REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Major Drilling Campaign Targeting Maiden MRE

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

02/06/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 9172K  Empire Metals Limited  02 June 2025

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

2 June 2025

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

 

Commencement of Major Drilling Campaign Targeting Maiden Mineral Resource
Estimate

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted and OTCQB-traded exploration
and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of a major
drilling campaign at the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or
the 'Project'). This programme will target high-grade titanium mineralisation
within the in-situ weathered cap at the Thomas Prospect, with the objective of
delivering a maiden JORC Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate ('MRE').

 

Highlights

 

·    A total of 164 drill holes planned:

o  124 Air Core ('AC') drillholes for approximately 6,700 metres, and

o  40 Reverse Circulation ('RC') drillholes for approximately 4,000 metres,

o  totalling 10,700 metres of drilling.

 

·    The Thomas Prospect was selected for the maiden MRE due to the
extensive, thick and high-grade titanium mineralisation hosted within the
broad, in-situ weathered zone.

 

·    This programme, the largest at Pitfield to date, will cover over 11
square kilometres and aims to deliver a globally significant MRE.

 

·      Notable intercepts within the in-situ weathered cap from previous
drilling at Thomas include:

o  51m @ 7.88% TiO₂ from surface (AC25TOM039)

o  57m @ 7.48% TiO₂ from surface (AC25TOM040)

o  52m @ 7.43% TiO₂ from surface (AC25TOM042)

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "We are pleased to commence this
important drilling campaign at Pitfield, focused on delivering our maiden MRE
from the Thomas Prospect. The Thomas Prospect contains broad, continuous,
high-grade zones of high-purity titanium dioxide mineralisation within the
in-situ weathered cap: confirmed by assay results from the February 2025 AC
drill campaign, averaging 6.20% TiO₂ over an average depth of 54m (announced
28 April 2025).

 

"This fully funded campaign, scheduled to run over the next four to five
weeks, is the largest undertaken to date at Pitfield. With 164 holes planned
over an 11 square kilometre area and to an average depth of 65 metres, this
work is designed to deliver a globally significant Mineral Resource Estimate."
 

 

 

MRE Drilling Programme

The location and spacing of the planned AC drillholes have been designed, with
the input of mineral resource consultants Snowden-Optiro, to provide the
necessary drill assay data density to allow the preparation of an MRE at the
Thomas Prospect. The programme consists of 124 AC drillholes, on a 400 x 200m
drillhole-spaced grid with an average forecast depth of 54.1m, for a total of
6,700 metres, and 40 RC drillholes within the AC drilling grid, to a depth of
100m, for a total of 4,000 metres. The overall drillhole grid extends 5.2km by
2.2km and totals an area of 11.4 sq km (refer Figure 1).

 

The drilling is targeting the near surface, highly weathered zones within the
Thomas Prospect; drilling has now commenced and will run over several weeks,
with laboratory analysis scheduled for completion in August.

 

 

Figure 1. Planned Air Core drill hole collar locations within the Thomas
Prospect priority area.

 

The near-surface, in-situ weathered cap at the Thomas Prospect contains a high
percentage of the key titanium bearing minerals, primarily anatase and rutile.
The drilling targets areas were selected on the basis of three key parameters:
high-purity TiO(2) mineral assemblage, high average TiO(2 ) grades and
significant depth of weathering (refer Table 1).

 

The AC and RC drillholes will be geologically logged and sub-sampled on 2m
intervals and geochemically analysed; this data will provide the basis for
geological modelling and for the development of the MRE at the Thomas
Prospect.

 

Air core drilling has previously been utilised at Pitfield to drill-test the
weathered cap and collect bulk metallurgical samples (announced 28 April
2025).  It is a cost-effective and efficient drilling method that is commonly
used for shallow exploration projects and the success of the previous campaign
confirmed its suitability for the preparation of the MRE.

 

Table 1: Weathered Zone drill intercepts from the Thomas Prospect (previously
released results) including high-grade intervals to be followed up by MRE
drilling

 Hole ID     Easting  Northing  Depth From (m)  Depth To (m)  EOH (m)  Weathered Interval (m)  Grade TiO(2) (%)
 RC24TOM021  373699   6724326   4               76            154      72                      6.75
 including                      4               58                     54                      6.90
 including                      4               12                     8                       9.03
 including                      8               10                     2                       9.98
 RC24TOM022  373329   6724796   0               54            154      54                      7.02
 including                      4               12                     8                       8.54
 RC24TOM023  373639   6724978   0               58            154      58                      5.68
 including                      6               20                     14                      6.09
 DD24TOM006  373947   6724741   0               46.5          70.5     46.5                    5.94
 including                      4.5             45                     40.5                    6.10
 including                      10.5            22.5                   12                      6.95
 AC25TOM021  373250   6724746   0               49            49       49                      7.49
 including                      20              26                     6                       10.71
 AC25TOM036  373358   6725089   2               54            54       52                      7.21
 AC25TOM039  373506   6724612   0               51            51       51                      7.88
 AC25TOM040  373599   6724639   0               57            57       57                      7.48
 including                      6               22                     16                      10.00
 AC25TOM041  373572   6724737   0               54            54       54                      7.19
 including                      4               18                     14                      10.06
 including                      4               12                     8                       11.67
 AC25TOM042  373546   6724823   0               52            52       52                      7.43
 including                      4               16                     12                      10.17
 including                      4               12                     8                       11.32

 

 

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 2).

Figure 2. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure
and Services

 

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 Empire Metals
Australia 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
(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) 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 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,
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 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.

 

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