LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Empire Metals announced the expansion of its in-house project development team on Wednesday, as well as the start of large-scale metallurgical testing at its Pitfield Titanium Project in Western Australia, marking a key step in advancing the project toward feasibility and commercial development.
The AIM-traded company appointed Alan Rubio as study manager and Pocholo Aviso as hydro-metallurgist, with both set to play pivotal roles in evaluating mining scenarios, process flowsheets, and product strategies.

It said Rubio would bring over 28 years of experience in project assessment and economic studies, while Aviso was joining with a background in the titanium dioxide pigment industry, including roles at Tronox and BHP.

Empire said it had also partnered with Perth-based consultancy Strategic Metallurgy to oversee the testwork programme and support the transition from bench-scale to pilot-scale testing.

The collaboration was expected to accelerate technical assessments and strengthen flowsheet development.

Bulk-scale metallurgical testing had now started using material from the February drilling campaign.

The programme included ore scrubbing, desliming, and gravity separation, with flotation testing underway on finer fractions.

Empire said the aim was to produce sufficient mineral concentrates for beneficiation testing and to deliver bulk samples to potential end users for the first time.

"I am delighted to welcome Alan and Pocholo to our team," said managing director Shaun Bunn.

"Their technical expertise will be invaluable as we move toward defining the economic potential and product strategy for Pitfield.

"We are also very pleased to be working with Strategic Metallurgy, whose reputation and experience in process development will significantly strengthen our metallurgical programme."

The testwork would assess various process equipment types and flow paths, producing critical data to inform a commercial processing strategy for Pitfield, which Empire was positioning as a long-life titanium development in a top-tier mining jurisdiction.

At 1335 BST, shares in Empire Metals were up 5.63% at 30.37p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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