Empire raises $5.5m ahead of ASX debut

Burswood-based uranium and copper-gold hopeful Empire Resources Ltd has raised $5.5 million in subscriptions, down from its target of $6 million, ahead of its ASX debut later this week.

The company, which aimed to raise a minimum of $3 million up to a maximum of $6 million, had issued 30 million shares at 20c each through its prospectus, to raise funds for drilling at its mineral tenements in South and Western Australia.

The chairman of Empire is mining industry consultant and geologist Adrian Griffin, with David Sargeant serving as managing director. Mr Sargeant is a former senior geologist with Newmont Pty Ltd, a former senior supervisory geologist with Esso Australia Ltd at the time of the Harbour Lights Gold Mine discovery and development and the first chief geologist at Telfer Gold Mine during exploration, development and production at that project. He has also been a technical director of Western Reefs Ltd.

Consulting geologist Adrian Jessup is also on the board. He was a founding director of Sylvania Resources Ltd and was managing director of Giralia Resources NL for eight years, from the company's inception in 1987.

The full text of a comapny announcement is pasted below

Empire Resources Ltd announced today that it had received $5.5 million in subscriptions for its Offer to subscribe in twenty cent shares in the company.

Managing Director David Sargeant said: "We are delighted with investors' response and now have the capital base to take the company to the next stage."

The Directors believe Empire Resources' program has the potential to add substantial shareholder value. The projects are mature, and professional assessment shows them to have considerable upside.

"We have assembled a portfolio of quality leads and prospects at our tenements in Western and South Australia. All our six sites are drill ready," said Sargeant.

"We are now in position to quickly implement the drilling programs. In February we are scheduled to commence at Pennys Find, our gold-nickel prospect, and at Troy Creek in early March, our copper-gold-platinum prospect.

"The strategy for the next 12 months is twofold - move to confirm possible revenue streams from our existing projects, which may include feasibility studies at Pennys Find, and continue exploration activity at other projects, such as the highly promising Torrens
site, our Olympic Dam style copper-gold-uranium project."

Empire Resources is aiming to develop projects that become 'company makers' for shareholders. The tenement packages cover 1,723 square kilometres, located in a mixture of established and emerging mineral regions. The focus is uranium, copper and
gold, but the portfolio also contains nickel and platinum targets.

The company, subject to ASX approval, is expecting to list and commence trading on February 1 2007 under the ASX symbol of ERL.