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

Phoenix CopperAnnouncement

10/11/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 8947F  Phoenix Copper Limited  10 November 2022

  Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

10 November 2022

Phoenix Copper Limited

('Phoenix' or the 'Company')

 

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

 

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX ADR: PXCLY), the AIM-quoted USA focused
base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company is pleased
to report the assay results from the first three core holes at its Empire Open
Pit Copper Project, Custer County, Idaho, USA. 1,500 metres of core is being
drilled with the core samples and technical information from these holes being
used for further metallurgical testing, geotechnical studies, and geological
modeling.

Significant drill results from the first three holes are listed in Table 1,
including the following highlights:

Hole KXD21-01

·    21.3 metres ('m') of 1.99% copper, 38.9 grammes / tonne ('g/t')
silver, and 358.7 ppm molybdenum starting at a depth of 17.7 m

o  Including 13.4 m of 2.96% copper, 54.3 g/t silver, and 436.5 ppm
molybdenum from 20.4 m

o  And including 9.1 m of 4.00% copper, 57.5 g/t silver, and 535.4 ppm
molybdenum from 24.7 m

·    11.3 m of 1.09% copper and 22.1 g/t silver starting at a depth of
53.3 m

o  Including 1.8 m of 1.23% copper and 16.5 g/t silver from 53.3 m

o  And including 1.8 m of 2.31% copper and 41.4 g/t silver from 56.7 m

o  And including 1.2 m of 3.52% copper and 75.0 g/t silver from 61.9 m

Hole KXD21-02

·    9.1 m of 0.27% copper, 19.6 g/t silver, 246.6 ppm molybdenum, and
255.0 ppm tungsten starting at a depth of 9.8 m

o  Including 3.0 m of 0.20% copper, 43.3 g/t silver and 350 ppm tungsten from
9.8 m

Hole KXD21-03

·    7.3 m of 2.17% copper, 0.195 g/t gold, 20.2 g/t silver, and 0.94%
zinc starting at the collar

o  Including 3.4 m of 4.08% copper, 0.345 g/t gold, 24.2 g/t silver, and
1.86% zinc from 4.0 m

·    1.5 m of 3.16% copper, 0.350 g/t gold, and 16.2 g/t silver starting
at a depth of 10.1 m

·    12.2 m of 1.05% copper, 0.339 g/t gold, and 14.5 g/t silver starting
at a depth of 15.2m

o  Including 6.7 m of 1.26% copper and 0.519 g/t gold from 19.2m

·    18.9 m of 0.79% copper, 0.316 g/t gold, and 14.3 g/t silver starting
at a depth of 29.0 m

o  Including 13.7 m of 0.98% copper, 0.349 g/t gold, and 17.1 g/t silver from
32.6m

 

 

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

 

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased to announce the
assays from the first three core holes of the 2022 Empire metallurgical
drilling program, which represent 635.5 feet (193 metres) of a planned 5,000
feet (1,524 metres) program.  Drilling commenced in early June and assay
certificates for the first three drill holes were received in early November.
The Phoenix team targeted specific zones within the 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. 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.

"The copper, gold, and silver values in the drilling, as well as the length of
the mineralized intercepts, are robust and may add further material to the
open pit resources.  KDX22-01 showed 21.3 metres of 1.99% copper, which
include 9.1 metres of 4.00% copper and 57.5 g/t silver, as well as 11.3 metres
of 1.09% copper, including 1.2 metres of 3.52% and 75 g/t silver.  KXD22-03
contained 7.3 metres of 2.17% copper, which included 3.4 metres of 4.08%
copper and 0.345 g/t gold, as well as 12.2 metres containing 1.05% copper and
0.339 g/t gold. Drill holes KDX22-01 to KDX22-03 were completed to 223.5 feet
(68 metres), 200 feet (61 metres), and 212 feet (64.6 metres) in depth,
respectively, placing them within the proposed open pit.

"The metallurgical drilling program is progressing as planned with
approximately 3,479 feet (1,060 metres) completed since June. However, assay
results are taking longer than originally anticipated due to laboratory
backlog.

"In addition to the core drilling, we are pleased to announce that a
reverse-circulation drill rig is scheduled to arrive onsite this week and will
begin drilling in the North Pit/Red Star area on targets developed from ground
magnetic surveys conducted in 2021. This rig is suitable for winter drilling
and we anticipate that despite its delayed arrival, we will complete the
planned drilling program at North Pit/Red Star over the coming weeks.

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

 

Table 1 - Empire Drilling Results November 7, 2022

 Drill Hole  Intersection Metres         g/tonnes      %     %     %     ppm    ppm
 Number      From     To       Interval  Au     Ag     Cu    Pb    Zn    Mo     W
 KXD22-01    17.7     39.0     21.3      0.010  38.9   1.99  0.00  0.08  358.7  226.1
 Including   20.4     33.8     13.4      0.012  54.3   2.96  0.01  0.09  436.5  219.7
 And         24.7     33.8     9.1       0.008  57.5   4.00  0.01  0.10  535.4  185.5
 And         41.9     42.4     0.5       0.005  32.5   0.41  0.02  0.19  225.0  70.0
 And         43.6     46.6     3.0       0.005  19.1   0.47  0.00  0.14  140.0  245.0
 And         53.3     64.6     11.3      0.024  22.1   1.09  0.01  0.17  144.0  95.1
 Including   53.3     55.2     1.8       0.009  16.5   1.23  0.01  0.12  55.8   272.0
 Including   56.7     58.5     1.8       0.018  41.4   2.31  0.01  0.28  185.3  90.0
 And         61.9     63.1     1.2       0.130  75.0   3.52  0.01  0.26  368.0  60.0
 KXD22-02    9.8      18.9     9.1       0.018  19.6   0.27  0.02  0.15  246.6  255.0
 Including   9.8      12.8     3.0       0.010  43.3   0.20  0.01  0.04  252.0  350.0
 And         55.8     57.8     2.0       0.130  11.5   0.30  0.01  0.02  3.0    10.0
 KXD22-03    0.0      7.3      7.3       0.195  20.2   2.17  0.01  0.94  217.7  90.4
 Including   4.0      7.3      3.4       0.345  24.2   4.08  0.00  1.86  272.8  88.2
 And         10.1     11.6     1.5       0.350  16.2   3.16  0.00  0.29  137.0  110.0
 And         15.2     27.4     12.2      0.339  14.5   1.05  0.01  0.26  161.1  71.0
 Including   19.2     25.9     6.7       0.519  10.0   1.26  0.00  0.17  79.0   60.2
 And         29.0     47.9     18.9      0.316  14.3   0.79  0.02  0.11  186.9  67.6
 Including   32.6     46.3     13.7      0.349  17.1   0.98  0.03  0.12  195.1  78.4
 And         55.5     63.2     7.8       0.248  12.1   0.49  0.02  0.23  222.6  39.0

 

* 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 sawed 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 / Caroline Rowe                 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 our 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 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/)

 

 

 

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