RE: Breaking 40p next barrier28 Aug 2025 09:04
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Empire Metals achieves high titanium recoveries at Pitfield project
PERTH - Empire Metals Ltd (LON:EEE, OTCQB:EPMLF) reported significant advancements in metallurgical testing at its Pitfield titanium project in Western Australia, achieving 98% titanium dissolution and producing a high-purity titanium dioxide product.
The company announced Thursday that testing on weathered ore samples demonstrated exceptional flotation performance with recoveries of 77% at the rougher stage and 90% at the cleaning stage. The process yielded a final titanium dioxide product grading 99.25% purity with minimal impurities.
According to the company, overall titanium recovery from flotation feed to final product reached approximately 67%, with expectations for further improvement through optimization of mineral separation stages.
The test results confirmed that Pitfield’s weathered ore can be processed using conventional separation and refining techniques, eliminating the need for a costly bespoke demonstration plant. This allows for a lower-cost continuous pilot program using commercial laboratories.
"These results mark a step change in Pitfield’s development," said Shaun Bunn, Managing Director of Empire Metals. "We now have clear evidence that the ore is ideally suited to conventional mineral separation and refining."
The company noted that the low iron oxide content (approximately 5%) in the ore reduces acid consumption, minimizes waste, and supports higher recoveries compared to typical ilmenite feedstock processing.
Empire Metals has employed two full-time process engineers with extensive experience in mineral separation and elemental extraction to work on the process flowsheet development. The company has also contracted two titanium expert consultants, each with over 40 years of industry experience.
The company plans to complete bench and large-scale batch metallurgical testing by Q1 2026 before moving toward continuous piloting of the process.
The information was based on a press release statement from Empire Metals Ltd