Tag Archives: Quartz Hill prospect

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce the completed soil sampling results from the prospects known as Mills Reef and Kuboid Hill which are within 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: “I am pleased to report further positive results from our Creswick sampling campaign, with multiple gold anomalies now very evident across our Creswick tenement package. The drilling campaign at Creswick will soon be complete, and the Board are keen to see the assay results from the campaign, and also how those results correlate with the soil sampling data.”

“Operationally, we now shift our focus to our Queensland assets. With access to Lolworth, Hurricane and Blue Mountain projects now at an optimum, the time is right to focus our resources there until the wet season recommences in December. Your Board are excited by the range of opportunities and possibilities presented by our Queensland assets, and I look forward to reporting on progress there as soon as possible.”

HIGHLIGHTS

• Complete Results from soils surrounding the Mills Reef Prospect have now been received. Highest result being 3.53 ppm Au (3530 ppb).
• Complete Gold Results have also been received for the prospect known as Kuboid Hill within EL006173. Best result being 2.53 ppm Au (2530 ppb).
• Additional pXRF analysis of soils from the Quartz Hill prospect has also been completed. Arsenic values as a pathfinder have outlined several possible gold shoots. Selected samples are currently being analysed for Gold values at the laboratory.

Plans showing the latest Gold and Arsenic results from soil sampling can be found here:

Figure 1: Overview map of prospects referred to in this announcement:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig1_Locations_230502.png

Figure 2: Final gold results from soil sampling within the Mills Reef area:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig2_Mills Reef_230502.png

Figure 3: Final gold results from soil sampling at the Kuboid Hill prospect:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig3_Kuboid_Hill_230502.png

Figure 4: Plan showing Arsenic soil geochemistry results (gold pathfinder element) for the Quartz Hill prospect (EL006184):

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig4_Quartz_Hill_230502.png

OVERVIEW OF SOIL SAMPLING PROGRAMS

ECR previously announced initial results from a recently completed soil sampling program at several prospects within its Creswick Project tenements (see RNS from April 17 2023 here). The use of LIDAR imagery to locate the extent of historic gold workings throughout the three Creswick exploration tenements (EL006184, EL006713 and EL006907) has assisted our geology team in identifying several likely looking hillslopes that could potentially have shed gold from several possible sources. To date, soil sampling has been completed at the prospects known as Blue Gum, Jackass Gully, Mills Reef and Bush Inn Road. All of these prospects lie along a mineralised corridor hosted known as the Dimocks Main Shale (DMS). Sampling has also been completed on parallel mineralised corridors that lie within the western half of the project area. Prospects here include Kuboid Hill, Greens Lode and Quartz Hill, shown in Figure One above. This is the first time such a detailed exploration campaign has been conducted across these project areas, and our geology team anticipate the net result of the work will be to establish a series of smarter locations for future drill plans.

FINAL GOLD RESULTS FROM SOIL SAMPLING AT MILLS REEF AND KUBOID HILL.

ECR has now received the completed gold analysis for soil sampling at the Mills Reef and Kuboid Hill prospects which lie within tenement EL006713 currently in the early stages of exploration. Previous rock chips from both Mills Reef and Kuboid Hill showed early promise.

Sampling from underground exposures within historic workings at Mills Reef produced results up to 0.25m @ 441.23 g/t Au (see RNS from April 17 2023 here), and in total the field team have collected 407 soil samples across hillslopes surrounding and along strike. The results have identified six gold anomalies within the area (see Figure Two above). It is no surprise to discover that Anomalies 2 and 3 lie within an area of previous historic mining disturbance, with the top of the lode originally discovered during the gold rush era of the 1870’s. The best result of (3.53 ppm Gold) is from the northern extremity of the soil grid marked as ‘Anomaly 1’, where there is no historic mining activity and which the geology team believe may represent the surface expression of another gold shoot near surface. (Shoot is old mining jargon for the payable portion of a lode). Anomaly 6 was identified from previously announced initial sample results, and is the only part of the Mills Reef East lode that contained gold values at surface. Mapping of geological veining associated with the previously announced high grade rock chips from the Mills Reef East Adit show a northerly plunge to this system, and if this trend were projected to the south, the geology team believe it would come to the surface in the vicinity of Anomaly 6.

Kuboid Hill is located on a parallel mineralised system of lodes that lie 5km to the west of Mills Reef. Whilst still an early stage exploration activity, gold results from the soil sampling are very encouraging with at least 48 samples reporting above 100 ppb Au (0.1 ppm). Three patches of anomalous gold have been identified over the sampled strike of 250m (see Figure Three above).

Both Mills Reef and Kuboid Hill have good access tracks that will benefit future exploration programs.

QUARTZ HILL

The field team has been testing along strike at mineralised corridors in the far north of tenement EL006184. Many of the creeks within this region have historically produced large amounts of alluvial gold, including nuggets. A number of the historical alluvial workings head up to a range known as Quartz Hill. There are two historical adits driven under the hill that allow access for future sampling of in-situ quartz veining. Soil sampling along a 500m strike of this hill has been completed, with initial pXRF analysis revealing reasonably high readings for the gold pathfinder element Arsenic (see Figure Four above). These samples have been submitted for further analysis and to identify any gold content.

FUTURE EXPLORATION

The Board has allocated a small budget to complete the final gold analysis for each of these soil programs, and it is hoped that the results will identify additional drill targets for the future. Our sampling results to date already show multiple gold anomalies throughout the whole Creswick tenement package.

Initial groundwork exploration at Creswick will remain an on-going focus throughout 2023, especially regarding other mineralised corridors that are now being identified on the newer tenements EL006713 and EL006907.

The Board has decided that remainder of the year will be primarily focussed on ECR’s North Queensland assets, including the Lolworth, Hurricane and Blue Mountain Projects. Ground conditions and access to these projects is now at its optimum, and as such the Board has decided to take full advantage of the conditions before the onset of the next wet season in December.

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.