Empire Metals upbeat on review of data from Eclipse project

The AIM-traded firm said the review had focussed on developing a “more advanced understanding” of the structural controls on the known gold mineralisation.

It said the current database highlighted the potential of “significant” additional mineralisation discovery within the licence area, as it demonstrated just 20% of the reverse circulation holes drilled to date had penetrated below the gold-depleted regolith zone into fresh rock.

A new series of drilling programmes, using both reverse circulation and diamond drill holes, was scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022, and had been designed to gather further geological and structural information around the Eclipse and Jack's Dream shafts, and to prove continuity of the gold mineralisation below the gold-depleted zone of weathering.

The design of a larger-scale exploration programme was also underway to test gold targets to the north and northwest areas of the licence area.

“A thorough and rigorous assessment of the data collected to date has been completed, leading to a much better understanding of the geological and structural controls of the gold mineralisation, which is vital for designing and implementing the next phase of exploration,” said managing director Shaun Bunn.

“The analysis by our technical team has confirmed that gold mineralisation at Eclipse is associated with a northwest-striking and steeply southwest-dipping shear zone with significant gold mineralisation known to extend over a strike length of more than 200 metres.

“This interpretation has only been possible thanks to data collected from the recent diamond drilling programme, as there was limited structural data from the previous reverse circulation holes drilled, particularly as only 20% of the RC holes drilled within the licence area have been deep enough to penetrate the gold-depleted zone of weathering into fresh rock.”

At 1100 GMT, shares in Empire Metals were unchanged at 1.23p.