ECR Minerals #ECR – Diamond Drilling Programme commences at Creswick

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce that following completion of the Blue Moon drilling campaign, the MIDAS drill rig has now been redeployed and has today commenced drilling at the Creswick Project, Victoria, Australia.

ECR Minerals plc has 100% ownership of the Creswick Project which includes exploration tenements EL006907, EL006713 and EL006184. All licences reside north to north-east of the City of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Company is exploring a number of parallel-gold mineralisation trends that are believed to extend 10km NE from the Nerrina Goldfields at Ballarat.

ECR CEO Andrew Haythorpe commented: “We enter an exciting and potentially game changing phase for our Creswick tenements this week. The exhaustive raft of data compiled, drill core retesting and the multitude of soil and rock sampling results already collected has the entire Board and geo team genuinely excited at the possibility of being able to confirm an extensive gold lode at Creswick.

“The MIDAS drill rig is onsite and our drill team already have the drill bit turning in the ground. I look forward to reporting back to you as soon as we have further news.”        

HIGHLIGHTS

• Drilling scheduled for at least 10 short holes into the Dimocks Main Shale (“DMS”) Slades Reef around and adjacent to the 2019 RC drilling campaign, with further drilling planned subject to progress. Our current hypothesis is that the gold is hosted within a series of east dipping veins.
• Maiden diamond drilling scheduled at the Spring Hill Reef where recent rock chips were taken within the historic adit.
• Sampling work at new tenement EL006713 has yielded over 600 soil samples from the Mills Reef system where anecdotal evidence from historic alluvial gold workings suggest at least 3 parallel sources of gold.
• Sampling is also underway at Bush Inn Road located on the postulated strike of the Mills Reef system, 1km to the south.

Figures related to this announcement can be viewed here:

Figure 1: Overview map:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig1_Overview.png

Figure 2: Proposed Drilling-Brewery Lane:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig2_Brewery_Ln_DD.png

Figure 3: Active Soil Sampling-Mills Reef and Bush Inn Road:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig3_Soil_Sampling_march_2023.png

SLADES REEF DRILLING

An initial diamond drilling programme of at least 10 short holes has been scheduled into the DMS at Slades Reef (see Figure 2 above) adjacent to the site of the 2019 RC drilling campaign. Subject to progress, the drill team may go deeper into this system. Based on previous drilling and the retesting of the 2012 Creswick drill core (see RNS dated October 19 2022 here) the schedule has been planned around our current hypothesis that the gold is hosted within a series of east dipping veins. The MIDAS drill rig is now site and drilling has commenced.

SPRING HILL REEF SAMPLING

The team also plan to test drill the Spring Hill Reef where recent rock chips were taken within the historic adit. This will be the first diamond drilling ever undertaken into this reef system (see Figure 3 above).

Soil sampling work is also being undertaken at new Creswick tenement EL006713. Anecdotal evidence from historic alluvial gold workings suggests at least 3 parallel sources of gold (see Figure 3 above). The work is being undertaken by the team that undertook sampling at ECR’s Lolworth Range tenements in Queensland, and to date over 600 soil samples have been collected at the Mills Reef system. Soil samples are collected using a tight grid spacing system to ensure no traces of the eroded gold from the source are missed. With 297 samples delivered to the lab this week, the plan is to continue submitting around 300 samples each week. A lab turnaround of approximately 3 weeks is expected to result in a steady flow of results over the coming 2 months.

BUSH INN ROAD SAMPLING

Sampling is also continuing at Bush Inn Road, a grid located on a postulated strike of the Mills Reef system, 1km to the south (see Figure 3 above). Historic alluvial workings suggest that sources exist in the heads of these gullies. At least 400 samples will be collected here, and to date half of these samples have been collected ready for bagging and delivery to the lab. We expect to complete sampling work at Bush Inn Road by the end of next week.

A further 80 rock chip samples have been taken from regional prospects within tenement EL006713, and results are expected in 2 weeks.

NEXT STEPS

Naturally our drill team are keen to get back to Creswick, given the exceptional grades in the 2021 drill core retest, the positive soil sampling results from Davey Road (see announcement from January 23 2023 here) and the rock chip sampling results from the original Creswick property at Brewery Lane (see announcement from February 7 here) and Figure 2 above. Given the evidence amassed to date, the Board is of the opinion that in spite of the coarse nature of many of the samples, a gold lode could exist across the regional alluvial workings close to Brewery Lane, further afield along strike of the DMS into the new tenement area and east / north east across Spring Hill Reef and Mills Reef. With a raft of soil sample and rock chip sample results scheduled in the coming weeks, the drill team will ensure the holes are completed as quickly as possible in order that we can confirm our belief that the Creswick lode exists, and with the MIDAS rig still on site, continue with follow-up drilling as dictated by progress and results.

REVIEW OF ANNOUNCEMENT BY QUALIFIED PERSON

This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Technical Director of Exploration at ECR Minerals plc. Adam Jones is a professional geologist and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG). He is a qualified person as that term is defined by the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

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). MGA is currently drilling at the Bailieston Blue Moon Project (EL5433) and undertaking geochemical exploration on the Creswick (EL6148) project and has an experienced exploration team with significant local knowledge in the Victoria Goldfields and wider region.

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 Queensland, Australia.

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), Mercator Gold Australia Pty Limited 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.

ECR holds a 90% interest in the Danglay gold project; an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines, which has a 43-101 compliant resource. ECR also holds a royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina and can potentially receive up to US$2.7 million in aggregate across all licences.