Empire Metals Ltd on Monday it raised £1.3 million via placing new shares in order to advance its exploration plans at the Pitfield copper project in Western Australia.

The AIM-quoted resource exploration and development firm said 55.6 million new shares were placed at a price of 2.25 pence per share.

Shares in Empire Metals were down 10% to 2.25 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

It said the net proceeds would primarily be used to rapidly advance its Pitfield plans, which it said has demonstrated ‘strong potential to be a new giant copper province’.

Specifically, the funds will be used to expand the set of drill-ready targets, which were developed as a result of the geochemical and geophysical programmes now completed at Pitfield.

Empire Metals said it is now fully funded for an expanded maiden drilling campaign at Pitfield to evaluate the economic potential of sediment-hosted stratabound copper targets, as defined by its work completed to date.

‘We are delighted to have successfully raised these new funds and with a high level of support from new and existing shareholders which has been most welcome and gratifying particularly in these current market conditions,’ said Managing Director Shaun Bunn.

‘The technical advances at Pitfield, and our understanding of the geology, has grown rapidly over the past few months. We have successfully completed airborne magnetic and electro-magnetic surveys, soil and rock sampling, geochemical and geological surface mapping, and most recently surface geophysical mapping using DD-IP all of which have confirmed Pitfield’s potential as a giant copper district.

‘As a result, we have many drill-ready targets and we are very excited to commence our maiden reconnaissance drilling programme at Pitfield in the coming weeks.’

Bunn and Finance Director Gregory Kuenzel have each subscribed for 1.1 million placing shares, while Non-Executive Chair Neil O’Brien has subscribed for 444,444 placing shares.

This takes Bunn’s ownership interest to 2.1 million shares or 0.4% of share capital, O’Brien’s interest is slightly less than Bunn’s, while Kuenzel’s interest is now 3.7 million shares or 0.8% of share capital.

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