Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) is to explore deeper at its Eclipse gold project in Western Australia after analysing the results of three drilling programmes at the deposit near Kalgoorlie.
More than 9,000 metres were drilled over the past year, which has confirmed there are several parallel veins in addition to the main vein and that the Eclipse lode itself remains open at depth.
Empire said the drilling also indicated that the best of the gold mineralisation potentially lies deeper and this merits further drilling to test the strike and depth extensions for higher grades.
As a result, rather than develop three open-pit sites, Eclipse now intends to focus on the potential offered by a combination of the Eclipse lode with the Jack’s Dream extension and Twin Shaft lode to produce one larger, more substantial mine.
Shaun Bunn, Empire’s managing director, said: “The results from the company’s drilling campaign has provided confidence in the potential of the Eclipse Gold Project.
“Equipped with these results, we believe that the main gold mineralisation at Eclipse is more prevalent at depth and is perhaps orders of magnitude larger than originally anticipated.
“Consequently the company believes that the development of a small-scale open-pit operation is not the optimum path for unlocking the value of Eclipse, and may ultimately lead to the sterilisation of the higher value gold mineralisation within the high-grade primary lodes and supergene enrichment near the base of weathering.”
“We will continue to build a resource base around the existing high-grade targets, both at depth and along strike, and focus on the wider potential that is offered by combinations of the Eclipse lode with the Jack’s Dream extension and the Twin Shaft lode.”
The Eclipse Gold Project is located 55km northeast of Kalgoorlie and comprises a single mining lease covering 305.6 hectares.
Empire Metals signed an initial option agreement in August 2020 to acquire a 75% interest in Eclipse.