Phoenix Copper Ltd (AIM: PXC, OTCQX: PXCLF), the AIM quoted USA focused base and precious metals emerging producer and exploration company, is pleased to announce that the Company’s 2022 drilling programme is underway at the Empire Mine Project in Idaho, USA.
The 2022 drilling programme is expected to further Phoenix’s understanding of Ammonium Thiosulfate (“ATS”) as a non-toxic, environmentally friendly reagent for the recovery of copper, gold, silver, and zinc from the Empire open pit resource. The Company will also examine the possibility of bringing forward the production of precious metals. In addition to the collection of PQ-diameter core samples (85 millimetres) for metallurgical testing, geotechnical data for enhanced pit slope stability studies and resource assaying for enhanced continuity of copper, gold, silver, and zinc grades will be gathered from the same core. Following the PQ-core drilling in the Empire open pit, the drill rig will move to the Red Star silver-lead resource and the Empire deep sulphide target to conduct further exploratory drilling through to late autumn.
In addition to the drilling programme, the Company is completing ongoing open pit engineering trade-off studies for further economic and environmental optimisation as part of the feasibility study process.
Ryan McDermott, CEO of Phoenix Copper Limited, said : “Our 2022 drilling season kicked off as scheduled in early June with the arrival of a core drilling rig capable of drilling PQ-diameter core. The drilling program will initially focus on collecting core samples for metallurgical and geotechnical studies from the Empire open pit, which remains our flagship project. The results of these studies may enable us to bring forward production of gold and silver, currently scheduled as a second phase of the open pit project. Once the Empire open pit drilling is completed, the rig will begin further exploratory drilling in the Red Star and Empire Sulphides areas. We are actively searching for further drilling capacity for this season and will contract additional drill rigs when and if they become available.
“The Empire Open Pit Feasibility study remains in progress whilst our engineers complete further trade-off and optimization studies. The global volatility in pricing for everything from structural steel to chemical reagents has also slowed progress on the study. However, we are receiving some indications that markets are slowly calming and supply backlogs are shortening.
“The Phoenix team is continuing to focus on what we know and what we can control. We know that the Empire open pit copper mine is ideally suited to provide copper for the world’s transition to clean energy and, as a result, will be in high demand in the coming years. Our team is working diligently to collect the necessary data, permits, and funds so that we can advance the project in a way which will be most economic, while minimizing our environmental footprint. I look forward to providing updates on the 2022 drilling program and progress on the feasibility study and engineering.”
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance
Phoenix is committed to meeting and exceeding the environmental standards required by law as a core value of the Company. The baseline environmental data collected to date will be used for furthering the permitting process, but as importantly, will be used as the building blocks for the Company’s ongoing Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (“ESG”) platform, overseen by the Company’s ESG & Sustainability Committee.
Contacts
For further information please visit https://phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:
Phoenix Copper Limited
Ryan McDermott : Tel: +1 208 954 7039
Brittany Lock: Tel: +1 208 794 8033
Richard Wilkins: Tel: +44 7590 216 657
