Phoenix Copper Ltd. announced that sulphide-rich mineralisation has been intercepted below the Empire copper oxide open pit deposit in the Deep Sulphide core drilling programme. The Empire Mine was historically mined until the early 1940s at head grades of up to 8% copper. The 2021 drilling plan includes 4,500 metres of diamond core in the Deep Sulphide target, 2,300 metres of reverse-circulation drilling at the Navarre Creek gold zone, 3,000 metres of diamond core at the high grade silver-lead Red Star and Horseshoe/White Knob targets, and 3,000 metres of dual-rotary drilling for hydrological characterisation as part of the development of the Empire Mine open pit deposit. The deep sulphide underground Empire Mine was historically mined until the early 1940s at head grades of up to 8% copper. The Mine closed when the workforce was conscripted into military service. The Empire Mine oxide open pit deposit is the weathered surface expression of the underground orebody, and contains a Measured and Indicated resource of 87,543 tonnes of copper, 43,871 tonnes of zinc, 238,406 ounces of gold, and 7.6 million ounces of silver, with an in-situ value of some $1.4 billion at current metal prices. A Plan of Operations for the open pit Mine was submitted to the regulatory authorities in June 2021 for review and final permitting. Initial production of copper and zinc from the open pit Mine is targeted for late 2022.