Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) has appointed two members to the development team as it introduced a 2024-25 project development plan for its Pitfield project in Western Australia, identifying key milestones in the next 12 months.
The company, which is currently logging and sampling the drill cores from recently completed diamond drilling as well as carrying out a third phase of reverse circulation drilling with two rigs on site drilling 40 more holes, said the achievement of each of the milestones in the development plan will “incrementally de-risk the project and together will unlock significant value”.
The milestones include completing two definitive mineralogical characterisation studies, finalising the design of a demonstration plant design, and producing a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate, which will lead to a mining option study that will form the basis for a conceptual mine plan, including routes to permitting and government funding and support.
More details on the timings were provided in the statement.
The development plan provides for an additional 36,000m of RC drilling and 2,000m of diamond core drilling, beginning in the final quarter of this year, with various studies, including hydrology and various mining techniques, expected to also begin towards the end of 2024.
Supporting these plans will be a recently appointed commercial manager and an environmental manager who arrives next month.
The pair “bring additional invaluable industry development experience to the team as we push Pitfield towards commercialisation”, said managing director Shaun Bunn.
He was also pleased to provide an update on the development plans, which he said were “aimed at progressing Pitfield from maiden discovery to a commercial mining operation as quickly and smoothly as practicable”.
Having earlier this month reported the results of preliminary technical studies, which show favourable mineralogy and metallurgy in the high-grade titanium samples drilled at Pitfield, Bunn said this gave the company “confidence that a highly concentrated titanium product can be delivered by a relatively simple processing facility which can be located at site”.
“The company has rapidly moved from an early exploration phase to project development, largely thanks to the extremely large yet very simple, consistent and continuous nature of this giant bedded titanium-rich mineral system, not unlike other basin-hosted, bedded soft-rock type mineral deposits, such as potash.”