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High Purity Anatase Confirmed Within Weathered Cap
High Purity Anatase Confirmed Within Weathered Cap.
About this update from Empire Metals Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nEmpire Metals Limited / LON: EEE / Sector: Natural Resources\n \n22 August 2024\nEmpire Metals Limited\n('Empire' or the 'Company')\n \nHigh Purity Anatase Confirmed Within Weathered Cap at Pitfield\nDefining Pathways to High Value Commercial Products\n \nEmpire Metals Limited (LON: EEE), the AIM-quoted resource exploration and development company, is pleased to provide the following update on the highly significant, titanium dioxide mineral deposit recently discovered at the Pitfield Project in Western Australia ('Pitfield' or the 'Project'). This newly identified deposit is located within the near-surface, strongly weathered \"saprolite\" cap which covers the extent of the giant, 40km long, titanium-rich mineral system at Pitfield, and it is enriched with high-purity anatase which has formed from the weathering of the original titanite-rich, bedded sediments. This finding, confirming that the ore at Pitfield displays very low impurity levels and high TiO2 grades, is the first step towards proving that the material is a suitable feedstock for high value commercial products including chloride TiO2 pigment and titanium metal.\n \nHighlights\n \n· Mineralogical assessment of the strongly weathered sandstones indicates an abundance of high-quality anatase, containing up to 98.5% TiO2 and accounting for more than 5% of the mass of the near-surface weathered bedrock, being 4 to 5 times higher TiO2 concentration than that typically found in mineral sand deposits.\n \n· Anatase, a variant of rutile, is considered a highly valuable mineral and is now emerging as a strategic feedstock for the titanium chloride pigment and titanium metal markets as rutile rich resources decline globally. Importantly, it is the purity and TiO2 content of the feedstock and not the specific TiO2 mineral (rutile vs anatase) in the feedstock that is most important to producing a high value TiO2 pigment or metal product.\n \n· Historically, anatase rich orebodies, such as those reported in Brazil and China, have derived from the weathering of carbonatites (igneous rocks containing >50% carbonate minerals) and these ores tend to have high levels of radionuclides and other undesirable contaminants such as niobium, chromium, and phosphorus, all of which make them ...