ECR appoints Head of Australian Operations

ECR Minerals PLC

15 September 2026

 

REACH - non-regulatory announcement*

15 September 2026

ECR MINERALS PLC

("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")

ECR appoints Head of Australian Operations

Mike McRae-Williams joins as Maddens approaches production phase

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mike McRae-Williams as Operations Manager for Australia, a non-Board management role.

Mike joins ECR following its acquisition of Paleogold, where he served as Exploration and Production Director, and brings approximately 35 years of mining industry experience together with extensive knowledge of the projects acquired by ECR through Paleogold.

His appointment comes at a pivotal stage for the Company as Maddens approaches its production phase and ECR increases operational activity across the wider Maddens Flat Group of Mines and its broader Australian portfolio. ECR has a 50% interest in the Maddens Flat Group of Mines.

Mike has worked closely with the Maddens Flat Group of Mines over a number of years and has detailed knowledge of the Maddens Underground Mine, processing infrastructure and operating team. He has previously contributed to upgrades to production and processing operations at Maddens and continues to play an active role in the preparation and optimisation of the processing circuit.

His experience also extends across the wider Maddens Flat Group of Mines, where ECR is evaluating additional opportunities including the Brothers and other historic workings across the project area. The Company expects Mike's combination of processing, metallurgical, underground and alluvial experience to be invaluable as activity increases across the broader Maddens Flat portfolio.

Mike also has detailed knowledge of the Salt Bush Gold Project in South Australia. He has been closely involved in developing the proposed work programme at Salt Bush, which is to include trenching, systematic sampling and metallurgical test work designed to improve understanding of the project as it progresses towards development.  ECR owns 20% of the Salt Bush Gold Project.

Mike holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Melbourne and has extensive experience across project management, metallurgical assessment, process plant design, construction, commissioning and plant operations. During his career he has managed and designed gold processing operations ranging from underground mine treatment plants to large-scale tailings retreatment projects.

Mike also brings extensive alluvial gold experience, which the Company expects to apply across opportunities at the Brothers, Blue Mountain and potentially elsewhere within the Australian portfolio.

ECR Chairman Nick Tulloch commented: "Mike joins ECR at an important moment. As previously announced, Maddens is approaching its production phase and our priority is increasingly about operational execution on the ground.

"Few people know Maddens and the wider Paleogold portfolio as well as Mike. He has worked closely with the project and its processing infrastructure for several years and brings exactly the combination of practical mining, metallurgy and plant experience that we need as activity increases.

"Importantly, his skillset will be invaluable across the wider Maddens Flat Group of Mines, not just at the Maddens Underground Mine. As previously announced, we are already evaluating additional opportunities across the Brothers and the other historic workings, and Mike's knowledge of both hard-rock and alluvial operations gives us considerable flexibility as we seek to advance those projects.

"He also knows Salt Bush extremely well and brings valuable experience that can be applied across Blue Mountain and our other Australian opportunities.

"Mike already knows the projects, the people and the equipment. Bringing him into ECR on a senior management role provides continuity and additional operational leadership at exactly the point when we need it most."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

ECR Minerals Plc			Tel: [phone]
Nick Tulloch, Chairman Andrew Scott, Director			[e-mail]
Website: www.ecrminerals.com
Allenby Capital Limited			Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker Alex Brearley / Nick Naylor / Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance) Kelly Gardiner (Sales and Corporate Broking)			[e-mail]
OAK Securities Joint Broker Jerry Keen / Robert Bell			Tel: [phone]
Axis Capital Markets Limited			Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker
Lewis Jones
SI Capital Ltd			Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker
Nick Emerson
Brand Communications		Tel: [phone]
Public & Investor Relations
Alan Green

ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC

ECR Minerals is a mineral exploration and development company operating through four wholly owned Australian subsidiaries ECR Minerals (Australia) Pty Ltd ("ECR Australia"), ECR Minerals (Queensland) Pty Ltd ("ECR Queensland"), ECR Minerals (Raglan) Pty Ltd ("ECR Raglan") and ECR Minerals (Paleogold) Ltd ("ECR Paleogold").

ECR Paleogold has a 50% interest in the Maddens hard rock mining project in Northern Queensland where work is underway for production this year.  It also has a 20% interest in the Salt Bush shallow open cut mining project in South Australia where preparations are underway for production which is expected to commence around mid-2027.  ECR Paleogold also owns 80% of the Tuckanarra exploration project in Western Australia.

ECR Australia owns the Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central Victoria, Australia as well as the Tambo gold project in eastern Victoria.

ECR Raglan has a mining lease at the Raglan alluvial gold project in central Queensland, Australia and ECR Queensland has two approved exploration permits over the nearby Blue Mountain alluvial gold project.   ECR is currently working to bring the Blue Mountain alluvial gold project into production.  ECR Queensland also has three approved exploration permits covering 946 km² over a relatively unexplored area in Lolworth Range in northern Queensland. Furthermore, it has also submitted a licence application at Kondaparinga which is approximately 120km² in area and located within the Hodgkinson Gold Province, 80km NW of Mareeba, North Queensland.

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), ECR Australia has the right to receive up to A$2 million in payments subject to future resource estimation or production from these projects. 

ECR Australia also has approximately A$77 million of unutilised tax losses incurred during previous operations.

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