Empire Metals Limited / LON: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources

25 October 2023

Empire Metals Limited

('Empire' or the 'Company')

Diamond Drilling Update at Pitfield:

 Completion of Two of the Three Planned Diamond Drill Holes

Successfully Mapping Scale and Structure of the Giant Titanium-Enriched Mineral System

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that two of the three planned Diamond Core holes have been completed at the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'), and drilling of the third and final Diamond Core drill hole is now underway.

Highlights

·    Logging of the core from the first diamond drillhole near Mt Scratch has identified titanium mineralisation throughout the entire length of hole, confirming that the titanium mineralisation previously intersected in the maiden reverse circulation ("RC") drill program extends to depth.  

·    The mineralisation is stratabound and hosted by east-dipping, intensely altered sedimentary beds, principally an interbedded sandstone-siltstone succession.  The mineralisation remains completely open at depth and along strike.

·    Visual inspection of the core from the second drillhole, located ~30kms to the south, has indicated the presence of similarly extensive, stratabound titanium mineralisation hosted by a coarser succession of sedimentary host rocks, largely conglomerates and sandstones.

·    Logging and sampling of the drill core is ongoing with all assays pending. The Company expects to be able to release more information about key parameters such as mineralogy, grades, and geological controls in the coming weeks.

·    Field activities have continued in parallel with the drilling campaign, with geological mapping and rock chip sampling carried out across the strongest parts of the large  gravity high anomaly delineated by the recent airborne gravity survey and which are believed to outline the thicker and denser, more mineralised parts of this giant titanium-rich mineral system.

·    The next phase of RC drilling, scheduled to begin later in Q4 2023, will involve a much larger programme with approximately 40 RC holes totalling 6,000 metres currently planned along the length of the high-density gravity core within the regional magnetics anomaly.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am pleased to report the positive progress being made at Pitfield with two out of the three planned diamond core holes now completed. We have completed logging and sampling on the first drill hole and are awaiting assay results. Based on our geological logging and portable hand-held XRF measurements we are confident that the titanium mineralisation identified in our maiden RC drill programme (announced 30 May 2023) continues at depth."

"The diamond core drilling is the first phase of a major exploration push aimed at understanding the grade, mineralogy, thickness and magnitude of this giant titanium-rich mineral system. Samples of the core collected have been shipped for assay and mineralogical studies. Further samples are being prepared for metallurgical testwork, which will help define the nature and potential economic value of this giant, titanium enriched mineral system."

The Pitfield 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 showing the scale of the magnetics anomaly and coincident alteration footprint.

Diamond Core Drilling Update

The maiden, reconnaissance RC drilling campaign (announced 30 May 2023) focused on areas where Empire had previously identified highly chargeable-highly resistive anomalies from an Induced Polarisation (IP) ground geophysical survey. These anomalies were sourced to stratabound titanium

and iron oxide mineralisation hosted within a strongly hydrothermally altered, bedded succession of clastic sedimentary rocks, composed of interbedded sandstones and siltstones, and lesser conglomerate beds. None of the holes from the maiden drill programme targeted these newly defined discrete, strong, high-density anomalies(Figure 2).

Figure 2.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity survey results with indicative highest density zones (solid yellow outlines) and locations of diamond core drill holes and maiden RC drill holes/IP survey lines.

The extensive, high-grade titanium mineralisation (between 4% and 10% TiO₂), identified in all but one of initial 21 RC holes previously drilled, has proved to be a globally significant, world class exploration target that required diamond core drilling as the next step towards fully assessing its economic potential. The three diamond core drill holes of this programme were strategically positioned to provide broad coverage across the 30km length of the largely coincident regional gravity and magnetics anomalies (refer Figure 2).

The Company has completed drilling two of the three planned diamond drillholes, with the first drillhole (DD23MTS001) now having been logged and sampled. This hole was located at Mt Scratch, where the majority of the maiden RC drillholes were completed. The final length of the angled hole was 408.4m, ending approximately 350m vertically below surface. The drillhole intersected a thick sedimentary succession of interbedded sandstones and siltstones, referred to as the Mt Scratch Siltstone formation. These sedimentary host rocks display extensive and strong iron-rich alteration, including a steel-grey hematitic alteration and a ferruginous brown alteration which alternate throughout the hole. Titanium mineralization appears to be extensive and associated with strong iron-rich alteration as indicated by portable XRF logging of the core. Petrographic analysis will better define these two important iron-rich alteration types and help determine the association with titanium mineralization and Ti grade. Chlorite and epidote alteration of the host sedimentary rocks is also observed and varies in intensities.   

Future Work

The next drill programme, scheduled for late Q4 2023 will involve a significant RC drilling campaign, which will be carried out along the length of the strong gravity high with a particular focus on the inferred very dense zones that have been identified within the magnetics anomaly. The objective of this drill programme is to not only confirm the scale of this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system but to also understand the distribution of key factors better, such as grade, mineralogy, thickness and extent of mineralised beds and controls on high-grade TiO₂ mineralisation.

Competent Person Statement

The technical information in this report that relates to the Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an employee of Eclipse Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Mr Faragher is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Faragher 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'. Mr Faragher consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters based on his 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:

About Empire Metals Limited

Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and resource development company with a project portfolio comprising copper, titanium 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 to contain a newly recognised giant mineral system that hosts a globally significant titanium discovery.  The Company is also advancing the Eclipse-Gindalbie Project in Western Australia, which is prospective for high-grade gold and also kaolin used to produce 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 producing region of Austria.