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True North Copper Limited (ASX:TNC) (True North, TNC or the Company) is pleased to report high-grade assay results froma further three holes (MOXD218, MOXD219 and MOXD221) of its initial diamond drilling program at the Vero Resource, part of its 100%-owned Mt Oxide Project (located 110km north of Mount Isa, Queensland).
These results continue to confirm the Vero Resource hosts large-scale, high-grade copper-cobalt-silver mineralisation.
TNC previously announced an intercept of 66.50m (48.00m*) @ 4.95% Cu, 32.7g/t Ag and 686 ppm Co from 234.00m from the first drillhole of the program, MOXD2171.
Highlights
- MOXD221 intercepted a wide interval of high-grade shallow dipping mineralisation as well as a second deeper intercept, providing indications of rapidly increasing grade and widths of mineralisation to the south. Highlights include:
- 42.10m (41.00m*) @ 1.66% Cu, 13.5g/t Ag and 1,083 ppm Co from 154.90m
- inc. 4.00m (2.24m*) @ 7.65% Cu, 57.3g/t Ag and 1,164 ppm Co from 191.20m
- 36.10m (20.10m*) @ 1.23% Cu, 15.7g/t Ag and 1,952 ppm Co from 266.90m
- 42.10m (41.00m*) @ 1.66% Cu, 13.5g/t Ag and 1,083 ppm Co from 154.90m
- MOXD219 intercepted northeastern extensions to high grade breccia style mineralisation which remains open along strike to the northeast and down dip. Highlights include:
- 22.90m (14.67m*) @ 1.64% Cu, 18.5g/t Ag and 2,256 ppm Co from 213.10m
- 14.70m (9.41m*) @ 2.95% Cu, 30.2g/t Ag and 1,945 ppm Co from 267.50m
- MOXD218 intersected large-scale zones of alteration related to the Vero mineralisation indicating potential extensions of the high-grade, steep structurally controlled system to the south.
- Resource infill and extension drilling continues with further assay results expected to be released through to the end of Q4 2023.
- Planning for airborne geophysics, prospect scale mapping and soil surveys underway on several prospective copper mineralised zones within the Mt Oxide Project that have received limited modern exploration.
- The Vero Resource, Mt Oxide contains a 15.98 Mt at 1.43% Cu and 6.91 g/t Ag total combined Measured, Indicated, and Inferred resource and a separate 9.15 Mt at 0.23% Co total combined Measured, Indicated, and Inferred resource2. Resource updates incorporating new drilling results are expected in Q1/Q2, 2024.
Comment
True North Copper’s Managing Director, Marty Costello said:
“The latest diamond drilling results from Vero validate Mt Oxide’s potential, providing further confidence for TNC following our initial result in MOXD217 which had an estimated true width of nearly 50m at 4.95% copper. Today’s results which include an intersection of 7.65% copper over 4m demonstrate the high-grade nature of copper mineralisation in the area and further extension of the Vero Resource’s high-grade ore body.
Our Mt Oxide Project and its Vero Resource are underexplored and this is the first significant on-ground exploration since 2012. This drilling program allows us to extend the Vero Resource and its incredibly impressive mineralisation. It also allows us to develop our exploration program and target new discoveries much more efficiently across the entire Mt Oxide Project.
The Mt Oxide Project is showing all the signs of a significant critical minerals project in a Tier 1 jurisdiction. We’re rapidly advancing our knowledge of a phenomenally mineralised system and we’re using this information to develop our mining studies and find new discoveries.
The latest assay results provide us with continued confidence in our 100% owned Vero Resource. We will use the results from this program to update existing copper, silver and cobalt resource estimates for the Vero Resource.
Copper sulphate production at our Cloncurry Project in Queensland is also consistently increasing since it commenced in July, providing the Company with valuable cashflow to support our exploration program at Mt Oxide.”
Figure 1. Location and regional geological framework Mt Oxide Project
Summary of TNC’s Drill Intersections to date
MOXD218, MOXD219 and MOXD221 were drilled in July and August 2023 with the aim of extending the steeply dipping high grade breccia style mineralisation down dip and to infill the shallowly dipping stratiform replacement and stockwork vein style mineralisation at the Vero Deposit (15.98 Mt at 1.43% Cu and 6.91 g/t Ag total combined Measured, Indicated, and Inferred resource and a separate 9.15 Mt at 0.23% Co total combined Measured, Indicated, and Inferred resource2).
Intercepts from MOXD219 and MOXD221 confirm the grade and tenor of the shallow flat lying mineralisation and have infilled and extended the drilled tested footprint of the steep mineralisation (Table 1). These intercepts will likely have a positive impact on the confidence and contained metal in future resource estimates.
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This article includes content from True North Copper limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Empire Metals
Investor Insight
Empire Metals (OTCQB:EPMLF, AIM:EEE) is unlocking one of the world’s largest and purest titanium deposits at its flagship Pitfield project in Western Australia. With growing global demand, a looming supply deficit, and near-term development milestones, Empire offers a compelling investment opportunity in the critical minerals space.
Overview
Empire Metals (OTCQB:EPMLF, AIM:EEE) is an Australian focused exploration and resource development company rapidly gaining international attention for its discovery and rapid development of what is believed to be the world’s largest titanium deposit.
The company is focused on advancing its flagship asset, the Pitfield project, located in Western Australia, a tier 1 mining jurisdiction. With a dominant landholding of more than 1,000 sq km, and a titanium mineral system that spans 40 km in strike length, Pitfield is emerging as a district-scale “giant” discovery with the potential to reshape the global titanium supply landscape.
Empire’s strategic focus on titanium comes at a pivotal time. Titanium is officially recognized as a critical mineral by both the European Union and the United States, owing to its essential role in aerospace, defense, medical technologies, clean energy and high-performance industrial applications. Global demand for titanium dioxide — the most widely used form of titanium — is surging due to its unmatched properties as a pigment and as a feedstock for titanium metal. Titanium supply chains are also increasingly being constrained by geopolitical risks, mine depletion and environmental challenges associated with traditional production. More than 60 percent of the global supply chain is currently concentrated in a handful of countries, notably China and Russia, creating significant vulnerabilities for Western markets.
Titanium has been designated as a critical mineral in both the EU and the US.
Against this backdrop, Empire Metals offers investors a compelling opportunity to gain exposure to a strategically vital metal through a large-scale, high-grade and clean titanium discovery. Unlike many traditional titanium sources, Pitfield's mineralization is exceptionally pure — free from detrimental amounts of uranium, thorium, chromium and other contaminants — making it ideally suited for premium, high-purity end markets. Furthermore, the mineralized zone is near-surface and laterally extensive, allowing for low-strip and scalable bulk mining with conventional processing technologies.
With more than 22,000 meters of drilling already completed and only a fraction of the mineral system tested, Empire is aggressively advancing Pitfield towards a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate, targeted for H2-2025. Alongside this work, the company is also undertaking bulk sampling and metallurgical processing to advance flowsheet design and optimize product specifications. It is also engaging with industry players to assess product suitability for premium pigment and titanium sponge markets. Empire is planning to finalize, during the current calendar year, a mining study to evaluate the potential for a low-cost strip mining approach, utilizing continuous mining techniques.
The company is supported by a seasoned leadership team with deep expertise in exploration, resource development, mining, metallurgy and capital markets — ensuring that strategic decisions are guided by both technical excellence and a strong track record of value creation.
Company Highlights
- The flagship Pitfield project is the world’s largest known titanium discovery. It’s a district-scale “giant” titanium mineral system, characterised by high-grade, high-purity titanium mineralisation exhibiting exceptional continuity.
- Titanium is in a global supply deficit and recognized as a critical mineral by the EU and US.
- Drill intercepts at Pitfield include up to 202 meters at 6.32 percent titanium dioxide (TiO2) from surface, confirming vast scale and grade.
- Empire Metals operates in one of the world’s most secure, mining-friendly jurisdictions: Western Australia.
- The company is led by an experienced, agile team, with proven expertise in exploration, mine development, and value creation across multiple commodities.
- With a number of key development catalysts planned for 2025, including a maiden resource estimate, bulk sampling for scale-up of metallurgical testwork, and product optimisation, Empire remains significantly undervalued relative to its peers.
Key Projects
Pitfield Project – A World-Class Titanium Discovery
Located in Western Australia, the Pitfield project is Empire Metals’ flagship asset and represents one of the most exciting titanium discoveries globally. Spanning an area of approximately 1,042 sq km, the project has revealed a colossal mineral system measuring 40 km in length and up to 8 km in width, with geophysical indications of mineralization extending to at least a depth of 5 km.
Pitfield’s prime location in Western Australia
Extensive drilling across the project has intercepted thick, laterally continuous zones of high-grade titanium dioxide mineralization, highlighting the system’s enormous scale and consistency.
The titanium at Pitfield occurs predominantly in the minerals anatase and rutile within a weathered, in-situ cap that begins at surface. These minerals are exceptionally pure, often exceeding 90 percent titanium dioxide. They are free from harmful amounts of contaminants like uranium, thorium, chromium and phosphorus — qualities that are likely to make the deposit uniquely suitable for premium, high-purity titanium applications in aerospace, defense and clean technologies.
Pitfield is strategically located near the town of Three Springs, approximately 150 km southeast of the port city of Geraldton. The project benefits from direct access to essential infrastructure, including sealed highways, rail lines and an available water supply. This connectivity significantly enhances development potential by reducing logistics costs and simplifying future project build-out. Moreover, the Western Australian government actively supports critical mineral development, and Empire is operating within a stable, mining-friendly jurisdiction known for streamlined permitting and investment security.
Empire has completed more than 22,000 meters of drilling, confirming standout titanium dioxide (TiO2) results such as 154 meters at 6.76 percent TiO2, 148 meters at 6.49 percent TiO2, and 150 meters at 6.44 percent TiO2. Notably, mineralization remains open at depth in all tested zones, and to date, only around 5 percent of the interpreted system has been drilled. This underscores the immense upside potential for resource expansion.
The project’s development advantages are equally compelling: the mineralization is near-surface and amenable to simple, bulk mining methods with conventional processing. Its location in a tier-one mining jurisdiction offers access to infrastructure, a skilled workforce and strong regulatory support.
The Pitfield project presents a scalable processing pathway. Photo shows a gravity flotation test in process (left) and a close-up of a flotation test (right)
Pitfield is advancing toward a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate, expected by H2-2025. The project is already being recognized as a potential cornerstone asset in the global titanium supply chain.
Other Projects
In addition to Pitfield, Empire Metals maintains a portfolio of early-stage exploration assets offering optionality and exposure to other strategic and precious metals. Empire holds interests in two Western Australian projects — the Walton and Eclipse gold projects — both situated in historically productive mineral belts. While these assets are not the current focus, they contribute exploration upside and optionality within the company’s broader strategy.
Board and Management Team
Neil O’Brien - Non-executive Chairman
Neil O’Brien is the former SVP exploration and new business development at Lundin
Mining, until he retired in 2018. He has an extensive global mining career as a PhD economic geologist, exploration leader and board executive.
Shaun Bunn - Managing Director
Shaun Bunn is a metallurgist based in Perth, Western Australia, with expertise in international exploration, mining, processing and development. He has a successful track record managing mining projects through all stages of development.
Greg Kuenzel - Finance Director
Based in London, Greg Kuenzel is a chartered accountant, and corporate finance and financial management expert. He has extensive experience working with resources-focused AIM listed companies.
Peter Damouni - Non-executive Director
With more than 20 years of corporate and finance experience focused in the natural resources sector, Peter Damouni holds executive and director roles in TSXV and LSE listed companies where he has played key roles in significantly enhancing shareholder value.
Phil Brumit - Non-executive Director
Phil Brumit is a veteran mining engineer and operations expert, delivering major global operations. His previous roles include international leadership positions at Freeport-McMoRan, Lundin Mining and Newmont Corporation.
Narelle Marriott - Process Development Manager
Narelle Marriott is a former BHP senior process engineer. Most recently, she was the general manager for process development for Hastings Technology Metals.
Andrew Faragher - Exploration Manager
Andrew Faragher is a former Rio Tinto exploration manager with more than 25 years of experience working across multiple commodities.
Arabella Burwell - Corporate Development
Arabella Burwell is a former Senior Director Corporate Development at NASDAQ-listed GoDaddy and a Partner, Capital Raising and Strategic Partnerships, at Hannam & Partners in London and South Africa.
Carrie Pritchard – Environmental Manager
Carrie brings over 20 years of international experience in environmental management, project development, regulatory approvals, and impact assessment. Her expertise spans mine closure and reclamation, stakeholder engagement, and the remediation of contaminated sites. She has led projects across Australia (Western Australia and Victoria) and New Zealand and has also contributed to initiatives in Malawi and Greenland.
David Parker – Commercial Manager
David Parker brings over 20 years of experience in equity capital markets, with a strong focus on the mining, industrial, and technology sectors. He has held senior roles as director and company secretary for several ASX-listed companies, providing strategic leadership and commercial oversight across diverse corporate environments.
175m @ 2.5% Copper from 7.6m, Hole Ends in 4.46% Copper & Open at Depth Danvers Drilling Delivers a Globally Significant Copper Intersection
- Further assay results confirm and validate the strategy to explore previously untested high-grade zones and vertical depth extension of mineralisation at Danvers
- Highlights from DAN25008:
- 175m @ 2.5% Cu & 8.66g/t silver (Ag) from 7.6m, including 14m @ 7.55% Cu & 25.8g/t Ag from 138m
- the last 60m of the hole averaged 3.9% Cu & 14.96g/t Ag to final depth of 182.88m
- hole ended in mineralisation with the last 1.5m sample recording 4.46% Cu & 11.58g/t Ag, open at depth
- DAN25001 returned 52m @ 1.16% Cu & 3.43g/t Ag from surface, including 7.6m at 3% Cu & 9.5g/t Ag from 18.28m
- Drilling demonstrates potential for significant expansion to historic non-compliant resource. With the initial objectives of Danvers drilling achieved, to begin to understand the significance of this discovery, new drilling data will feed into a maiden JORC compliant mineral resource
- Mineralisation remains open in all directions. Follow up diamond drilling now being planned to drill out the mineralisation boundaries at Danvers and begin testing of the massive sedimentary structure at Hulk
- The next five (5) assays along strike from DAN25008 are due in the coming weeks
“DAN25008 was prioritised for assay due to the abundance of visual sulphides observed during drilling, and these results have underpinned our confidence in those visuals prevalent in the Company’s prior work. We believe this drill hole ranks among the most significant copper intersections globally within the last 50 years and comfortably sits within the top 10 globally reported “grade-metre” copper results.
This discovery and outstanding results from Danvers is a clear testament to our technical team’s expertise and geological understanding, in particular the professionalism and persistence of Olga Solovieva and Sam Vaughan.
Our improved geological understanding of the Danvers area indicates a mineralised system that extends from surface over more than 175m vertically and potentially 7km in strike length - both to the northeast and southwest, providing scope for further high-impact intercepts from upcoming drilling. With our work updating the geological understanding at Danvers, we adapted our drill targets and DAN25008 resulted in mineralisation at least 30 metres below historical limits, with the hole terminating in high-grade copper mineralisation - suggesting considerable additional potential at depth. The increase in grade toward the bottom of the hole is encouraging and is validation of our methodology.
To illustrate the magnitude of this result, the DAN25001 intercept of 52m at 1.2% Cu - a strong result in its own right - now appears modest when viewed alongside the 175m @ 2.5% Cu from DAN25008. In the context of global copper supply constraints, the Company is well positioned to leverage these results with mineralisation from surface, supporting potential open pit mining activities and an open water port less than 80km from the deposit.
Troy Whittaker - Managing Director
FURTHER INFORMATION
Figure 1 - White Cliff’s Rae Copper Project Area.
Figure 2 - Danvers Project. High grade historic copper occurrences present along a regional NE/SW trending fault zone for 7.5km’s. Inset map shows drillhole collars, covering only a fraction of the wider prospective corridor. See ASX announcement dated 23 April 2025 “Extensive sulphides observed in step out drilling at Rae Copper Project” for observations relating to the field samples/rock chips.
Table 1 - Table of rock sample locations in Figure 2 for pending rock chip assay results. See ASX announcement dated 23 April 2025 “Extensive sulphides observed in step out drilling at Rae Copper Project” for observations relating to the field samples/rock chips.
Figure 3 - Drill section of DAN25008. Reported intervals are considered drilled thicknesses until true thickness can be proved.
Drillhole DAN25008 is an important step in the development of the Danvers copper deposit. An intercept of 175.26m at 2.5% copper is an outstanding result illustrating the continuous mineralisation which commences just below surface at 7.62m downhole. The final 30m of DAN25008 which averages 2.37% Cu and 10.51g/t Ag exists below the trace of historic drilling, effectively extending the known high-grade mineralisation.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from White Cliff Minerals Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.