Empire Metals (AIM-EEE), the AIM-listed, Australia-focused resource exploration and development company, has grown its exploration footprint from 3.1km to over 1,728km-square across 4 key geologically and geographically diverse projects in the country.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney last week, Managing Director Shaun Bunn, who is based in Perth, said the company now has a considerable presence in Western Australia and Victoria.
“The new proposition for our shareholders now is building this substantial exploration portfolio in Australia that is going to be significant and we hope to be a copper-gold producer in the future.”
“The new proposition for our shareholders now is building this substantial exploration portfolio in Australia”
According to the MD, Empire Metals’ history started out exploring in the Austrian alps and for various reasons then moved its focus to a copper project in Georgia. While the company was quite successful in exploring for copper in Georgia, it encountered difficulties with its then partners and ultimately began its focus in Australia.
Bunn explained: “It was decided that what ended up becoming Empire Metals got out of Georgia and sold its share to our then Russian partner and a decision was made to look at assets in Australia as the country is a safe jurisdiction and well-regulated.
All the risks are manageable here so as a junior, all we’re left with are just the usual exploration risks faced by all companies.”
The company’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) listing is a legacy from its previous origins, however Bunn told Mining.com.au that as a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), AIM is designed to help smaller companies like Empire access capital from the public market.
To expand its Australia footprint so substantially, Bunn said the company has been acquisitive for some time. The expansion strategy began in January this year with an agreement signed with Maher Mining Contractors, giving Empire the right to explore, develop, and mine within a granted area on mining lease M27/158, known as the Gindalbie Project.
Importantly, the MD said, Gindalbie is adjacent to Empire’s established and most advanced asset, the Eclipse Gold Project, and extended the area for exploration targets a further 2km along the Eclipse lodes trend, plus 1km to the north and 3km to the south.
“The Gindalbie asset gave us multiple drilling targets so that was a great pick up and there we have been drilling quite successfully there the past 6 months or so. Then earlier this year we bolted on 3 big copper-gold camps, which have added to our growing portfolio and really given us quite a bit of ground to work with.”
The MD said during IMARC that Empire is applying modern mining technology to a historic mining precinct and that Gindalbie is a ‘high-grade’ and narrow vein deposit that trends along a north-west structure at depth and along strike.
Empire is seeking to build up a reasonable infantry of gold and has to date encountered one intersection of 5m at 10g/t Au.
Then in April, Empire acquired a 70% interest in 3 ‘highly prospective’ Australian-based copper-gold projects from privately held Century Minerals. Two of the projects, the Pitfield Copper-Gold Project and the Walton Copper-Gold Project, are in Western Australia while the Stavely Copper-Gold Project lies within the Stavely Arc region of Victoria.
The acquisition of these assets, which combined, cover an area considerably larger than Greater London, provides Empire with an exceptional mineralised footprint within several mining regions well known for world-class and significant copper and/or gold discoveries.
Bunn added: “One we’re really, really excited about is Pitfield. This project is north of Perth and there is a very old and famous talc mine that has operated there for the last 80-odd years and still in operation, and we’re adjacent to that on the western side
We think we’re on the cusp of funding a major copper province.”
Empire is establishing itself as a leading metals explorer focused on Australia. Bunn told this news service that the portfolio expansion will substantially de-risk Empire’s exploration strategy, and also broaden its commodity exposure and considerably enlarge the company’s global resource inventory potential.
The company is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and domiciled in the UK. It was incorporated in February 2010 under the name Gold Mining Company. On 10 October 2016 the company changed its name from Noricum Gold to Georgian Mining Corporation and subsequently on in February 2020 changed its name from Georgian Mining Corporation to
Empire Metals.
Mining.com.au was an official media partner of IMARC.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
