Empire Metals (LSE:EEE) — High quality copper-gold assets in world-class Australian mining regions

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the EMPIRE METALS LIMITED Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged to be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question you receive during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions for this day and pass your responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. And I'd now like to hand over to Sean Bunn, managing director from EMPIRE METALS. Good

0:31 morning. Yeah. Good morning, everybody, and, welcome to the, to our first seminar of this particular year. We've we've got a lot to cover this morning, so I'll slide I'll get straight into the slideshow, and we'll we'll introduce the other people on the call shortly. Yeah. So before we before we start, I just need to quickly remind people that, you know, the presentation will have forward looking statements. We will, we're not using this to encourage people, you know, to invest or or sell. So just be aware of the that the content is obviously been checked by our competent people. So we're presenting the best and most up to date information we have available today.

1:29 Onto what we consider to be our highlights. A lot happened in the last last few weeks. We have obviously made a number of announcements about acquisitions, and we have started to build, you know, a comprehensive portfolio of what we consider to be, high grade copper gold exploration development projects, particularly, here still in the West Australian region, mainly focusing within the Ugarne. But we've also picked up a very interesting, very prospective copper gold target in Victoria on the East Coast within the Stabley Arc.

2:15 Our current focus remains on our two high grade gold prospects, those being the Eclipse and the recently acquired Jindalbi gold project. These are only 55 kilometers Northeast of Kalgoorlie, which is within the eastern gold fields of Western Australia and an area, you know, that is, you know, extremely well known for for major gold discoveries. And I think in the last you know, since discovering the Golden Mile, which Kagali is famous for, there's something like 60,000,000 ounces of gold has been removed from that one square mile. So, you know, we're right in the in the center of, of the gold action and continue to look to develop those high grade gold targets, in the coming months.

3:10 The other important news that we've announced recently was the acquisition of three highly prospective gold and copper projects, these being located at Pitfield on the western edge of the Yulgan Craton. So if you look to the to the slide that's that we've got up at the moment, you'll see at the base there the Yulgan Craton highlighted. So Pitfield lies on the west side of that on the left, which sits quite close to something called the Darling Fault.

3:43 The Staveley project, which is in Victoria on the East Coast, and the Walton copper gold project, lies within the Southern Cross domain, which is virtually center of the Ugan Craton and lies West of Kalgoorlie. We've discussed a number of times previously the the strength of our board, the

4:10 depth and diversity within it, we'll cover that shortly. And I'm obviously quite happy that we now can start talking about our future exploration success, particularly once we start to develop drilling targets within these new acquisitions.

4:32 I'm pleased today to say that we're joined by Doctor Neil O'Brien, who's visiting Perth at the moment and is on the call. I'll introduce Neil and also our finance director, Greg Kunzil. Neil, if you wanna just say a few words. Yeah. Thanks, Sean. Hi, everybody, from from Perth. This is my my first trip to Western Australia. Believe me, I've been I've been dying to get here since we decided to take up some opportunities here. And as soon as the state government, you know, lifted some of its basically, opened up the state again from COVID restrictions.

5:22 So I I I got down here to meet Sean and and and see some of the properties and and get my own own perspective on it. And I tell you, you know, the the the first and foremost thing you see right, you know, on the way from the airport that I saw from the airport to the hotel here is this is it's clearly

5:45 obvious. This is the number one mining jurisdiction in the world. And I I'm just looking out my hotel window here, and I can see the BHP and Rio Tinto towers in the in in Downtown Perth here. You you're never very far

6:04 the premium on jurisdiction in in the world. And believe me, it is a pleasure to be working in a in such a jurisdiction. And Sean has been working hard with our small local team that he's building here, right, to bring in some

6:27 opportunities that he'll he'll explain in a bit more depth here. And and and we'll be talking about I seem to have dropped off here. You hear me? We we can hear you. It's just that we lost a bit of audio quality, so we've just taken your camera out. Okay. Well, very much. Okay. Yeah. Anyways, I came down here as soon as I I could. I've been up on a couple of field trips with Sean and and and Greg and and some of the local team here to see Eclipse, Jim Dolby. We're we've been getting some some excellent results to support our decision to be in the Eastern Goldfields just just fifty minutes up the road from from from the Kalgoorlie Super Pit. It's still in production after all these years as Sean Sean mentioned. I've also been up to the pit field copper gold project straight up the coast as as as Sean pointed out.

7:32 And that's one of three exciting new new projects that we've called century projects. Large land positions and the pit field clearly has got the potential for a giant mineral system there. And we've got lots of land, and it it it is very exciting. I'm I'm coming out of this with a a an exciting feeling that, you know, we got four quality projects. We're building a good local team here, and we're in the number one mining jurisdiction. So I think it's exciting times for EMPIRE shareholders. And I'll leave it here to Sean to pick that up and and and explain a bit more about the projects and people. Thanks.

8:24 Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Neil. You mentioned Neil mentioned the the the team that we're starting to build. It's it's early days. I'm pleased to say that we were able to bring in some some excellent expertise in the form of well, initially, with Louisa, our exploration geologist, who's doing a PhD. She's studying currently at the university here at Curtin, but specializing in, you know, high quality scientific approach and technology to to, to add to her years of experience as a as a field geologist. Jesus Garcia Nieto is still base he's based out of Europe, and he's been largely consulting to us now for for many years. So we're we we've kept, in contact with Jesus. We use, his experience in particularly in, in the copper fields.

9:27 And, and the final part of the, the team at the moment is is Ed Boltus. So Ed is, an exploration consultant, many, many years of experience in identifying, you know, exploration targets. He's worked, for Goldfields in that role, worked for Western Mining Corporation, previously in that role. So, we've got the makings of a strong technical team, and we continue to look to add to that team over the, the coming months and bring in more exploration management and field work teams as we, as we move on to these, four new or four key, exploration targets. A quick overview of our current capital structure and major shareholders. I won't go into a great deal here. This is information that's readily available, but we thought we'd highlight the market cap at the moment is just over £7,000,000.

10:27 We, did a raising last week as everyone will be aware. We we raised £1,700,000. So, yeah, we think we, we're well funded to to move forward and tackle a lot of activity. A lot of groundwork will be done in the coming months on on these four very important exploration put, you targets that we that we've we've started to to develop. I think just just to add there, Sean, I think it's important to note that prior to the funding, the company was actually funded through its existing work programs for the for the rest of the year following that. So we did have a a reasonable treasury, even prior to that. What the additional funds that we raised last week has allowed us to do is accelerate and increase the size of the programs, particularly at the the new targets at at Homeward Bound, which Sean will cover off. So so post that raise, we're now in a very, very strong position financially.

11:42 Yes. Thank you. The, I'll move on to the actual projects themselves. I think most people on the call will be familiar with our Eclipse project. It was the, you know, the breakthrough break project, if you like, in terms of bringing a bringing our exploration focus, down to Western Australia to the Australian to the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. We hold a 75% interest in the Eclipse project. As we said earlier, it sits 55 kilometers north of Northeast of Kalgoorlie. Eclipse itself was an old shaft at the in the late 1890s, early 1900s.

12:29 So quite high grade producing gold mine in its day, and it was one of many in that particular area. So there is, you know, several 100 old mine workings around this region. Then, you know, basically, it's an area that has developed a reputation for small high grade targets, but it's been largely, you know, very largely underexplored. So on a on a more global scale, looking for, I guess, the origin and and and the potential to find a high grade and lot much larger target is, you know, is something that we are now starting to put the the evidence together and, you know, through our geological team and our our recent drilling, we are very hopeful that we will start to pinpoint, you know, where these structural controls are and and start to go back in with a with another drill program to develop much larger resources within these high grade loads.

13:40 So, you know, the key points here, I guess, you know, the Jindalbi Town site, the old Jindalbi mine mining town is is adjacent to the Eclipse operation. It's within something we call the Kanopy Terrain, and that sits alongside structurally controlled by a a a major fault called the Okaberee Fault System. And so it's it's an area that we think is is highly perspective. There are multiple resources been identified, small mines operating within close proximity. And then as we said, further to the the south of us lies some of the much larger gold discoveries in the last, you know, twenty, thirty years. So Kananabelle, only sits a few kilometers, further south on the way back down to Kalgoorlie. So quite an exciting area.

14:42 We have completed, over the last two years, a 118, holes that we've drilled, RC holes, and another nine diamond holes have now been completed. And that has resulted in us identifying two additional loads here, two additional parallel veins to the Eclipse. So what we call the Jack's Dream Strike and a and a parallel load there at Twin Shafts. So, so we now have to come back to these areas. We're completing our diamond drilling and we're trying to, connect. I'll just get to the next slide. Sorry. We're trying to find the connection between these, these loads. We believe that the, there's a shear, a major shear that's, running in Northwest, south, deeply stepping to the Southwest.

15:37 And we've tracked that now over 200 meters. With the extension into Jack Stream and further to the Northwest where we believe it's open, you know, we're looking to add another 300 meters to that strike length. So an overall

15:53 target, if you like, is more over 500 meters in in length. And it's also to date, we haven't yet drilled to depth to to establish just where the high grade zones are plunging. And that is part of our ongoing technical investigations to see where we should be drilling next in this particular target to get the most value from that drilling.

16:28 I'll move on to Jindalbi. The in in reality, the Jindalbi project is is a subset of ECLIPSE lies as a subset of the Jindalbi project. So a much bigger area that we acquired, we entered into a tribute agreement with the license owner. It's another mining license. So we have you know, granted access to a granted mining license, which gives us a clear pathway to get into production should we continue to identify, you know, high grade economic ore zones. So we're we're quite excited about the fact that we now have expanded in this particular area our our exploration targets, you know, by over 200%.

17:16 So it's major step forward. It's a great opportunity. There was a very large high grade gold mine developed within this particular area being the Gippsland South Mine, produced well over 30,000 ounces in its day. And again, it was a mine that was developed back in the 1900s, the early 1900s. So not much exploration has happened around those zones in in the last hundred years. We're very excited about the about the idea that the trends that we've identified within the Eclipse license will continue to to run along the, along the Jindalbi license area. So if you take your time to look to the to the picture on the right, what we've, what we are highlighting here within the two tenements now that we have access to, the Eclipse tenement being on the left and the larger, tenement, being the one that we now call, the Jindalbi project.

18:25 The old workings, the old shafts are are are there clearly clearly fall into a northwest, southeast trend lines. And, you know, our investigations to date are still trying to confirm just just how much that indicates the direction of the shear. And and are these things connected in terms of, high grade zones continuing along two or three kilometers worth of strike as opposed to just appearing in in very small loads around these shafts. So a lot of our work is aimed at at drilling deeper and tracking the shear. One of the key things that we, very recently completed at at and and initiated only a few weeks ago was our first RC program within Jindalbi.

19:17 We only drilled just under 1,700 meters, 17 holes. And now we're really just doing that as a as a sort of a scouting exercise to pinpoint where we should be looking next at priority, you know, setting some priorities around our targets. Very pleased to report that we the four holes that we put in around the homeward bound target. And and just for reference, homeward bound is is on the, the right hand side along the eastern edge of the, the Jabi license. So, in that, in that southern eastern corner. And, you know, one of the one of the stellar holes that we hit five meters at just under nine grams reported an intercept just under 41 grams per ton. So clearly, a a very exciting target and a very exciting intercept.

20:15 A hole not far from that produced three meters at just under nine grams. And on the others on the opposite side of the the homeward bound target, so some 50 odd meters apart, we hit another three meters at, just under 10 grams. And, the highest intercept in that hole is 26.2 grams per ton. So this has really opened our changed our thinking in terms of priority. We will definitely be heading back to homeward bound in the near future to continue to drill that particular target out. And, we're continuing to put a a geological model together to understand just what is controlling these high grade, you know, this particular high grade target here at at at the Jindalbi license.

21:04 We will, of course, go back and look at the other targets that we've identified. We don't think that this is just a story about one particular shaft or one particular area. And we're still very excited about potential gold strikes at Bud's Bud's Fine to the South and the and the Laurel Bulletin area to the South. So further work will commence in the next few weeks and hopefully we'll continue to have some exciting news to present over the coming months.

21:40 I'll move away from the Jindalbi and and Eclipse projects and onto the new acquisitions. Not to confuse people, the headline of the of this particular particular slide remains remains the pit field copper gold project. That's our target in this particular area. We're not exactly going to be exploring for wildflowers. And and whilst there is talc in the region, it's not necessarily our particular focus. But the highlight here is that this is an area. This particular basin, the Anduka Basin,

22:19 There's a lot happened here geologically. It's it's it's controlled by a number of major structures. There's been large, major fluidizing events, hence the talc. And, we think this is a highly prospective area

22:35 likely to to generate a set x copper target for us. There's certainly, previous, artisanal mining of copper in the region. A town site called Aranod, just slightly to to the west of our license area was a was a major strike of copper that was mined again back in the back in the eighteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds. So we've got numerous evidence of of copper, high grade copper in the region. The the basin itself, the Uighur Basin is a a neo protozoic basin, and that is an age that is, I guess, globally important for copper mineralization.

23:30 We it's exactly the same age of the of the rocks that you'll find within the African Copper Belt. And, you know, it's, you know, it's exactly the same area that that the rock type that we would find in the what we call the Paterson province of Western Australia, which is the host of, well, copper gold mines such as Telfer and copper mines such as as Nift. So we think it's it's an incredibly exciting target area for us. We've got a very large land holding here. So we've acquired through the, through the deal with Sentra, we've acquired just over 1,615 square kilometers within two licenses.

24:15 And this straddles the the Anduka Basin. And so on the on the western edge of the basin, we've got we've got the edge of the the Anduka, the that structure. And on the eastern side, we have what we call the Darling Fault. So there's a lot a lot a lot happened in this particular area, and we we it's a a geologically very exciting target for us.

24:42 Some of the big, big companies here, BHP, CRA, METALS and MIND have all had a look at this area over the over, you know, nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties into the early nineteen eighties. So there's a lot of interest from major groups, but no one has actually really gone back into this area and really done the hard yards in terms of exploration work. Moving on, we talked a little bit about the acquisition as well of the Staveley project as part of this package. The Staveley Arc is a is a completely different geological structure to what we see at Pitfield. It's a it's it's a massive arc that is well known in, you know, geological terms. We've talked about it possibly being located as part of the Tasmanian ReED complex.

25:46 So it's it's geologically highly prospective for

25:53 copper porphyry, and we suspect that we will also have orogenic gold likely in the area. The ARC runs quite close to the Stall and Bendigo geological zones. This is a plus 80,000,000 ounce province. And one of our of our peers, Stable Minerals, Australian listed company, drilled a discovery hole within the Stable Arc in 2019. They they intercepted, just under 6% copper over a over a length of 32 meters in a in a major load that they identified, which is what they call the Thirsty Gossam.

26:39 It's called the Cayley load within that project. So we're very, again, very excited about the potential within this particular license area. We also secured through the partner a access to a $500,000 Victoria grant, now a Victorian government grant, which will co fund exploration in this area.

27:06 So just stepping out and having a look at where that is in terms of the, you know, the overall structural geology of Victoria, we can see on the right hand side the highlighted where we have our license area in this in this stably zone. So to the to the east is the Stall Gold mine. To the south was the discovery of the Gotham, Thursley Gotham target. So we, we've got a very large land holding here that will enable us to come back in and start to target what we think will be an area highly highly prospective for, you know, a major copper gold system. The the overall license area just sits under just under a thousand kilometers square kilometers. So we're at 940 square kilometers of of target in this particular region.

28:03 Assuming in a little bit further, the there have been a number of exploration target exploration programs run within the within the stavely, but they nearly always been run to date by the by government agencies. So they've been effectively looking to understand the the general geology. They're not concentrated and sophisticated exploration projects. And we believe that with a geophysics program leading to geochemistry leading to a drilling target identification that we'll be able to quickly pinpoint some very prospective areas within this license for a copper discovery.

28:52 The third part of the acquisition was an area called Walton, the Walton copper project. That's located in the Southern Cross domain of Western Australia. So we're back to the Yulgan Craton. It's a a green stone belt. So again, it's a completely different geological origin to to the other two projects. But again, the the Green Stone Belts, particularly in the Southern Cross domain, are very well known for not only gold, argenic gold type deposits, but it's also very well known for volcanic hosted massive sulfide systems. So the Golden Grove is a major mining center which sits within this, this entire belt further to the north.

29:42 We've also seen a number of discoveries in the area and a number of producing mines not far from the, from our domain. Ramelis Resources, for instance, is mining the the MATA gold operation not far within the within the same system. There's really no relevant exploration within our particular target area. And so we've it's this is very much largely starting from from scratch, so to speak. Again, we we've got good geophysics in the area, but we'll need to go back in and look at doing geochemistry next to try and identify copper, gold or even lithium type targets in this region. It's quite well known for its pigmentates.

30:31 Again, just an overview of the area itself. So the the complex, the Uruguay Belt comprises a number of targets. It's possibly one of the more well known ones with Spectrum Metals target there at Penny West. That was sold to Ramless for for $250,000,000 in the last few years. Again, Cobras, Perrin Vale, they've discovered copper, 10% copper there, over a five meter intercept. So we, again, think this is a highly prospective region to be to start exploring and we look forward to to getting on the ground there in the in the coming months.

31:25 We still hold exploration projects in Austria. These are constantly under review. We've had these for a number of years and they and we're looking to divest at some point. But at this stage, we're still holding these assets within the company. These flow going forward, I think, we've sort of put out a a four month oh, sorry, a four quarter plan here that sets out a a series of high level targets. We highlighted earlier about the the fact that with the £1,700,000 raising just completed, we will try to accelerate these in in particular, get the drill rigs back to back to the home with bound target on Jindalbi as quickly as possible. So I would anticipate further drilling commencing at Jindalbi certainly before the end of the quarter.

32:23 We're going to start airborne geophysical surveys at Pitfield. The first of those surveys will start next month, and we'll continue to to build our technical databases for Staley and Walton. It's it's expected that we'll be doing further drilling at the Eclipse Gold project. We've we're waiting for the completion of the the core logging of that diamond drilling. So the intention there is to to pinpoint targets along that eclipse shear, particularly to the Northwest where we believe the the shear itself is quite, you know, likely to be open at both both a long strike and a depth. And then the the idea then would move into an airborne geophysical programs at Staveley and soil sampling at at Walton, and we'll come back to soil sampling at Pitfield.

33:18 So a lot of work to be done over the next six months, and we're fully funded to be able to do that. And we we're slowly but surely building the technical team to be able to exercise those those activities. So as a summary and we'll we'll turn it over to questions. But as just as a quick summary and just to recap, you know, we're looking to add scale at Eclipse, and we'll continue to drill out the gold mineralization both along strike and at depth. And we'll continue to seek out these multiple sub parallel vein systems that we've started to to identify.

34:04 Within Jindalbi, the the homeward bound target is is a is a clear start up target for us to go back to now. We'll put that as a priority in our drilling, and we'll continue to look at expanding the targets within Jindalbi, not only to the south towards Bud's Fine, but we also have a large package of of targets to the north of that that particular license area. The recent acquisition of three of these three highly prospective copper gold projects, you know, really does change, we believe, EMPIRE into what would be a very significant explorer now and and, obviously, looking to get into development should we discover, you know, a resource, a load that is is significant.

34:58 So we are shifting our focus away from, you know, our our previous history of looking into copper gold prospects across the Northern Hemisphere. We're focused here in Australia because, you know, the jurisdiction here is is well known. It's highly prospective. Mining is is a you know, the mining rights are clearly defined, and, there's a lot of government support for getting a mining project up and running. So we we believe this is the right jurisdiction. We've got the right projects, and and we're well funded. And I leave the slideshow at that point to Yeah. Sean, if if I could just put in a few summary comments from my perspective, you know, having now, you know, been here, spent some time with with with you and, you know, the local team and seeing a cut you know, two of the of the four projects here. As I said, this is I'm very excited with the prospects here as and and and as you summarized, you know, transitioning into a very significant copper and gold explorer and resource developer in in in in in Australia here. You know, this is a the market has

36:30 has has changed when you see the senior companies like, you know, BHP here, but also Rio and others. You know, they are they are very distinctly looking for exploration projects that have clear evidence of potential for giant mineral systems. And, you you they're the the value that the reason for that is the value that you can create in there, and and we're into a a good bull market here that I think has a lot of legs. And so the the the we feel that the one of the best ways we can create shareholder value, right, is to get into before others others do, areas that have clear potential for giant mineral systems.

37:22 And while we have a more advanced project at Eclipse and Jindalbi, we'll continue to work that and and and develop resources there. So, you you know, we've got Sean here has built an excellent project portfolio from, you know, earlier stage projects, as I say, that demonstrate giant mineral potential through to more advanced projects where we are are clearly getting some high grade gold results and building resources there in the and all four of which these projects are in the respective prolific mineral belts of the world's number one mining jurisdiction. So I I think we're positioned extremely well to go forward in, you know, in this in this market here.

38:14 So thanks again to all shareholders out there, and there'll be a lot more exciting news to come. Thank you, Sean, Neil, Greg. Thank you very much for your presentation today. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the q and a tab just situated on top right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments to review those submitted today. I'd like to remind you a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see, we received a number of questions throughout today's presentation and thank you to all investors for submitting their questions. Could I please ask that you open up the q and a tab, read out the question and give a response rate as appropriate to do so? And I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Yes.

39:00 So I think the process just I'll read out the question and, you know, if, if it's appropriate, I can answer. If not, I'll ask, you know, either Greg or or Neil to to also contribute. And I'll possibly I'll just go back from the the last question heading forward because I think it would possibly be some of the questions we've already answered in the presentation. So the first question we have to, today to answer is, I'll just read this out. Right now right now, has all the drilling rigs and their crews demobbed from Eclipse Jindalbi? And if so, do EMPIRE foresee any risk with remobilizing timely considering high demand in Australia for rigs and crews?

39:49 So, yes, that's that's a that's been a a concern previously of ours about accessing, you know, drilling teams. One of the things we've discovered in the last, you know, few drilling programs is that, having a project 55 kilometers north of a major town of Kalgoorlie, where most of these drilling rigs are based, has actually, meant that we've been able to access rigs, for smaller short term projects, you know, smaller campaigns quite quickly. So we haven't actually had a significant delay of getting a drill rig, in the last six to twelve months onto any of our projects. The, and I don't see that changing in the short term. Most of the drillers, don't even bother to set up a caravan and camp on-site. They just drive back and forth.

40:42 So it it's a real convenient, setup for us to have, such a large exploration drilling, you know, resource, you know, literally on our doorstep at at at the Eclipse Jindalbi project. What generally has been causing, I guess, delays in our reporting has been the backlog of of assays that, you know, comes and goes within the, you know, within the gold industry. And, you know, that largely depends on, you know, how many exploration companies are out there doing very large programs. So it does, it does wax and wane. We have recently just simply been, paying a premium for all of our assays.

41:30 So, generally, when we submit, we we submit it, you know, as a as a fast track turnaround. That being said, it still often takes a couple of weeks, two to three weeks to get the assay results back. So even fast tracking, occasionally, it takes us a few weeks to bring all the data together before we can announce. So I don't I don't see any major challenges or or risks in that particular area. What I and and I will, you know, we will continue to monitor that, particularly in terms of geological resources, in terms of geological expertise, that's that's an area that we have to be mindful of as well, not just the drill rigs.

42:21 Another question to answer. When do you expect the exploration permits to be approved for Staveley and for Walton such that the acquisition of these two assets can be fully completed with Century? The the Staveley acquisition is waiting for ministerial consent, and the ministerial consent, the minister will be waiting for a final sign off with with one of the the first nation groups that have an interest in that particular area of the Victoria. The the license area contains some small patches of Crown land, and those patches of Crown land are subject to a heritage survey. So, basically, we don't have any native title concerns, but what we do need to do is reach an agreement with the with the local aboriginal groups that they are comfortable with with us, particularly where we have overlaps into Crown land that they don't feel the need to go and do a a heritage survey in that particular area.

43:30 So we don't see any particular problem there. We just have to go through a process to get the final agreement signed, and then the ministerial consent will follow. The, Walton project, we're also waiting for a final, access date. There was an objection raised over the the license application, which involved a group that were in adjacent in the area that had a a pipeline easement. And what we need to create there is a is an access arrangement so we can cross the pipeline, and and that's that's currently been drafted. So neither of those two those two expiration permits likely to be held up much longer, and we believe we'll be able to access and start work on those, you know, within the coming months.

44:26 I'll just move on to the next question I can answer. Sorry. I'm having trouble clicking the right button. There's a question about what milestone should we expect in the next three and six months. I guess, you know, the the the sort of workflow that we we we articulated sort of indicates the type of activity we're doing. In terms of milestones, you know, certainly, we anticipate having further drill results to publish for both Jindalbi and ECLIPSE and more information relating to the high grade gold prospects. And we would anticipate having geophysical survey information starting to come through on Pitfield, which will and, you know, we are then present to the market to explain where we think or what we think the geological structures are looking like and where we think the most likely areas we should be targeting for for ultimately for drilling as we as we narrow down the search and start to pinpoint where the most likely, you know, copper port copper targets are at pit field at least.

45:46 So that I think in the next three to six months will be our key focus, particularly, as I said, getting more confidence in the high grade loads that we've now starting to find at Jindalbi. And just quickly there was a question about the Austria project. I think we sort of indicated that that at the moment, that's still basically on hold. It's it's not much work at all happening in Austria for us, so we would anticipate looking to divest those projects. And I know that, Greg, you might wanna comment where we are in in conversation. We've discussed this, I think, on the last call. The problem we've had is is COVID restrictions have have restricted people from actually accessing the site.

46:38 There there are two parties who've had the data room for over twelve months now and, are still interested. But funnily enough, both of those parties are in Australia and as a result, haven't been able to travel to Austria yet. So given the borders have been opening up over the last couple of months, once everyone's backlogs are cleared, we're expecting to, to have one, if not both of those out at site, this year to undertake further due diligence. But, I guess it's important to note the carry costs on those assets are are very, very small. So it's not eating into any of our treasury. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Greg. Next question. Please advise status of the latest ECLIPSE project diamond drilling. It it it is it recently completed and awaiting results assay results when expected to be received?

47:34 Well, we have completed the diamond drilling, at at Eclipse. There was nearly a thousand just under a thousand meters drilled, which in itself takes a considerable period of time. But that's now been completed. The core was then sent for set out for logging. So the idea of the of the diamond in principle was to get a structural geological structural controls around those six six holes. That also has now been completed. The sample has been cut. The core samples have been cut, sampled, and have been submitted for assay. So, I mean, the process does take, unfortunately, a a number of weeks to go with work its way through the system.

48:24 So, yeah, all assays are in or or sorry. All assay samples are in, and we're now waiting for the assay turnaround. So we'll be able to report that as soon as it's available. I'd be be sticking my neck out a bit to say whether that could be done in the next couple of weeks because, like, as we said, we we often find that the assay lab turnaround waxes and wanes depending on, you know, the sheer volume of samples coming through the door. But from my from my recent inquiries, I think we should be able to get those samples through within a couple of weeks. So so we'll get that in and report it as quickly as possible.

49:12 Go to the next question. Sorry. Right. Thanks for the presentation, Or. Could I please ask the panel for their thoughts on various shareholders being yet again concerned about so many open project acquisitions requiring resources to develop whilst not having bought any previous projects to fruition. Many believe the long depressed share price is primarily due to the fact that historically, EEE backslash GEO backslash NOR have not bought or not brought any previous projects to completion point over the last six years. This is not a criticism, but we must have the wider market build confidence in triple e and generate a share price matching our peer company valuations.

50:18 Thank you. But Can you tackle that one, Sean? I'll start at the maybe where we are, but I think we need to I think a lot of that, obviously responds to something that, you know, I hate to say it, but before my time. But I'll start with the with with with my yeah. What what what what my ambition, I guess, my objective having joined and now just coming almost up to twelve months with the company was to, you know, was really here in Australia to establish establish ourselves as a, as as a, you know, a prospective exploration company that had really good assets and the right commodities.

51:06 So not just talking about location, not just saying, oh, we're near Kirghouli, not just saying we're near some, you know, something else, but getting in areas where the where the geology, the structures were were highly prospective, getting areas that, I believe, you know, we had no fear that we're gonna suddenly lose tenure. We had no fears that we were suddenly going to, you know, get bogged down with nothing no no reporting, no ability to move these assets forward. Now, obviously, I can't guarantee on these any of these three new acquisitions that we'll make a discovery. I I no no one can make that that guarantee, but we're going to give it our very best shot. And should we make a discovery?

51:56 That's where we'll add the most value to the to our our shareholder base. You know, there's been multiple new discoveries made in in not in in not far distant, jurisdictions to where we are, and all of those have resulted in in significant uplift in in the valuation of the company, you know, in in in having made that discovery. So I I personally believe here in Australia that our best opportunity to bring value back to the company is to, is to tackle these, you know, these exciting large target areas, bring bring bring the targets in, do the work carefully, make a discovery, and and hopefully, get the appreciation from the market that that, you know, that that reflects that.

52:53 But perhaps I should pass back to to Greg and and Neil to comment on the on the overall strategy over the last few years. No. I I I I support your comments, Sean, very much. You know, the we're in a we're in a business exploration to through to, know, the mining end of the cycle. Right? It's all about, you know, risk reward. And the and the country that you're in and and other, let's just call them, nontechnical risks, right, have a lot to do with the the with your strategy. Now if I read if I read this question correctly, I think there's an implicit match message here that you don't create value until you're actually in production. And and I would disagree there.

53:44 Right? And particularly in this market and particularly in the in the world's number one mining jurisdiction where you do not have the same nontechnical risk as this company, you you know, recently faced. So here in WA, with all those other risks taken care of essentially by the fact that we're here, we can concentrate ourselves on one key risk, which is technical risk in the projects that we select, the ground, and and and our approach to exploring them. This is a market to demonstrate, as I said before, that you that that you have the potential for giant mineral mineral systems, right, and then to go and make, you know, hopefully, some dis discoveries, you know, on them. The the the value creation through the drill bit right now in this market, and there's lots of discoveries or lots of companies out there that are creating enormous shareholder value in exploration right now.

54:48 Yes. You do also create shareholder value once you're in into production, and we recognize that. And that's why we're building a a Sean is building a pipeline here of projects from early stage where where we can create shareholder value, right, through discovery all the way through to creating shareholder value by creating resources at at at at Eclipse and and and through to, hopefully, production as as well. That's how you mitigate risk in this business. But when you're in a when you're in the world's greatest mining disc jurisdiction here, and you can get you can get ahold of of large tracks of ground in prolific belts that that have not seen much exploration, that's where you that's that's where shareholders can do very, very well to create to to see value value creation. So it's a different strategy.

55:47 Every country is not the same strategy, and I'm really glad to be here because there's more than one way to create value for our shareholders, right, than than than there was in in in, for example, Georgia. And and I'm and I'm I'm extremely happy in where we've gotten so far and particularly in in in setting up this this portfolio of of four projects. Of it this way. There's four chances now to to to create value here, right, with less overall risk than than than we have with one project with much more significant risk. So the bar was higher there. Right? We need to work these. We need we're availing ourselves to discovery opportunity. Think of it that way. Right? And and all of these projects, we're in a we're in a jurisdiction that's also relatively cheap to operate in. As as Sean mentioned, we can drive literally to our project and where we're drilling in fifty minutes from Kalgoorlie, one of the great mining centers.

56:49 Right? And and that means a lot. That means that that that shareholders' money is going a lot farther, and and we can work twelve months of the year here with four projects. So there's gonna be a steady stream of news flow coming. I I'm very excited for a number of reasons, and I hope I've I've touched upon a few of them there that that may be illustrated perhaps a bit better. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Neil. I just we're on to our last question. When will when will you be announcing results of the diamond drill program at ECLIPSE? We just touched upon that, but just to to reemphasize, we will yeah. We'll be we'll be fast tracking the assays now that we've got them submitted. We will try and get them through the the the assay facility through the q and a q c process.

57:41 Sometimes we just have to be careful before we we rush anything out. But I would anticipate that we would have assays available and and information out in the market, you know, within the next couple of weeks. That would be my my goal. Okay. I think we've covered the questions, and I think we have we're we're That's perfect. I think you addressed all those questions you can from investors. And, of course, the company will review any questions for today and we'll publish those responses on the investment company platform. But just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company, could I please ask for a few closing comments to wrap up with? From us?

58:29 Yes. If that's possible. I missed that last bit. Oh, well, I look. Firstly, obviously, thanks to the to our to the participants and and particularly our shareholders who've joined us today to, to to participate in the presentation. We we obviously, you know, are very keen and very aware of the concerns. We're keen to keep you informed. We're aware of the concerns that that many of you may have about the direction the company's going. It's it's always difficult when you you start a new a new journey, a new exciting new chapter of the company. It's a a big shift in focus. But over the last, particularly the last six months, I think what we can demonstrate and and starting to demonstrate is that we, you know, we're we're we're looking to add value.

59:21 We, you know, we're willing to take a an educated risk in terms of taking on new assets, evaluating them. If they don't stack up, we won't hold them. And, you know, we'll do the exploration work that we need to do to make decisions about keeping keeping putting your money into the ground, but we but we don't intend to just keep wasting money in terms of of chasing something that isn't gonna add long term value. The three new exploration projects are all greenfields. There's lots to be excited about, lots of potential. You know, we're in the right area, but until we can produce, you know, a very clear target to drill, we're going to wait and we're not gonna suddenly rush drill rigs out there and try and and and get lucky. So it's about doing the hard yards, doing the technical work, derisking, you know, the the projects as we go, and and based on, you know, really well informed target selection, start to put the drill bit as as Neil mentioned, get the drill bits into the ground because that's where the value will come.

1:00:37 So that's, that's my summary. Sean, Neil, Greg, thank you very much for updating investors today. Please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few minutes to complete. I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at EMPIRE METALS LIMITED, we'd to thank you for attending today's presentation. And now it concludes today's session, and good morning to you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.