Empire reports latest drilling results from Central Menzies

Resource exploration and development company Empire Metals announced the results of its recently-completed reverse circulation drilling programme at the Central Menzies Gold Project in Western Australia on Wednesday, over which it holds an option to acquire a 75% interest.

The AIM-traded firm said 2,379 metres of drilling was completed, focusing on the two mineralised trends known as Teglio and Nugget Patch, which were prioritised from previous work.

At Nugget Patch, it said a consistent NNW-trending zone of oxide gold mineralisation was confirmed along the western flank of the prospect.

The gold anomaly extended for the full 500 metre strike length tested in the programme, and remained open to the north and south.

At Teglio, Empire said the northernmost step-out reverse circulation line intersected shallow gold mineralisation coinciding with the southern end of a recently-defined and coherent gold-in-soil anomaly at Teglio North, which extended over an 800 metre strike length.

The southern line at Teglio also intersected “significant” gold anomalism, and the recent soils showed the trend could continue further to the south before the Teglio trend went under transported cover.

“The results from the drilling programme have confirmed the prospectivity of the Central Menzies Project, with a significant gold anomaly identified along a 500 metre strike length at Nugget Patch,” said managing director Shaun Bunn.

“Current thinking is that we have encountered a supergene enrichment zone and that a higher-grade target may persist beneath and further to the southwest.

“This find certainly warrants additional drilling to determine if a higher-grade mineralised lode follows this near surface trend.”

Bunn said the drilling along the northern and southern perimeters of the Teglio trend also showed mineralisation, coinciding with the gold-in-soil enrichment zones identified from the recent soil geochemical sampling programme.

“The lack of significant intercepts in the near vicinity of the historical Teglio mine shaft requires further geological evaluation to determine the nature of these high-grade shoots and how and where they may extend along strike and at depth.”

At 1548 GMT, shares in Empire Metals were down 11.78% at 1.46p.