REG - Phoenix Copper Ltd - Additional Results of Metallurgical Core Drilling

Phoenix CopperAnnouncement

04/01/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 5694L  Phoenix Copper Limited  04 January 2023

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

4 January 2023

Phoenix Copper Limited

('Phoenix' or the 'Company')

 

Additional Results of Metallurgical Core Drilling at the Empire Open Pit
Copper Project, Idaho

 

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLY), the AIM-quoted USA focused base
and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company is pleased to
report the assay results from a further two metallurgical core holes at its
Empire Open Pit Copper Project, in Custer County, Idaho, USA (the 'Empire Open
Pit'). 1,077 metres ('m') of a planned 1,500 m metallurgical core drilling
programme were completed during 2022 and will provide samples and technical
information for further metallurgical testing, geotechnical studies, and
geological modeling.

Significant drill results from the fourth and fifth holes of the programme are
listed in Table 1, including the following highlights:

Hole KXD22-04

·    11.00 m of 1.59% copper, 45.60 grammes / tonne ('g/t') silver, and
0.37% zinc starting at the surface

o  Including 5.20 m of 2.00% copper and 56.30 g/t silver from the surface

o  And including 1.20 m of 5.19% copper, 149.00 g/t silver, and 1.61% zinc
from 9.80 m

·    And 0.60 m of 2.55% copper and 58.80 g/t silver from 12.80 m

·    And 2.70 m of 0.597 g/t gold and 13.60 g/t silver from 80.30 m

Hole KXD22-05

·    17.70 m of 0.59% copper, 20.10 g/t silver, and 0.39% zinc starting at
a depth of 22.60 m

o  Including 1.20 m of 7.43 g/t gold and 10.50 g/t silver from 29.30 m

o  And including 3.40 m of 1.98% copper, 0.32 g/t gold, 60.30 g/t silver, and
0.90% zinc from 35.40 m

The 2022 metallurgical exploration programme was designed to collect material
from each of the metallurgical domains, to evaluate the metallurgical
variability within the Empire Open Pit, while improving the understanding of
the geologic and structural controls on mineralisation. The results continue
to confirm the continuity of mineralisation, which appears along structures
striking northeast and dipping steeply to the southeast. The Phoenix team is
assessing these results for inclusion in updated geological models and to
target additional drilling programmes.

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased to announce the
assays from the fourth and fifth metallurgical core holes drilled in 2022.
Holes KXD22-04 and KXD22-05 represent 551.5 feet (168.1 metres) of the
nine-hole drilling program.  Drilling commenced in early June and assay
certificates for holes four and five were received in late December. The
Phoenix team targeted specific zones within the Empire resource in order to
collect samples that are representative of the geology and grade
characteristics of the deposit as a whole. The samples will be used in the
additional testing of ammonium thiosulfate as a recovery agent for copper,
gold, and silver, which may enable us to bring forward production of gold and
silver, currently scheduled as a second phase of the Empire Open Pit project.
 

"Consistent with the copper, gold, and silver values previously reported for
holes KXD22-01 through KXD22-03, holes KXD22-04 and KXD22-05 show equally
robust values including 11 metres grading 1.59% copper and 45.60 g/t silver in
KXD22-04 and 17.70 metres of 0.59% copper and 20.10 g/t silver, including 1.20
metres of 7.43 g/t gold.  Most importantly, the intercepts in the first five
holes of the program meet the ore type-grade-interval length necessary for the
metallurgical test work currently being undertaken.

"The metallurgical testing program is progressing as planned; however, assay
results are taking longer than originally anticipated due to laboratory
backlog.

"We look forward to reporting additional assays from this year's drilling as
they become available and appreciate everyone's patience while the assay
laboratory clears the sample backlog."

 

Table 1 - Empire Drilling Results December 23, 2022

 Drill Hole  Intersection Metres         g/tonnes      %     %     %     ppm    ppm
 Number      From     To       Interval  Au     Ag     Cu    Pb    Zn    Mo     W
 KXD22-04    0        11.0     11.0      0.072  45.6   1.59  0.03  0.37  31.4   168.9
 including   0        5.2      5.2       0.114  56.3   2.00  0.01  0.08  10.6   157.7
 including   9.8      11       1.2       0.090  149.0  5.19  0.17  1.61  126.0  110.0
 and         12.8     13.4     0.6       0.050  58.8   2.55  0.01  0.08  27.0   60.0
 and         31.2     34.7     3.5       0.094  13.6   0.84  0.01  0.11  58.7   40.9
 and         46.6     52.7     6.1       0.028  0.6    0.00  0.00  0.01  435.6  11.5
 and         80.3     83.1     2.7       0.597  13.6   0.17  0.04  0.32  230.4  120.6
 and         90.8     92.4     1.5       0.110  15.5   0.08  0.01  0.04  337.0  90.0
 and         107.4    109.9    2.4       0.020  38.4   0.03  0.01  0.02  63.0   420.0
 KXD22-05    22.6     40.2     17.7      0.645  20.1   0.59  0.05  0.39  54.9   47.1
 including   23.9     25.3     1.4       0.140  40.1   0.64  0.01  0.38  157.0  110.0
 including   29.3     30.5     1.2       7.430  10.5   0.14  0.00  0.24  9.0    10.0
 including   35.4     38.7     3.4       0.320  60.3   1.98  0.24  0.90  160.0  100.0
 and         49.4     57.0     7.6       0.110  4.4    0.16  0.05  0.38  26.0   32.4
 including   49.4     50.4     1.1       0.140  19.4   0.67  0.31  1.53  31.0   110.0

 

* Length along hole (not equivalent to true width).

 

 

Assay Quality Control

All PQ and HQ drill core is logged by Konnex personnel at Phoenix's drill core
facility located in Mackay, Idaho, USA. The drill core is then cut in half.
One half is sent to a commercial laboratory for assaying, and the other half
is kept for future reference. A strict QA/QC programme is in place by
integrating duplicates, blanks, and certified reference standards into the
core sample sequence.

Qualified Person

The foregoing technical information in this news release has been reviewed and
verified by Zachary J. Black, SME-RM, General Manager. Mr. Black is a resource
geologist with more than 17 years of domestic and international experience in
the mining and construction industries. Mr. Black has a degree in Geological
Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno and is a registered member of
the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. He is a Qualified
Person under the AIM Rules. Mr. Black consents to the inclusion of the
information in the form and context in which they appear.

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.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The Company deems the information contained within this announcement to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014, which has been incorporated into UK law by the European
Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via the
Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to
be in the public domain.

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 (Nominated Adviser)                 David Hignell / Kasia Brzozowska              Tel: +44 20 3470 0470
 Tavira Financial 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 out extensive drill programs 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
inferred 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/

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