REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Positive Results from Initial Processing Testwork

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

04/09/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 7289C  Empire Metals Limited  04 September 2024

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

 

4 September 2024

Empire Metals Limited

('Empire' or the 'Company')

 

Positive Results Achieved from Initial Processing Testwork on Pitfield
Titanium Ore

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and
development company, is pleased to provide an update on the mineralogical and
metallurgical studies being carried out on titanium rich ores from the
Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'). The
Company's evaluations to date, which incorporate both historical research and
current international knowledge and expertise, have identified a number of
highly prospective processing routes which are the focus of on-going
metallurgical testing and flowsheet development.  The testwork is being
conducted at a range of independent and government research laboratory
facilities, utilising both commercial scale equipment and reagent industry
vendors. The range of work programmes is extensive and the understanding being
generated from this breadth of work is integral to the identification and
optimisation of a preferred process flowsheet and the development of a final
product specification for the Project.

 

Highlights

 

·    Empire's metallurgical testwork objective is to develop a processing
flowsheet that will enable the development of a fully integrated, mine to
high-value titanium product facility thus achieving our corporate goal of
making Pitfield a globally significant and secure supplier to the titanium
pigment and titanium metal industries.

 

·    A multifaceted mineralogical and metallurgical testwork programme has
now been expanded, engaging international and locally based expert
consultants, and utilising Australian based government and commercially owned
laboratory facilities.

 

·    Testwork conducted to date has been on the fresh bedrock titanite
ore.  However, the discovery of concentrated, high-purity anatase in the
overlying weathered bedrock cap has shifted the testwork focus, requiring the
collection of new samples from the diamond drill core which have now been
composited and submitted to the laboratory for crushing/grinding ahead of
mineral concentration testwork.

 

·    Titanite ore testwork has been focused on separating the Ti-bearing
minerals from the low value, gangue minerals, a key step in the development of
an economic process flowsheet for Pitfield, with positive results achieved
during the initial gravity separation stages on the titanite-rich fresh
bedrock.

 

 

·    Preliminary sighter leach tests on titanite ore samples utilising
hydrochloric acid (HCl) have been successful with the contained titanite
mineral grains completely dissolving within 6 hours in an atmospheric pressure
HCl leach at 80 degrees Celsius.

 

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am extremely excited by the progress
being made by our development team, led by our Process Development Manager Ms
Narelle Marriott, and well supported technically by titanium industry
specialists, Dr Trevor Nicholson and Mr Eugene Dardengo. We have commenced
research studies with CSIRO and Curtin University scientists, both groups
being located here in Western Australia, aimed at providing important
information on the nature and origin of the mineralisation as well as the
various routes through which to extract the titanium. Through the
mineralogical studies completed to date at AXT and CSIRO (announced 22 August
2024), we now have an increasingly detailed understanding of the
mineralisation, both for the fresh and the weathered titanium minerals, as
well as for the gangue minerals.

 

"We have also been working closely with titanium industry and market
consultants, TiMPC, which are providing invaluable commercial guidance into
what types of products are most desired by the major titanium industry players
and how Empire can market its high-purity products towards the high-value end
of the market. With new knowledge being generated about Pitfield's ore geology
and the titanium industry market requirements, plans for the next phase of
testwork are being tailored towards the development of a commercial process
flowsheet optimized for Pitfield anatase and titanite ores."

 

Mineralogical and Metallurgical Update

Ore Characterisation

Two ore types have now been identified within the host sandstone bedrock at
Pitfield: an unweathered or "primary" titanite-rich ore type present within
the fresh sandstone bedrock, and a weathered or "secondary" anatase-rich ore
type present within the overlying, near-surface cap of weathered sandstone
bedrock. The Company's development team has initially focused on ore
characterisation in order to achieve a fundamental understanding of the
dominant primary and secondary titanium ore minerals (titanite and anatase
respectively), the nature of other associated titanium-bearing minerals (Fe-Ti
Oxides) and the principal gangue minerals within the near-surface weathered
cap (hematite, quartz and kaolinite). In particular the ores are being
characterised by mineral percentages, the association between minerals, the
mineral grain size and mineral composition including looking for any
impurities.

Several different mineralogical analysis techniques are being used, including
TIMA analysis, XRD, SEM microprobe, and microscope petrography. These services
have been undertaken at various independent and government owned laboratories
including Automated Mineralogy Incubator (AMI), Bureau Veritas (BV) and
Australia's national science agency, CSIRO.

CSIRO's Geoscience Drill Core Research Laboratory is unique worldwide,
offering a range of multi-disciplinary techniques for visualising and
classifying multi-element geochemical data from drill holes, core and samples.
These highly specialised techniques, utilising equipment such as the Minalyzer
and the HyLogger, will aid the Company's geoscientists by providing rapid
interpretation of the large data volumes generated from our drilling as well
as generating key geometallurgical characteristics.

 

Figures 1-3. (from clockwise) Narelle Marriott, Empire's Process Development
Manager, reviewing data from the SEM at the AMI laboratory in Perth.

The HyLogger spectral scanner  and the Minalyzer, both located at CSIRO's
Perth laboratories.

 

The mineral characterisation studies have included a wide range of samples
from the exploration drilling programmes completed to date, and include
mineralised core samples from the fresh, transition and weathered zones of
bedrock intercepted in the sampled drill holes; and also multiple large (+80
kg) composite samples collected from the diamond drill core and crushed and
blended for metallurgical testwork.

These large diamond core composite samples will be used to test a wide range
of mineral processing and hydrometallurgical techniques. The use of larger
composite samples is important as it allows comparison between processing
methods for testwork undertaken at multiple laboratories.

Once testwork has determined a specific flowsheet as favourable, then
additional samples will be prepared from historical or new drilling to test
ore variability, test flowsheet variables and to produce bulk samples for
engineering and environmental studies.

Multiple programmes of work are underway, as part of the metallurgical
flowsheet development, discussed in detail below. The programme has been
designed to consider all aspects of a flowsheet required from delivery of ore
to the plant to a final saleable product to market.

Process Flowsheet Development

The strategy has been to consider a wide range of high-potential mineral
processing and hydrometallurgical techniques when designing the on-going
testwork programme. The process flowsheet and related testwork considers four
separate, albeit related, components as defined in Figure 4 below.

The same testwork processes will be used to separately test the anatase-rich
secondary ore and the titanite-rich primary ore, as the mineral assemblage
(inclusive of the gangue minerals) is entirely different as a result of the
strong, near surface weathering.

 

Figure 4.  Process Flowsheet components under development

 

Comminution

Comminution is an initial mineral processing step aimed at breaking up the
mined ore into small enough particles that the valuable minerals are no longer
in the same composite particle as the gangue minerals. This allows the next
step of mineral concentration to happen more efficiently.  Information gained
in the ore characterisation stage has guided the development of this process
flowsheet stage. Mineral grain size and mineral association are used to
determine target particle sizes. The images from SEM and microprobe work have
provided insight into the physical occurrence of titanium bearing minerals
within the sandstone matrix, thereby focusing the testwork on equipment and
the techniques which can selectively liberate the titanium bearing minerals
without over-grinding, such as mineral sizers, scrubbers, high pressure
grinding rolls, hammer mills and stirred milling.

Standard comminution tests have already been undertaken on samples from the
fresh bedrock and the weathered zone to provide information on rock competency
and energy input for breakage requirements.  The weathered zone was confirmed
to be very soft and the fresh bedrock, whilst more competent, is expected to
fracture easily due to the bedding layers within the sandstone sediments.
Planning is underway for a full range of comminution tests on both the
weathered and fresh rocks, pending receipt of full diamond 'PQ' drill core.

 

Mineral Concentration

Testwork is ongoing at a number of commercial laboratories for the mineral
concentration of the Pitfield primary ore samples. This programme is testing a
wide range of physical and chemical unit processes that can separate out
gangue minerals from Ti-bearing minerals. Multiple unit processes and
combinations that can be used on the Pitfield ores are being tested to
determine how best to separate the Ti-bearing minerals from the non Ti-bearing
minerals. Additionally the minerals within the non Ti-bearing stream will be
further assessed for their suitability as potentially economic by-product
streams.

As a first stage, screening and size analysis has been undertaken to
investigate the opportunity to produce a throwaway waste stream within the
comminution circuit, with the objective of reducing the size and energy
requirements of the overall comminution circuit. Some coarse rejection of
gangue minerals was achieved and the suitability of an initial first stage
utilising scrubbing and jigs is now under consideration.

It should be noted that the majority of the testwork conducted to date has
been on composite samples produced from primary titanite ore. With the
discovery of an anatase-rich secondary ore deposit in the near surface,
weathered zone the testwork focus has shifted to developing an understanding
of the metallurgical characteristics of the minerals within these weathered
secondary ores. This has necessitated further sampling of the diamond core
recovered from the Q1 2024 drill programme. These samples have now been
composited and submitted to the laboratory for crushing/grinding ahead of
mineral concentration testwork.

The key mineral concentration techniques currently under investigation
include:

Gravity separation testwork is being undertaken at Allied Mineral Laboratories
(AML). AML is an independent mineral processing research facility located in
Perth, Western Australia and specialises in mineral separation processing
testwork and flowsheet design. The initial gravity tabling tests have been
focussed on producing a low-grade mineral waste stream and a titanium-rich
mineral concentrate for further downstream processing. This research testwork
is being supported by bench scale heavy liquid separation and mineralogical
analysis to determine the optimal separation at different specific gravities.

Early indications that the primary titanite ore will respond well to gravity
concentration are encouraging. Heavy liquid separation at a specific gravity
cut of 2.9 g/ml rejected 35% of the mass and 46% of the gangue silicates.
Only 10% of the titanite was rejected in this stream. Further testwork on the
optimal specific gravity cut size and the liberation size to minimise titanite
losses is planned.

Magnetic separation testwork is being undertaken at both the Bureau Veritas
(BV) mineral laboratory and at Longi, who is a leading manufacturer of
industrial magnetic separation equipment.  The research testwork underway is
focused on separating weakly magnetic minerals, like ilmenite, from
non-magnetic minerals such as quartz or hematite.

Froth Flotation testwork is being undertaken at both ALS Metallurgy and
Arnofio Flotation Services. Both flotation laboratories bring a wide range of
experience in froth flotation techniques. To date, the Company has completed
over 60 diagnostic flotation tests, investigating a range of physical
conditions and flotation chemicals.

 

 

 

 

 

Figures 5-8 (clockwise from top left) : crushed primary titanite ore prepared
for testwork programmes, Empire Metals' Process Development Manager observing
flotation testwork, close up of a flotation test, gravity table test in
progress and the Longi laboratory scale WHIMS magnetic separation unit.

 

Hydrometallurgy

Hydrometallurgical processing, commonly referred to as leaching, is the
process whereby the mineral particles are partially dissolved and the elements
of interest are separated from other impurities present.

A number of different approaches to this stage of the process flowsheet have
been identified from published research, standard industrial practice and
existing leaching operations. Bench-scale testwork is determining the leach
response of both the titanium ore minerals and the associated gangue minerals,
initially focused on bringing the titanium into solution, and then looking to
optimise the leach solution chemistry and define the process steps for product
finishing. The testwork is assessing acid types (HCl and H(2)SO(4)) and their
consumption, options for reagent recycling, impurity management and options
for producing a final high-purity titanium product.

Leaching options include a range of temperatures, under either atmospheric or
low pressure leaching conditions. Previous research on leaching titanite ores
indicated that either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid can be effective.
 Preliminary sighter leach tests on Pitfield primary titanite ore samples
have now been completed with positive results. Titanite was shown to
completely dissolve within 6 hours in a concentrated HCl leach at 80 degrees
C. Further testwork will be undertaken on the mineral concentrates generated
from the gravity and/or flotation testwork programmes.

The quality of the concentrates produced in the mineral
separation/concentration step will affect the performance of the subsequent
leaching step. As such, both testwork programmes will require a feedback loop
so that there is the opportunity to optimise the mineral concentrate quality
in order to improve the outcomes of the titanium extraction step.

 

Product Finishing

A high-grade, high-purity titanium dioxide product suitable as feedstock for
chloride pigment production or conversion into titanium metal sponge, has been
identified as the most desirable final product for the project. The possible
process chemistries in the leaching step provide a good synergy with this type
of final product. The potential optionality to produce a range of different
products, depending on market demand, will be investigated in the testwork
programme. Additionally, any opportunity to produce a viable by-product and to
reduce waste streams is being explored.

 

Flowsheet Design

The extensive range of testwork programmes currently underway form an
important screening process which will help shape the next phase of research
testwork. From these results an in-depth understanding of the ore is being
obtained that will guide the next phases of testwork and consequently the
process flowsheet design. Results so far have shown a high potential for a
multi-stage mineral separation process flowsheet, likely to include both
gravity and flotation unit processes. A further mineral extraction processing
step using hydrometallurgical leaching techniques is likely to form the back
end of the process flowsheet and allow for production of a high-grade,
high-purity titanium dioxide product. Testwork is well advanced on the primary
titanite ore samples and a parallel testwork programme is now underway on the
secondary anatase ore.

 

The Pitfield Project

 

Located within the Mid-West region of Western Australia, near the northern
wheatbelt town of Three Springs, Pitfield lies 313km north of Perth and 156km
south 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 9).

 

Figure 9. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure
and Services.

Since commencing its maiden drill campaign in March 2023, the Company has
completed a total of 107 drillholes for 17,003m (including seven diamond core
holes for 2,025m), of which 67 RC drillholes and six diamond core drillholes
were drilled within the Cosgrove and Thomas prospects (Figure 10). The
drilling shows a high-grade (>5% TiO(2)), more than 1km wide central core
running on a north-south trend through both mineral prospects, which could
join between the two prospects thereby representing a potential total strike
length of more than 20km. Significantly, the RC drillhole results clearly
indicate elevated TiO(2) grades are present within the top 40m (RNS: 15 May
2024).

 

Figure 10.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity survey
results with the location of RC and Diamond Core drillholes and the Cosgrove
and Thomas Exploration Target.

 

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 exploration and resource development company
(LON: EEE) with a primary focus on developing Pitfield, an emerging giant
titanium project in Western Australia.

 

Exploration activity at Pitfield has confirmed the discovery of a new giant
mineralised system extending over 40km by 8km by 5km deep. Drilling campaigns
have confirmed high-grade TiO₂ mineralised zones across thick bedded
intervals to a vertical depth of ~350m, confirming Pitfield as a world class,
district-scale titanium mineral system.

 

Empire is now accelerating the economic development of Pitfield, with the
objective of becoming a leading producer of high value titanium dioxide
products.

 

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.

 

 

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