Emperor Metals Resumes Drilling at the Duquesne West Gold Project

Emperor has a strong record of success in evaluating and advancing mining projects from exploration through to production, attracting capital and delivering exceptional shareholder value.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via IBN -- Emperor Metals Inc. (“Emperor”) (CSE: AUOZ, OTCQB: EMAUF, FSE: 9NH) announces the successful mobilization of a drill rig to commence its 2024 exploration program at the Duquesne West Gold Project in Quebec. The 2024 8,000 m drill program is set to commence by mid-May to follow up on the results of Emperor’s initial 2023 drill campaign.

CEO John Florek said: “We are resuming drilling at the Duquesne West Gold Project and continuing our successful 2024. 2023 was a transformative year for the company with the revelation of a significant open pit concept above a high-grade gold deposit. This gives Emperor the ability to add ounces more rapidly on this project due to the capability of adding potentially open pitable mineralization above the high-grade historical resource. Emperor is well funded with approximately $4 million in working capital and will advance the Duquesne West Project towards an updated mineral resource. Gold prices continue to show strength, and we are confident that everything is now in place to give our shareholders the best chance of a successful upside on this project."

2024 Exploration Program

In 2024 Emperor will continue improving the economics of the open-pit environment by expanding ounces in several ways:

• Extending the footprint of the high-grade lenses within and outside the open-pit shells.
• Expand ounces internally and externally to the open-pit shells.
• Defining lower-grade bulk-tonnage incremental ounces in the host rock within the open-pit shell.
• Continue building quality ounces internally and externally.

Leveraging insights from the 2023 results, our advanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) models will guide targeting efforts for the upcoming drill season. The 2024 exploration program will predominantly concentrate on the open pit concept.

Emperor is also sampling near-surface core from the historical core library that was not assayed by previous explorers. Up to 70% of this core has not been assayed within the open-pit conceptual model. 8,000 additional meters of core sampling from the historic core library are planned for this program.

In 2023 Emperor Metals utilized AI to create the first 3D mineralized and geological model, illuminating the potential to add significant ounces to this deposit. Emperor used this model for a very successful 2023 drilling campaign of 8,579 m. In addition to laterally extending high-grade zones by intercepting grades of 15.8 g/t Au over 10.85 m (DQ23-05), Emperor encountered intercepts of lower grade bulk tonnage in the host rocks of 1.69 g/t Au over 25 m (DQ23-02). This led to the envisioning of a different exploration strategy and the revelation that a conceptual open pit potentially overlies this high-grade gold deposit. Historic core sampling began ( +/- 2,500 m) for discovering overlooked lower-grade gold in the host rock around the high-grade lenses. Lower-grade bulk tonnage gold improves the open-pit economics by reducing stripping ratios and adding overlooked incremental ounces for open-pit mining.