Conversion of Loan

Conversion of Loan

ECR Minerals plc

ECR MINERALS plc

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

AIM: ECR

US OTC: MTGDY

CONVERSION OF LOAN

LONDON: 31 MARCH 2016 - ECR Minerals plc announces the issue and allotment of 323,904,939 new ordinary shares of 0.001 pence each in the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) at a price of 0.0215 pence per share pursuant to the conversion of US$100,000 of outstanding principal amount under the Company’s convertible loan facility (the “Facility”) with YA Global Master SPV Ltd (“YA Global”).

Accordingly, the outstanding principal amount will be reduced by US$100,000, leaving a total of US$150,000 in principal amount outstanding under the Facility (not including further amounts expected to be drawn down in accordance with the Company’s announcement dated 11 March 2016).

A further 4,880,755 new Ordinary Shares are to be issued and allotted to YA Global at a price of 0.0215 pence per share in settlement of accrued interest.

Pursuant to this announcement, application has been made for 328,785,694 new Ordinary Shares of the Company to be admitted to trading on AIM. This is expected to occur on 6 April 2016 (“Admission”). Following Admission, it is expected that ECR’s issued ordinary share capital will consist of 8,072,663,855 Ordinary Shares. The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the Ordinary Shares of the Company currently traded on AIM. Following Admission, where will be no further amounts outstanding under the Facility.

ABOUT ECR

ECR is a mineral exploration and development company with the right to earn a 50% interest in the Danglay epithermal gold project in the Philippines. Danglay is 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 subsidiary Ochre Mining has a 100% interest in the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina. Exploration at SLM has focused on identifying small tonnage mesothermal gold deposits which may be suitable for relatively near term production.

ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia (MGA) has agreed to acquire 100% ownership of the Avoca and Bailieston gold projects in Victoria, Australia. Mercator Gold Australia is estimated to have tax losses of approximately AUD 66M as at 30 June 2015, which may be available, subject to certain conditions (as described in ECR’s announcement dated 4 December 2014), to reduce MGA’s future taxable profits. This is considered particularly significant in view of an opportunity which may exist at Avoca to establish relatively near term gold production from the reprocessing of historical mine dumps, with the potential for sale of gravel and sand by-products.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

ECR Minerals plc		Tel: [phone]
William (Bill) Howell, Non-Executive Chairman
Stephen Clayson, Director & CEO
Richard (Dick) Watts, Technical Director
Email: [e-mail] Website: www.ecrminerals.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP		Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser
Emma Earl / Jo Turner
Vicarage Capital Ltd		Tel: [phone]
Broker
Rupert Williams / Jeremy Woodgate
Blytheweigh		Tel: [phone]
Public Relations
Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall

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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