Drilling Commences at Blue Moon Prospect, Bailieston, Victoria
Drilling Commences at Blue Moon Prospect, Bailieston, Victoria
ECR Minerals plc
ECR MINERALS plc
(“ECR Minerals”, “ECR” or the “Company”)
Drilling Commences at Blue Moon Prospect, Bailieston, Victoria
ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced at the Blue Moon prospect at Bailieston using the Company’s own ‘MIDAS’ drill rig.
ECR Minerals plc has 100% ownership of the Bailieston Project (EL5433), which contains the gold prospects known as HR3, Cherry Tree, Blue Moon and Black Cat. The projects are operated and drilled by ECR’s Australian wholly owned subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (“MGA”).
ECR CEO Andrew Haythorpe commented: “As I stated in our drill plan announcement on 11 August 2022, the previous Blue Moon campaign in 2019 recorded consistent levels of mineralisation at hole BBM007 of 15m @ 3.81 g/t gold. It was considered then that these numbers could indicate a potentially commercial discovery, although of course this cannot be guaranteed. The four holes we are drilling now will ‘twin’ with the previous RC drill holes up to and west of the point at which the previous RC drill program ended in 2019 and will initially seek to confirm previous consistency and levels of mineralisation. A successful intersection could potentially double the strike extent of the prospect, although we cannot of course guarantee this will take place.”
“I look forward to reporting back as soon as possible with early results from the Blue Moon campaign.”
HIGHLIGHTS
- MIDAS drill rig team commences diamond drilling an initial four holes covering 1000 metres.
- The campaign will follow-up good results from the RC Drilling finished in 2019.
- Plans are already in place to expand the drilling programme subject to results.
An overview plan of the planned drill sites can be found here:
Fig 1: https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2022/fig1_BBM_DD_Planned_2022.png
BLUE MOON PROSPECT AND DRILL PLAN
The Blue Moon prospect is located 8.5km directly south of the currently drilled HR3 prospect. The mineralisation at Blue Moon is hosted within a massive sandstone body striking east to west which differs to the majority of other gold prospects within the region that usually strike north-south. In addition, quartz mineralisation is generally absent, which as a result means that historic prospectors do not appear to have discovered the outcrop. RC drilling in 2019 shows gold mineralisation to be associated with disseminated sulphide, present as arsenopyrite. The eastern end of the known outcrop has been cut by an interpreted cross fault.
As announced on 11 August 2022 (link here to announcement), drilling will be undertaken using ECR’s owned and operated diamond drill rig named ‘MIDAS’. Initial drillholes will be collared within the public track easement as shown in (fig 1 above). From these two locations, drilling will firstly investigate the possible strike extension of the Blue Moon prospect west of and at the point where the RC drill program in 2019 finished. Four initial holes are planned for an approximate total of 1000m, the outcome of which will determine further drilling. If the planned drilling successfully intersects mineralisation, this has potential to double the strike extent of the prospect.
Previous drilling at Blue Moon only covered a small section of the outcrop. The deposit is open at depth and also along strike to the west and east. Permissions from landholders are currently in progress to explore the potential strike further to the east where an interpretative cross fault ends the known current outcrop. Plans are already in place to expand the drilling programme subject to results from the initial four holes.
The style of the Blue Moon mineralisation also raises further questions over other potential opportunities within the region to discover another ‘Blue Moon’. ECR is well positioned in this regard, with adjacent exploration tenements to EL5433, covering similar regional geology awaiting approval.
OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS EXPLORATION WORK
Three diamond drillholes and twelve RC drillholes were completed during the 2018 and 2019 period. This drilling is broadly spaced over a strike length of 110m, and the deepest intercept isn’t more than 175m below surface. The RC drilling campaign during 2019 showed promise on the most westerly drill section where the best results have included 2m @ 17.87 g/t Au from 51m (RC hole BBM007) and 3m @ 3.88 g/t Au from 169m (RC hole BBM006). It is emphasised that both these intercepts are supported within part of a broader zone of lower grade mineralisation such as 15m @ 3.81 g/t Au (BBM007) and 11m @ 2.42 g/t Au (BBM007). As such, these increased widths could be supported by grades of potential economic interest, but it is not guaranteed. Drilling to date has not continued into and across the track easement to the west of the RC Drilling (see fig 1 above).
Results from the 2019 RC drill program can be found in the announcement dated 1 May 2019 “New Gold Discovery-Blue Moon Deposit, Victoria, Australia” here.
REVIEW OF ANNOUNCEMENT BY QUALIFIED PERSON
This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Technical Director of Exploration at ECR Minerals plc. Adam Jones is a professional geologist and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG). He is a qualified person as that term is defined by the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
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ECR Minerals plc |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010 |
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David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman |
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Andrew Haythorpe, CEO |
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Email: info@ecrminerals.com |
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Website: www.ecrminerals.com |
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WH Ireland Ltd |
Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 |
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Nominated Adviser |
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Katy Mitchell / Andrew de Andrade |
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SI Capital Ltd |
Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413500 |
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Broker |
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Nick Emerson |
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Novum Securities Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7399 9425 |
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Broker |
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Jon Belliss |
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BlytheRay |
Tel: +44 (0) 207 138 3204 |
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Public Relations |
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Tim Blythe |
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ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC
ECR Minerals is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (“MGA”) has 100% ownership of the Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central Victoria, Australia, has eight licence applications outstanding including two licence applications lodged in eastern Victoria. (Tambo gold project). MGA is currently drilling at both the Bailieston (EL5433) and Creswick (EL6148) projects and has an experienced exploration team with significant local knowledge in the Victoria Goldfields and wider region.
ECR also owns 100% of an Australian subsidiary LUX Exploration Pty Ltd (“LUX”) which has three licence applications covering 900 km2 covering a relatively unexplored area in Queensland, Australia.
Following the sale of the Avoca, Moormbool and Timor gold projects in Victoria, Australia to Fosterville South Exploration Ltd (TSX-V: FSX) and the subsequent spin-out of the Avoca and Timor projects to Leviathan Gold Ltd (TSX-V: LVX), Mercator Gold Australia Pty Limited has the right to receive up to A$2 million in payments subject to future resource estimation or production from projects sold to Fosterville South Exploration Limited.
ECR holds a 70% interest in the Danglay gold project; an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines, which has a 43-101 compliant resource. ECR also holds a royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina and can potentially receive up to US$2.7 million in aggregate across all licences.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220913006238/en/
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