Empire Metals Limited announced that surface sampling carried out in December 2022 at thePitfield Copper Project ("Pitfield") in Western Australia has confirmed extensive copper anomalism just south of the historic Mt Scratch workings and several very high-grade rock samples have been discovered in the process. The favourable geology of the Yandanooka basin for large-scale copper deposits has previously attracted major mining companies which carried out exploration within the area, including: Kennecott Corporation ("Kennecott"), MIM Holdings ("MIM"), BHP Group Limited ("BHP") and CRA. Widespread copper, silver, nickel and zinc anomalism has been identified over large parts of the Yandanooka basin by these previous explorers, particularly in association with magnetite-altered rocks.

CRA (1992) completed IP geophysics and auger sampling defining a +7km Cu-in-auger anomaly (plus Ag) over what is now the western flank of the Pitfield project, and remains open to the east and south. CRA followed up with two diamond holes, the southern hole on Pitfield recording copper anomalism with a maximum value of 570ppm (from 4m chip samples of drillcore) associated with fracture-controlled malachite and minor native copper. CRA also carried out soil sampling at Mt Scratch towards the north of the project area which shows a direct correlation between more strongly anomalous copper-in-soils with magnetic rock units within the stratigraphy.

Rock chip samples taken by CRA from surface exposures returned very encouraging Cu-Ag values (up to 2.3% Cu and 20.8 g/t Ag) within the magnetic units highlighting a large, highly prospective SSC target. The current geological mapping and soil sampling programme is focussed on unexplored portions of the project with soil sample lines positioned in the northern, central and southern areas of the licence. To date, 580 soil samples and 27 rock specimens have been collected and assayed.

The location of the five traverses of DD-IP geophysical survey, which was announced 12 January 2023, is also shown. The geological mapping and soil sampling results have confirmed an extensive copper-in-soil anomaly extending 4km south of Mt Scratch coinciding with the western-most magnetic trend of the regional 40km long magnetic anomaly. What the soil sampling highlights in this northern area of the licence is two mineralized trends, the Mt Scratch and Greenbrook Trends, each potentially representing separate SSC deposit targets that belong to one Giant Cu mineral system extending the entire length of the 40km long magnetic anomaly.

Results from soil sampling along the Mt Scratch trend confirm that the most elevated copper values are associated with magnetic sedimentary horizons, with copper values typically lower in non-magnetic units. The Empire soil results confirm and extend copper anomalism seen in the historical CRA sampling work to some 4km in length. The absolute copper values in the Empire sampling are somewhat lower than in the CRA work, likely due to differences in the sampling or analytical approach taken.

The nature of the regolith appears to have a strong bearing on the copper-in-soil values with the best values usually associated with weathered bedrock outcrop, and copper values decreasing (depleted) in the laterite layer. Wind-blown sand is quite extensively developed in parts of the project with copper assay results indicating that the sand cover completely masks the bedrock copper response. Soil sampling was stopped when the sand areas were encountered.

These rock specimens are particularly encouraging as they confirm the presence of copper enrichment along with quartz and magnetite - all key elements of the SSC model. These copper enriched rock samples are likely "float" samples and may relate to now backfilled c1900 era prospecting shafts which demonstrate the presence of strong copper values at shallow depths (probably <10m) within what appears to be a highly ferruginous (iron-rich) and copper-leached surface layer.