TIDMEEE
RNS Number : 5478K
Empire Metals Limited
29 August 2023
Empire Metals Limited / LON : EEE / Sector: Natural
Resources
29 August 2023
Empire Metals Limited
('Empire ' or the 'Company')
Airborne Gravity Survey Results Highlight Potential for
Extensive Higher Grade Titanium Mineralisation at Pitfield
Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource
exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the
results of the airborne gravity survey recently flown at the
Pitfield Project ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'), located in the
premier mining jurisdiction of Western Australia.
Highlights
-- Large, very dense core within the 40km long magnetics anomaly
identified by recently completed airborne gravity survey that has
been correlated to the extensively altered and mineralised
sedimentary beds.
-- Highest density areas identified by this airborne gravity
survey are outside areas tested in Empire's maiden drilling
programme demonstrating significant potential to discover even
higher-grade mineralisation and/or zones of new economic minerals
within the high-density core.
-- Strong, discrete gravity anomalies, indicative of
high-density bodies of subsurface rock have been identified by the
airborne gravity survey and are interpreted to indicate thick
high-grade iron-titanium mineralised beds or large zones of
hematitic iron oxides that may be associated with copper
mineralisation.
-- A 1,500m diamond core drill programme is expected to commence
in September, which will be followed up later this year by a more
extensive Reverse Circulation ('RC') drilling programme focusing on
the new targets identified from the airborne gravity data, in
conjunction with all other exploration data sets.
-- Empire's priority over the coming months is to confirm the
scale of this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system and also to
provide more information about key parameters such as mineralogy,
grades, tonnage potential and geological controls on the thicker,
higher-grade mineralisation.
Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am pleased to announce
the results of our airborne gravity survey which has successfully
mapped anomalous variations in the subsurface rock density at
Pitfield across the 40km by 8km magnetics anomaly. As expected, the
higher resolution achieved by our close-spaced survey has
identified a large, very dense core which we believe to be
indicative of the thicker and higher-grade parts of this
extensively altered, giant titanium-rich mineral system.
"What is particularly exciting is that the highest density areas
identified by this airborne gravity survey are outside areas tested
in our successful maiden drilling programme and so we can see that
we have yet to drill test any of these highest density targets.
There is clearly potential to discover even higher-grade
mineralisation and/or zones of new economic minerals within this
high-density core and we are looking to expand our next RC drilling
campaign to ensure we cover as much of these high-density targets
as possible."
The Pitfield Project
Empire holds a 70% interest in Pitfield which is comprised of
four granted Exploration Licences (E70/5465, E70/5876, E70/6320 and
E70/6323) covering 1,042km(2) . Pitfield is located near Three
Springs, a town 313km north of Perth, Western Australia on the
Midlands Road, which until the opening of the Brand Highway in 1975
was the main road route from Perth to the state's north (refer
Figure 1).
Figure 1. Pitfield Project Location showing the scale of the
magnetics anomaly and coincident alteration footprint.
Regional gravity and magnetics surveys, carried out historically
by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), identified
strong, extensive and coincident gravity and magnetics anomalies
within the Yandanooka Basin but lacked detail due to the wide line
spacing of these historical surveys. The more detailed airborne
magnetics (AM) and airborne electromagnetics (AEM) surveys
undertaken by Empire (announced 21 September 2022) confirmed a
field-mapped massive alteration footprint within the host
sedimentary rocks that was coincident with the historical gravity
anomaly and the new, detailed magnetic and electromagnetic
anomalies extending over a 40km north-south distance (Figure
1).
The maiden, reconnaissance RC drilling campaign (announced 30
May 2023) was focused on areas where Empire had previously
identified highly chargeable-highly resistive anomalies from
Induced Polarisation (IP) ground surveys, which have now been shown
to be associated with stratabound iron and titanium oxide
mineralisation hosted within hydrothermally altered
sandstone-siltstone and conglomerate beds.
Airborne Gravity Survey Results
XCalibur Multiphysics Group ('Xcaliber') was contracted by
Empire to conduct a Falcon fixed-wing airborne gravity gradiometer
(AGG) survey at Pitfield, which was flown between 17 and 21 July
2023. The survey was flown over the entire magnetics anomaly and
consisted of 1,749 line-km at a spacing of 325m.
Figure 2. Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity
survey results (highest subsurface rock densities indicated by
warmest colours).
The results of the recent airborne gravity survey have
highlighted a high-density, central core broadly associated with
the previously mapped giant iron-titanium alteration system at
Pitfield. The high-density core is a regional-scale feature,
covering an area 30km in length and up to 6km wide. The gravity
data matches the airborne magnetics flown by Empire in June 2022
whereby the more magnetic rocks are also located within the same
central core (Figure 2).
The gravity data shows a distinct linear gravity high of at
least 15km in length, associated with the very dense rocks,
flanking the eastern margin of the regional gravity anomaly but
largely corresponding to rocks of lower magnetic susceptibility.
This is an unexpected outcome which potentially highlights new
zones of concentrated titanium mineralisation. A separate strong
but discrete gravity high also occurs towards the northern end of
the regional gravity core feature. These two gravity highs infer
subsurface rock densities up to four times greater than the
surrounding rocks. At the south-western end of the regional gravity
core lies an additional distinct gravity high that infers rock
densities of up to three times that of surrounding rocks. These
very dense zones may be represented by extensive concentrated Fe-Ti
oxide mineralised beds.
Figure 3. Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity
data showing a distinct linear gravity high (greater than 2.6 mgal;
solid yellow outlines) indicative of very high-density rocks
located along eastern margin of the regional gravity core
feature.
The airborne gravity survey has provided strong supportive
evidence for the presence of key NNW-SSE striking regional fault
structures previously identified in the detailed airborne magnetics
data. The gravity data also highlight additional and previously
unrecognised ENE-WSW striking cross faults that appear to be
late-stage and visibly offset the main gravity feature. This new
structural information will be critical in planning future
exploration programmes, including the optimal placement of drill
holes.
3D inversion modelling of the preliminary gravity data has
provided an insight into the geometry and scale of this newly
recognised high-density body with the top appearing to be "canoe"
like, the western and eastern margins of the body are both
essentially vertical indicating an important structural control
crossing the east-dipping sedimentary beds which host the Fe-Ti
oxide mineralisation. Confirming the results of the recent 3D
inversion modelling of the magnetics data, the 3D gravity modelling
clearly indicates that the high-density central core extends to a
minimum 6km depth.
The maiden RC drilling programme that identified the giant
iron-titanium hydrothermal alteration system (announced 30 May
2023) was focused on areas where the IP surveys outlined near
surface highly chargeable zones. None of these holes was drilled
into any of the discrete high-density anomalies identified from the
recent detailed airborne gravity survey (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Grey-scale magnetics map overlain by airborne gravity
survey results with indicative highest density zones (solid yellow
outlines) and locations of maiden RC drill holes and IP survey
lines.
Drilling at Mt Scratch was at the northern end of the
high-density core gravity anomaly; however, the intensity of the
gravity anomaly is weaker where the holes were drilled. In the
south of the project area, where some of the highest TiO(2) grades
were recorded, the single RC hole was drilled on the western flank
of the highest density gravity anomaly (Figure 4). This suggests
that these newly identified high-density areas are underlain by
higher grade Fe-Ti oxide mineralised beds.
In addition to potentially mapping areas with the best
iron-titanium exploration potential, the high-density anomalies
also represent compelling targets for iron-oxide associated copper
mineralisation. A number of copper workings are present within the
project, and the high-density anomalies may represent areas where
larger concentrations of copper mineralisation are present, in
conjunction with zones of strong hematic iron oxide alteration.
Future Work
A diamond core drilling campaign is scheduled to commence in
September and will consist of three angled 500m deep holes,
focusing on confirming the continuation of the high-grade titanium
mineralisation discovered during the maiden drill campaign which
consisted of only 21 RC drill holes totalling 3,206 metres. The
next fully funded drill programme, scheduled for late 2023, will
involve a significant RC drilling campaign, which will be carried
out along the length of the high-density gravity core now
identified to be within the regional magnetics anomaly. The
objective of these two drill campaigns is to not only confirm the
scale of this giant, titanium-enriched mineral system but to also
understand the distribution of key factors better, such as grade,
mineralogy, thickness and extent of mineralised beds and controls
on high-grade TiO(2) mineralisation.
Qualified Person Statement
The technical information in this report that relates to the
Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an
employee of Eclipse Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Empire. Mr Faragher is a Member of the Australian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Faragher 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 2012 Edition of the
'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral
Resources and Ore Reserves'. 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 or contact:
Empire Metals Ltd
Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel Tel: 020 4583 1440
S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP Tel: 020 3470 0470
(Nomad & Broker)
Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl
---------------------
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Tel: 020 7186 9950
Broker)
Damon Heath
---------------------
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial Tel: 020 7236 1177
PR)
Susie Geliher / Ana Ribeiro
---------------------
About Empire Metals Limited
Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and
resource development company with a project portfolio comprising
copper, titanium and gold interests in Australia and Austria.
The Company's strategy is to develop a pipeline of projects at
different stages in the development curve. Its current focus is on
the Pitfield Project in Western Australia, which has demonstrated
to contain a newly recognized giant mineral system that hosts a
globally significant titanium discovery. The Company is also
advancing the Eclipse-Gindalbie Project in Western Australia, which
is prospective for high-grade gold and also kaolin used to produce
high-purity alumina, an essential component in lithium-ion
batteries.
The Company also has two further exploration projects in
Australia; the Walton Project in Western Australia, and the Stavely
Project in the Stavely Arc region of Victoria, in addition to three
precious metals projects located in a historically high-grade gold
producing region of Austria.
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