Empire Metals acquires copper-gold projects

Empire Metals Ltd has acquired a 70% interest in three highly prospective Australian-based copper-gold projects from Century Minerals Pty Ltd. Two of the projects, the Pitfield Copper-Gold Project and the Walton Copper-Gold Project, are in Western Australia whilst the Stavely Copper-Gold Project lies within the Stavely Arc region of Victoria.

This acquisition increases the size of Empire's exploration camp from 9.5 km² to 1728 km², an area considerably larger than that covered by Greater London, and importantly the projects all lie within mining regions well known for world-class and significant copper and/or gold discoveries.

Highlights

• The acquisition of the three highly prospective copper-gold projects has the potential to transform Empire into a significant explorer and developer in Australia and will complement the existing Eclipse and Gindalbie projects.
• Increases exploration licence area from 9.5 km2 to 1728 km².
• The acquisition forms an integral part of Empire's exploration strategy to advance assets up the value chain and significantly increase shareholder value.
• All projects are in geological regions well known for world-class and significant copper and/or gold discoveries:
  • Pitfield Project: based in the Western Yilgarn province, within the Neoproterozoic Yandanooka basin. The Neoproterozoic is a globally important copper mineralisation era, which includes the copper belt of southern Africa (DRC, Zambia and Namibia), and the highly mineralised Paterson province in the north of Western Australia, host to major Cu-Au deposits such as Telfer, Winu and the Havieron project.
  • Stavely Project: located within the Stavely Arc which may represent the underexplored northern extension of the prolific Mount Read Volcanic Belt of Tasmania which hosts several world-class mineral deposits including the Mt Lyell Cu-Au deposit, the Henty Au deposit and the Rosebery and Hellyer polymetallic deposits, all of which saw significant scale, profitable mines. The Stavely project sits along strike from the important recent discoveries made by Stavely Minerals at the Thursday Gossan Project, including a discovery hole at the structurally controlled Cayley lode: 32 m at 5.88% Cu, 1 g/t Au, 58 g/t Ag.
  • Walton Project: located in the underexplored Yerilgee greenstone belt, within the Southern Cross domain, the belt is part of the 2.9 Ga Western Yilgarn greenstone succession that hosts the world-class Golden Grove volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) system, and several other emerging VHMS prospects such as Cobre Ltd's Perrinvale Project.
• Empire plans to collect high-resolution aeromagnetics across all three project areas to assist in mapping the basement geology and structures, as well as commencing field work programmes that will include soil sampling, geochemical mapping and potentially aircore drilling to define mineralised footprints and to prioritise targets for further reverse circulation and diamond core drilling programmes.
• Empire, through its joint venture partner Century, has secured AUS$500 000 in Victorian government co-funding for exploration in the Stavely Arc project which was granted as part of Century's successful licence tender bid.
• Empire and Century have agreed terms whereby the principals of Century, Baltis and Hart, will continue to assist with the management of exploration activities across all three project areas and will provide expert technical advice and support to Empire's technical team.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: “Following on from our successful maiden drilling campaign at Gindalbie, I am delighted to announce the addition of these highly prospective copper-gold projects to our growing portfolio of exploration assets in what we believe signifies an important milestone to becoming a significant copper-gold exploration and development company.

“We have now established an exploration camp of the highest quality, across areas renowned for world-class deposits, and we have grown the technical and exploration capabilities of our team with the inclusion of Century's founding Principal Geologists who first identified these exciting prospects. We look forward to updating the market on our progress in due course.”

Acquisition terms:

Empire has agreed to acquire a 70% interest in three copper and/or gold Projects from Century Minerals Pty Ltd, being:

• A granted exploration licence (E70/5465) and an exploration licence application (E 70/5876) at Pitfield.
• An exploration licence application (E 16/545) at Walton.
• An exploration licence application (E 6872) at Stavely.

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

Completion is expected to occur by 30 April 2022. Total consideration for the transaction is:

1. A cash payment of AUS$100 000.
2. The issue of 16 835 588 new ordinary shares in Empire (representing 5% of the issued share capital of the company at signing) (the consideration shares) apportioned equally between each project and issued upon the grant of the relevant tenement comprising each project, which in the case of Pitfield is the already granted exploration licence E70/5465. For the avoidance of doubt, one third of the consideration shares, 5 611 863, will be issued on the first completion date, expected to occur by 30 April 2022. The remaining two thirds of the consideration shares will be issued in two tranches at the time that the Stavely and Walton licences are granted.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/07042022/empire-metals-acquires-copper-gold-projects/