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

Phoenix CopperAnnouncement

12/01/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 4549M  Phoenix Copper Limited  12 January 2023

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

12 January 2023

Phoenix Copper Limited

('Phoenix' or the 'Company')

 

Further 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'). As announced on 4 January 2023, 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 sixth and seventh holes of the programme
are listed in Table 1, including the following highlights:

Hole KXD22-06

·    56.70 metres ('m') of 0.54% copper, 19.90 grammes / tonne ('g/t')
silver, and 0.73% zinc starting at the surface

o  including 17.10 m of 1.11% copper and 22.90 g/t silver from the surface

o  and including 5.90 m of 1.38% copper and 23.40 g/t silver from 6.60 m

o  and including 3.20 m of 0.49 g/t gold from 15.50 m

o  and including 12.50 m of 0.62% copper, 24.60 g/t silver, and 1.28% zinc
from 20.70 m

o  and including 1.70 m of 0.75 g/t gold from 20.70 m

o  and including 15.00 m of 0.47% copper, 27.80 g/t silver, and 1.52% zinc
from 24.20 m

Hole KXD22-07

·    1.50 m of 0.93% copper, 33.90 g/t silver, and 490 ppm tungsten
starting at a depth of 9.80 m

·    2.80 m of 2.15% copper and 125.30 g/t silver from 15.50 m

o  including 1.20 m of 4.49% copper and 269.10 g/t silver from 17.10 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
targeting additional drilling.

 

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased to announce the
assay results from metallurgical core hole KXD22-06, and from the top 71 feet
(21.64 m) of hole KXD22-07.  KXD22-07 was terminated early, at a depth of 71
feet, after encountering historical underground workings.  Hole 7 was
redrilled as KXD22-07B to a depth of 432.5 feet (132 m).  Assays for
KXD22-07B are pending.

"Hole KXD22-06 represents 817 feet (249 m) of the nine-hole drilling program.
 Drilling commenced in early June and assay certificates for holes six and
seven were received in early January. In developing the 2022 Metallurgical
Drilling Program, 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 KXD22-05, hole KXD22-06 and the upper portion of
KXD22-07 continues to show robust metal values including 56.70 m grading 0.54%
copper, 19.90 g/t silver, and 0.73% zinc from the surface in KXD22-06, and
2.80 m of 2.15% copper and 125.30 g/t silver in KXD22-07.  Most importantly,
the intercepts in the drilling program thus far are consistent with the team's
expectations and 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, as
previously communicated, assay results are taking longer than originally
anticipated due to laboratory backlog.

"We look forward to reporting additional assays from the program as they
become available and appreciate everyone's patience while the assay laboratory
continues to make headway on the sample backlog."

Table 1 - Empire Drilling Results January 10, 2023

 Drill Hole  Intersection Metres          g/tonnes      %     %     %     ppm    ppm
 Number      From     To       Interval*  Au     Ag     Cu    Pb    Zn    Mo     W
 KXD22-06    0        56.7     56.7       0.194  19.9   0.54  0.03  0.73  49.1   103.2
 including   0        33.2     33.2       0.184  21.4   0.83  0.01  0.65  52.6   113.4
 including   0        17.1     17.1       0.087  22.9   1.11  0.01  0.26  60.5   97.4
 including   6.6      12.5     5.9        0.048  23.4   1.38  0.01  0.30  106.9  153.6
 including   15.5     18.7     3.2        0.495  11.9   0.55  0.00  0.43  55.1   91.9
 including   20.7     33.2     12.5       0.296  24.6   0.62  0.01  1.28  46.0   144.8
 including   20.7     22.4     1.7        0.750  3.8    0.19  0.00  0.40  37.0   40.0
 including   24.2     39.2     15.0       0.157  27.8   0.47  0.02  1.52  41.7   130.2
 including   24.2     31.5     7.3        0.245  25.8   0.78  0.01  1.38  45.8   196.7
 including   39.2     43.9     4.7        0.423  32.5   0.32  0.22  0.80  58.1   135.5
 including   47.1     48.8     1.7        0.380  6.2    0.06  0.01  0.53  74.0   150.0
 including   50.3     56.7     6.4        0.263  6.6    0.17  0.01  0.44  11.7   24.8
 And         59.7     70.4     10.7       0.100  7.7    0.17  0.02  0.59  33.7   22.1
 And         68.9     75       6.1        0.240  13.2   0.29  0.01  0.35  10.8   50.0
 including   71.9     75       3.1        0.285  12.2   0.26  0.00  0.13  7.0    70.0
 And         93.6     96.6     3.0        0.105  10.3   0.36  0.01  0.15  30.0   60.0
 KXD22-07**  9.8      11.3     1.5        0.030  33.9   0.93  0.01  0.02  42.0   490.0
 And         15.5     18.3     2.8        0.018  125.3  2.15  0.01  0.01  87.0   165.6
 including   17.1     18.3     1.2        0.040  269.1  4.49  0.01  0.01  52.0   260.0

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

** KXD22-07 was terminated in a historical mine working at 18.3 m. KXD22-07B
was collared and redrilled the original hole. Assay results are pending.

 

 

 

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, 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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