Strategic Gold Licence Applications – Yilgarn...

Strategic Gold Licence Applications – Yilgarn Region Australia

ECR Minerals plc

2 January 2018

ECR MINERALS plc

(“ECR Minerals”, “ECR” or the “Company”)

Strategic Gold Licence Applications – Yilgarn Region Australia

ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that the Company has submitted nine new exploration licence applications covering a package of ground prospective for gold mineralisation in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia.

The application package is to be called the Windidda gold project and will, when granted, complement ECR’s existing extensive gold exploration portfolio in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Highlights:

• Nine new exploration licence applications have been lodged in Western Australia by ECR’s 100% owned Australian operating vehicle Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, covering 523 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton east of the town of Wiluna;
• The application areas have been identified as a potential greenstone hosted orogenic gold exploration opportunity with significant potential to contain Archaean greenstones buried beneath what it is believed may be shallow cover. Archaean greenstones host many of Western Australia and the world’s most prolific gold deposits;
• Previous exploration within the project area has targeted base metal and manganese deposits within the cover sequences. Gravity and magnetic anomalies interpreted to be hosted in greenstone units beneath the cover have not been targeted;
• ECR’s target areas are expected to be amenable to aircore drilling across gravity-magnetic anomaly targets to enable rapid assessment of potential for gold mineralisation;
• Licence applications cover a significant proportion of an identified gravity-magnetic trend with known gold prospects along trend in outcropping greenstone to the south (not ECR ground);
• The under-cover greenstone gold exploration model has been successfully tested by Greatland Gold (LON:GGP) at its Ernest Giles project located approximately 125 kilometres east of ECR’s Windidda project;
• Further information to follow in respect of the application area and the exploration potential of the Windidda gold project;
• In addition to the Windidda applications, ECR has an extensive pipeline of potential new opportunities, some of which are under due diligence review. Further updates will be provided to the market as and when material developments occur.

Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer of ECR Minerals plc, commented: “I am particularly pleased to announce this strategic move into Western Australia, which, like Victoria, has exceptional gold exploration potential in a first world operating environment.

Greenstone-hosted gold trends in the Western Australian Yilgarn province are very tightly held and access to free ground, when it becomes available, is highly competitive. So it is very encouraging that ECR has managed to compile a large land position of contiguous tenements covering untested gravity-magnetic anomalies representative of potential greenstone-hosted gold trends.

The funds secured by ECR in the strategic financings of July and December 2018 have enabled us to continue engaging aggressively with potential new initiatives, the Windidda project being one.

We are acquiring new ground in Australia at a time when many explorers and developers are financially weakened by market conditions. This, although unfortunate for the wider resource sector, is presenting ECR with multiple highly attractive options, and we intend to take full advantage.

Our work continues at pace and I look forward to updating our shareholders further with additional new developments in the near term.”

COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT

Information disclosed in this announcement has been reviewed by Samuel Garrett, a Competent Person within the meaning of Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code) and for the purposes of the AIM Rules.

Mr Garrett holds a BSc (Hons) in Geology and an MSc in Economic Geology from the University of Tasmania. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and a member of the Society of Economic Geologists (USA).

MARKET ABUSE REGULATIONS (EU) No. 596/2014

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (RIS), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

ECR Minerals plc			Tel: [phone]
David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman
Craig Brown, Director & CEO
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.ecrminerals.com
WH Ireland Ltd			Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser
Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford
SI Capital Ltd			Tel: [phone]
Broker
Nick Emerson

ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC

ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick, Moormbool and Timor gold exploration licences in central Victoria, Australia.

ECR has earned a 25% interest in the Danglay epithermal gold project, an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines. An NI43-101 technical report was completed in respect of the Danglay project in December 2015 and is available for download from ECR’s website.

ECR’s wholly owned Argentine subsidiary Ochre Mining has 100% ownership of the SLM gold project in La Rioja, Argentina. Exploration at SLM has focused on identifying small tonnage mesothermal gold deposits which may be suitable for relatively near-term production.

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