Nov 30 2012
Empire Mining Corporation ("Empire") is pleased to report that a high resolution, helicopter-borne magnetic and radiometric geophysical survey has commenced over its Bursa licences in western Turkey to aid regional geological and structural interpretation as well as to identify extensions to previously-identified mineralization and to locate new exploration targets.
The survey will be flown by Fugro Airborne Surveys (Pty) Ltd at 100 metre line spacing and 25 metre ground clearance, terrain permitting. Empire plans to follow up on new targets and extensions generated.
The Bursa licences include the Karapinar copper-porphyry and Demirtepe high-grade copper-gold-silver-moly skarn projects where First Quantum Minerals Ltd. can earn an initial 51% interest by, among other things, completing $8.5 million in exploration expenditures.
A 3,000 metre, ten hole diamond core drilling program is currently underway at Karapinar where drilling by Empire in 2011 intersected a 60 metre zone of chalcocite enrichment grading 0.93% Copper, 0.11 gpt Gold and 0.017% Molybdenum from a hole depth of 79.6 metres to 139.6 metres. The secondary enrichment lies beneath a 48 metre zone of oxide mineralization. The hole was one of the easternmost holes drilled at Karapinar, revealing significant expansion potential. Geological mapping has defined a porphyry footprint at least 1,500 metres x 450 metres at surface and a follow-up IP/Resistivity survey carried-out by Empire located and outlined a strong chargeability anomaly 800 metres x 800 metres across with circular shape partially exposed at surface. The most western flank of the anomaly correlates with the area where drilling intersected the 60 metre zone of chalcocite enrichment, suggestive of a possible extension of leached porphyry east of the existing deposit.
Drilling by Empire at Demirtepe in 2011 encountered significant grades and intervals of copper-gold-silver and molybdenum skarn mineralization in the Main Zone discovery hole which intersected 47.53 metres of 2.02% Copper, 0.96 gpt Gold and 21.64 gpt Silver, including 8 metres of 9.1% Copper, 4.68 gpt Gold and 95.3 gpt Silver. Ongoing sampling has identified the new Southwest Zone approximately one kilometre to the southwest of the Main Zone. The Southwest Zone consists of a continuous copper-gold anomalous zone currently about 1.8 kilometres long and up to 800 metres wide and still open to the southwest.
Empire's Qualified Person, David C. Cliff, BSc (Hons), MIMMM, C Eng, FGS, also Empire's President & CEO, has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
David C. Cliff, President & CEO