Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) said an airborne survey flown recently over the Pitfield project in Western Australia indicated even higher grades of titanium than previously thought.
A large, very dense core within the 40km long magnetics anomaly was picked by the survey and in an area outside of Empire's maiden drilling programme.
Strong, discrete gravity anomalies were highlighted by the survey, Empire added, and point to thick high-grade iron-titanium mineralised beds or large zones of hematitic iron oxides that may be associated with copper mineralisation.
Empire will start a 1,500-metre diamond core drill programme in September, which will be followed up later this year by a more extensive reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme focusing on the new targets identified from the airborne gravity data.
Shaun Bunn, managing director, said: “As expected, the higher resolution achieved by our close-spaced survey has identified a large, very dense core which we believe to be indicative of the thicker and higher-grade parts of this extensively altered, giant titanium-rich mineral system.
"What is particularly exciting is that the highest density areas identified by this airborne gravity survey are outside areas tested in our successful maiden drilling programme and so we can see that we have yet to drill test any of these highest density targets.
“There is clearly potential to discover even higher-grade mineralisation and/or zones of new economic minerals within this high-density core and we are looking to expand our next RC drilling campaign to ensure we cover as much of these high-density targets as possible."