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

9 September 2021

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

Drilling Commences at the Central Menzies Gold Project

Empire Metals Limited, the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of the Reverse Circulation ('RC') drilling campaign at the Central Menzies Gold Project ('Central Menzies' or the 'Project'). 

Overview:

·      Commencement of a drill programme of 26 RC holes for a total of 2,140 metres at the Central Menzies Gold Project, targeting two prospects, both of which are along strike from the Yunndaga deposit (Figure 1), historically the largest gold mine in the Menzies field with over 270,000oz produced.

·      A detailed review of the historical dataset identified several prospects within the Project area. Two of these, known as Teglio and Nugget Patch, have been prioritised in this initial RC drilling campaign based on their elevated gold concentrations, and the potential to generate significant strike and lateral extension. 

·      13 RC holes for 1,100 metres has been designed at Teglio, testing a strike length of 520 metres.

·      At Nugget Patch, a further 13 RC holes for 1,040 metres are planned.

·      Further drilling targets are expected to be generated within the Project area once the geochemical soil sampling results are received. The soil sampling targeted areas of the greatest prospectivity based on the location of historical workings as well as areas of limited previous drilling.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "The commencement of our first drill campaign at Central Menzies represents another major milestone for the Company and one I am pleased to say we have reached in accordance with our development plans. This demonstrates that whilst we are operating in a major mining boom here in Western Australia, where drillers and rigs are booked out months in advance and geological support is difficult to secure, the Company is well supported by its own staff and our external contractors. Despite slow assay turnaround from our recent soil sampling programme, we remain on schedule and budget to complete the RC drilling campaign and remain confident that the exploration programme envisaged under the current Option Agreement will meet its objectives."

The Central Menzies Gold Project

In May 2021 Empire entered into 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 (Figure 1). Central Menzies consists of four prospecting tenements (P29/2631, 2362, 2363 and 2364) covering a total area of 618 hectares.

The tenements are located within a north-north-west trending greenstone belt, with basalts as the dominant hosts together with interbedded shales and magnetite-rich banded iron formations ("BIF"), with mineralisation hosted within the Bardoc-Menzies Shear Zone, or associated fault splays.  Gold-bearing quartz veins occur along the sheared contacts between basalts and sediments. A series of structurally controlled high-grade gold deposits have been historically mined in the region and display widespread exploration potential for high-grade extensions.

A soil sampling programme was carried out in July 2021, with sampling sites situated on each of the four licences, although largely focused on P29/2361 and P29/2363. The sampling grid was 160m x 40m and samples were collected from 10-30cm below surface using standard industry practices.

The areas selected for sampling represented areas of the greatest prospectivity based on the location of historical workings as well as where there has been a low density of drilling (Figure 2). Essentially the tenements, other than P29/2364 which has been the subject of previous rotary air blast ("RAB") drilling campaigns, were devoid of surface geochemistry hence the primary target of this soil sampling programme was to delineate a mineralised footprint around the old mine workings and locate anomalism indicative of new primary lodes.

Due to slower than expected assay turnaround the geochemical mapping work has yet to be completed.  The assays results are expected in September 2021, and these will help inform the next phase of site investigations and exploration activities.

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 in 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.