REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Exploration Licence Granted for the Walton Project

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

26/04/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 4129X  Empire Metals Limited  26 April 2023

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

 

26 April 2023

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

 

Grant of Exploration Licence for the Walton Copper-Gold-Lithium Project and
Issue of Shares

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and
development company, is pleased to announce the granting of the Exploration
Licence for the Walton Copper-Gold-Lithium Project ("Walton") located in
Western Australia, in which Empire holds a holds a 70% interest.

 

 

Highlights

·    Walton is a highly prospective copper, gold and lithium exploration
project located in the underexplored Yerilgee greenstone belt within the
Southern Cross domain.

·    The Yerilgee greenstone belt is part of the 2.9 Ga Western Yilgarn
greenstone succession, host to world-class volcanic-hosted massive sulphide
(VHMS) systems such as Golden Grove and Cobre Ltd's emerging Perrinvale
Project.

·    Limited previous shallow surface exploration has been undertaken on
the project area and Empire expects to mobilise its exploration team in
June-July this year to commence surface soils/auger sampling and geological
mapping.

·    Exploration at Walton will be undertaken in parallel with work at the
Company's priority Pitfield Copper Project following completion of a maiden
reverse circulation drilling programme (announced 24 April 2023).

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am pleased to announce that the
Exploration Licence for Walton has been granted and that we can commence
reconnaissance work on the ground to help confirm the prospectivity of this
region for gold, base metal and lithium discoveries.

 

"The April 2022 acquisition of a 70% interest in Walton, along with the
Pitfield and Stavely Projects, has transformed Empire into a significant
copper-gold-lithium explorer in Australia, and along with the existing Eclipse
and Gindalbie projects has created four highly prospective, geologically
diverse exploration camps covering 2,155km(2).

 

"We are now planning a field geological mapping and soil sampling programme at
Walton which we expect to commence over the coming months, with the aim of
identifying potential drill targets."

 

The Walton Copper-Gold Lithium Project

Location and Regional Geology

 

Walton is comprised of a single Exploration Licence (E 16/545)  covering 163km(2). Walton is located in the under-explored Yerilgee greenstone belt, which is part of the Southern Cross domain, and lies 475 kilometres north-east of Perth (refer Figure 1). Access is via the town of Southern Cross, which lies on the Great Eastern Highway, the major transport route between the West and East coasts of Australia, and then on well maintained regional roads.

Figure 1.           Location of Walton Project within the Yilgarn
Craton of Western Australia.

 

Local Geology and Historical Mining Activities

The Yerilgee belt comprises a sequence of high-magnesium basalts, ultramafic
volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks and granites including iron formations. It
is part of the 2.9 Ga Western Yilgarn greenstone succession that hosts the
world-class Golden Grove VHMS system, and a number of other emerging VHMS
prospects such as Cobre Ltd's Perrinvale Project and Dreadnought Resources'
Strickland Project (refer Figure 2.)  Cobre's drilling at the Schwabe
Prospect at Perrinvale, which lies to the north of Walton, has outlined an
initial resource of 272Kt at 1.6 % Cu, 1.2 % Zn, 0.04 % Co, 0.04 % Pb, 6.3 g/t
Ag & 0.4 g/t Au. In addition to VHMS, there is potential for orogenic gold
associated with major belt parallel shear zones and lithium-bearing pegmatites
which are common in the higher metamorphic grade terrains of the Yilgarn
craton.

Figure 2. Aeromagnetics of the Southern Cross province showing location of
Walton tenement in relation to existing mines and recent discoveries.

Recent exploration success in the region also includes:

 

·    Spectrum Metals' high-grade Penny North discovery which led to a
takeover of Spectrum Metals by Ramelius Resources in 2020. Ramelius Resources
is mining the Marda gold operation in the greenstone belt immediately to the
west of Yerilgee; and

·    Red Dirt Minerals discovery of lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT)
pegmatites at its flagship Mt Ida Lithium Project, located to the north of
Walton, which has a current Mineral Resource of 12.7Mt at 1.2% Li(2)O.

 

Future Work Planned

Limited previous shallow surface exploration has been undertaken on the
project area and the historical geological database is under review ahead of
the Company commencing its own site-based exploration activities with the
objective of identifying copper, gold or lithium drilling targets.

 

The Company expects to mobilise its exploration team in June-July to commence
surface soils/auger sampling and geological mapping.

 

 

Completion and Issue of Equity

The consideration payable for the acquisition of the Pitfield, Walton and
Stavley projects (the "Projects") was agreed at the time of the initial
acquisition as announced on 6 April 2022. The consideration is satisfied by
the issue of 16,835,588 new ordinary shares in Empire (the 'Consideration
Shares') apportioned equally between each Project and issued upon the grant of
the relevant Tenement comprising each Project.

Following completion on Walton, 5,611,863, Consideration Shares have been
issued.  The remaining one third of the Consideration Shares will be at the
time that the Stavely licence is granted.

 

Application for Admission

The 5,611,863 Consideration Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with
the existing ordinary shares of no-par value in the capital of the Company.
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the new shares to be
admitted to trading on AIM ('Admission').  It is expected that Admission will
become effective on or around 3 May 2023.

Following Admission of the new shares as described above, the issued share
capital of the Company will consist of 488,491,035 ordinary shares of no-par
value. 488,491,035 represents the total number of voting rights in the Company
and may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by
which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or
a change to their interest in the Company under the Financial Conduct
Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information please visit www.empiremetals.co.uk
(http://www.empiremetals.co.uk)   or contact:

 Empire Metals Ltd                                                                       Tel: 020 4583 1440

 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 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 strong potential to be a new
"Giant" copper mineral system.  The Company is also advancing the
Eclipse-Gindalbie Project in Western Australia, which is prospective for
high-grade gold and also kaolin, which is used extensively in a number of
industries and is considered to be a desirable feedstock for the production of
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 production region in central-southern Austria.

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