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ECR Minerals #ECR – Progress Update – Gold Nugget Test Programme Creswick Gold Project – Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to provide an update in respect of the Company’s follow on gold nugget test programme at the Company’s Creswick Project in Victoria, Australia. The test programme has been designed by ECR, in conjunction with its advisers.
Readers are also advised to review the Company’s previous announcement dated 8 May 2019 which outlined the presence of a nuggetty gold system at Creswick, and this may be viewed through the following link:
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/ecr_minerals_plc/news/rns/story/wk5e8vw
Highlights:
- ECR’s technical team, in conjunction with advice from tendering laboratories, have devised a structured approach to systematically test zones in and around the 640 sample bags (each close to 30 kg) containing quartz collected from the recent reverse circulation drilling campaign at the Creswick Gold Project;
- An initial trial selection process will utilise a metal detector to prioritise bags with a metallic signal. This is anticipated to expedite the sample selection from the large number of bags to send for full testing;
- Metal detecting is now underway and a number of bags have tested positive for metal content and have been removed from site for “whole-of-bag” testing. A testing process is being finalised with a preferred laboratory;
- Full laboratory analysis will require multiple steps including sieving, detecting, gold particle analysis, gravity concentration and assaying to determine the size distribution and grade of the coarse and fine gold within the sample;
- ECR will communicate the results of the testing process within an initial update expected in the near term and further interim updates as the whole of bag testing process continues.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: “I am extremely pleased with the professionalism of the Company’s technical team in devising the structured approach to bag testing that has been developed. Creswick is a unique project and the assessment of in-situ gold mineralisation requires bespoke project management and technical application.
I am delighted that our first metal detecting of bags has already highlighted metal content, which we expect is reflective of nugget gold mineralisation as samples from depth are unlikely to contain other detectable metals.
Our internal modelling suggests the Dimocks Main Shale is large enough to potentially host a multi-million ounce gold deposit at Creswick and therefore ECR are allocating resources to this project in a prioritised manner whilst continuing to develop our other Australian gold projects in parallel.”
Background:
Within its previous exploration work and as announced by the Company on 8 May 2019 ECR hypothesised an extreme nuggetty distribution of gold based on observations and results, including capturing a small 0.27 g nugget in gravity tests conducted on a single sample bag. This means that gold is not evenly distributed in bags of drilling samples.
The Company previously assayed 2 kg samples from a 30 kg bag which is industry practice but too small a sample for extreme nuggetty distribution. There was a significant likelihood that coarse gold could be excluded from the sample.
This meant that assays samples could be understated for gold and this was demonstrated in one bag test where the assay from a 2 kg sample reported gold of 1.88g/t whereas the 30kg whole of bag sample test showed the bag actually contained a substantially higher 11.8g/t. Alternatively, a single assayed nugget will overstate the average from a 2 kg sample.
Based on the size of the previously recovered 0.27 g nugget, an ideal sample size could be approximately 5,000 kg. A 30 kg bag is 0.6% of this size and not large enough to be considered a representative sample, but a fifteen-fold improvement on 2 kg samples. There remains a high chance the full bag tests will not capture the nuggets. However, the greater number of full bag tests will increase the likelihood of including nuggets.
“Whole-of-bag” testing methodology
Following discussions with its technical team ECR concluded it should move into a process of “whole-of-bag” testing to determine the full extent of the gold within the reverse circulation samples. This is a sizeable exercise. Of the 1687 m drilled, 640 bags of close to 30 kg each contain quartz and these bags plus the surrounding bags will be tested.
In order to achieve the above objectives the Company’s technical team, in association with external consultants including laboratories capable of undertaking the whole of bag sample work, have considered numerous approaches to the testing process. This involved visits by ECR to the laboratories and consideration of various testing pathways and associated record keeping and process validation.
Analysis will test the primary hypothesis that gold is coarse but a program is being designed to additionally check for fine gold within the bags to assess the size distribution of the particles.
After due consideration of all factors and a range of practical tests, the Company is finalising a testing procedure at a suitable laboratory which is likely to follow the steps below:
1. Initial metal detector scanning of bags to prioritise bags to send to the lab for full testing. The Company considers that nuggets large enough to significantly impact the nugget effect will be able to be located with a metal detector. This will save the company the cost of testing all bags. A series of bags with no signal will be collected for analysis of the finer gold fraction, especially if the main set of bags show a significant fine gold component;
2. Secure transfer of bags testing positive for metal content to the laboratory for whole of bag testing;
3. Under laboratory conditions sensitive metal detector scanning of the coarse sieved (>0.85 mm) fraction of the bags is undertaken and the source of the signal removed, examined, logged, photographed and weighed. The entire coarse sample will then be assayed to calculate the total coarse gold from the bag;
4. The fine sieved fraction (<0.85 mm) will be gravity concentrated and this concentrate plus all of tails assayed for gravity recoverable and total gold. Following this step, all of the contents of the original bag would have been assayed;
5. The total gold content for each size fraction of each whole tested bag is calculated.
Initial findings from first batch of bags tested
After establishing the above testing protocol, the Company’s technical team have commenced initial metal detection of the bags as outlined by step one above
During the first phase of metal detection work a number of bags have generated a positive signal from the metal detector. These bags have been secured for transport to the laboratory for whole of bag testing under laboratory conditions.
Further metal detection tests are continuing and additional bags testing positive for metal will be securely transferred to the laboratory for whole of bag examination.
Whilst it is not certain that the tested bags contain gold, or as to what grade of mineralisation exists, and whether this is elevated grade against previous bag assay samples, the Company’s technical team consider the number of bags responding to date is very positive and the Company looks forward to receiving the “whole-of-bag” gold data from the early bags selected for laboratory analysis.
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Dr Rodney Boucher of Linex Pty Ltd. Linex Pty Ltd provides geological services to Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, including the services of Dr Boucher, who has a PhD in geology, is a Member and RPGeo of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Boucher has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr Boucher consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the material based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
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: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 | |
| David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman | ||
| Craig Brown, Director & CEO | ||
| Email:
info@ecrminerals.com |
||
| Website: www.ecrminerals.com | ||
| WH Ireland Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174 | |
| Nominated Adviser | ||
| Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford | ||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500 | |
| 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.
No let up in progress for ECR Minerals, as Q2 2019 delivers relentless growth
No let up in progress for ECR Minerals, as Q2 2019 delivers relentless growth
By Harry Dacres-Dixon
- Drilling to success in Victoria.
- Gravity concentration tests the way forward?
- Australian gold mining – Production Cliff?
- Australian gold – the future.
It’s been a busy two months for precious metals exploration and development company ECR Minerals (AIM:ECR).
The London AIM listed junior mining and exploration company is primarily focused on key projects in the Central Victorian Goldfields and the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. Both areas have a rich history of gold production, with Yilgarn in particular host to some 30% of the world’s known gold reserves.
The past month has seen a string of drilling announcements on the back of developments across a number of the group’s highly prospective Central Victoria projects.
Victoria drilling shows promise
At the end of April 2019, ECR reported significant findings from their reconnaissance low-cost rotary air blast (RAB) drilling programme at their Bailieston Black Cat gold prospect.
Located immediately to the south of the territory where Aussie mining giant Newmont Mining has also applied for a license, ECR completed 485 meters of drilling across 18 shallow holes at Black Cat.
Although the site had no previous history of drilling, the results showed promising intersections and grades. These included 7 metres at 1.76 g/t gold from 35 metres in BCD11, 3 metres at 4.26 g/t gold from 16 metres in BCD18, and 1 metre at 6.3 g/t gold from 18 metres in BCD03.
As well as samples, the results also provided important additional geological information. ECR CEO Craig Brown said he was “delighted with the positive outcomes from the programme”…adding that the drilling results “may help vector further exploration in the project area”
The pace of developments continued into May. On the 1st of the month, ECR provided shareholders with an update from its Bailieston gold project. A complete set of results was provided for the Blue Moon (EL5433) prospect following reverse circulation drilling at the site in February.
The news followed their previously released high-grade assay results from the same site, where ECR notably achieved an intersection of 17.87 g/t gold over two meters.
Data from the latest report significantly expanded the potential at the Blue Moon prospect. These included:
- 2 metres at 1.40 g/t gold within a zone of 14 metres at 0.54 g/t gold in BBM005 from 132 metres;
- 1 metre at 1.94 g/t gold from 138 metres and 5 metres at 0.46 g/t gold from 152 metres in BBM010.
Of the Blue Moon results, Brown made the following statement: “With the knowledge gained from the RC programme we believe that the gold mineralisation intensifies further west and now have a clear action plan to follow the system. We are excited by the findings and will continue our work at Blue Moon and other prospects in the Bailieston project area, with our strategic objective remaining a multi-million ounce gold discovery.”
Just seven days later, ECR announced to the markets that it’s multiple-prospect drilling programme had identified quartz in over one-third of the 1,687 metres drilled across 17 holes at their Creswick project.
This announcement had a marked effect on the stock, propelling ECR’s share price up from year lows of 0.65p on May 7th to a year high of 0.97p by the end of the following day.
Gravity Concentration tests show initial Creswick results understated gold content.
Across the nine assessed holes at Creswick, the mineralisation revealed ranged from 0.6 g/t gold to 44.63 g/t gold (1.44 oz per tonne). These results however were effectively knocked out of the park by a follow-up sample gravity concentration bag test, which showed that the initial assay test had understated the gold content by 84.2%. ECR said that the ‘nuggetty nature’ of the gold mineralisation increases the chance of it being missed in the drilled metre and when samples from the drill holes are sent for assay. As a result, all drilling samples are now undergoing the gravity concentration bag test.
Craig Brown was delighted with the news:“The work we are undertaking at Creswick is highly exciting given the transformational potential this large footprint gold system offers.
He added…”directors believe that the outcome has the potential to be Company transformational and is therefore deserving of our close attention.”
“ECR are now eagerly awaiting the findings from the whole of bag gravity concentration work and will report back to the market as significant developments occur.”
R&D Refund helps to keep prices growing
To round off a highly successful run of results, May 14th saw a further shot in the arm for the investment case as ECR received a Research and Development refund of A$318,971 (approx £171,000) for it’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold. Added to this, ECR are expecting an additional refund around August 2019 for an anticipated A$370,000.
To round off May, the company launched a new website to fully articulate projects, data and results to the global investing community. With the company now firmly in the investor spotlight, ECR stock broke out of a long standing trading range to close at a 3 year high of 1.3p on 3rd June 2019.
Australia Gold Market Production Cliff?
For the global mining investment community, Australia is ranked second in the world thanks to its pro-mining attitude and world-class infrastructure.
Producing 107.3m ounces, it’s annual output for last year came second only to China, and was valued at a staggering $19.2 billion at Australia’s current gold price of $1,820 an ounce.
However, despite expectations of a new record high of 109.6 million ounces this year, concerns have been raised over a possible ‘production cliff’ in the coming years.
Canadian research analyst Chris Galbraith, of S&P Global Market Intelligence, has predicted that Australia’s gold production will be in decline by 2022 as mines grow older.
These claims have been dismissed by Richard Hayes, CEO of Perth Mint, the company responsible for refining the majority of Australian gold.
“Every year I go to conferences where I see people putting up graphs which show a production cliff, where all of a sudden in the next year or two or three, there’s a massive drop off,”
“In the quarter of a century since I’ve been here I certainly haven’t seen any evidence of any of those predictions ever coming true” Mr Hayes said.
“I would be very, very surprised if there’s this production cliff we’re all going to fall off in five years’ time.”
Australian Gold – the future?
Whilst we can’t be sure what the long-term future holds for Australia’s gold mining industry, one thing that looks increasingly likely. Small, ambitious gold exploration companies such as ECR Minerals will play a big part.
New exploration and analysis techniques mean that hitherto unexplored or previously abandoned territories can be explored and revisited. ECR’s recent drilling activities and data analysis has confirmed once and for all to the global investing community that this small cap miner not only has a portfolio capable of delivering big results, but that it is very keen to get the ball rolling too.
With strong management, a clear focus and highly prospective sites in two world-class regions of Australia, if ECR can keep delivering good news and solid results – who knows, maybe… just maybe it’ll be their multi-million-ounce gold discovery that will propel Australia’s gold mining industry to new highs. And for the legions of gold investors around the globe, watching the impact of such a development on their portfolio will be the next best thing to being there on the ground with a pickaxe and panning kit!
References:
ABC News (2019):Australia’s $19b gold industry on edge of ‘production cliff’ as mines run out of gold, analyst warns
Ferret (2019):Australia welcomes top March quarter of gold production in over two decades predicts a positive future for Australian Gold Market amid concerns productions could decline from 2022.
Gold prices dropped slightly this week as the dollar reclaims it’s haven appeal, hitting two year high.
- A new record high of 109.6 million ouncesis expected to be reached this year
- Australian dollar gold price trading near historic highs of about $1,820 an ounce
- Australia’s biggest new gold mine prepares to pour its first gold bar in June – The $621 million Gruyere project in WA’s Great Victoria Desert
Canadian research analyst Chris Galbraith, of S&P Global Market Intelligence,
- Australia second largest producer after China, with 10.7m ounces worth $19.2 billion
- Production set to fall by 40% to 6.3 million ounces over next five years
- He predicts global gold production will be in decline from 2022
Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes
- “”Australia is the second largest producer of gold and has the world’s largest known gold reserves, so I would be very, very surprised if there’s this production cliff we’re all going to fall off in five years’ time.”
ECR Minerals #ECR – Significant Update – Creswick Gold Project Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LSE:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to provide an update in respect of the Company’s exploration programme at the Creswick gold project (the “Project”) in Victoria, Australia.
Highlights:
- The Company has completed 1,687 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 17 holes at the Creswick gold project targeting multiple quartz vein orientations within the Dimocks Main Shale (“DMS”);
- Drilling identified more extensive quartz than anticipated, in a zone exceeding 60m in width (more than twice the 25m width expected) with quartz identified in over one third of the 1,687 metres drilled;
- The majority of drill results have now been received and are being reviewed by the Company’s technical team. Of the 17 holes drilled the Company has identified gold mineralisation in all holes so far with grades in 9 holes ranging from 0.6 g/t gold to 44.63 g/t gold (1.44 oz per tonne);
- Technical review of the drill programme and assay results has confirmed elements of the complex geology at Creswick and confirmed that the gold mineralisation is ‘nuggetty’ in nature;
- Nuggetty gold distribution can lead to understated assays, as the larger the nuggets the less the chance they will be captured in the drilled metre. Compounding the problem is only a small portion of each reverse circulation sample bag is actually tested. Conversely results can be overstated if the nugget happens to be captured in the small sample;
- ECR has therefore commenced a process of gravity concentration tests from whole of bag samples from the reverse circulation drilling and will release results as the more representative whole of sample bag analyses are conducted;
- From a trial sample bag tested from hole CSR011 a nugget has been found in the previously untested portion of the sample and overall the sample has demonstrated gold of 11.8 g/t from whole-of-bag gravity concentration, some 528% greater than the 1.88 g/t assay result;
- Until further extensive whole-of-bag tests have been completed the results of the assays from the drilling program may be unreliable as indicators of true grade at this stage;
- The work undertaken indicates that we believe there is potential for a very substantial gold deposit within the DMS as highlighted previously by the Company’s technical team and ECR is now accelerating the highly important gravity concentration tests as outlined;
- A fuller explanation of the nugget effect and its implications is provided below and further updates will be announced to market as soon as practicable.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: “The work we are undertaking at Creswick is highly exciting given the transformational potential this large footprint gold system offers.
The question we have to answer is how much gold does the DMS hold that would be amenable to a bulk tonnage gold mining operation. We are closing in on the answer and the directors believe that the outcome has the potential to be Company transformational and is therefore deserving of our close attention.
We eagerly await the findings from the whole of bag gravity concentration work and will report back to the market as significant developments occur.”
Background:
Within the Company’s announcement dated 25 September 2018 it was confirmed that exploration mapping undertaken by the Company at the Project had identified a large gold system in the Dimocks Main Shale (“DMS”) gold targets. The announcement can be viewed through the following link:
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/ecr_minerals/news/rns/story/xomoomr
The DMS sits between two large gold producing areas in Victoria, Australia where it is estimated that, historically, 15 million ounces of gold has been produced. It was the proposition of the Company’s technical team that they had identified the hard rock source for a significant portion of the aforementioned 15 million ounces of gold,. although further work was required to validate this proposition.
A visual representation of the DMS and the Company’s mapping, which demonstrates the potential link from the alluvial source with the DMS, is provided through following links to the ECR Minerals website:
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map1.jpg
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map2.jpg
Reverse Circulation Programme:
On 28 January 2019 the Company announced the commencement of a reverse circulation drilling programme targeting multiple quartz vein orientations identified within the DMS.
The majority of drill results have now been received and are being reviewed by the Company’s technical team. Of the 17 holes drilled the Company has identified gold mineralisation in 9 holes so far with grades ranging from 0.6 g/t to 44.63 g/t (1.44 ounces per tonne).
Further information in respect of the drill programme and the complete assay results will be provided in due course when all results have been received and analysed by the Company’s technical team; and alongside other important exploration and investigative work as outlined below.
Gold Nugget Effect – Creswick Project
The gold mineralisation at the Project is reef gold, with alluvial free gold which has eroded from the reef into the surrounding gullies. This means that in our earlier work we identified that a proportion of the in-situ gold has a nuggetty distribution across the DMS.
The drill testing programme was designed to examine this proposition, and the indications thus far demonstrate that the proposition of an extreme nuggetty distribution rather than major, minor or none. This is not unusual in these gold systems and Bendigo and Wattle Gully (Castlemaine) have an extreme nugget effect, whereas other deposits in Victoria and elsewhere are less (Dominy et al. 2004).
The State of Victoria in Australia is renowned for large gold nuggets and in the list of nuggets published by the Geological Survey of Victoria (Dunn, 1912) it is reported there was a 112 oz nugget found in a mine understood to be adjacent to one of the Company’s drill locations at the Project (hole CSR014). In addition, it is reported several nuggets over 100 oz were found in the vicinity of the Company’s drill targets and nuggets up to 625 oz further south in alluvial gullies downstream from the DMS.
The reverse circulation drilling programme has identified gold mineralisation, and the higher grade identified by the whole-of-bag test, indicates the potential for significant grades. With nuggetty gold however, the traditional assay testing can materially understate or overstate the gold in the samples.
The reason for this potential understatement is that nuggetty gold may be missed when samples from the reverse circulation drill holes are sent for assay. This arises from having the gold concentrated in a few large particles reducing the chances of a gold particle being captured in a small sample.
In respect of the Creswick programme typically 1 metre of reverse circulation drilling collected a 30kg sample. From each 30kg sample bag typically 2kg was sent to the assay laboratory, pulverised and subjected to the Leachwell method of analysis.
This means that from each 1 metre sample bag 93% of the contents were not initially tested and any nuggets within that untested portion of the sample would not be represented in the assay data.
The Company could have tested whole-of-bag samples from the beginning of the process, but that would have been a costly exercise prior to drilling completion, analysis of samples and initial assay testing.
With the benefit of the initial field work and sample analysis, together with guidance from the incoming assay results, the Company’s technical team has concluded that testing of the whole contents of each sample bag is required to fully assess the gold content.
After consideration of various methods the Company determined that the entire 30 kg sample in each bag should be subject to a gravity concentration test.
A trial bag has been tested and a 6.4mm 0.27g nugget was found in material from a 22.9kg sample bag. This which equates to 11.8 g/t from hole CSR011. The actual assay result for the 2kg sample from CSR011 was only 1.88 g/t. This reliably demonstrates that for the first bag fully tested by gravity concentration the initial assay test had understated the gold content by 84.2%.
As a result, the Company is now processing further whole-of-bag samples through the gravity concentration testing process.
Whilst there can be no certainty that additional bags tested will contain higher quantities of gold, it is unlikely that the testing will not find a degree of repetition of this type of result recognising what is now known about the DMS geology.
Should however the Company find in the testing process that considerable gold is identified, in nugget form, this may indicate a substantial in-situ gold deposit which may be amenable to a bulk tonnage mining operation.
Further testing is ongoing at present and the Company will be releasing regular updates with regard to this very important work.
REFERENCES
Dominy, S. C., Cuffley, B. W., McCarthy, P. L., Thomas, O. K. & Hill, R. L., 2004. The challenges of evaluating and exploiting gold-quartz reefs in the Central Victorian Goldfield, Australia. The AusIMM New Leaders’ Conference, Ballarat. pp121-141
Dunn, E. J. 1912. List of nuggets found in Victoria. Geological Survey of Victoria. Memoir 12.
Table 1. Tabulated intersections (> 0.5 g/t gold).
| HoleID | Interval (m) | From (m) | To (m) | Grade (g/t gold) | |||||
| CSR006 | 1 | 15 | 16 | 44.63 | |||||
| CSR012 | 1 | 52 | 53 | 2.49 | |||||
| CSR011 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 1.88 | |||||
| CSR002 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 1.43 | |||||
| CSR009 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1.27 | |||||
| CSR010 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 1.21 | |||||
| CSR002 | 1 | 36 | 37 | 1.09 | |||||
| CSR015 | 1 | 38 | 39 | 1.03 | |||||
| CSR005 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 0.95 | |||||
| CSR003 | 1 | 26 | 27 | 0.90 | |||||
| CSR002 | 1 | 69 | 70 | 0.76 | |||||
| CSR002 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 0.64 | |||||
| CSR011 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0.63 | |||||
| CSR012 | 1 | 17 | 18 | 0.61 |
Table 2. Hole details.
| Hole ID | Easting (m) | Northing (m) | Elevation (m) | Zone | Hole depth (m) | Delination | Azimuth | ||||||||
| CSR001 | 759325 | 5854691 | 533 | 54 | 78 | -50 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR002 | 759328 | 5854697 | 533 | 54 | 84 | -70 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR003 | 759355 | 5854688 | 534 | 54 | 97 | -85 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR004 | 759329 | 5854691 | 533 | 54 | 114 | -60 | 280.0 | ||||||||
| CSR005 | 759305 | 5854648 | 535 | 54 | 120 | -50 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR006 | 759316 | 5854651 | 535 | 54 | 133 | -60 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR007 | 759341 | 5854651 | 535 | 54 | 73 | -60 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR008 | 759338 | 5854651 | 535 | 54 | 91 | -85 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR009 | 759301 | 5854580 | 539 | 54 | 60 | -50 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR010 | 759301 | 5854581 | 539 | 54 | 90 | -80 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR011 | 759326 | 5854710 | 531 | 54 | 60 | -50 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR012 | 759328 | 5854710 | 531 | 54 | 91 | -85 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR013 | 759327 | 5854710 | 535 | 54 | 204 | -60 | 281.0 | ||||||||
| CSR014 | 759420 | 5854696 | 539 | 54 | 176 | -60 | 98.5 | ||||||||
| CSR015 | 759354 | 5854824 | 538 | 54 | 78 | -50 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR016 | 759356 | 5854823 | 538 | 54 | 60 | -80 | 278.5 | ||||||||
| CSR017 | 759326 | 5854868 | 540 | 54 | 78 | -60 | 98.5 |
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Dr Rodney Boucher of Linex Pty Ltd. Linex Pty Ltd provides geological services to Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, including the services of Dr Boucher, who has a PhD in geology, is a Member and RPGeo of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Boucher has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr Boucher consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the material based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
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: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 | |
| David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman | ||
| Craig Brown, Director & CEO | ||
|
Email: |
||
|
Website: www.ecrminerals.com |
||
| WH Ireland Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174 | |
| Nominated Adviser | ||
| Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford | ||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500 | |
| 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.
ECR Minerals #ECR – Gold Drilling Update – Creswick & Blue Moon Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce positive progress in the Company’s extensive gold drilling programmes being undertaken at the Creswick and Bailieston Blue Moon projects in the State of Victoria, Australia.
Readers are advised to consult the Company’s previous announcement outlining the proposed drilling programmes as follows:
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/ecr_minerals/news/rns/story/x2q8qzx
Highlights:
- The Company has now completed 1,687 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 17 target holes at the Creswick gold project targeting multiple quartz vein orientations within the Dimocks Main Shale (“DMS”);
- The drilling at Creswick successfully intersected multiple quartz reefs as anticipated, and the Company is now awaiting assay results to determine the extent of gold mineralised shoots in samples;
- In addition, 774 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 6 target holes has been completed at the Blue Moon gold prospect within the Bailieston project area to follow up the significant near surface gold intercept and evidence of a near surface mineralised gold system announced in July 2018;
- Drilling is continuing at the Blue Moon gold prospect targeting extensions of areas where sulphides have been intersected and gold mineralisation has been identified including visible gold in panned reverse circulation samples;
- The Board of the Company is reviewing with its technical team the field findings to date, with a view to further drilling in areas of noted interest;
- A substantial number of samples have now been submitted to the laboratory for testing and the Company is awaiting results;
- A recent significant increase in the volume of samples being processed at the local laboratories, due to the increasing interest in State of Victoria gold exploration, has slowed the processing time from the original one week turnaround to a slower process extending between 2 and 4 weeks depending on the sample process. As many of our samples have already been in the laboratory for some time, we expect the flow of assay results in the coming weeks;
- Further updates to the market will be provided at the earliest opportunity as results are received and findings analysed by our technical team.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: “I am extremely pleased to announce the progress achieved by our technical team at Creswick and Bailieston Blue Moon projects in Australia with a combined 2,461 metres of drilling completed in less than a month.
We have successfully encountered a number of host structures that were anticipated and targeted in our drill programmes, and we have panned gold within some of the drill samples.
The Company’s approach has been to define drill targets based on historical exploration, field mapping and soil gochemistry with an iterative review programme to extend drilling where target geological structures and gold mineralisation therein is encountered.
We await assay data to add to our field observations and will provide further updates to the market when assay information has been received and reviewed by the team.”
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Dr Rodney Boucher of Linex Pty Ltd. Linex Pty Ltd provides geological services to Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, including the services of Dr Boucher, who has a PhD in geology, is a Member and RPGeo of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Boucher has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr Boucher consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the material based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
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: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 | |
| David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman | ||
| Craig Brown, Director & CEO | ||
| Email:
info@ecrminerals.com |
||
| Website: www.ecrminerals.com | ||
| WH Ireland Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174 | |
| Nominated Adviser | ||
| Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford | ||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500 | |
| 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.
ECR Minerals #ECR – New Licence Applications – Australian Gold Portfolio
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR) the precious metals exploration and development company is pleased to announce the Company has submitted new licence applications to augment its existing gold exploration interests in the Victoria region of Australia.
Highlights:
- Four new licence applications in Australia’s Victoria region have now been submitted by ECR’s 100% owned Australian operating vehicle Mercator Gold Australia Pty Limited;
- Three applications have been submitted in the Bailieston/Moormbool gold project area to augment existing licences and secure available ground south and south and south west of an application submitted by Newmont Exploration Pty Limited in recent weeks;
- One application has been submitted to augment ground in the Creswick project area and covers a southern portion of the Dimocks Main Shale (“DMS”);
- As outlined in the Company’s market announcement of 25 September 2018 “The DMS sits between two large gold producing areas where it is estimated historically, 15 million ounces of gold has been produced in Victoria, Australia. It is the proposition of the Company’s technical team that they have identified the hard rock source for a significant portion of the aforementioned 15 million ounces of gold production. Although further work is required to validate this proposition”;
- Further work is being undertaken to add additional licence application ground in Australia where the Company has identified strategic exploration opportunities.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer of ECR Minerals plc commented: “I am delighted to announce today that the Company has successfully submitted four new applications which materially bolster our strategic ground holding and provide significant additional exploration opportunities for our Australian operations.
The recent application submitted by Newmont Exploration Pty Limited over a large area bordering our Bailieston and Moormbool gold projects is an important ratification of our strategic Australian gold positioning. The presence of Newmont adds weight to the potential prospectivity of the area.
ECR’s exploration work at Bailieston has recently demonstrated gold prospectivity as highlighted by the results of our Bailieston sampling programme announced on 28 September 2018 with gold grades up to 67.4g/t.
At Creswick and as announced on 25 September 2018 our exploration mapping revealed a large gold system, and reflecting our wider exploration work to date, we have taken the opportunity to secure more strategic ground south of our existing Creswick project area.
ECR continues to examine new opportunities and will move to secure additional ground where appropriate.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
| ECR Minerals plc | Tel: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 | |
| David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman | ||
| Craig Brown, Director & CEO | ||
|
Email:
|
||
| Website: www.ecrminerals.com | ||
| WH Ireland Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174 | |
| Nominated Adviser | ||
| Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford | ||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500 | |
| Broker | ||
| Nick Emerson |
ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC
ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick, Moormbool and Timor gold exploration licences in central Victoria, 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.
ECR Minerals #ECR – Exploration mapping Reveals Large Gold System at Creswick Project
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR) the precious metals exploration and development company is pleased to confirm that exploration mapping undertaken by the Company at the Creswick Project has identified a large gold system in the Dimocks Main Shale gold targets.
The DMS sits between two large gold producing areas where it is estimated historically, 15 million ounces of gold has been produced in Victoria, Australia. It is the proposition of the Company’s technical team that they have identified the hard rock source for a significant portion of the aforementioned 15 million ounces of gold production. Although further work is required to validate this proposition.
A visual representation of the DMS and the Company’s mapping, which demonstrates the potential link from the alluvial source with the DMS, is provided through following links to the ECR Minerals website:
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map1.jpg
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map2.jpg
The original acquisition of the Creswick project was announced by the Company on 20 April 2018 and readers may wish to review that announcement.
Highlights:
- ECR Minerals holds a 100% interest in the Creswick Project which includes granted Exploration Licence 6184 and an adjacent exploration licence application numbered EL6713 submitted by the Company following the acquisition of the Creswick project in April 2018;
- Exploration mapping undertaken by ECR’s technical team led by Dr Rodney Boucher, who has significant experience in the area, has revealed a potential link between the large alluvial gold system at Ballarat and Creswick with the DMS gold source;
- The DMS system hosts strata-bound auriferous quartz veins hosting the gold mineralisation and has potential for bulk gold mining;
- The DMS is 25 m wide and runs for over 7 km through ECR’s tenements and is estimated to be 15 kilometres in total length, including adjacent tenements;
- The DMS is open at depth resulting in considerable in-situ tonnage that could be included in a bulk mining activity, if it is to be proven to contain economically extractable gold;
- The directors believe the DMS is an important gold source, which has been extensively worked along it’s entire length, as evidenced by ECR’s data suggesting there are 300 reef shafts (mine workings) on the DMS. These shafts, which are still located on the DMS, suggest that there were significant active alluvial workings on site;
- Notwithstanding this visual verification by the Company’s technical team, only two of these shafts are currently recorded in the government database along the DMS. The directors believe that this record is incomplete and that this may be a reason why the region has not attracted recent exploration activities;
- The technical team’s review of field mapping and understanding of the regional sedimentology of alluvial workings demonstrates that the DMS within ECR’s tenements is a potential contributing source to the Creswick/Berry Lead systems (estimated to have produced 2.6 million gold ounces) and a potential contributor to the Eureka Lead in the upper parts of the Ballarat goldfield that (estimated to have produced 11 million ounces of alluvial gold plus an additional 2 million ounces of reef gold);
- ECR Minerals will drill test the DMS to establish the gold endowment within the DMS tonnage identified;
- Rock chip sampling of the DMS is currently underway to supplement exploration data and analysis currently available, prior to commencement of drilling;
- The Directors believe that the DMS provides potential for the Company to identify a rare bulk tonnage gold operation in Victoria, Australia, although at this stage there is no guarantee that such an outcome will be achieved; and
- Further information will follow to outline material developments in the now prioritised Creswick Project exploration programme.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer of ECR Minerals plc, commented: “We are excited by this discovery of a potentially large gold system at Creswick which has been identified by our technical team, led by Dr Rodney Boucher, and is the outcome of many years of detailed study. We are very grateful for the professionalism, experience and commitment that has been applied to reach this point.
The news announced today is in line with our primary objective to make a significant and economic gold deposit discovery. The confirmation of a system which potentially feeds into two established gold producing areas is very exciting for the team; and an area of targeted future exploration.
We will be providing further information in respect of this project, and specifically the drilling programme for the DMS which will be undertaken in due course when preparatory works have been undertaken.
The board’s confidence in the Victoria region and its potential to hold further large gold deposits has been growing with our recent work and today’s announcement provides a significant step up in our confidence level.
Further work is required to substantiate our findings and quantify the extent of gold mineralisation, but without doubt, the Creswick licences are now a key project for the Company.”
Further Information – Dimocks Main Shale Gold Targets
In the view of the Company’s technical team contemporary exploration has continually been drawn to the district due the proximity of the Ballarat and Creswick goldfields and in particular exploration programs within EL6184 have sought the source alluvial gold that was in the Berry Lead system.
It is also the view of the technical team that despite numerous companies having held tenements over the area those companies failed to recognise the significance of the Dimocks Mains Shale and its potential for significant gold mineralisation.
ECR Minerals’ Geologist Rodney Boucher recognised the potential of the Dimocks Main Shale and has been mapping in the region for 15 years for several companies. When a differing company relinquished the ground to the north of North Ballarat’s tenements, Rodney Boucher applied for EL6184 and provided it to ECR Minerals. Subsequently ECR Minerals have applied for EL6713 over recently relinquished ground.
The Dimocks Main Shale provides an opportunity not previously recognised in Victoria. The DMS is 25m wide and hosts strata-bound auriferous quartz veins with potential for bulk mining (refer to Map 1).
The shale has been mapped and shown to run for over 7 km in EL’s 6184 and 6713 (refer to Map 1). The DMS continues 8 km to the south to form one third of the Ballarat goldfield at the locality of Nerrina or Little Bendigo.
Field mapping of alluvial workings (refer to Map 2) shows the potential link between the alluvial workings and their gold sources, in particular the DMS and suggests that the DMS is a major contributing source to the Berry Lead system (estimated to have produced 2.6 million ounces of gold) and a contributor to the Eureka Lead in the upper parts of the Ballarat goldfield (estimated to have produced 11 million ounces of alluvial gold plus an additional 2 million ounces of reef gold).
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Dr Rodney Boucher of Linex Pty Ltd. Linex Pty Ltd provides geological services to Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, including the services of Dr Boucher, who has a PhD in geology, is a Member and RPGeo of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Boucher has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Dr Boucher consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the material based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC
ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick, Moormbool and Timor gold exploration licences in central Victoria, 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.
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: +44 (0)20 7929 1010 | |
| David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman | ||
| Craig Brown, Director & CEO | ||
| Email:
info@ecrminerals.com |
||
| Website: www.ecrminerals.com | ||
| WH Ireland Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174 | |
| Nominated Adviser | ||
| Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford | ||
| Optiva Securities Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)203 137 1902 | |
| Broker | ||
| Graeme Dickson | ||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500 | |
| Broker | ||
| Nick Emerson |
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement may include forward looking statements. Such statements may be subject to numerous 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 because of new information, future events or for any other reason.