Pitfield Project JV to Include All Minerals

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

17 April 2024

Empire Metals Limited

("Empire" or "the Company")

Pitfield Project Joint Venture Agreement to Include All Minerals  

Empire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that the terms of the Joint Venture Agreement ('JV') covering the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project') have been amended to include all minerals discovered within the Project tenements.

Under the revised terms of the 70% Empire and 30% Century Minerals Pty Ltd ('Century') JV, there are no exemptions or other separate mineral rights applying to Pitfield. The consolidation of all minerals under the one JV simplifies the ownership structure and eliminates the potential for multiple parties to be working on the same ground, exploring for different commodities and allows for the continued rapid development of Pitfield.

Highlights

·    Under the original terms of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (dated 6th April 2022) Century retained 100% of the rights to Mineral Sands and the JV retained 100% of all mineral rights to any and all bedrock mineral deposits, inclusive of titanium minerals.

·    Although both Empire and Century have made it clear that the titanium mineralisation discovered at Pitfield, hosted within the bedded sedimentary bedrock, was not classified as Mineral Sands and thus formed part of the existing JV property, the consolidation of all minerals under the JV prevents other potential third parties in the future from exploring for other minerals and allows for the continued and unencumbered development of Pitfield.

·    Under the amended agreement, Empire has secured a redefinition of rights at the Pitfield Project, to 70% of all minerals present regardless of their physical or chemical nature, for a consideration of A$250,000 (approximately £129,000). This investment is aimed at continuing to create value for all shareholders.

·    The consideration will be funded from existing cash reserves and will not impact the Company's strong financial position and fully funded work programmes.

Ed Baltis, Century Director and Major Shareholder, said: "We always held the view that Pitfield had the potential of becoming a world class mining project and we are delighted with the progress that is being made towards that goal under the stewardship of Empire Metals. The fact that the titanium-rich mineral system discovered at Pitfield is not a mineral sands deposit was never in question, and both Empire and Century have worked together to first explore the extent of this extraordinary mineral system and then to identify geological controls that define the higher grades.  The consolidation of all minerals under the JV was a logical and strategically important next step, one that supports Empire and allows them to focus on unlocking the inherent value of this huge titanium-rich mineral system."

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am extremely pleased that, in collaboration with Century, all minerals discovered at Pitfield will be owned by the JV in which Empire, as the 70% majority owner, acts as manager and operator. This not only simplifies the ownership structure it also removes any perceived ambiguity in relation to distinguishing the difference between bedrock hosted titanium minerals and surface mineral sands. We have a great working relationship with Century, whose principals have personally assisted our exploration team in planning and executing the field work to date."

The Pitfield Project

Located within the Mid West region of Western Australia, near the northern wheatbelt town of Three Springs, Pitfield lies just 313km north of Perth and 156km south of Geraldton, the Mid West region's capital (refer Figure 1).

Figure 1. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure and Services

Western Australia is ranked as one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world according to the Fraser Institute's Investment Attractiveness Index published in 2023, and has mining-friendly policies, stable government, transparency, and advanced technology expertise. Pitfield has existing connections to port (both road & rail), HV power substations, and is nearby to natural gas pipelines as well as a green energy hydrogen fuel hub, which is under planning and development.

Pitfield lies in a unique geological setting along the western boundary of the Yilgarn Craton, within the Yandanooka Basin which consists mainly of interbedded siliciclastic sedimentary rocks (refer Figure 2).  Importantly, the Yandanooka Basin lies near the junction of two major structures, the Darling Fault and Yandanooka-Cape Riche Lineament, the likely plumbing system for the hydrothermal fluids that have strongly altered the sedimentary rocks within the Basin and were responsible for the titanite mineralisation event.

Figure 2: Simplified geological section of the Yandanooka Basin. Note the sandstone-rich beds which are host to higher grade TiO2 mineralisation. West-East section looking North.

The drilling to date has confirmed that there is extensive, higher-grade TiO₂ mineralisation in the thick sandstone-rich beds, which are returning consistently higher-grade TiO₂ mineralisation than the adjacent conglomerate or siltstone-rich beds. Two, near-surface, km-scale zones of higher grade bedded sandstone-rich TiO₂ mineralisation have been identified and are the focus of delineation for initial resource development and to provide necessary metallurgical samples. 

About Century Minerals:

Century Minerals Pty Ltd, a company registered in Australia, is a private exploration company established by two well known and respected Exploration Geologists, Mr Ed Baltis (former WMC Resources and Gold Fields exploration manager), and Mr Steve Hart (former Plutonic and Basin Minerals exploration geologist).

In April 2022 Empire acquired a 70% interest in three highly prospective Australian-based exploration projects from Century Minerals. Two of the projects, the Pitfield Project and the Walton Project are in Western Australia whilst the Stavely Project lies within the Stavely Arc region of Victoria.

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 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 recognised giant titanium-rich mineral system that hosts a globally significant titanium discovery.

The Company also has three further exploration projects in Australia; the Eclipse Project and 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.