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Empire Metals begins to build scale in Australia, as gold exploration work reveals greater potential at Eclipse and Menzies

Last updated: 05:15 24 Sep 2021 BST, First published: 05:10 24 Sep 2021 BST

Empire Metals Ltd -

The transformation of Empire Metals Ltd (AIM:EEE) away from European-focussed explorer to Australian-focussed explorer is now almost complete.

“The company’s moved on,” says chief executive Shaun Bunn.

“It’s history’s in Georgia and it still holds assets in Austria, but we now hold assets in an environment where you can actually move projects seamlessly from exploration through into production.”

The environment that he’s referring to is the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia, arguably one of the best mining destinations in the world.

“We established our beachhead in the Yilgarn in an area that’s highly prospective for gold and base metals,” says Bunn.

“It’s a beachhead we had to secure and dig ourselves into a little, without over extending ourselves.”

The initial hopes had been that the company’s new Eclipse project would prove amenable to mining near-surface ore from a small early-stage open pit. The results of recent drilling have prompted a reassessment of this production route, given that the mineralisation is likely much larger and deeper than originally envisaged. 

It looks as though the mineralisation is more prevalent at depths of below 50 or 60 metres, beneath the highly weathered oxided zone, at the contact of the transitional and fresh rock zone and below in the as yet untapped potential that lies deeper.

Much of the previous drilling was designed to investigate the viability of the proposed open pit, but some holes did go deeper, and some of these have hit high grade mineralisation.

That’s prompted the Empire team to contemplate a further exploration programme along strike and down dip, with a view potentially to connecting what were previously thought to be two discrete mineralised areas, Jack’s Dream and the Eclipse lode.

It was previously thought that Jack’s Dream was more of a breccia structure, but the company has now established the presence there of  multi-oriented veins, and that in turn changes the view about what might lie deeper.

“There may well be a connection to the Eclipse lode,” says Bunn. “There’s clearly more to learn from a deeper, more thorough drill programme. That will be the next step.”

The funds are certainly available for such a programme: when Eclipse exited its joint venture in Georgia last year it received a total payment that amounted to US$3.3mln. Subsequently the company also completed a small raise, so Bunn has plenty of room for manoeuvre.

“We are starting to spend a little of that money,” he says.

“But we have low overheads. Most of what we spend is going to go into the ground.”

The deeper programme at Eclipse is expected to get underway towards the end of the year.

In the meantime, the company is already drilling at the earlier stage Central Menzies project, some way to the north-west of Eclipse.

This project sits in an area that has historically produced nearly a million ounces, including 640,000 ounces from underground mines grading upwards of twenty grams per tonne, so although it’s hard to know how big Central Menzies will end up being, it seems likely that the grade will be good.

“Central Menzies sits in Kalgoorlie Terrane,” says Bunn.

“There are a lot of big gold producers in the region.”

There’re also significant old workings at Central Menzies itself, which gives further grounds for confidence.

“We’ve got reasonable expectations that we’ll find high grade gold,” says Bunn.

“We’re pretty confident because we know that gold is the best indicator for gold.”

There’s additional upside to the south too, where deeper levels of cover prevented any old-timers setting up any workings. That means that Empire will get first dibs on what is effectively fresh ground, the upside for which is currently unknowable.

The combination of work at Eclipse and Central Menzies means that Empire is likely to have a steady stream of newsflow into the foreseeable future. Indeed, having multiple mineralised targets over two discrete gold exploration camps will keep Empire very busy, so that when news in regard to one project is quiet the other project will be humming along and generating lots of attention.

In due course, though, that portfolio is quite likely to get larger.

“If the Menzies drilling is successful,” says Bunn, “we would look to add to the portfolio so we can establish a larger exploration footprint. This could be the start of a mid-tier gold producing company.”

First, though, Empire must make a decision about Central Menzies itself. The option to acquire it expires in February and there’s still work to be done however Bunn remains confident that the exploration programme envisaged under the current option agreement will meet its objectives.

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