Empire at the key turning point in its strategy as it intensified its exploration focus on Australia, an area which I know well and has, quite rightly, been continuously hailed as the world's leading mining jurisdiction.
"With Eclipse forming the initial stepping stone to establishing an Australian exploration portfolio of quality and scale, we have seen some very encouraging results from drilling and technical work undertaken in 2021, further increasing our confidence that our focus within Australia is well placed."
Bunn said that had been "clearly put into action", with the decision to bolster the company's position at Eclipse post-period end through the tribute agreement on the neighbouring Gindalbie Project, forming the now renamed Eclipse-Gindalbie Project to create "real scale" in the region.
"This process gained momentum in April this year when we acquired three copper-gold projects - Pitfield, Walton and Stavely - located in highly-prospective locations across Australia which combined, cover an area larger than Greater London.
"This was a real coup for Empire and one which sets us apart as an exploration company with potential access to multiple high value discoveries in sought-after and valued commodities, within a safe and supportive jurisdiction."
At 1002 BST, shares in Empire Metals were down 1.76% at 1.23p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.
