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ECR Minerals #ECR – Subscription to raise £950,000
ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce that it has raised, subject only to Admission, £950,000 before expenses through a subscription of a total of 287,878,787 new ordinary shares of 0.001 pence each in the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) at a price of 0.33 pence per new Ordinary Share (the “Subscription Price”) (together the “Subscription”).
The Subscription Price represents a discount of approximately 20.5 per cent. to the closing middle market price of 0.415 pence per Ordinary Share on 22 November 2024, being the latest practicable business day prior to the publication of this announcement.
The new Ordinary Shares will be issued using the Directors’ existing share allotment authorities, as approved at the Company’s annual general meeting held on 23 April 2024.
The net proceeds from the Subscription will primarily be used to advance ECR’s projects in Victoria and Queensland during 2025, specifically:
· Concluding the proposed sale of the Company’s tax losses which are held in the Company’s subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (“MGA”) – ECR is currently in exclusive negotiations with a prospective purchaser
· Completing the commercialisation assessment of production at Blue Mountain during the first quarter of 2025 – the independent report from Gekko Systems Pty Limited announced on 8 October 2024 demonstrated a 91.7% gold recovery into 0.40% of the mass
· Preparing Blue Mountain to be capable of production and revenue generation by the end of the first half of the year
· Re-starting the field campaign in Lolworth in the second quarter of 2025, drawing on the Company’s partnership with the Geological Survey of Queensland (“GSQ”) to further investigate the critical minerals potential at the project
· Subject to the forthcoming results from the diamond drilling campaign at Tambo, which are due in the coming weeks, preparing a follow up and potentially more detailed campaign at Tambo
· Further investigations of ECR’s prospective antimony potential at Bailieston where a 32% (best) core sample was reanalysed from historical data
Following completion of the Subscription, ECR will be funded for its planned activities in 2025.
Nick Tulloch, Chairman, said: “Through the Subscription we will be funded for our planned 2025 programme, meaning that whilst we seek to conclude what could be a valuable sale of our tax losses, held in our subsidiary MGA, we can commence detailed preparations for the coming year. A particular highlight is our intention to prepare Blue Mountain to be capable of going into production and our assessment of the commercialisation of that project is already well underway. We are also optimistic about our opportunities at Lolworth where our partnership with the GSQ adds further validity to the potential breadth of that project. Nearer term, the initial drilling results at Tambo announced last week point to what could also be a very promising ongoing campaign there.”
Admission and Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange Plc for the 287,878,787 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM (“Admission”) and it is expected that Admission will become effective on or around 9 December 2024. The 287,878,787 new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares. Upon Admission, ECR’s issued ordinary share capital will comprise 2,191,885,012 Ordinary Shares. Upon Admission, 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 Guidance and Transparency Rules.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
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ECR Minerals Plc |
Tel: +44 (0) 1738 317 693 |
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Nick Tulloch, Chairman Andrew Scott, Director |
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Email: |
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Website: www.ecrminerals.com |
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Allenby Capital Limited |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656 |
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Nominated Adviser Nick Naylor / Alex Brearley / Vivek Bhardwaj |
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Axis Capital Markets Limited |
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 |
Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413500 |
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Broker |
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Nick Emerson
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Brand Communications |
Tel: +44 (0) 7976 431608 |
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Public & Investor Relations |
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Alan Green |
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 Minerals #ECR – Highly Encouraging Test Work Result Reveals 91.7% Gold Recovery From Blue Mountain Ore Sample
ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce highly encouraging results from the enhanced gold recovery process at the Company’s Blue Mountain Project in Queensland (the “Blue Mountain Project”).
HIGHLIGHTS
- Single Stage Gravity Recoverable Gold (“GRG”) test work on ore samples collected at the Blue Mountain Project demonstrated a recovery rate of 91.7% gold.
- These findings suggest that the ore located at the Blue Mountain Project is suitable for gravity concentration using a batch centrifugal concentrator (“BCC”).
- If these results are repeatable across the Blue Mountain Project area, then the Company may have a commercial project suitable for a production plant on site.
Blue Mountain, Queensland
As announced by the Company on 1 August 2024, a trenching and bulk concentrate sampling programme was undertaken at the Blue Mountain Project during July 2024. Following highly encouraging results from sluice box concentrates, with best results including 192.15 g/t Au and 97.40 g/t Au, further samples were submitted to the laboratory to undergo an enhanced gold recovery process to determine the potential commercial options for recovery.
Gekko Systems Pty Limited (“Gekko”) has carried out the GRG test and Sighter Leach test worked on samples of ore collected at the Blue Mountain Project. The results have given the board of directors of ECR (the “Board” or the Directors”) further confidence that the Blue Mountain Project may be a viable commercial gold resource and, if these results are successfully corroborated through further work, a small-scale production plant could potentially be established on site.
It is important to note that, unlike other ECR projects, the Blue Mountain Project is based on an alluvial gold system. Gold is therefore found at or near the surface, meaning that the mining techniques used to extract any minerals are not associated with high capital expenditure that other projects may have, for example, where higher gold grades are located at great depth.
Production at the Blue Mountain Project would most likely be undertaken through gravity concentration of near-surface ore.
The full report provided by Gekko has been published on the ECR Minerals website (www.ecrminerals.com) and the executive summary is set out below:
“This report presents the results for Single Stage Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG) and Sighter Leach testwork carried out by Gekko Systems on sample of Blue Mountain ore. The aim of the testwork program was to determine the Blue Mountain ore’s amenability to gravity concentration and cyanide leaching.
The following conclusions were made from the testwork results:
- The average assayed testwork head grade was 89.95 g/t gold. The average calculated head grade was 91.57 g/t gold. The average calculated head grade is considered a more accurate measure of gold content, as it is based on the largest number of assays.
- Gold distribution in the Single Stage GRG feed (P80 75 um) showed that the +106 µm size fraction contained 80% of the gold but only 6.03% of the mass indicative of the presence of liberated gold in this size fraction.
- The Single Stage GRG test recovered 91.7% of the gold into 0.40% of the mass. The concentrate grade was 22,043.25 g/t Au (2.2% Au). This GRG result indicates the gold in the ore is amenable to gravity concentration by a batch centrifugal concentrator (BCC).
- Sighter Leach Testwork (1,000 ppm NaCN) on the Single Stage GRG tail resulted in a gold recovery of 87.6% after 24 hours and a leach tail grade of 1.63 g/t Au having started off with a calculated leach head grade of 13.14 g/t.
Following a review of the results, the testwork indicates that a gravity recovery circuit and conventional cyanidation is a viable treatment option as a way of recovering the gold from Blue Mountain ore after further testwork and economic evaluation.”
Mike Whitlow, ECR’s Managing Director, said: “These results from the Blue Mountain Project, using a straightforward gravity recovery process, are highly encouraging and have significantly bolstered our confidence in the commercial credentials of the Blue Mountain Project. Although further analysis is still required, the concentrations of gold being found at or around surface level fully validates examining the viability of installing a production plant at the site. Significantly, the results so far have provided ample proof that potentially commercial opportunities still exist in some of the historical goldfields through the application of modern technology. Certainly at Blue Mountain, the indications are that, based on Gekko’s report, we can potentially recover materially higher quantities of gold than those levels achieved by the first prospectors. The Board and ECR’s technical team will now further evaluate these results and determine the next steps for the Blue Mountain Project. I will look forward to providing further updates in due course.”
REVIEW OF ANNOUNCEMENT BY QUALIFIED PERSON
This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Chief Geologist 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.
MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (MAR) DISCLOSURE
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“MAR”), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company’s obligations under Article 17 of MAR.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
| ECR Minerals Plc | Tel: +44 (0) 1738 317 693 | ||
| Nick Tulloch, Chairman
Andrew Scott, Director |
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| Email: | |||
| Website: www.ecrminerals.com | |||
| Allenby Capital Limited | Tel: +44 (0) 3328 5656 | ||
| Nominated Adviser
Nick Naylor / Alex Brearley / Vivek Bhardwaj |
info@allenbycapital.com
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| Axis Capital Markets Limited | Tel: +44 (0) 203 026 0320 | ||
| Broker | |||
| Ben Tadd / Lewis Jones | |||
| SI Capital Ltd | Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413500 | ||
| Broker | |||
| Nick Emerson
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| Brand Communications | Tel: +44 (0) 7976 431608 | ||
| Public & Investor Relations | |||
| Alan Green
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Glossary
| Au: | Gold |
| g/t: | Grammes per Tonne (Metric) |
| km: | Kilometres (Metric) |
| km²: | Kilometre squared (Metric) |
| NaCN: | Sodium Cyanide |
| ppm: | Parts per million (Metric) |
| µm: | Micrometre (Metric) |
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. ECR also holds a royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina.
MGA also has approximately A$75 million of unutilised tax losses incurred during previous operations.