Renewal of Exploration Permit for Itogon Gold-Silver Project
Renewal of Exploration Permit for Itogon Gold-Silver Project
ECR Minerals plc
ECR MINERALS plc
(“ECR Minerals”, “ECR” or the “Company”)
AIM: ECR
US OTC: MTGDY
RENEWAL OF EXPLORATION PERMIT FOR ITOGON GOLD-SILVER PROJECT
LONDON: 22 NOVEMBER 2013
ECR Minerals plc is pleased to announce that the exploration permit (the “EP”) pertaining to the Itogon gold-silver project in the Philippines held by Cordillera Tiger Gold Resources Inc. (“Cordillera Tiger”) has been renewed for a period of two years from 1 October 2013. ECR has the right to earn a 50% interest in the Itogon project.
Although the EP renewal has been issued dated 1 October 2013, due to Philippine government procedures the renewal was not received by Cordillera Tiger until 21 November 2013.
The EP renewal has been issued subject to the submission by Cordillera Tiger of certain documents to the Philippine Mines & Geosciences Bureau within 15 days of the date the renewal was received. These documents relate primarily to the compliance of Cordillera Tiger with its obligations under the first two year term of the EP from 15 February 2011, and to Cordillera Tiger’s financial capability. Submission of all required documents by Cordillera Tiger will satisfy the only remaining condition for the commencement of ECR’s earn-in to the Itogon project. A further announcement will be made when this has occurred.
Stephen Clayson, Chief Executive Officer of ECR, commented:
“After what has seemed like a long wait I am pleased to report that ECR will shortly be able to commence its earn-in to this very promising gold project in the Philippines.
The renewed EP is valid for two years from 1 October 2013 and is renewable again for up to two further two year terms following the expiry of the present term in 2015.
The renewal of the EP allows work to commence on the ground at Itogon, and we will in due course release details of the activities planned.”
ABOUT ECR
ECR is a mineral development company with, among other interests, the right to earn a 50% interest in the Itogon gold-silver project in the Philippines. The Itogon project is an advanced exploration project located in a gold and copper mining district on the island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines, and benefits from an extensive historical dataset.
ECR has a 100% interest in the Sierra de las Minas gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina, the exploration strategy for which is to delineate multiple high grade, low tonnage deposits suitable for advancement to production on a relatively low capital, near term basis.
ECR holds a substantial minority stake in THEMAC Resources Group Ltd (TSX-V: MAC), which is focused on the development of the Copper Flat copper-molybdenum-gold-silver porphyry project in New Mexico, USA.
ABOUT THE ITOGON PROJECT
ECR’s earn-in rights
ECR has the exclusive right and option to earn a 50% interest in Cordillera Tiger and thereby in the Itogon project by obtaining, for Cordillera Tiger, a mining licence in respect of the project within 5 years of the commencement of the earn-in and by making certain staged payments to Cordillera Tiger’s parent company Tiger International Resources Inc. (“Tiger”).
Under the terms of the earn-in, ECR will fund all expenditure required for Cordillera Tiger to obtain a mining licence, and through Cordillera Tiger, ECR will be the operator of the Itogon project during the earn-in. After a mining licence is obtained ECR and Tiger would fund development of the project pro rata, or the non-funding partner would be diluted.
Stephen Clayson, Chief Executive Office of ECR, has been appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of Cordillera Tiger in order to facilitate operations at the Itogon project following the commencement of the earn-in.
The Itogon exploration target
The exploration target in the Itogon project area is a steeply dipping wide epithermal style gold-silver system. At least five gold and silver bearing quartz veins have been mapped and are indicated to be continuous (especially the main vein) or semi continuous and steeply dipping (near vertical). The five sub parallel vein sets are recognised as occurring within a zone up to 250m wide and up to 600m long.
There is an extensive database of previous work on the deposit, including the results of drilling, metallurgical testwork and surface sampling. The Philippines is a low cost operating environment with skilled labour and mining services readily available.
A technical report on the Itogon project filed by Tiger, dated 28 May 2011 and downloadable from the Canadian securities database SEDAR.com stated an overall resource target for the project “of the order of 0.5 to 1 million ounces of gold”. However, this is a statement of opinion rather than a resource estimate and should be considered highly speculative and subject to the results of future exploration.
A more detailed summary of the attributes of the Itogon project and ECR’s rights in relation thereto is provided in the Company’s announcement dated 29 April 2013.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: |
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ECR Minerals plc Paul Johnson, Non-Executive Chairman Stephen Clayson, Director & Chief Executive Officer |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 |
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Email: info@ecrminerals.com Website: www.ecrminerals.com |
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Daniel Stewart & Company plc David Hart/Antony Legge |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7776 6550 |
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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement may include forward looking statements. Such statements may be subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and therefore actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Any forward looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date hereof (unless stated otherwise) and, except as may be required by applicable laws or regulations (including the AIM Rules for Companies), the Company disclaims any obligation to update or modify such forward looking statements as a result of new information, future events or for any other reason.
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