REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Exceptional High-Purity TiO2 Product Achieved

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 9022L  Empire Metals Limited  09 June 2025

Empire Metals Limited / LON: EEE , OTCQB: EPMLF / Sector: Natural Resources

9 June 2025

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

 

Exceptional High-Purity TiO(2) Product Achieved

 

Empire Metals Limited, the AIM-quoted and OTCQB-traded resource exploration
and development company, is pleased to announce the results from its most
recent titanium dioxide ("TiO(2)") product development testwork programme,
carried out on mineral flotation concentrates produced from the in-situ
mineralised weathered cap that extends across the giant Pitfield Project
('Pitfield'), located in Western Australia.

 

Highlights

 

·    A very high-purity TiO(2) product, assaying at 99.25% TiO(2) has been
achieved through conventional beneficiation, leaching and refining processes.

 

·    The TiO(2) product contains non-detectable, or extremely low levels
of deleterious impurities and is expected to be suitable for high-quality
titanium sponge metal or high-grade titanium dioxide pigment production.

 

·    Bulk samples collected from the weathered cap (announced 17 February
2025) have been delivered to the metallurgical laboratory and these will be
utilised to produce multiple, finished product samples for marketing purposes.

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "We have achieved an extraordinary
 outcome from our most recent product development testwork, which has
delivered an exceptional high-grade, high-purity TiO(2) product that should be
ideal for either titanium sponge metal or high-quality TiO(2) pigment
production.

 

"It is remarkable that our technical team has so rapidly produced a
high-purity TiO₂ product. We believe this not only highlights the
effectiveness of our processing approach but also underscores the potential
value of our product. Metallurgical testing and process optimisation
continues, and with the availability of the 70 tonnes of bulk sample collected
in February we will now be able to significantly scale up the testwork and
produce a variety of final product samples to share with prospective
downstream end-users."

 

Product Development Testwork

An acid bake-water leach process using sulphuric acid was applied, with
parameters similar to that tested during the initial product development test
programme (announced 10 March 2025). The TiO(2) product purification and
product finishing stages were tested at ALS Metallurgy laboratories, located
in Perth, Western Australia. All assays were conducted at ALS Metallurgy by
their in-house metallurgy-specific assay lab.

 

The most recent product development metallurgical test work was undertaken on
flotation concentrates recovered from the near surface, highly weathered
in-situ saprolitic zone. Diamond drill core collected from two holes,
DD24TOM004 and DD24TOM005, formed the feed composite (refer Figure 1). The
composite sample was passed through a wet scrubber to break up the clays and
attrition the ore prior to desliming the resulting slurry over a 38µm screen.
The coarse material was fed to a gravity test circuit and the finer fraction
(-38µm) was processed via froth flotation. The rougher (first stage)
flotation concentrate generated from multiple, repetitive flotation tests were
then blended to form the feedstock for a subsequent acid leach stage (refer
Figure 2).

 

Two subsamples of flotation concentrate were leached under the following
different conditions:

1.    Direct acid bake followed by hot water leach

2.    Dilute acid pre-leach followed by direct acid bake and hot water
leach.

 

For both tests iron filings were added to the hot water wash phase to reduce
the iron in the ferric (Fe(3+)) state to the ferrous (Fe(2+)) state, thus
removing the iron from the solution. In this acid leach stage the titanium is
recovered from the mineral concentrates into the liquor as titanyl sulphate
(TiSO(4)) and the residue solids and liquor are then separated after the water
leach step, using filtration, with the liquor moving forward for purification
and product finishing testwork.

 

The next step in the purification process is the hydrolysis stage, which
involves the heating of the liquor, thus breaking down the titanyl sulphate
and resulting in the production of hydrated TiO(2) and the recovery of
H(2)SO(4). This step was carried out in two stages without seed TiO(2)
material, an improvement from previous work. The solution was heated to 106
degrees C and held at temperature whilst being stirred for 2 hours. The
resulting slurry was then centrifuged to separate the liquor from the
precipitated solids. Finally, as part of the product finishing stage, the
hydrated TiO(2) was separated from the liquor using a centrifuge, and the
solids were then calcined to remove water and produce a high-purity TiO(2)
compound (see figure 3).

 

The final chemical analysis of the TiO(2) product indicates a very high purity
of 99.25% TiO(2) by mass with non-detectable or extremely low amounts of
deleterious impurities (see table 1).

 

Figure 1. Saprolite composite sample before scrubbing/attritioning.

Figure 2.  Flotation test on the saprolite composite slimes fraction

 

 

Table 1. Finished Product Analysis

 Product Analysis (XRF)  % by mass
 TiO(2)                  99.25
 Al                      0.16
 Ca                      0.01
 Fe                      0.09
 La                      <0.01
 Nd                      0.01
 Pb                      0.004
 P                       0.23
 Si                      0.03
 Th                      <0.001
 U                       <0.001
 V                       0.01

 

 

 

Figure 3. Purification and product finishing testwork, photos from left to
right: titanyl sulphate solution from leaching stage, hydrated TiO(2) produced
from hydrolysis, and the calcined TiO(2) product.

 

The Pitfield Titanium Project

Located within the Mid-West region of Western Australia, near the northern
wheatbelt town of Three Springs, the Pitfield titanium project lies 313km
north of Perth and 156km southeast of Geraldton, the Mid West region's capital
and major port. Western Australia is ranked as one of the top mining
jurisdictions in the world according to the Fraser Institute's Investment
Attractiveness Index published in 2023, and has mining-friendly policies,
stable government, transparency, and advanced technology expertise. Pitfield
has existing connections to port (both road & rail), HV power substations,
and is nearby to natural gas pipelines as well as a green energy hydrogen fuel
hub, which is under planning and development (refer Figure 4).

Figure 4. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure
and Services.

 

Competent Person Statement

The scientific and technical information in this report that relates to
process metallurgy is based on information reviewed by Ms Narelle Marriott, an
employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Empire. Ms Marriott is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience
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 JORC Code 2012. Ms. Marriott consents to the
inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on their information in
the form and context in which it appears.

 

The technical information in this report that relates to the geology and
exploration of the Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher,
an employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Empire. Mr. Faragher is a member of the AusIMM and 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 JORC Code 2012. 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
(http://www.empiremetals.co.uk) or contact:

 Empire Metals Ltd

 Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel / Arabella Burwell                                            Tel: 020 4583 1440
 S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nomad & Broker)                                      Tel: 020 3470 0470

 Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl
 Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker)                                               Tel: 020 7186 9950

 Damon Heath
 St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial                                                       Tel: 020 7236 1177
 PR)

 Susie Geliher / Charlotte Page

 

About Empire Metals Limited

Empire Metals is an AIM-listed and OTCQB-traded exploration and resource
development company (LON: EEE, OTCQB: EPMLF) with a primary focus on
developing Pitfield, an emerging giant titanium project in Western Australia.

 

The high-grade titanium discovery at Pitfield is of unprecedented scale, with
airborne surveys identifying a massive, coincident gravity and magnetics
anomaly extending over 40km by 8km by 5km deep. Drill results have indicated
excellent continuity in grades and consistency of the in-situ mineralised beds
and confirm that the sandstone beds hold the higher-grade titanium dioxide
(TiO₂) values within the interbedded succession of sandstones, siltstones
and conglomerates. The Company is focused on two key prospects (Cosgrove and
Thomas), which have been identified as having thick, high-grade, near-surface,
in-situ bedded TiO₂ mineralisation, each being over 7km in strike length.

 

An Exploration Target* for Pitfield was declared in 2024, covering the Thomas
and Cosgrove mineral prospects, and was estimated to contain between 26.4 to
32.2 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.5 to 5.5% TiO(2).  Included
within the total Exploration Target* is a subset that covers the in-situ
weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical
depth of 30m to 40m and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion
tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO(2).

 

The Exploration Target* covers an area less than 20% of the overall mineral
system at Pitfield which demonstrates the potential for significant further
upside.

 

Empire is now accelerating the economic development of Pitfield, with a vision
to produce a high-value titanium metal or pigment quality product at Pitfield,
to realise the full value potential of this exceptional deposit.

 

The Company also has two further exploration projects in Australia; the
Eclipse Project and the Walton Project in Western Australia, in addition to
three precious metals projects located in a historically high-grade gold
producing region of Austria.

 

*The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in
nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource
and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a
Mineral Resource. See RNS dated 12 June 2024 for full details.

 

 

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