LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Empire Metals announced the assay results of the diamond drill programme at the Eclipse Gold Project in Western Australia on Monday.
The AIM-traded firm said the programme - the second it carried out at Eclipse - was designed to gather further geological and structural information on the mineralised shear, and to test for lodes below the gold-depleted zone of weathering.

It said recent drilling confirmed that the gold mineralisation associated with the NW-striking and steeply SW-dipping 'Eclipse' shear zone extended over a strike length of more than 500 metres - an increase of over 300 metres from the previously-reported extent of mineralisation along the shear.

Six diamond drill holes, for a total of 999 metres, were completed, focussed mainly on demonstrating that the gold mineralisation persisted at depth around the Eclipse shaft and Jack's Dream shaft, and to test for continuity along strike between Eclipse and Jack's Dream and to the north-west of Jack's Dream.

Five of the six holes intercepted mineralisation within the Eclipse shear, with significant intercepts including 0.54 metres at 2.61 grams of gold per tonne from 138.72m downhole at ECDD22_002, 0.61 metres at 1.63 grams per tonne from 164.69 metres downhole at ECDD22_003, 0.33 metres at 4.28 grams per tonne from 165.3 metres downhole at ECDD22_003, and 0.41 metres at 2.16 grams per tonne from 78.79 metres downhole at ECDD22_005.

It also highlighted 0.48 metres at 1.64 grams of gold per tonne from 81.09 metres downhole at ECDD22_005, 0.5 metres at 1.78 grams per tonne from 121.15 metres downhole at ECDD22_006, and 0.4 metres at 1.25 grams per tonne from 122.98 metres downhole at ECDD22_006.

The board said it was "noteworthy" that ECDD22_003 and ECDD22_005 had proven the continuity of gold mineralisation to the north-west of the Eclipse shaft, indicating the potential for Jack's Dream mineralisation to link directly to the Eclipse lode.

Additionally, it said ECDD22_006 demonstrated that the mineralisation at Jack's Dream was open to the north-west, with both areas previously under-explored.

The significant intercept at depth in ECDD22_002, which was drilled below the Eclipse shaft demonstrated that the Eclipse lode remained open at depth, the company added.

It said the structural data from all six holes, which was currently under assessment, would provide "important" geological and structural data which would allow Empire to update and improve the geological model at Eclipse.

"We are pleased to report the success of this strategically important diamond drill programme, which has intercepted significant mineralised zones in areas previously under-explored," said managing director Shaun Bunn.

"The geological and structural data being gathered from the analysis of the diamond core will greatly assist in the development of a robust geological model for Eclipse and will allow us to focus our exploration on higher-grade targets along the Eclipse shear.

"We now look forward to moving the focus of our drilling campaigns to the high-grade lodes recently identified at Homeward Bound and extensions to the Eclipse shear, north-west of Jack's Dream."

At 1221 BST, shares in Empire Metals were down 13.85% at 1.4p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.

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