ECR Minerals plc Progress Update - Creswick Gold Project Australia

 
TIDMECR 
 
 

ECR MINERALS plc

("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")

Progress Update - Creswick Gold Project Australia

ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce a progress update from the testing of reverse circulation ("RC") drilling sample bags taken from the Creswick gold project (the "Project") in Victoria, Australia.

As announced on 11 June 2019 and 8 May 2019 ECR are conducting whole of bag testing in order to increase the sample size to gain more representative results than from the original 2 kg assays.

Images of recovered gold referenced in this announcement may be viewed through the following link:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2019/08/22/gec_au_photos.jpg

Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: "I am pleased to update shareholders with our progress in respect of the Creswick gold project.

Establishing the testing process was technically complex and, with the extremely poor winter weather in Victoria, took us longer than anticipated.

The good news is we are up and running with an established process and test results starting to flow into the company. It is positive to see results so far that overall demonstrate increased gold in the samples. These are the early results however and a significant amount of further information is required before conclusions can be drawn.

The results so far have demonstrated significant variability from the original assays, demonstrating that the small sample size can overstate and understate results. Notably the original 44.63 g/t assay from the 2 kg sample from CSR006 (15-16 m) is increased to 63.03 g/t.

Of particular importance is that we use the data gathered from our work generally, and the test results themselves, to understand the geological structures involved and the distribution of gold mineralisation.

In this regard I would like to welcome Dr Simon Dominy FGS(CGeol) FAusIMM(CPGeo) as a consultant to the Company. Simon has extensive relevant experience evaluating high-nugget effect gold deposits and will help assess our results and guide our future work programmes.

With our testing system now established and running further announcements are expected in the near future."

HIGHLIGHTS:

Update on Bag Testing and Gold Recovery

 
 
    -- In June 2019 the Company the confirmed it was evaluating methodologies to conduct full-bag testing of RC samples from Creswick; 
 
 
    -- Under the guidance of Resource Geologist, Keith Whitehouse, ECR staff and contractors constructed a laboratory for gravity and electrostatic concentration of gold, referred to as GEC; 
 
 
    -- GEC uses the dual processes of gravity and chargeability and is capable of removing coarse, fine and ultrafine particles of gold from the RC samples and is similar to commercially available electrostatic drywashers; 
 
 
    -- The process of retrieving samples, setting up the lab and processing the samples has been significantly slowed by the winter weather at Creswick, however testing is now moving forward and generating results which we can incorporate into a project model to understand the geology and gold mineralisation at Creswick; 
 
 
    -- Samples put through the GEC are logged, dried, sieved, weighed and a shroud is wrapped around the GEC to ensure no fine material is lost. The entire process adds some time to the testing period for each bag, but is essential for reliable data collection. Separate assaying of the processed sample by an independent laboratory takes additional time; 
 
 
    -- The process using the GEC separates the sample into four fractions: 
 
 
    -- Coarse oversize material (>3mm) is sieved, metal detected and assayed separately 
 
    -- Concentrate off the GEC is assayed separately 
 
    -- Tails from the GEC are stored separately. When concentrate or oversize assays are high, the tails are assayed as well. (The tails are captured in a bucket below the GEC and because the GEC is a dry process, a considerable amount of dust is generated.) 
 
    -- Tails Dust: The entire system is enclosed and the tails dust is captured separately and selectively assayed with the remaining tails sample. 
 
 
    -- Gold recovered from the process is logged and weighed to contribute to the total gold recovered from each bag tested; 
 
 
    -- The GEC has effectively captured small particles of gold as fine as 0.07 mm (refer to image link above); 
 
 
    -- The first batches of concentrate and oversize material has been tested at Gekko Laboratories in Ballarat and the tails and tails dust have been subsequently tested with full results available from the first 17 samples (Table 1); 
 
 
    -- The results from samples tested so far are from the quartz zones around the higher grade results from CSR006 and CSR012 and a single bag from CSR010. Key findings are: 
 
 
    -- The CSR006 sample from 15-16 m has been upgraded from 44.63 g/t to 63.03 g/t (6% of the gold in this sample was in the tails dust and over 50% in the tails overall indicating there is a significant component of very fine gold with the nuggets) 
 
 
    -- Upgrades in most bags processed with downgrades in 3 bags (Table 1); 
 
 
    -- Microscopic examination of the recovered coarse gold shows gold particles commonly up to 2 mm and this gold is both flat/leafy and ropey (refer to image link above). 
 
    -- Nuggets recovered by prospecting nearby dumps are a lattice network of ropey gold (refer to image link above) and such a nugget may break down to smaller fragments like those seen in CSR006 following hammering during drilling; 
 
    -- The testing process remains underway and further results will be provided in due course; 
 
    -- Fundamentally the Company is seeking to understand the particle size distribution/nugget effect and which geological structures/veins preferably host gold to enable follow on work programmes to be devised with a view to ultimately ascertaining the potential for commercial production. 
 

Appointment of Dr Simon Dominy

 
 
    -- To assist with the Company's Project review ECR has engaged Dr Simon Dominy, a mining geologist-geometallurgist with over 25 years' experience to evaluate the results, review the sampling process and guide future exploration & project development work; 
 
    -- Dr Dominy is a Principal Advisor and Qualified Person to Novo Resources Corp. providing technical input across sampling and resource development activities for the Karratha and Beaton's Creek conglomerate, and Egina alluvial gold projects in the Pilbara of Western Australia; 
 
    -- He has worked extensively in nuggety gold projects throughout central Victoria and Australia as well as goldfields across Europe, South America and Greenland. 
 
HoleID  From(m) To(m) Interval (m) Original 2 kg Full-bag test (g/t) 
                                   assay (g/t) 
CSR006  13      14    1            x             X 
CSR006  14      15    1            0.12          0.11 
CSR006  15      16    1            44.63         63.03 
CSR006  16      17    1            0.11          0.17 
CSR006  17      18    1            0.15          0.18 
CSR006  18      19    1            0.06          0.30 
CSR006  20      21    1            x             0.12 
CSR006  21      22    1            x             0.01 
CSR006  22      23    1            0.39          1.38 
CSR006  23      24    1            x             0.00 
CSR010  85      86    1            0.27          1.32 
CSR012  49      50    1            x             0.01 
CSR012  50      51    1            x             0.01 
CSR012  51      52    1            x             0.00 
CSR012  52      53    1            2.49          2.28 
CSR012  53      54    1            0.28          0.24 
CSR012  54      55    1            x             0.03 
 
 

Table 1. Full-bag test results and comparison to the original 2 kg Leachwell assays (x = below detection).

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: [phone] 
David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman 
Craig Brown, Director & CEO 
Email: 
[e-mail] 
Website: www.ecrminerals.com 
WH Ireland Ltd                       Tel: [phone] 
Nominated Adviser 
Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford 
SI Capital Ltd                       Tel: [phone] 
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.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2019 05:33 ET (09:33 GMT)