ECR MINERALS plc
("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")
Salary Sacrifice, Admission of Shares and Total Voting Rights
ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce an extension of the directors' salary sacrifice scheme as well as the issue of new ordinary shares in respect of the existing salary sacrifice scheme.
Salary Sacrifice
In September 2023, four members of the then board of directors, David Tang, Andrew Scott, Adam Jones and Trevor Davenport, agreed to subscribe for new ordinary shares in ECR ("New Ordinary Shares") in lieu of an aggregate of £40,000 salary (£10,000 each), thereby preserving the Company's cash resources. These four then directors subsequently agreed to extend this arrangement on 16 November 2023 by subscribing for a further £40,000 (£10,000 each) of New Ordinary Shares in aggregate.
David Tang, Andrew Scott and Trevor Davenport have now agreed to extend this arrangement for a third time through to 30 June 2024 by subscribing for New Ordinary Shares in lieu of an aggregate of £39,000 salary (£13,000 each) that they would be otherwise due through to that date. Adam Jones has since left the board, although remains with ECR as Chief Geologist, so is no longer included in these arrangements.
These New Ordinary Shares will be issued on or around 30 June 2024, with admission to trading commencing on or around 4 July 2024. The number of the New Ordinary Shares to be issued will be calculated by reference to (i) the price at which an equity fundraising in the Company is carried out in the period of the salary sacrifice or (ii) if there is no fundraising, the price equal to the volume weighted average price of ordinary shares in the Company calculated over the previous 14 days. A further announcement will be made at that time.
Nick Tulloch and Mike Whitlow are already remunerated substantially by the issue of New Ordinary Shares as announced on 18 September 2023.
Issue of New Shares
The Company is pleased to confirm that the new ordinary shares awarded pursuant to the salary sacrifice announced on 16 November 2023 ("New Ordinary Shares") have been issued and allotted. Each of David Tang, Andrew Scott, Trevor Davenport and Adam Jones have received 3,333,333 New Ordinary Shares in lieu of an aggregate of £40,000 salary (a total of 13,333,332 Ordinary Shares). The New Ordinary Shares were issued at a price of 0.3 pence per share in line with the fundraising announced on 14 March 2024 (in accordance the terms of the salary sacrifice)
The total ordinary shares in ECR Minerals currently held by David, Andrew and Trevor, as PDMRs of the Company, are as follows:
Name |
Shares in the Company Issued today |
Total Shares in the Company now held |
Percentage of the Company's issued equity held (after admission of the New Ordinary Shares) |
David Tang |
3,333,333 |
9,047,618 |
0.49% |
Andrew Scott |
3,333,333 |
9,047,618 |
0.49% |
Trevor Davenport |
3,333,333 |
9,047,618 |
0.49% |
Total |
9,999,999 |
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Admission and Disclosure and Transparency Rules
Application has been made for 13,333,332 New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will become effective on or around 24 April 2024. The New Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares. Upon Admission, ECR's issued ordinary share capital will comprise 1,839,753,425 ordinary shares of 0.001p. This number will represent the total voting rights in the Company, and, following admission may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Nick Tulloch, Chairman, said: "Once again, my fellow board members are continuing our ethos of aligning themselves with our shareholders and conserving the Company's cash resources. I would like to express my gratitude for this further vote of confidence in our strategic direction and the opportunities we are creating."
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
ECR Minerals plc |
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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010 |
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Nick Tulloch, Chairman Andrew Scott, Director |
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Email: info@ecrminerals.com |
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Website: www.ecrminerals.com |
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WH Ireland Ltd |
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Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 |
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Nominated Adviser Katy Mitchell / Andrew de Andrade |
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Axis Capital Markets Limited |
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Tel: +44 (0) 203 026 0320 |
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Broker |
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Ben Tadd/Lewis Jones |
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SI Capital Ltd |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413500 |
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Broker |
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Nick Emerson |
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Novum Securities Limited |
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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7399 9425 |
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Broker Jon Belliss |
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Brand Communications |
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Tel: +44 (0) 7976 431608 |
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Public & Investor Relations |
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Alan Green |
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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 six licence applications outstanding which includes one licence application lodged in eastern Victoria (Tambo gold project).
ECR also owns 100% of an Australian subsidiary LUX Exploration Pty Ltd ("LUX") which has three approved exploration permits covering 946 km2 over a relatively unexplored area in Lolworth Range, Queensland, Australia. The Company has also submitted a license 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), MGA 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. MGA also has approximately A$75 million of unutilised tax losses incurred during previous operations.
ECR holds a 90% interest in the Danglay gold project in the Philippines and a royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina which could potentially receive up to US$2.7 million in aggregate across all licences.