REG - Empire Metals Ltd - Team Expansion & Bulk Met Testing Commences

Empire MetalsAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 1978R  Empire Metals Limited  16 July 2025

Empire Metals Limited / LON: EEE, OTCQB:EPMLF / Sector: Natural Resources

 

16 July 2025

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

 

Empire Expands Process and Engineering Development Team

Commences Bulk Metallurgical Testing

 

Empire Metals Limited (LON:EEE), the AIM-quoted and OTCQB-traded resource
exploration and development company, is pleased to announce several strategic
technical appointments and partnerships that strengthen the in-house project
development team and support the advancement of the Pitfield Titanium Project
("Pitfield" or the "Project") in Western Australia.

 

These appointments coincide with the commencement of bulk-scale metallurgical
testing, a critical step in progressing Pitfield toward commercial
development.

 

Highlights

 

·    Strategic Appointments to Accelerate Development

Empire has appointed Mr. Alan Rubio as Study Manager and Mr. Pocholo Aviso as
Hydro-metallurgist. These appointments are aligned with the Company's
objective to evaluate mining scenarios, optimise product development, assess
commercial process flowsheet options and progress the Project toward a
feasibility study.

 

·    Mr. Alan Rubio, an engineer and seasoned Study and Project Manager
with over 28 years' experience working within the resources sector developing
and evaluating mining projects, will lead the assessment of mining,
infrastructure and oversee key economic studies to deliver a robust project
development plan.

 

·    Mr. Pocholo Aviso, an experienced hydro-metallurgist with a
background in the TiO₂ pigment industry (including roles at Tronox and BHP's
Kwinana Nickel Refinery), will manage the titanium product development
programme, focusing on product optimisation, process flowsheet designs and
evaluating market pathways.

 

·   Partnership with Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd:

Empire has also partnered with Strategic Metallurgy, a highly respected,
Perth-based metallurgical consultancy. The firm will provide oversight of the
metallurgical testwork programme and technical guidance to the Company's
internal metallurgists and process design engineers, helping transition from
bench-scale process development to pilot-scale testing.

 

·    Bulk-Scale Testwork:

The Company has commenced bulk metallurgical testwork that will produce
significant quantities of mineral concentrate to support large-scale
beneficiation testing and, for the first time, enable the supply of bulk
product samples to prospective end users. In addition, this testwork will
provide critical technical information for the development of a commercial
process flowsheet.

 

These key appointments advance the Company toward confirming project economics
and assessing mine design, process flowsheets and product options-critical
steps in the development pathway to commercial mine production.

 

Commenting on the announcement, Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said:

"I am delighted to welcome Alan and Pocholo to our team. Their technical
expertise will be invaluable as we move toward defining the economic potential
and product strategy for Pitfield. Building a strong in-house team has been
key to our progress so far, and these appointments mark an important next
step.

 

"We are also very pleased to be working with Strategic Metallurgy, whose
reputation and experience in process development will significantly strengthen
our metallurgical programme. The timing is ideal, with large-scale
metallurgical testing now underway, including ore scrubbing and spiral gravity
separation, using bulk samples collected earlier this year."

 

Process Development Update

A large-scale metallurgical testwork programme, involving mineral separation
techniques that require  bulk feed samples, between approximately 0.5 to 1.5
tonnes each, has commenced using the material collected from the February 2025
Air Core drilling.  The programme includes ore scrubbing, desliming and
gravity spiral testwork. Alternative gravity separation unit processes, such
as jigs and up-current classifiers, are also being evaluated.

 

Flotation testwork is also being carried out on the fines fraction, separated
in the desliming step. As part of this programme, bulk mineral concentrates
will be produced for downstream processing, testing both hydrometallurgical
and product finishing flowsheet concepts. This will allow a consistent, common
mineral concentrate stream to be assessed across the range of flowsheet
options that are being considered downstream of the mineral separation step.

 

 

Figure 1. Photos of bulk testwork programme showing clockwise from bottom
left: deslimed feed sample, wet scrubber unit,  and gravity spirals .

 

This  bulk testwork programme  will produce significant volumes of
concentrates which will feed into  beneficiation testwork and result in
larger product samples which can be delivered to potential end users for
assessment for the first time.

 

In addition, this programme is designed to assess different types of process
equipment and analyse a variety of flowsheet options, resulting in technical
information necessary for developing a commercial process flowsheet.

 

About Strategic Metallurgy

Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd, established in 2010, is a metallurgical
consulting company whose business model is to work with mining companies to
develop their metallurgical strategy and ensure that it fits into their
overall business plan. With a proven track record of providing expert
consulting, process development, testwork management, feasibilities and
strategic reviews Strategic Metallurgy has the extensive hands-on experience
that Empire requires to progress the Pitfield Project through the
metallurgical testing, process modelling, flowsheet design stages to pilot
plant design and operation.

 

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 (refer Figure 2).

 

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

 

Competent Person Statement

The scientific and technical information in this report that relates to
process metallurgy is based on information reviewed by Ms Narelle Marriott, an
employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Empire. Ms Marriott is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience
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 JORC Code 2012. Ms. Marriott consents to the
inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on their information in
the form and context in which it appears.

 

The technical information in this report that relates to the geology and
exploration of 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 AusIMM and 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 JORC Code 2012. 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, OTCQB: EPMLF) 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 in-situ 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,
in-situ 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 in-situ
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. See RNS dated 12 June 2024 for full details.

 

 

 

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