REG - Phoenix Copper Ltd - 2022 Drilling Programme Underway at Empire

Phoenix CopperAnnouncement

12/07/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 0863S  Phoenix Copper Limited  12 July 2022

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

12 July 2022

 

Phoenix Copper Limited

("Phoenix" or the "Company")

 

2022 Drilling Programme Underway at Empire

 

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLF), the AIM quoted USA focused
base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, is pleased
to announce that the Company's 2022 drilling programme is underway at the
Empire Mine Project in Idaho, USA.

The 2022 drilling programme is expected to further Phoenix's understanding of
Ammonium Thiosulfate ("ATS") as a non-toxic, environmentally friendly reagent
for the recovery of copper, gold, silver, and zinc from the Empire open pit
resource. The Company will also examine the possibility of bringing forward
the production of precious metals. In addition to the collection of
PQ-diameter core samples (85 millimetres) for metallurgical testing,
geotechnical data for enhanced pit slope stability studies and resource
assaying for enhanced continuity of copper, gold, silver, and zinc grades will
be gathered from the same core.  Following the PQ-core drilling in the Empire
open pit, the drill rig will move to the Red Star silver-lead resource and the
Empire deep sulphide target to conduct further exploratory drilling through to
late autumn.

In addition to the drilling programme, the Company is completing ongoing open
pit engineering trade-off studies for further economic and environmental
optimisation as part of the feasibility study process.

Ryan McDermott, CEO of Phoenix Copper Limited, said: "Our 2022 drilling
season kicked off as scheduled in early June with the arrival of a core
drilling rig capable of drilling PQ-diameter core. The drilling program will
initially focus on collecting core samples for metallurgical and geotechnical
studies from the Empire open pit, which remains our flagship project. The
results of these studies may enable us to bring forward production of gold and
silver, currently scheduled as a second phase of the open pit project. Once
the Empire open pit drilling is completed, the rig will begin further
exploratory drilling in the Red Star and Empire Sulphides areas. We are
actively searching for further drilling capacity for this season and will
contract additional drill rigs when and if they become available.

"The Empire Open Pit Feasibility study remains in progress whilst our
engineers complete further trade-off and optimization studies.  The global
volatility in pricing for everything from structural steel to chemical
reagents has also slowed progress on the study. However, we are receiving some
indications that markets are slowly calming and supply backlogs are
shortening.

"The Phoenix team is continuing to focus on what we know and what we can
control. We know that the Empire open pit copper mine is ideally suited to
provide copper for the world's transition to clean energy and, as a result,
will be in high demand in the coming years. Our team is working diligently to
collect the necessary data, permits, and funds so that we can advance the
project in a way which will be most economic, while minimizing our
environmental footprint. I look forward to providing updates on the 2022
drilling program and progress on the feasibility study and engineering."

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance

Phoenix is committed to meeting and exceeding the environmental standards
required by law as a core value of the Company. The baseline environmental
data collected to date will be used for furthering the permitting process, but
as importantly, will be used as the building blocks for the Company's ongoing
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance ("ESG") platform, overseen by
the Company's ESG & Sustainability Committee.

 

Contacts

For further information please visit https://phoenixcopperlimited.com
(https://phoenixcopperlimited.com/)  or contact:

 Phoenix Copper Limited                               Ryan McDermott                                Tel: +1 208 954 7039

                                                      Brittany Lock                                 Tel: +1 208 794 8033

                                                      Richard Wilkins                               Tel: +44 7590 216 657
 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser)   David Hignell / Caroline Rowe                 Tel: +44 20 3470 0470
 Tavira Securities Limited (Joint Broker)             Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield            Tel: +44 20 7100 5100

 WH Ireland (Joint Broker)                            Harry Ansell / Katy Mitchell                  Tel: +44 20 7220 1666
 Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)           John Prior / Hugh Rich / Ailsa Macmaster      Tel: +44 20 7886 2500
 EAS Advisors (US Corporate Adviser)                  Matt Bonner / Rogier de la Rambelje           Tel: +1 (646) 495-2225
 BlytheRay                                            Tim Blythe / Megan Ray                        Tel: +44 20 7138 3204

(Financial PR)

 

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a USA focused, base and precious metals emerging
producer and exploration company, initially targeting copper and zinc
production from an open pit mine.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder
Creek mining district, at the 80% owned Empire Mine property, which
historically produced copper at grades of up to 8%, as well as gold, silver,
zinc and tungsten, from an underground mine.

Since 2017, Phoenix has carried our extensive drill programmes which have
defined a NI 43-101 compliant PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an
open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine,
which was updated in October 2020. The contained metal in all NI 43-101
compliant categories of resources, Measured, Indicated and Inferred, stand at
129,641 tonnes of copper, 355,523 ounces of gold, 10,133,772 ounces of silver
and 58,440 tonnes of zinc. Phoenix updated its economic model in February
2021 to include the processing of all contained metals through a two phased
approach.

In addition to Empire, the district includes the historic Horseshoe, White
Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead
and tungsten from underground mines. A new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres
northwest of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed high grade
silver / lead sulphide ore, and from three shallow exploration drill holes a
maiden resource of 103,000 tonnes containing 173.4 g/tonne silver, 0.85
g/tonne gold and 3.85% lead (1.6 million ounces silver equivalent) was
reported in an NI 43-101 technical report published in May 2019.
Additionally, the district includes Navarre Creek, a volcanic hosted
precious metals target in a 14.48 sq km area. The Company's total land package
at Empire comprises 8,034 acres (32.51 sq kms).

At Empire, it is estimated that less than 1% of the potential ore system has
been explored to date and, accordingly, there is significant opportunity to
increase the resource through phased exploration. The stated aim of the
Company is to fund this phased exploration through free cashflow generated by
its initial mine. A Plan of Operations in respect of the initial open pit mine
was filed with the relevant regulatory authorities in June 2021.

Phoenix also has two wholly owned cobalt properties on the Idaho Cobalt Belt
to the north of Empire. An Earn-In Agreement has been signed with Electra
Battery Materials (formerly First Cobalt Corporation), Toronto, in respect
of one of those properties.

Phoenix is listed on London's AIM (PXC), and trades on New York's OTCQX
Market (PXCLF and PXCLY (ADRs)). More details on the Company, its assets and
its objectives can be found on PXC's website
at  https://phoenixcopperlimited.com/ (https://phoenixcopperlimited.com/)

 

END

 

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