Appointment of General Manager at Empire Mine

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining 

16 March 2021

Phoenix Copper Limited

("Phoenix" or the "Company")

Appointment of General Manager for Ramp-Up at Empire Mine

Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLF), the AIM quoted North American focused base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, is pleased to announce that Zachary J. Black has joined the Company as General Manager responsible for the Idaho operations.

Ryan McDermott, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "2021 will be a significant year for the Company as we move forward with the Plan of Operations for the Empire Oxide-Copper Open Pit Mine, additional exploration and drilling at the Red Star silver-lead deposit, drilling into the historically mined underground orebody, and an initial drilling programme at our Navarre Creek gold claim block.  The addition of Zach to our team coincides with the Empire Mine project transitioning from advanced exploration to development.  Zach will be "on-the-ground" and responsible for managing the day-to-day rigours of permitting, engineering, process design, and pre-construction activities at Empire, as well as providing oversight to the exploration teams at Red Star, Navarre Creek, and the deep sulphide project.

"In his previous role as Chief Operating Officer of Endomines and General Manager of Endomines Idaho, Zach was responsible for managing the US Operations with a focus on developing the Friday Mine near Elk City, Idaho, and underground development and the construction of a flotation processing facility, requiring him to manage and oversee the teams responsible for permitting, resource development, and mine and facility construction. Zach's significant regional and Idaho-based experience, and the relationships he has built with local consultants, contractors, and government regulators as a result, make him an ideal addition to the Phoenix team.

"As we reported on 5 March 2021, the Company raised a total of £16.45 million through a placing and subscription of shares, plus a potential additional £1.95 million through an open offer currently being offered to existing shareholders, both conditional upon the approval of shareholders at the upcoming General Meeting. These funds will be used for the ongoing development and optimisation of the Empire Open Pit Mine including engineering, metallurgical testing, preparation of the Plan of Operations and related permitting, as well as extensive exploration at Red Star, Navarre Creek, and the deep sulphide zone at Empire.  This represents a significant, multiphase work-programme requiring a diverse and experienced staff on the ground. Zach will be integral in helping to continue to grow the Phoenix operational team, which is ongoing and will include additional mining/metallurgical engineering staff, environmental specialists, and geological staff.

"I am pleased to welcome Zach to the team.  I also look forward to providing shareholders with updates and successes as 2021 progresses."    

Zachary J. Black has 18 years' experience in the mining industry including industrial minerals and base and precious metals throughout the world.  Zach was a principal founder and Director of Hard Rock Consulting ("HRC") of Lakewood, Colorado.  While at HRC, he worked on mining projects in the USA, Mexico, and Eastern Europe, including the original resource work for Phoenix at the Empire Mine. Zach is a current Director of Patriot Gold Corp., Las Vegas, Nevada, and most recently the Chief Operating Officer of Endomines in charge of Endomines' Friday Mine, an operating underground gold mine located near Elk City, Idaho. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geological Engineering from The University of Nevada, Reno, is a Registered Member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, and is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

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 future Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance ("ESG") platform.

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 until the release of this announcement.

Contacts

For further information please visit www.phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a North American focused, base and precious metal emerging producer and exploration company, which has carried out a drilling programme and generated a copper, gold, silver and zinc resource on which it is carrying out a feasibility study to bring the historically producing Empire Mine in Idaho, USA, back into production. It is also evaluating the silver and gold resources around three other past producing mines within the 23 km² Empire claims block as well as cobalt in two claims blocks north of Empire in Idaho.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder Creek mining district. This district includes the historical Empire, Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and tungsten from underground mines in the first half of the twentieth century. Additionally, the district includes Navarre Creek a Carlin-trend gold discovery which hosts a 6.1 km gold strike length within a 9.8 km² area.

Phoenix acquired an 80% interest in the historical Empire Mine property in 2017 and, based on a total of 320 drill holes, an oxide resource was completed in late 2017. A NI 43-101 compliant PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine was completed in April 2018. In 2018 a further 8,600 metres in 93 holes was completed to upgrade the oxide resources, provide samples for ongoing metallurgical test work, geotechnical and hydrological studies and condemnation drilling for the heap leach pad site, waste dump and plant site. An updated NI 43-101 compliant resource was completed in early May 2020 and October 2020 for all metals. Present contained metal in all NI 43-101 compliant categories of resources, measured, indicated and inferred, stand at 355,523 ounces of gold, 129,641 tonnes of copper, 10,133,772 ounces of silver and 58,440 tonnes of zinc. Following the latest NI 43-101 compliant resource, Phoenix updated its economic model in February 2021 to include the processing of all contained metals through a two phased approach.

Since acquiring the Empire project, Phoenix has increased the claim area from 818 acres to 5,717 acres, mainly to the northwest and west, and in so doing has increased the potential for additional oxide and sulphide copper resources, as well as the potential for stand-alone gold and silver resources, along a strike length of approximately 5.4 km towards the other brownfield mines of the Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines now within the property boundary. In particular, a new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres north west of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed sulphide ore and from three shallow exploration drill holes a NI 43-101 compliant maiden resource of 1.6 million silver equivalent ounces was reported.

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.

More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PXC's website at www.phoenixcopperlimited.com