The 90 km² Povlen Project is located approx. 130 km SSW of Belgrade in an area with good infrastructure and is 100% owned by Empire.

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 by the state, principally in the 1970's, when more than 100 copper outcrops and occurrences were found within the licence area.

A large number of copper and other metals anomalies were delineated, however due to a lack of state funding only very limited drilling occurred and no new exploration has been undertaken since.

Early stage reconnaissance sampling by Empire returned the following significant assays:

Sample No

Copper

Cobalt

Zink

Gold

Silver

Sample Description

347

1.65%

343ppm

1.18%

0.02g/t

3.0g/t

Adit dump sample, Rebelj Deposit

348

0.67%

866ppm

0.06%

0.01g/t

3.1g/t

Adit dump sample, Rebelj Deposit

368

10.44%

581ppm

2.31%

0.16g/t

27.7g/t

Adit dump sample, Rebelj Deposit

369

2.19%

208ppm

0.22%

0.53g/t

3.1g/t

Chip composite, Recica Deposit

372

0.45%

17ppm

0.1%

0.65g/t

0.9g/t

Chip composite, Recica Deposit

373

1.87%

55ppm

<0.01%

0.17g/t

2.0g/t

Float composite, Lajkovaca Deposit

374

1.39%

44ppm

<0.01%

0.07g/t

1.0g/t

Chip composite, Novakovaca Deposit

375

0.43%

35ppm

<0.01%

0.04g/t

Trace

Composite on outcrop, Goveda Glava Deposit

376

0.63%

10ppm

0.04%

0.09g/t

Trace

Chip composite, Novakovaca Deposit

Copper is the dominant metal in the sampling and cobalt is anomalous at both the Rebelj and Recica 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, Recica Deposits), massive pyrite-magnetite-chalcopyrite (Novakovaca Deposit), and stockwork/disseminated pyrite-chalcopyrite (Lajkovaca Deposit).

A detailed and full review of state data which is currently underway will assist in defining exploration priorities.

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 project description.

 

The 100% owned Djavolja Varos Project is located approximately 15 km south of Kursumlija township and consists of 96 km2 covering the entire historical Djavolja Varos ore field in the Lece volcanic complex. There are five historical ore fields in the Lece volcanic complex; other licence holders in the complex include Dundee Precious Metals, Ivanhoe Mines, Reservoir Capital and Serbian miner Farmakom.

The Lece volcanic complex has been explored by the state intermittently, and to a limited degree, for some 30 years. Previous exploration included geological mapping of various scales (mostly 1:10,000), geochemistry (soil sampling, stream sediment sampling, hydrogeochemical sampling, heavy mineral concentrates panning), geophysics (resistivity and IP), rock chip and channel sampling, petrological and mineralogical studies, exploration adits, and very limited drilling.

Past exploration work performed by the state at Empire's Djavolja Varos licence successfully identified numerous mineral occurrences and delineated several untested or partially drilled geochemical and geophysical anomalies and a partially drilled lead-zinc-copper deposit. In addition, soil sampling by Rio Tinto in the 2003, delineated a copper-molybdenum anomaly suggesting a possible porphyry copper source that has never been followed-up by drilling.

Empire Mining plans to commence an extensive and detailed compilation and review of the voluminous historical state data, in conjunction with prospecting and sampling of previously reported mineral occurrences.

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 project description.

 

The 100% owned Nevlje Project covers 62 km², and is located approx. 10 km south of Demitrovgrad in southeast Serbia. The project is adjacent to and immediately across the border from Teck Cominco's and Euromax' Trun gold project in Bulgaria.

Historical exploration at Nevlje, limited to surface prospecting, trenching and two short drill holes, has identified porphyry-style disseminated and skarn copper mineralization with assay values up to 1.7% copper in altered volcanic rocks. The area of widespread copper showings at Nevlje is also coincident with a strong magnetic anomaly which is believed to reflect a buried intrusive/skarn body that may be related to the mineralizing intrusive at Trun.

Empire is planning to model the ground magnetic data for follow-up geophysics in order to develop drill targets.

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 project description.

 

The 100% owned Kursumlija Project covers 62 km², located immediately northwest of the Lece mining district and 320 km south of Belgrade in southern Serbia.

The license area contains swarms of copper-bearing veins and zones of disseminated copper mineralization generally related to the margins of northwest-elongated gabbro and diabase bodies and a coincident magnetic anomaly. Limited historical exploration carried out in the 1950's and 1960's by state companies, identified at least forty individual mineralized veins with grades ranging from 0.18 to 9.91% copper across thicknesses of 1 to 3.5 metres. An area of hydrothermally altered gabbro, with associated disseminated copper mineralization, has also been defined over a surface area of 2 km2 near the village of Trebinja. There has been no drilling within the license area.

Empire is planning an initial field program designed to evaluate the known mineralized showings within the license area and prospect for others. The program includes geologic mapping, soil and rock geochemical surveys and possible geophysics to define drill targets.

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 project description.

 

 

Serbia is located in the southeastern Balkan region of Europe.

Serbia formed part of the six member communist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which as a consequence of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, began to disintegrate in 1991 and ultimately culminated in the creation of a new constitution for the Republic of Serbia in 2006 when Montenegro seceded from what remained of the then loose federation of the two republics known as the Federal Republic of Serbia and Montenegro. In February 2008, the autonomous province of Kosovo declared itself independent of Serbia. In October 2008, the majority of UN states backed Serbia in its judicial action again Kosovo, with the aim of determining whether the secession was legal.

Serbia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe, which it presided over in 2007. It is also a potential candidate for membership in the European Union.

Although hampered by war, and, UN sanctions in 1992-95, Serbia's economy has been slowly recovering since the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since 2000, Serbia's democratic government has implemented stabilization measures and embarked on a more aggressive market reform program. A major policy objective in Serbia is to provide a legal framework to attract investment to exploration and mining. Ambitious laws on privatization, foreign investment and concession rights have been implemented or are awaiting final approval. Important amendments to the Mining Law of 1984 were adopted in 2006, however, a comprehensive new Mining Law was drafted with the assistance of the World Bank and is expected to be enacted by parliament in 2009.

Mining in Serbia dates back to the Middle Ages when silver, gold and lead were extracted. There are many mineral deposits and major occurrences distributed throughout the country and today copper along with lead, zinc and bauxite are the main metallic ores mined in Serbia with the majority of the copper production coming from deposits in the Timoc (Bor) District in northeastern Serbia and lead and zinc production coming from the Kopaonik District in south-central Serbia.

The recent increase in commodity prices, the recovering Serbian economy and political stability have led to an increase in mining and in mineral exploration, particularly gold and copper exploration.

Links:
- Serbia (CIA World Factbook)
- Serbian Mining Law
- Ministry of Mining and Energy