Manica Gold Mine

On January 17, 2022, Empress increased its royalty from 2.25% to 3.375% by paying an additional US$1M under the previously executed Royalty Purchase Agreement (executed April 21, 2021). The Royalty is on gold sales from the Manica project operated by Mutapa Mining & Processing LDA (MMP), up to a total of 95,000 oz of gold. Thereafter, the royalty percentages will be reduced to 1.125% and shall continue into perpetuity. The royalty is secured by a first-ranking security interest in certain assets of MMP.

Manica is located in the Odzi-Mutare-Manica Greenstone Belt of Mozambique and comprises several deposits on Xtract Resources Plc's (“Xtract”) mining concession licence 3990C which includes four main deposits: Fair Bride, Guy Fawkes, Boa Esperanza, and Dots Luck. MMP and Xtract have entered into a collaboration and profit-share arrangement whereby MMP will build, finance and operate a carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant to process ore mined from Xtract's concession.

MMP has advised Empress that it intends to mine and process the oxide and transitional ore at Fair Bride and other deposits on the Concession by installing a processing plant utilising a CIL process capable of processing up to 42,000 tonnes per month. An existing grinding circuit is already in place and MMP is advancing the engineering, fabrication and installation of the CIL plant and preparation work for associated infrastructure.