Last checked at 24 Apr 2023 07:00
Empire Metals Limited / LON: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources
24 April 2023
Empire Metals Limited
("Empire" or "the Company")
Completion of Maiden Drilling Campaign at the Pitfield Project
Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that the Company's maiden Reverse Circulation ('RC') drill programme has been completed at the Pitfield Copper Project ("Pitfield") located in Western Australia, with a total of 3,206 metres drilled.
Highlights
· A maiden, reconnaissance RC drilling campaign has been successfully completed at Pitfield, with samples dispatched to the assay laboratory.
· Drilling was focused primarily on the Mt Scratch prospect area of the licence where the Company has identified an extensive, highly chargeable-highly resistive anomaly.
· The drill campaign consisted of 21 RC drill holes covering a total of 3,206 metres, with the average downhole depth of each hole being approximately 150 metres.
· A key objective of this maiden drill programme was to better understand the geology and to determine the significance of the highly chargeable-highly resistive zones identified from the Dipole-Dipole Induced Polarisation ('DD-IP') survey results (announced 6 February 2023).
Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am pleased to announce that field activities for the maiden, reconnaissance drilling campaign at Pitfield have now been completed and that the drill samples have been dispatched to our laboratory assay provider, Intertek Minerals located in Perth Western Australia.
"We have also completed another campaign of soil sampling and further DD-IP surveying activities in March and expect soil assay results and the geophysical data assessment to be available shortly. I look forward to providing further updates in due course as we continue our high impact exploration campaign at Pitfield."
The Pitfield Copper Project
Empire holds a 70% interest in Pitfield which is comprised of four granted Exploration Licences (E70/5465, E70/5876, E70/6320 and E70/6323) covering 1,042km2. Pitfield is located near Three Springs, a town 313km north of Perth, Western Australia on the Midlands Road, which until the opening of the Brand Highway in 1975 was the main road route from Perth to the state's north (refer Figure 1).
Figure 1. Pitfield Project Location
Pitfield Maiden Drilling Campaign
Empire commenced its maiden drilling campaign at Pitfield on 27 March 2023 with the main objective of testing the highly chargeable-highly resistive zones identified by DD-IP survey. This reconnaissance RC drilling was performed by Perth based Strike Drilling Pty Ltd, under the supervision of Empire's Exploration Manager, Mr Andrew Faragher.
The drilling campaign was successfully completed, on time and within budget, with the final hole being drilled by 15 April. In total 21 RC holes were drilled covering a total of 3,206 metres, with the average downhole depth of each hole being approximately 150 metres. Samples were taken at 2m intervals from surface for assaying purposes and at the conclusion of the campaign these samples were shipped to Intertek Minerals, in Perth, for multi-element analysis with a subset of samples sent for mineralogical analysis.
The majority of the drilling was performed near Mt Scratch, with the first 11 holes focusing on the 800m long highly chargeable anomaly, adjacent to where the Company previously found high-grade copper-silver rock specimens (announced 30 January 2023). A further seven holes were drilled across two other highly chargeable targets lines within a few kilometres south of Mt Scratch. The final three holes were spaced separately and located much further to the south of Mt Scratch, again targeting highly chargeable anomalies. The drill hole collar locations are presented in Figures 2 and 3.
Figure 2. Drill Hole Locations within E70/5465 (background magnetic intensity image)
Figure 3. Mt. Scratch Drill Hole Locations (background magnetic intensity image)
**ENDS**
For further information please visit www.empiremetals.co.uk or contact:
Empire Metals Ltd Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel | Tel: 020 7907 9327 |
S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nomad & Broker) Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl | Tel: 020 3470 0470 |
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker) Damon Heath | Tel: 020 7186 9950 |
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) Susie Geliher / Ana Ribeiro / Max Bennett | Tel: 020 7236 1177 |
About Empire Metals Limited
Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and resource development company with a project portfolio comprising copper 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 strong potential to be a new "Giant" copper mineral system. The Company is also advancing the Eclipse-Gindalbie Project in Western Australia, which is prospective for high-grade gold and also kaolin, which is used extensively in a number of industries and is considered to be a desirable feedstock for the production of high-purity alumina - an essential component in lithium-ion batteries.
The Company also has two further exploration projects in Australia; 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 production region in central-southern Austria.