Empire Metals (AIM:EEE) has announced it will begin pilot-scale metallurgical testwork on bulk ore samples from its Pitfield Titanium Project in Western Australia next month, moving the project a step closer to a pre-feasibility study.
The company, which is advancing Pitfield's integrated processing route toward commercial-grade titanium dioxide products, said the pilot runs will test mineral separation, titanium extraction and refining circuits using existing metallurgical laboratories in Perth, avoiding the construction delays and capital outlay a purpose-built pilot plant would require.
Pitfield's mineral resource estimate stands at 8.16 billion tonnes grading 4.3% TiO2 for 349 million tonnes of contained TiO2, following the June 2026 upgrade that delivered Empire's first Measured Resource category at the project.
The testwork will run in two phases: Strategic Metallurgy's laboratory will handle mineral separation, starting in late November or early December, using a blend of Thomas deposit saprolite material from the 2025 air core drilling programme, feeding crushed ore through comminution, sizing and froth flotation on a continuous basis.
The resulting flotation concentrate will then move to Simulus Group's laboratory in early first quarter 2027 for continuous pilot-scale testing of the acid bake and water leach steps used to recover titanium and produce raw TiO2 pigment, with hydrolysis and calcination run as large-scale batch processes mirroring commercial plant operation.
"The imminent commencement of pilot-scale testwork, the first stage of our piloting programme aimed at validating the recently developed 'Empire Process' flowsheet, represents an important and exciting new chapter in the remarkable story that has been rapidly unfolding at the Pitfield Titanium Project," said Shaun Bunn, managing director.
The raw anatase pigment produced will feed further downstream work, including calcination testwork to convert it to rutile pigment, coating trials for customer evaluation, agglomeration testing for chlorinator or Kroll process feedstock, and supply to the company's molten salt electrolysis research with Murdoch University under the Critical Metals for Critical Industries Cooperative Research Centre.
Empire had already shown that rutile pigment can be produced from Pitfield's anatase-rich weathered ores, a finding announced 24 September that indicated the final pigment's crystal form depends on processing conditions rather than the ore's native titanium minerals.
Alongside the pilot programme, DRA Global is leading a scoping study assessing Pitfield's viability as an integrated mining and processing operation, covering a mining schedule, process plant design based on the Empire Process flowsheet, and capital and operating cost estimates.
Process design and initial engineering work are due to complete before year-end, with the scoping study itself expected in the first quarter of 2027, feeding into the pre-feasibility study that follows.
Bunn said the company remains on track for its process design and engineering scoping work "before year-end, alongside our ASX dual listing, which is also progressing to schedule, with the scoping study to be finalised in Q1 2027."
Empire is also targeting a dual listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in the second half of 2026, led by Canaccord Genuity.