REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Exploration Licence Area Expanded at Pitfield

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

13/12/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20221213:nRSM5077Ja&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 5077J  Empire Metals Limited  13 December 2022

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

 

13 December 2022

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

 

Exploration Licence Area Expanded to cover the Potential "Giant" Copper
Province at Pitfield

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and
development company, is pleased to announce an expansion of the exploration
camp at the Pitfield Copper Project ('Pitfield'), located in Western
Australia, with the addition of two new Exploration Licence Applications
covering extensions to the north and south of the massive alteration footprint
previously announced by the Company.  This is an important step for the
Company which will provide additional exploration targets across what
potentially could be a "Giant" copper mineralised system.

 

Highlights

·    Pitfield has the potential to contain multiple sediment-hosted
stratabound copper (SSC) deposits lying within what may be a "Giant" copper
mineralised system.

·    A regionally extensive geophysical anomaly has been outlined over
40km N-S by three different physical properties; density, conductivity and
magnetic susceptibility, likely caused by a massive, basin-scale alteration
event.

·    Empire currently holds the two Exploration Licences, covering
615km(2), which extend over this massive alteration footprint and has applied
for an additional two Exploration Licences covering a further 426.7 km(2).

·    Exploration field work, including soil sampling, geological mapping
has commenced, and these activities will continue in Q1 2023 ahead of an
intended drill programme to evaluate the economic significance of any SSC
deposit.

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "Recent geophysical surveys and
geochemical mapping has identified a massive quartz-magnetite alteration
footprint, extending over 40km N-S, with indications that the associated
copper anomalisms may extend even further north and south.  Securing these
additional exploration licences to the north and south at Pitfield is a major
coup for the Company, ensuring that we have maximum coverage over what we
believe is an emerging Giant copper province, potentially containing multiple
SSC deposits.

 

"We have just completed the first stage of field work at Pitfield with over
400 soil and rock chip samples collected and being submitted for assay.
Geological surface mapping indicated extensive magnetite occurrence,
particularly within the Mt Scratch siltstones, which is another important
indicator of a massive thermal alteration event that potentially led to the
formation of numerous SSC deposits."

 

 

Pitfield Project Area and Key Features

Pitfield is located near Three Springs, a town  313 kilometres 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).

Empire holds a 70% interest in Pitfield and has established a separate
unincorporated joint venture ('JV') for prospecting, exploration and such
other activities with the original vendor Century Minerals Pty Ltd ('Century')
who hold the remaining 30%. Pitfield was initially comprised of two granted
Exploration Licences (E70/5465 and E70/5876) covering 615 sq km. The
Empire-Century JV has applied for two additional Exploration Licences
(E70/6320 and E70/6323) which will extend the exploration camp by an
additional 426.7km(2) (refer Figure 2).

Figure 1. Pitfield Project
Location                            Figure 2.
Pitfield Tenements

 

Pitfield lies at a unique setting along the boundary of Western Yilgarn
province, where a major craton-scale structure internal to Southwest Gneiss
province intersects and offsets the Yilgarn margin and controls the position
of the Neoproterozoic Yandanooka basin, the only example of this globally
important copper prospective age adjacent to the western Yilgarn craton.

 

The Neoproterozoic is a globally important copper mineralisation era, which
includes the copper belt of southern Africa (DRC, Zambia and Namibia), and the
highly mineralised Paterson province in the north of Western Australia, host
to major Cu-Au deposits such as Telfer, Winu and Havieron. Both are of similar
age to the Yandanooka basin sequence.

 

Pitfield has all the hallmarks of a "Giant" copper mineralised system,
potentially containing multiple sediment-hosted stratabound copper (SSC)
deposits. Multiple historic high grade copper mines and prospects occur in the
basin including the Baxters, Arrino, Mt Muggawa, and Mt Scratch copper mines.

Airborne Electromagentic ('AEM') and Airborne Magnetic ('AM') surveys at
Pitfield have outlined exceptionally large and coincident gravity,
electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies, extending over 40km N-S (refer Figure
3). These are interpreted as a basin-scale hydrothermal alteration event that
involved the formation of copper mineralisation.  A regional quartz-magnetite
alteration event would explain these coincident geophysical anomalies, and be
consistent with SSC type copper deposits formed during same event.

Figure 3. Gravity-electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies at Pitfield.

 

The AEM survey identified a suite of highly conductive rocks within the Mt
Scratch siltstone surrounding this massive gravity-electromagnetic-magnetic
anomaly, which indicates the presence of conductive reductants such as
graphite which make this regional siltstone an excellent host rock for copper
sulphide deposits.

 

Widespread copper ('Cu'), silver ('Ag'), nickel ('Ni') and zinc ('Zn')
anomalism has already been identified over large parts of the Yandanooka basin
by previous explorers, particularly in association with magnetite-altered
rocks.  For example, CRA (1993) completed IP geophysics and auger sampling
defining a +7km Cu-in auger anomaly (plus Ag) along the western boundary which
remains open to the east and south. CRA also completed soil sampling in the Mt
Scratch area in the north which confirmed a large Cu-Ag anomaly. Ni is an
important pathfinder for SSC deposits in these weathered conditions as it
doesn't tend to remobilise in the laterites to the same extent as the
Cu-Ag-Zn.

 

BHP (1984) completed IP geophysics, shallow RAB, and four stratigraphic
diamond holes focused along the western contact of the Yandanooka basin within
the basement Mullingarra gneiss, which were found to be significantly depleted
of base metals (including Cu) indicating these basement rocks are the source
of copper and other metals that have transported to younger rocks within the
basin during a very large hydrothermal event forming copper-polymetallic
geochemical anomalies, prospects and potentially copper deposits.

 

Current Exploration Activities and Future Work

A soil programme comprising 1030 sample sites was designed for the first stage
of field work at Pitfield and an initial sampling was completed on 30 November
2022. As some of the sampling sites were still under crop they could not be
accessed during this field trip hence a second field campaign is planned in
early 2023. So far to date a total of 397 soil and 18 rock chip samples have
been collected, representing 40% completion.

 

The sampling sites were largely focused on areas previously unexplored that
were highlighted by the geophysical surveys as being highly prospective,
coinciding with topographic highs where soil sampling is likely to be most
effective (refer Figure 4). The sampling lines extended over a total of 77
line-kms with samples collected at 80m spacing along lines and from 5-20cm
below surface using standard industry practices and sieved on site to -200
micron.  The samples have been submitted to Intertek, Perth for multi-element
analysis.

 

Further soil sampling programmes, and an Induced Polarisation (IP) survey,
measuring resistivity, is planned over the coming few months, ahead of an
intended drill programme to evaluate the economic significance of any SSC
deposit.

Figure 4.  Geological mapping and soil sampling at Pitfield.

 

 

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                                                                       Tel: 020 7907 9327

 Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel
 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 / Ana Ribeiro / Max Bennett

 

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 primary focus is the emerging "Giant" copper mineralised system
at the Pitfield Copper Project and the high-grade Eclipse-Gindalbie Gold
Project, both located in Western Australia.

 

At Pitfield, a recent expert review and airborne geophysical surveys have
confirmed the project as having all the hallmarks of a "Giant" copper
mineralised system, potentially containing multiple sediment-hosted
stratabound copper (SSC) deposits.  The exploration licence for Pitfield was
acquired at the same time as two further exploration projects, the Walton
Copper-Gold Project and the Stavely Copper-Gold Project, and all three lie
within mining regions well known for world-class and significant copper and/or
gold discoveries.

 

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.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  MSCBKNBQABDKNBD