Empire Metals Limited / AIM: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources

7 September 2021

Empire Metals Limited ('Empire' or the 'Company')

Appointment of Key Personnel to Our Exploration Team

Empire Metals Limited, the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the appointments of Ed Baltis, as Exploration Consultant, and Louisa Stokes as Exploration Geologist.

In this newly created role, Mr. Baltis will assist Empire with exploration strategy and targeting, business development, and project evaluation, specifically looking within the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, as the Company moves to advance its two Australian based gold projects, at Eclipse and Central Menzies.

Ed Baltis has an extensive knowledge on the geology within the Archaean Yilgarn Craton and its mineral potential with expertise in orogenic gold systems, as well as notable operational experience having managed and led exploration campaigns for a diverse range of commodities throughout Australasia, Africa and the Americas.

Amongst other positions he was previously Regional Exploration Manager for Australasia and subsequently Vice President Project Generation for Gold Fields Limited, where he was integral to the successful acquisition of Barrick Gold assets in Australia in 2013 and provided oversight of the exploration programmes that led to discovery of >2.5Moz Invincible deposit at St Ives.

Prior to joining Gold Fields, he had a long and distinguished career with Western Mining Corporation ("WMC"), where he achieved the position of Principal Geologist within the WMC Global Gold exploration team. The team developed robust gold targeting parameters that successfully predicted the locations of several subsequent gold discoveries, parameters which have been further developed and remain relevant today.

More recently he established consulting company Gold Vector Pty Ltd and has been closely involved in an emerging gold discovery at Mandilla, 60km south of Kalgoorlie.

Louisa Stokes is a PhD Candidate (Applied Geology) at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. She graduated from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London with a MScs Geology (1st Class with Honours) in 2010 before embarking on a career as an Exploration Geologist working in places such as Armenia, Liberia and Mali for gold explorers and producers.

Amongst other responsibilities and achievements, Louisa was involved in the discovery and development of the 3.56Moz Dugbe Gold Project in southwest Liberia for Hummingbird Resources plc, where she:

·    conducted detailed lithological and structural logging of core from the orogenic gold deposits on the Dugbe Shear Zone;

·    integrated the geology and regolith mapping, topographic surveying (LiDAR) and airborne geophysical surveys;

·    designed, implemented and managed regional soil sampling and trenching programmes in over 2,355km² of the Dugbe licenced area; and

·    managed various mineral resource, geotechnical and hydrological drilling programmes.

Louisa joins the Company in the role of Exploration Geologist where she will provide technical guidance to a small team of exploration focused geologists and field assistants as well as analysing belt-scale geological, geochemical and geophysical datasets and providing input into developing mineral exploration models and strategies to find future orebodies.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "The appointment of not just one, but two highly regarded and experienced professionals such as Ed and Louisa is a significant milestone for the Company. I am delighted that our core exploration team is continuing to grow and it comes at a time when we are advancing our understanding of the gold mineralisation at both our Eclipse and Central Menzies Gold Projects. Both assets remain under-explored and have significant potential to develop into viable development projects." 

The Eclipse Gold Project

Empire Metals has a 75% interest in the high-grade Eclipse Gold Project comprising a mining licence located 55km north-east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, together with an option to acquire the remaining 25%.

The project lies within the highly concentrated gold mining region of Western Australia, north-west of famous gold operations such as Kanowna Belle and Paddington (Figure 1).

The Central Menzies Gold Project

The Company recently announced the signing of an Option Agreement to acquire a 75% interest in the Central Menzies Gold Project, located in the Menzies Shire, approximately 115km north of the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and 10km south of the township of Menzies. The prospect is accessible from Kalgoorlie-Boulder via the sealed Goldfields Highway and then by a 2km unsealed road. 

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:

About Empire Metals Limited

Empire Metals is an AIM-listed (LON: EEE) exploration and resource development company with a project portfolio comprising gold interests in Australia and Austria.

The Company strategy is to develop a pipeline of projects at different stages in the development curve. Its current focus is on the high-grade Eclipse Gold Project and the Central Menzies Gold Project in Western Australia, with the goal to expand through the addition of further projects in the region to develop a viable and compelling portfolio of precious metals assets.

Empire also holds a portfolio of three precious metals projects located an historically high-grade gold production region comprising the Rotgulden, Schonberg and Walchen prospects in central-southern Austria. 

The Board continues to evaluate opportunities through which to realise the value of its wider portfolio and reviews further assets which meet the Company's investment criteria.