Gold Exploration Commences - Timor Gold Project - Australia

Gold Exploration Commences - Timor Gold Project - Australia

ECR Minerals plc

25 June 2019

ECR MINERALS plc

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

Gold Exploration Commences - Timor Gold Project - Australia

ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of gold exploration activities at the Timor Gold Project (the “Project”) in Victoria, Australia.

The Timor Gold Project is one of five projects held by ECR in the Victorian Goldfields region and has been the subject of a review by the ECR technical team to assess gold prospectivity and to determine the forward exploration approach.

A map of the Project and its location may be viewed through the following link:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2019/06/24/mapecr.jpg

Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: “I am extremely pleased to announce that our review of the Timor Gold Project has now been completed, highlighting multiple gold exploration targets within the project area.

Most of the targets identified to date relate to previously mined areas within the Project and our work will be focused on the areas occupied by the more historically successful gold producing operations.

It is evident that most of the historical gold mines have not been developed fully at depth and that processing challenges stopped production in some cases, including certain remarkably high-grade gold deposits where production grades of up to 217 g/t or 7 oz/t are recorded.

Application of modern mining and processing techniques could open up significant gold production opportunities at Timor and this is our ultimate operational objective for the project.

ECR now has active exploration and development underway at three projects within the Victorian goldfields, including Bailieston, Creswick and Timor, with news expected across all three projects in the coming weeks.

In addition, we expect to complete our internal review of Avoca and Moormbool Projects in the near term, and further information will be provided in this regard in due course.”

Highlights:

• Timor Gold project is located in Victoria Australia and held under exploration licence EL006278;
• Historical records demonstrate that the Maryborough goldfield has produced over 640,000 ounces of gold from hard-rock and alluvial sources, with 220,000 ounces mined from hard-rock operations at an average grade of 14g/t gold; See references below.
• Two major fault zones have been identified on the Project, namely the Shaw-McFarlane Fault Zone (“SMFZ”) and the Leviathan-Mariners Fault Zone (“LMFZ”), which are responsible for the majority of the hard-rock gold production;
• The SMFZ has been shown to have consistently produced high grade gold mines along its length with Shaw’s Reef, McFarlane’s Reef and Havelock Monte Christo having recorded production at average grades ranging from 22g/t gold to 217 g/t gold with certain operations having been impacted by metallurgical challenges; See references below.
• Opportunities exist within the SMFZ to identify and process gold mineralisation at potentially very high grade by applying modern processing techniques to resolve processing challenges that limited production many years ago;
• The LMFZ hosts a large number of variably sized reefs that occur within the fault zone. These reefs are associated with diorite dykes and generally offer larger gold targets, albeit at lower grade compared to the SMFZ and historical mining records demonstrate that mining activities were often to relatively shallow depths;
• Most of the LMFZ is under shallow alluvial cover which produced a considerable amount of gold in the early days of the Maryborough gold rush of the 1850s;
• Both the SMFZ and the LMFZ have potential for modern open cut and underground mining techniques, because of the scale of the deposits present;
• A program of reconnaissance rock dump sampling from the old workings is to be undertaken initially, along the two fault zones, to establish the style of gold mineralization;
• Subject to the findings from the sampling programme this may be followed by a grid-based GPS pXRF survey for antimony and arsenic as pathfinders to gold mineralization where outcrop or shallow cover exists;
• Thereafter a scout Rotary Air Blast (“RAB”) drilling program on the best developed targets may be undertaken;
• Further information to follow as each step of the exploration programme is implemented and the results interpreted.

COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT

This announcement has been reviewed by Neil Motton BAppSc (Hons), MAusIMM (CP), FSEG, a geological consultant to the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd with more than 30 years of professional experience. Mr Motton is a qualified person as that term is defined by the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.

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 Pty Limited has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick, Moormbool and Timor gold exploration licences in central Victoria, Australia and the Windidda Gold Project in the Yilgarn Region, Western 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.

References:

HOWITT, A.M., 1913. The Maryborough goldfield. Geological Survey of Victoria Memoir 11. Department of Mines, Victoria, 76 pp.

Whitelaw, H.S., 1899, Antimony Ores in Victoria. Geological Survey of Victoria Special Report.

ANON., Undated. Leviathan Gold Mines, Maryborough. Map showing Mining Lease areas, locations of shafts, reefs, alluvial leads composite level plans for mines, etc. Plan No 1757/B/1.

ANON, 1888, Lands held under Leases for Gold Mining, Shaw’s & Mariner’s Reef, Maryborough. Register for Mining Registrar for March, 1888.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190625005530/en/