REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Potential for Higher Grade Titanium at Pitfield

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

29/08/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 5478K  Empire Metals Limited  29 August 2023

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

 

29 August 2023

Empire Metals Limited

('Empire' or the 'Company')

 

Airborne Gravity Survey Results Highlight Potential for Extensive Higher Grade
Titanium Mineralisation at Pitfield

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and
development company, is pleased to announce the results of the airborne
gravity survey recently flown at the Pitfield Project ('Pitfield' or the
'Project'), located in the premier mining jurisdiction of Western Australia.

 

Highlights

 

·    Large, very dense core within the 40km long magnetics anomaly
identified by recently completed airborne gravity survey that has been
correlated to the extensively altered and mineralised sedimentary beds.

·    Highest density areas identified by this airborne gravity survey are
outside areas tested in Empire's maiden drilling programme demonstrating
significant potential to discover even higher-grade mineralisation and/or
zones of new economic minerals within the high-density core.

·    Strong, discrete gravity anomalies, indicative of high-density bodies
of subsurface rock have been identified by the airborne gravity survey and are
interpreted to indicate thick high-grade iron-titanium mineralised beds or
large zones of hematitic iron oxides that may be associated with copper
mineralisation.

·    A 1,500m diamond core drill programme is expected to commence in
September, which will be followed up later this year by a more extensive
Reverse Circulation ('RC') drilling programme focusing on the new targets
identified from the airborne gravity data, in conjunction with all other
exploration data sets.

·    Empire's priority over the coming months is to confirm the scale of
this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system and also to provide more
information about key parameters such as mineralogy, grades, tonnage potential
and geological controls on the thicker, higher-grade mineralisation.

 

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am pleased to announce the results of
our airborne gravity survey which has successfully mapped anomalous variations
in the subsurface rock density at Pitfield across the 40km by 8km magnetics
anomaly. As expected, the higher resolution achieved by our close-spaced
survey has identified a large, very dense core which we believe to be
indicative of the thicker and higher-grade parts of this extensively altered,
giant titanium-rich mineral system.

 

"What is particularly exciting is that the highest density areas identified by
this airborne gravity survey are outside areas tested in our successful maiden
drilling programme and so we can see that we have yet to drill test any of
these highest density targets. There is clearly potential to discover even
higher-grade mineralisation and/or zones of new economic minerals within this
high-density core and we are looking to expand our next RC drilling campaign
to ensure we cover as much of these high-density targets as possible."

 

The Pitfield Project

Empire holds a 70% interest in Pitfield which is comprised of four granted
Exploration Licences (E70/5465, E70/5876, E70/6320 and E70/6323) covering
1,042km(2). Pitfield is located near Three Springs, a town 313km 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).

Figure 1.  Pitfield Project Location showing the scale of the magnetics
anomaly and coincident alteration footprint.

 

Regional gravity and magnetics surveys, carried out historically by the
Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), identified strong, extensive
and coincident gravity and magnetics anomalies within the Yandanooka Basin but
lacked detail due to the wide line spacing of these historical surveys. The
more detailed airborne magnetics (AM) and airborne electromagnetics (AEM)
surveys undertaken by Empire (announced 21 September 2022) confirmed a
field-mapped massive alteration footprint within the host sedimentary rocks
that was coincident with the historical gravity anomaly and the new, detailed
magnetic and electromagnetic anomalies extending over a 40km north-south
distance (Figure 1).

 

The maiden, reconnaissance RC drilling campaign (announced 30 May 2023) was
focused on areas where Empire had previously identified highly
chargeable-highly resistive anomalies from Induced Polarisation (IP) ground
surveys, which have now been shown to be associated with stratabound iron and
titanium oxide mineralisation hosted within hydrothermally altered
sandstone-siltstone and conglomerate beds.

 

Airborne Gravity Survey Results

XCalibur Multiphysics Group ('Xcaliber') was contracted by Empire to conduct a
Falcon fixed-wing airborne gravity gradiometer (AGG) survey at Pitfield, which
was flown between 17 and 21 July 2023. The survey was flown over the entire
magnetics anomaly and consisted of 1,749 line-km at a spacing of 325m.

Figure 2.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity survey
results (highest subsurface rock densities indicated by warmest colours).

 

The results of the recent airborne gravity survey have highlighted a
high-density, central core broadly associated with the previously mapped giant
iron-titanium alteration system at Pitfield. The high-density core is a
regional-scale feature, covering an area ~30km in length and up to 6km wide.
The gravity data matches the airborne magnetics flown by Empire in June 2022
whereby the more magnetic rocks are also located within the same central core
(Figure 2).

 

The gravity data shows a distinct linear gravity high of at least 15km in
length, associated with the very dense rocks, flanking the eastern margin of
the regional gravity anomaly but largely corresponding to rocks of lower
magnetic susceptibility. This is an unexpected outcome which potentially
highlights new zones of concentrated titanium mineralisation. A separate
strong but discrete gravity high also occurs towards the northern end of the
regional gravity core feature. These two gravity highs infer subsurface rock
densities up to four times greater than the surrounding rocks. At the
south-western end of the regional gravity core lies an additional distinct
gravity high that infers rock densities of up to three times that of
surrounding rocks.  These very dense zones may be represented by extensive
concentrated Fe-Ti oxide mineralised beds.

 

Figure 3.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity data showing
a distinct linear gravity high (greater than 2.6 mgal; solid yellow outlines)
indicative of very high-density rocks located along eastern margin of the
regional gravity core feature.

The airborne gravity survey has provided strong supportive evidence for the
presence of key NNW-SSE striking regional fault structures previously
identified in the detailed airborne magnetics data. The gravity data also
highlight additional and previously unrecognised ENE-WSW striking cross faults
that appear to be late-stage and visibly offset the main gravity feature. This
new structural information will be critical in planning future exploration
programmes, including the optimal placement of drill holes.

 

3D inversion modelling of the preliminary gravity data has provided an insight
into the geometry and scale of this newly recognised high-density body with
the top appearing to be "canoe" like, the western and eastern margins of the
body are both essentially vertical indicating an important structural control
crossing the east-dipping sedimentary beds which host the Fe-Ti oxide
mineralisation.  Confirming the results of the recent 3D inversion modelling
of the magnetics data, the 3D gravity modelling clearly indicates that the
high-density central core extends to a minimum 6km depth.

 

The maiden RC drilling programme that identified the giant iron-titanium
hydrothermal alteration system (announced 30 May 2023) was focused on areas
where the IP surveys outlined near surface highly chargeable zones. None of
these holes was drilled into any of the discrete high-density anomalies
identified from the recent detailed airborne gravity survey (Figure 4).

Figure 4.  Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity survey
results with indicative highest density zones (solid yellow outlines) and
locations of maiden RC drill holes and IP survey lines.

Drilling at Mt Scratch was at the northern end of the high-density core
gravity anomaly; however, the intensity of the gravity anomaly is weaker where
the holes were drilled.  In the south of the project area, where some of the
highest TiO(2) grades were recorded, the single RC hole was drilled on the
western flank of the highest density gravity anomaly (Figure 4). This suggests
that these newly identified high-density areas are underlain by higher grade
Fe-Ti oxide mineralised beds.

 

In addition to potentially mapping areas with the best iron-titanium
exploration potential, the  high-density anomalies also represent compelling
targets for iron-oxide associated copper mineralisation. A number of copper
workings are present within the project, and the high-density anomalies may
represent areas where larger concentrations of copper mineralisation are
present, in conjunction with zones of strong hematic iron oxide alteration.

 

Future Work

A diamond core drilling campaign is scheduled to commence in September and
will consist of three angled 500m deep holes, focusing on confirming the
continuation of the high-grade titanium mineralisation discovered during the
maiden drill campaign which consisted of only 21 RC drill holes totalling
3,206 metres. The next fully funded drill programme, scheduled for late 2023,
will involve a significant RC drilling campaign, which will be carried out
along the length of the high-density gravity core now identified to be within
the regional magnetics anomaly. The objective of these two drill campaigns is
to not only confirm the scale of this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system
but to also understand the distribution of key factors better, such as grade,
mineralogy, thickness and extent of mineralised beds and controls on
high-grade TiO(2) mineralisation.

 

Qualified Person Statement

The technical information in this report that relates to the Pitfield Project
has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an employee of Eclipse Exploration
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                                                               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 / Ana Ribeiro

 

About Empire Metals Limited

Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and resource development
company with a project portfolio comprising copper, titanium 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 to contain a newly recognized
giant mineral system that hosts a globally significant titanium discovery.
The Company is also advancing the Eclipse-Gindalbie Project in Western
Australia, which is prospective for high-grade gold and also kaolin used to
produce 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 producing region of Austria.

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