VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 28, 2011) - Empire Mining Corporation (News - Market indicators) ("Empire") is pleased to announce that it has acquired an exploration licence over a series of partially-explored copper-cobalt-zinc deposits in an historical VMS district in Serbia. The 90 km2 Povlen Project licence lies some 130 km SSW of Belgrade in an area with good infrastructure.
The licence covers several copper deposits and numerous occurrences and prospects along approx. the principal two-thirds of a 30 km northwest-southeast trend hosted by a Jurassic chert-diabase formation. The licence area has a long history of mining activity dating from Roman and Medieval times to the early-mid twentieth century. Detailed exploration was carried out on the licence area by the state, principally in the 1970's, when more than 100 copper outcrops and occurrences were found and explored by geochemistry and very limited drilling. A large number of copper and other metals anomalies were delineated, however due to a lack of state funding, no new exploration has been undertaken since.
Early stage reconnaissance sampling by Empire returned the following significant assays:
Copper is the dominant metal in the sampling and cobalt is anomalous at both the Rebelj and Rečica Deposits. While it is too early to draw any conclusions from the geochemistry, the copper-cobalt-zinc association is characteristic of some ophiolite-hosted deposits like the well-known Outokumpu orebodies in Finland, which display compositional variations.
Mineralisation types described by Serbian geologists include: massive pyrite-chalcopyrite (Rebelj, Rečica Deposits), massive pyrite-magnetite-chalcopyrite (Novakovača Deposit), and stockwork/disseminated pyrite-chalcopyrite (Lajkovača Deposit).
Maps and additional information is available at the following link:
http://www.empireminingcorp.com/i/nr/2011-02-28-maps.pdf
A detailed and full review of state data which is currently underway will assist in defining exploration priorities.
QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL
All samples were collected, bagged and tagged on site and dispatched to the ISO 17025 accredited Stewart Laboratory in Ireland. Blanks and standard reference materials were inserted in the batch.
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 Cliff, President & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
