Empress Royalty Corp. reported the Manica gold mine has successfully completed its first gold pour. Empress owns a 3.375% gold royalty on the Manica gold mine located in Mozambique and operated by Mutapa Mining & Processing LDA.

Empress executed a Royalty and Purchase Agreement for the creation of a royalty on gold sales from Manica for a total investment of USD 3 million. Payments to Empress under the Royalty Agreement are based on 3.375% of the revenues generated from the sale of gold from the Project until a total of 95,000 oz of gold have been sold. Thereafter, the percentage shall reduce to 1.125% and shall continue into perpetuity.

The Royalty is secured by a first ranking security interest in certain assets of MMP. MMP has advised Empress that the first gold has been poured at Manica. Production was started with the introduction of low-grade ore to commission all parts of the processing circuit.

MMP reported to Empress that it plans for Manica to be at full commercial production by the end of the year. Manica is located in the Odzi-Mutare-Manica Greenstone Belt of Mozambique and comprises of several deposits on Xtract's Resources Plc mining concession licence 3990C (the "Concession") which includes four deposits being Fair Bride, Guy Fawkes, Boa Esperanza, and Dots Luck. MMP and Xtract have entered into a collaboration and profit-share arrangement whereby MMP will build, finance and operate a carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant to process ore mined from Xtract's concession.

MMP reported to Empress that it is mining and processing the oxide and transitional ore at Fair Bride and other deposits on the Concession at its 42,000 tonnes per month processing plant which utilises a CIL process.