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

29 November 2023

Empire Metals Limited

('Empire' or the 'Company')

Highest Grade Drilling Results Reported to Date:

Extensive, High-Grade Titanium Mineralisation Confirmed from Surface to over 350m Deep, Extending Across 30km of the Giant Mineral System

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the analytical lab results from the second and third diamond core drillholes completed at the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'), which confirms high-grade TiO₂ mineralisation zones across thick bedded intervals to a vertical depth of circa 350m, confirming Pitfield as a world class, district-scale titanium mineral system.

Highlights

·    Highest grade drilling results reported to date with second and third completed diamond drillholes both intersecting thick, bedded intervals of high-grade titanium mineralisation.

·    Drillhole DD23TOM001, the second of the three diamond drillholes, intersected:

o  297.1m @ 6.10% TiO₂ from 111.4m

o  including 51.6m @ 7.12% TiO₂ from 326.0m.

·    Drillhole DD23COS001, the third diamond drillhole completed, intersected:

o  173.2m @ 5.76% TiO₂ from 18.6m

o  including 58.7m @ 6.32% TiO₂ from 24.0m.

·    Latest drill results complement the previously reported, thick high-grade interval (276.5m @ 4.57% TiO₂ from 80.5m) from the first diamond drillhole DD23MTS001 (announced 20 November 2023).

·   All three diamond drillholes completed to date have intersected strong, sediment-hosted titanium mineralisation throughout the length of each hole, including thick, higher grade, bedded intervals, with the bottom of each hole stopped in mineralisation.

·    Each of these two drill intersections of high-grade titanium mineralisation is located close to a high-grade TiO₂ surface target area (one covering 6km² and the other covering 3km²) identified from recently completed rock chip sampling.

·    An extensive Reverse Circulation ('RC') programme of the high-grade target areas is underway, with approximately 18 RC drill holes completed to date out of the total of 40 RC holes planned.

·    The Company is advancing investigations into the petrology and mineralogy of the titanium mineralisation to better understand potential ore processing options.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "These exceptional results provide further evidence that we have a high-grade titanium enriched mineralised system of global strategic significance at Pitfield. 

"The results clearly point to strong and extensive titanium mineralisation with thick, high-grade bedded intervals, close to surface, the grades of which are particularly impressive. We are now seeing TiO₂ values in excess of 7% over greater than 50m thick, bedded intervals within a host sedimentary succession that has been entirely altered and mineralised. The easterly dipping sedimentary beds that carry the higher grades come to surface to the west of our diamond drill collars, and it is these shallower, higher-grade targets that are the focus of our planned RC drill campaigns.

"The next phase of RC drilling has commenced and is running smoothly. Comprising 40 RC drillholes, for a total drilled length of 6,000m, this programme doubles that drilled in our maiden RC campaign. The plan is to carry out an additional, similarly sized RC drilling programme in early 2024, targeting the shallower areas of high-grade TiO₂ beds which have been identified up-dip of the deeper diamond drillhole intercepts, and in additional higher grade target areas that we expect to be identified from the RC drilling currently underway."

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.

Summary of Diamond Drill Results

Analytical results have now been received for the second and third diamond drill holes, which were located 12km apart, being positioned towards the southern end and central portion of the giant 40km long by 8km wide by 5km deep Pitfield mineral system. Both drillholes intersected thick, bedded zones of significantly higher grade TiO2 mineralisation than that encountered by previous drilling.  The broad nature of the mineralised intercepts, highlights being 297.1m @ 6.10% TiO2 (DD23TOM001) and 173.2m @ 5.76% TiO2 (DD23COS001), are globally significant and highlight the world class nature of this giant titanium mineral system.

Drillhole DD23TOM001 (second completed diamond drill hole)

This hole was drilled to test the depth extent of the titanium mineralisation intersected in RC drillhole RC23TOM001, which was drilled in April 2023.  The RC drillhole intersected Beaconsfield Conglomerate formation consisting of interbedded conglomerate and sandstone.  The top 58m was mud rotary drilled as the bedrock is highly weathered and so no core was recovered over this initial interval. Notwithstanding, the top 60m of the nearby RC hole RC23TOM001 graded 4.8% TiO₂. The diamond drilling also intersected Beaconsfield Conglomerate and, importantly, thick intervals of strongly altered sandstones with lesser siltstone but containing minor conglomerate interbeds.  The sandstone-siltstone intervals are most common, being up to 90m thick in parts.  The strong hematite-epidote-carbonate alteration from the previously reported first diamond drillhole DD23MTS001 is pervasive across all rock types, but appears stronger within the sandstones.

The analytical lab results clearly indicate that higher TiO₂ grades coincide with the more strongly altered, thick sandstone-rich intervals, suggesting that the greater permeability of the sandstone beds was important in focusing the mineralising hydrothermal fluids.

DD23TOM001 intersected titanium-mineralised beds throughout the hole, beginning from surface, in addition to cutting thick, bedded intervals of higher grade titanium mineralisation, including the following:

·    297.1m @ 6.10% TiO₂ from 111.4m including:

o  51.6m @ 7.12% TiO₂ from 326.0m

Drillhole DD23COS001 (third completed diamond drillhole)

This hole was drilled to test a strong magnetic anomaly within the central part of the giant Pitfield mineral system.  The drillhole intersected Beaconsfield Conglomerate formation throughout the length of the hole.  The top 260m is predominantly hematite-epidote-carbonate altered sandstones with thin interbeds of siltstone and minor conglomerate beds. The remainder of the drillhole is dominated by conglomerate with minor sandstone and siltstone interbeds. The conglomerate is altered but not to the same intensity as the sandstones. The sandy conglomerate matrix towards the bottom of the hole has been silica-carbonate altered, differing in appearance to the commonly  epidote-altered sandy matrix higher up in the hole.

Similarly to the second diamond drill hole, the analytical lab results clearly indicate a correlation between strength of titanium mineralisation and host rock type with the upper, sandstone-dominated intervals returning higher TiO₂ grades, especially within thicker bedded sandstone intervals whereas the more conglomerate-dominated intervals lower in the hole generally contain less intense mineralisation and consequently returned lower TiO₂ grades than the sandstone.

DD23COS001 intersected titanium mineralised beds throughout the hole, beginning from near surface, in addition to cutting thick, bedded intervals of higher grade titanium mineralisation, including the following :

·    173.2m @ 5.76% TiO₂ from 18.6m

o  Inc. 58.7m @ 6.32% TiO₂ from 24.0m

It is important to note that the mineralised intervals reported above are hosted by sedimentary beds which continue up dip to surface to the west and are open below the hole down dip to the east. 

The results continue to confirm that Pitfield hosts a district-scale titanium mineral system with multiple, broad, high-grade titanium-mineralised zones that the current exploration work is identifying within the larger mineral system. The diamond drilling results clearly demonstrate the continuity of thick, bedded zones of higher grade titanium mineralisation to a vertical depth of 350m, still with elevated TiO₂ values at the bottom of the drillholes indicating that the bedded mineralisation extends deeper.

The high-grade mineralised zones intersected by these two diamond drillholes, DD23TOM001 and DD23COS001, correlate well with the two new high-grade TiO₂ drill targets, covering 6km² and 3km² respectively, which were recently identified from the rock chip sampling and geological mapping programme that was previously reported.

Refer to Table 1 and Table 2 below respectively for analytical results for each interval from diamond drillholes DD23TOM001 and DD23COS001. The analytical lab procedures involve a multi-acid digestion with ICP-MS instrumentation finish. The lab reports Ti values whilst industry standard is to report TiO₂  equivalent values. The conversion factor is: Ti value x 1.668 = TiO₂ value.

Figure 2.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity survey results with location of maiden RC drillholes, diamond drillholes and planned RC drillholes.

RC Drill Programme

The current phase of drilling, an extensive RC drill programme, targeting higher grade mineralisation, is well underway and is expected to run for two more weeks, with approximately 18 RC drillholes completed to date. The programme consists of 40 drillholes totalling 6,000 metres along the length of the high-density gravity core coincident within the regional magnetics anomaly (see Figure 2), with particular focus on the high-grade areas identified through the recent surface rock chip sampling and mapping programme in addition to the diamond drill results.  The RC drill programme will also include drillholes to test up-dip bedded high-grade zones to the west of those intersected within the second diamond drillhole, DD23TOM001, reported herein.

The objective of this drill programme is to further define the scale of this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system but to also identify near-surface, higher grade zones which will be the focus of future resource development and mining studies, inclusive of mineralogical and metallurgical characterisation.

Future Work

Subject to the outcomes of the current RC drill programme, the Company expects to carry out a further 6,000m RC drill programme in Q1 2024, targeting near-surface, higher grade zones, and providing some initial in-fill drilling which represents the beginning of a mineral resource development phase of work.

The Company is continuing its investigations into the petrology and mineralogy of the titanium mineralisation to better understand potential ore processing options.

Table 1.  Diamond drillhole #3 (DD23TOM001) geochemical analysis lab results for TiO₂*

(*Conversion factor for Ti to TiO2 is 1.668.)

Table 2. Diamond drillhole #3 (DD23COS001) geochemical analysis lab results for TiO₂*

(*Conversion factor for Ti to TiO2 is 1.668.)

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.