Location

The Eclipse Project area is located approximately 55km NNE of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The nearest gold processing plant is at Kanowna Belle, 35km to the south. The area is accessed by the Yarri Road, which is a partially sealed, well-used road and is generally maintained in good condition. Empire holds a 75% interest in the Eclipse Project.

Gindalbie Tribute Agreement Not Extended

Previously in 2022, Empire entered into a Tribute Agreement that gave Empire the exclusive right to explore, develop and mine within a granted area on Maher Mining’s 100% owned mining lease (M27/158) titled Gindalbie, which sat adjacent to the eastern border of the Eclipse licence area. In Q1 of 2024, management undertook an assessment of the Company’s non-core assets and consequently decided not to extend the Gindalbie Tribute Agreement which then expired in February 2024. This decision was taken after the discovery of the giant titanium-rich mineral system at Pitfield, where the company is now focused on the accelerated development of the Pitfield Project.

Geological Setting

Eclipse is situated within the Kurnalpi Terrane, close to the boundary of the prolific Kalgoorlie terrane (high Au and Ni endowment) defined by the major regional Ockerburry Fault system (Figure 1). The surrounding district is dominated by 2.70 Ga mafic volcanic rocks, calc-alkaline complexes, feldspathic sedimentary rocks, and mafic rocks. The western margin of the Kurnalpi terrane comprises slightly younger 2.68 Ga rhyolite-basalt and felsic calc-alkaline complexes and associated volcanoclastic sediments.

Drilling by the Company at Eclipse has confirmed that gold mineralisation is associated with a NW-striking and steeply SW-dipping shear zone (“Eclipse Shear”) with significant gold mineralisation known to extend over a strike length of more than 200 metres. Mineralisation may connect to the Jack’s Dream area further to the NW giving a total known strike length of the Eclipse system of some 500 metres. High grade mineralisation has also been intersected at Twin Shaft about 120m south of the Eclipse shear. It is not yet clear if the known mineralisation in the Eclipse area is part of a linked shear system, or separate sub-parallel shear zones.

Exploration and Historical Mining Activities

The Eclipse gold mine has had multiple owners since its discovery in 1902. In the period from April 1905 to November 1910 the Eclipse shaft was developed to a depth of 258 feet and produced 954 tonnes @ 24.6 g/t Au for 754.25 oz Au (source: GSWA Mindex database). In the 1990s the shaft was dewatered, refurbished to the bottom level and the collar of the shaft was re-established with concrete.

Extensive exploration of the present area was carried out throughout the late 20th century to the present by the various owners of the licence area including, but not limited to, aerial photography, geological mapping, dump sampling, underground mapping and sampling, geophysics, and RAB and RC drilling.

Prospecting has occurred intermittently on the licence. However, since acquiring the property, Empire has executed a systematic exploration programme comprising soils geochemistry, close-spaced ground magnetics geophysics, and RC and diamond drilling, from which the Company has proven the mineralised envelope at Eclipse is open both along strike and at depth, and identified that there are multiple parallel veins which coalesce around the old Eclipse Shaft.

Empire has undertaken significant drill programmes across the previously named ‘Eclipse-Gindalbie’ Project including 15,117m of RC drilling and 1,328m of diamond drilling. This has confirmed the presence of exceptional gold mineralisation.

The mineralised system here was much larger than originally thought with drilling confirming high-grade parallel veins to the Eclipse lode and wide strike extensions at Jack’s Dream. Recent drilling at Homeward Bound, which lies southeast of the Eclipse shaft reported stellar grade intercepts:

• 5m @ 8.99 g/t Au from 31m downhole, including 1m at 40.90 g/t Au;
• 3m @ 8.96 g/t Au from 98m downhole, including 2m at 13.28 g/t Au; and
• 3m @ 9.88 g/t Au from 46m downhole, including 1m at 26.20 g/t Au.

Since August 2020, Empire has completed a series of exploration drill programmes culminating in a small but high-grade gold mineral inventory around the historical Eclipse mine shaft. The drilling to date has confirmed that the gold mineralisation is associated with a NW-striking and steeply SW-dipping shear zone with significant gold mineralisation known to extend over a strike length of more than 500 metres.

The exploration drilling completed at Gindalbie under the Tribute Agreement tested for high-grade gold lodes within the transition and fresh rock, immediately below or adjacent to several of the historic mine shafts scattered across the tenement. Based on these results it was concluded that the main gold mineralisation at Gindalbie was associated with similar NW-striking and steeply SW-dipping shear zone as encountered at Eclipse. As part of the previous drilling campaign at Gindalbie, the Company also encountered a kaolin-rich zone. Subsequent testwork has shown that the kaolin was not of sufficient quality to warrant further studies.