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.
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 (“DMS”) 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.
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).
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.
