Galaxy

In November 2023, the Company completed the execution of a gold stream agreement on the Galaxy gold mine in South Africa, owned and operated by Golconda Gold Ltd. (TSXV: GG).

The stream is on gold production from the Galaxy gold mine at 20% of the gold spot price based on 3.5% of gold production for the first 8,000 gold oz and 2% thereafter up to 20,000 oz or 20 years. The stream is registered and secured against the mine and was closed and funded on February 26, 2024. The mine will use Empress' investment to purchase underground equipment and to advance development to maximize mill throughput and drive production ounces higher with commensurate reduction in AISC.

Golconda acquired the Galaxy mine in November 2015. Galaxy is situated 8 km west of the town of Barberton and 45 km west of the provincial capital of Nelspruit in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The property covers 58.6 km² and is part of the prolific Barberton Greenstone Belt.

Galaxy consists of 22 ore bodies, all of which can be accessed via adits at level 17 and level 22. Galaxy is currently mining at the Galaxy Ore Body (a large pipe-shaped ore body) and the Princeton Ore Body (a steeply dipping ore body). Golconda has already upgraded the crushing, float and filtration plants to 50,000 tonnes per month from the original 15,000 tpm plant, which produces a gold concentrate.

Galaxy is currently in Phase 1 of its expansion program, taking production to 15,000 tpm and 1,100 recovered gold ounces per month. The proceeds from the streaming agreement will be used to fund Phase 2, taking production to 48,000 tpm and 2,800 recovered gold ounces per month.