Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) said drilling at its Pitfield Project in Western Australia has potentially unearthed one of the largest titanium deposits ever discovered.
Pitfield had already been identified as a possible “giant" copper system by Empire but managing director Shaun Bunn said the titanium results take it to a different level.
“The results announced today add a whole new dimension to this globally important asset - the discovery of titanium-rich minerals in my view tells us we have a 'Land of Giants' to explore,“ he said.
Drilling showed a huge 40km by 8km system, Empire said, hosted by sedimentary rocks displaying extensive evidence of intense alteration by hydrothermal fluids that has led to significant enrichment with copper and titanium.
Titanium-rich mineralisation (between 4% and 10% TiO2) was identified in all but one of 21 holes drilled, starting at or very near the surface while “highly anomalous” copper values (+100 parts per million) were reported for 60% of the drill sample intervals.
Only 2% of the system has been drilled so far, Empire said, adding it is starting to plan for further drilling.
Bunn added he was" thrilled" with the results from what was the company's maiden drilling campaign.
“The scale, strength and consistency of the mineralised system cannot be overemphasised given that the drill holes were spaced several hundreds of metres to tens of kilometres apart, and that 53% of all samples collected contain an average 5.12% TiO2, and 60% were anomalous in copper.
"Clearly more work is required, not least because 98% of the mineralised system is still to be drilled and evidently we tagged an enormous, titanium-rich part of the system.
“However, it is also evident that this giant mineral system contains significant copper and these first-round results have also indicated to us where the more copper-rich parts of this regionally zoned system may be."