ECR Minerals #ECR – Encouraging Results from First Drill Hole of 2022 at Blue Moon, Victoria

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce gold results from the first drillhole for 2022 (BBMDD004) completed at Blue Moon.

ECR Minerals plc has 100% ownership of the Bailieston Project (EL5433), which contains the gold prospects known as HR3, Cherry Tree, Blue Moon and Black Cat. The projects are operated and drilled by ECR’s Australian wholly owned subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (“MGA”).

ECR CEO Andrew Haythorpe commented: “I am pleased to report an encouraging grade from the first Blue Moon drill hole of the 2022 Blue Moon campaign. The programme has been designed to test for mineralised continuity of the Blue Moon gold bearing structure and we’re very encouraged by what we’ve seen so far. As previously stated, the drill site is located west of where the 2019 RC drill programme finished, so a decision on further drilling activity will be made once the results for the remaining holes are in.”

“ECR is entering a busy period as we complete our initial sampling campaign at Lolworth and finalise planning an initial field campaign at the Hurricane project in N Queensland. With soil sample lab results from Creswick also due, I am very much looking forward to reporting results of the next three Blue Moon holes along with our next steps to the market as and when we have them.”

HIGHLIGHTS

• Results from the first diamond drillhole for 2022 are encouraging with 0.5m @ 7.29 g/t Au from 96.9m.
• Drilling continues with three out of a planned four-hole program completed to date with samples awaiting results pending.

Figure 1. Best gold intercept with the BBMDD004 drill core is represented here;

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2022/fig1_Best_Intercept_BBMDD004.png

BBMDD004

BBMDD004 is the first diamond drillhole completed from an initial four-hole programme designed to test for mineralised continuity of the Blue Moon gold bearing structure. The drill site is located west of where the 2019 RC drill programme finished. Hosted within an east-west striking dyke formation, mineralisation at the Blue Moon prospect is characterised by alteration and bleaching of the dyke as seen in figure 1 above. The mineralised fluids responsible for the bleaching are also identified by the increase in the arsenic geochemistry and pyritic sulphidation. Geological logging to date has also identified that gold mineralisation is most evident in the vicinity of millimetre scale swarms of quartz-carbonate veinlets (figure 1). The best intercept in BBMDD004 of 0.5m @ 7.29 g/t Au from 96.9m downhole is associated with such veinlets. All reportable gold intercepts greater than 0.1 g/t Au from hole BBMDD004 are presented in Table 1 below.

NEXT STEPS

Drilling is now complete at three out of the four planned holes. Sampling has also been completed and we anticipate that the next results will be reported before the Christmas period. The drill core looks encouraging with typical bleaching and sulphides present in all holes drilled to date. Accordingly, the Directors have agreed that the final decision to continue with further drilling will be based on the pending drill results.

Table 1. Drill intercepts containing reportable levels of gold in BBMDD004

*Gram metres represents the contained Au metal within the reported length, calculated as interval (m) multiplied by grade (g/t Au)

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.

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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). 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 70% 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