Empire Resources has poured first gold pour from its recently commissioned Penny’s Find gold mine located 50 km northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The doré gold bar was poured at the Lakewood toll milling facility south of Kalgoorlie from a portion of the gravity gold recovered in the processing of Penny’s Find ore.

An additional 9,000 t of Penny’s Find ore already stockpiled at Lakewood is currently being processed.

In addition to Lakewood, to date 16,000 t of ore has also been transported to the Burbanks toll milling facility south of Coolgardie and is currently being processed. A gold pour from this processing is expected this week.

David Sargeant, Empire’s Managing Director, said “The Board thanks our employees, contractors, shareholders and community stakeholders for their continued support in helping achieve Empire’s first gold production and gold pour from Penny’s Find. There has been a huge effort put in by our small team of employees and contractors who have all contributed to this Company milestone.”

At Penny’s Find the company discovered a near surface resource of 314,000 t @ 5.2g/t Au. The proximity of  the deposit to Kalgoorlie, the current gold price and the ability to mine a substantial  portion of the resource by open pit methods enhances the value of this resource.

The gold mineralization at Penny’s Find is associated with quartz veining developed at  the sheared contact between mafic volcanics and sediments. The mineralization occurs  over a strike length of 250 m, averages 8 m thick and has been defined to a depth of  160 m below surface. Limited diamond drilling has shown high grade gold values continue to at least 250m depth with the existing resource being open at depth. A  high proportion of the gold is coarse grained.