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16 Aug 2022 07:00
Empire Metals Limited / AIM: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources
16 August 2022
Empire Metals Limited
('Empire' or the 'Company')
Multiple Significant Intercepts Reported: Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project
Three New Mineralised Zones Identified at Homeward Bound
Empire Metals Limited, the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to provide an update on the reverse circulation ('RC') drilling programme recently completed at the Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project, situated 55km north-east of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia.
Highlights:
· 26 RC holes drilled, for a total of 3,360m, focused mainly on extending the known mineralised trends, along strike and at depth, around some of the historical gold mines such as Homeward Bound, Bulletin, Eclipse and Jack's Dream as well as the small pit at Budd's Find.
· Of the 13 RC holes drilled at the Homeward Bound target, four reported significant intercepts with the best of the drill holes being GPRC22_027 which intersected three new mineralised zones:
Ø 2m @ 1.92 g/t Au from 79m downhole
Ø 1m @ 2.97 g/t Au from 87m downhole
Ø 2m @ 2.09 g/t Au from 106m downhole
· Significant intercepts were reported at Budd's Find and Bulletin from four of the seven holes drilled, including:
Ø 2m @ 3.30 g/t Au from 117m downhole at Budd's Find
Ø 1m @ 1.72 g/t Au from 65m downhole at Bulletin
· Of the six holes drilled around the Eclipse and Jack's Dream shafts, two reported significant intercepts:
Ø 3m @ 2.20 g/t Au from 165m at Eclipse
Ø 2m @ 0.85 g/t Au from 184m at Jack's Dream
Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "These results are very encouraging having returned multiple significant intercepts which supports our hypothesis that the combined Eclipse-Gindalbie project has the potential to support a significant gold resource. In particular, the holes completed at the Homeward Bound shaft and Budd's Find open pit have provided important structural data on the direction of the gold mineralised veins which will advance our technical team's understanding of the structural model of the wider project area."
"This drilling campaign stepped out north and south along the Homeward Bound trend and was aimed at extending the known strike length around the historical Homeward Bound shaft. The drilling not only confirmed that the previously identified mineralised veins continue at depth but has also identified a previously unknown parallel mineralised system to the east of the old Homeward Bound mine shaft.
"We also drilled to extend the mineralised zone around Budd's Find and discovered significant gold mineralisation well below the current Budd's Find small open pit, from 117m downhole. The Budd's Find shear zone was consistently intersected by the recent drilling close to target depth and remains open along strike to the NW and down-dip. Similarly, the deeper drilling at both Eclipse and Jack's Dream intercepted significant gold mineralisation below the previously identified mineralised zones, from 165m downhole and 184m downhole respectively."
Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project Background
The combined Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project consists of two adjacent mining leases, located near the historic gold mining town of Gindalbie, situated 55km north-east of Kalgoorlie (refer Figure 1). Empire holds a 75% interest in the 306ha Eclipse mining lease (M27/153), which contains the Eclipse and Jack's Dream historical gold mine workings, and which have been to date the focus of the Company's drilling campaigns to date. Since commencing its involvement at Eclipse in August 2020, Empire has completed five exploratory drilling programmes, consisting of 124 RC drill holes for a total of 11,001 metres and nine diamond drill holes for a total of 1,200 metres.
In February of this year, Empire entered into a Tribute Agreement that gives Empire the exclusive right to explore, develop and mine within a granted area on Maher Mining's 100% owned mining lease M27/158, which sits adjacent to the eastern border of the Eclipse licence area and extends the current area for exploration targets by over 200% to a total of 943ha. The "granted" area covers 643ha of highly prospective ground containing historic gold mines located along a series of northwest-southeast striking mineralised trends. The main trend containing the Company's Eclipse and Jack's Dream deposits aligns with several of the old workings to the southeast including the Golden Puzzle, Laurel and Bulletin mines. Other, sub-parallel north-west - south-east striking trends have been identified which include the Homeward Bound and South Gippsland #3 mines.
Figure 1. Location Map - Location of Eclipse Gold Project (red), which contains the old Gindalbie townsite, and mining lease ML 27/158 (blue) which contains the Gindalbie Gold Project.
Exploration Programme
Empire completed an RC drilling programme in July at the Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project with the main objective of testing for extensions to the high-grade gold lodes around the Homeward Bound and Bulletin mine shafts and the small pit at Budd's Find on the Gindalbie lease and around the Eclipse and Jack's Dream mine shafts on the Eclipse lease. This programme consisted of 26 RC holes for 3,290m, 13 of which were targeting gold mineralisation to the north and south of the Homeward (Figure 2.).
A further five RC holes were drilled around Budd's Find (Figure 3.), and six RC holes were drilled around Eclipse/Jack's Dream. A single RC hole was placed at Bulletin.
Figure 2. Plan view of the drill collar location around Homeward Bound.
Figure 3. Plan view of the drill collar location around Budd's Find.
The principal targets of the RC drilling are shear-hosted lodes which, as observed at Eclipse and elsewhere within the Gindalbie region, tend to strike 300-340 degrees with sub-vertical to steep SW dips. At Eclipse, and observed at Budd's Find pit, there are centimetre scale shear parallel quartz veinlets, which are associated with silicification and strong alteration in fresh rock, and these appear to host the high-grade gold mineralisation. Another key indicator is arsenopyrite, which may occur in association with the high-grade gold mineralisation.
Of the 26 RC holes drilled, 10 returned significant intercepts (refer Table 1.)
Hole Number | Target | From Depth (m) | To Depth (m) | EOH (m) | Interval (m) | Grade (g/t Au) |
GPRC22_017 | Homeward Bound | 89 | 90 | 162 | 1 | 2.68 |
GPRC22_020 | Homeward Bound | 73 | 75 | 120 | 2 | 0.74 |
GPRC22_027 | Homeward Bound | 79 | 81 | 2 | 1.92 | |
87 | 88 | 1 | 2.97 | |||
106 | 108 | 120 | 2 | 2.09 | ||
GPRC22_028 | Homeward Bound | 17 | 19 | 2 | 0.97 | |
49 | 51 | 2 | 1.00 | |||
inc. | 50 | 51 | 126 | 1 | 1.60 | |
GPRC22_031 | Budd's Find | 92 | 94 | 2 | 1.11 | |
100 | 103 | 3 | 0.63 | |||
112 | 115 | 3 | 0.70 | |||
117 | 119 | 150 | 2 | 3.30 | ||
GPRC22_033 | Budd's Find | 112 | 117 | 5 | 0.86 | |
inc. | 112 | 115 | 150 | 3 | 1.07 | |
GPRC22_035 | Budd's Find | 155 | 157 | 162 | 2 | 1.01 |
GPRC22_036 | Bulletin | 31 | 32 | 1 | 1.07 | |
65 | 66 | 1 | 1.72 | |||
100 | 101 | 174 | 1 | 1.14 | ||
ECRC22_008 | Eclipse | 165 | 168 | 200 | 3 | 2.22 |
ECRC22_011 | Jack's Dream | 184 | 186 | 200 | 2 | 0.85 |
Table 1. Significant Intercepts from RC drilling with an Incremental cut-off grade >0.4g/t Au and >1g Au*m intervals.
Future Work
This latest RC drilling programme has provided multiple significant gold intercepts which will require further analysis and structural interpretation. Optical televiewer surveys have been completed on several of the RC holes around Homeward Bound and these, along with the diamond drill core collected during the previous drill campaigns, should greatly assist Empire's technical team in building a more robust structural model for the overall project area.
Competent Person Statement
The technical information in this report that relates to the Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold Project has been compiled by Ms Louisa Stokes, an employee of Eclipse Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Ms Stokes is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Ms Stokes is employed in the role of Exploration Geologist and has been planning the exploration activities for the Eclipse-Gindalbie project areas. Ms Stokes has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Ms Stokes consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters based on her information in the form and context in which it appears.
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, as incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.
**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 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 initial focus has been on the high-grade Eclipse and Gindalbie Gold Projects in Western Australia. The Company expanded its exploration licence area in April 2022 from 9.5km2 to 1,728km2 with the acquisition of the Pitfield Copper-Gold Project and the Walton Copper-Gold Project in Western Australia, and the Stavely Copper-Gold Project in the Stavely Arc region of Victoria.
Empire also holds a portfolio of three precious metals projects located an historically high-grade gold production region comprising the Rotgulden, Schonberg and Walchen prospects in central-southern Austria.
The Board continues to evaluate opportunities through which to realise the value of its wider portfolio and reviews further assets which meet the Company's investment criteria.
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