ECR Minerals PLC (AIM:ECR) Encouraging Gold Results from Lolworth Project

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce the results from outcrop mapping and sampling within the vicinity of the Upper Gorge Creek at the Lolworth Project, North Queensland, Australia.

The Lolworth Project is located approximately 120km west of the historic gold mining centre of Charters Towers, North Queensland, Australia. The project consists of three exploration tenements (EPM27901, EPM27902 and EPM27903) which are operated by LUX Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ECR (“LUX”). LUX has identified numerous Gold, Niobium and REE anomalies within the project.

HIGHLIGHTS

·      Mapping and sampling results from recent on-site geological investigations in the Upper Gorge Creek show the presence of gold.

·      A number of exposed outcrops up to 3m wide x 20m long in the Gorge Creek West ridgeline show gold results up to 13.75 g/t Au from initial rock chip testing. Results from soil grid work over the ridgeline to test for other gold bearing sub-crops in the vicinity are also due shortly.

·      A rhyolitic dyke 5m wide x 200m long that contains anomalous gold has been discovered in the Gorge Creek East area. Rock chips collected over the extent of the outcrop average 0.25 g/t Au, with one best result of 8.02 g/t Au. Whilst the results are still at an early stage, the Board are greatly encouraged by these findings and the Directors believe these gold sources within the rocks could form part of a larger system within the tenement.

ECR Technical Director Adam Jones commented: “Following on from the Reedy Creek, Gorge Creek and Woolshed Creek results announced on 25 September 2023, today’s results from Gorge Creek provides further evidence that Lolworth is becoming a bona fide exploration opportunity. Our best result of 128 ppm Gold announced in September 2023 is backed up by a number of additional high-grade samples taken within the surrounding area. We still have further data to collect, but we are now entering this information and historical data into our area plan so we can start to accurately map out drill targets.”

Figure One: Plan locations of reportable rock chips: https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig1_Gorge-Ck-Rockchips.png

ROCKCHIP RESULTS

A number of rock chips were taken from the Upper Gorge Creek area during recent field mapping in during August 2023. The locations are shown in Figure One linked above.

The recent heavy concentrate pan sampling programme has helped us to confirm that the streams within the Upper Gorge Creek Western area are highly anomalous in gold, added to which the field team have also discovered numerous gold nuggets within these drainages. Recent geological mapping during August this year led to the discovery of numerous silica outcrops within the ridgeline above these gold bearing streams. The Company has now received the results from rock chipping at these outcrops with best results of 13.75 g/t Au, 3.13 g/t Au and 2.17 g/t Au (full details are set out in Table 1 at the end of this announcement). Where mapped, a number of outcrops measure up to 3m wide x 20m long, while the remaining outcrops are hidden under the shallow soil cover. A large soil sampling grid has recently been completed over the cover sequence to confirm the direction of the extensions to the gold bearing outcrops. The results from this are due shortly.

Geological mapping and sampling of outcrop has also been completed in parts of the Gorge Creek East area. A Rhyolitic dyke (intrusion) 5.5m wide x 200m long and anomalous in gold has been discovered. The majority of rock chips from the dyke returned an average of 0.25 g/t Au. One rock chip from the centre of the dyke returned 8.02 g/t Au. Other dykes are known to exist within the tenement area and these have never been sampled or mapped. Whilst these results are still at an early stage, and significant work is still required at site to determine the economic potential of the opportunity, the Board are greatly encouraged by these findings and the Directors believe these gold sources within the rocks could lead to further gold discoveries in other dykes yet to be sampled.

ADDITIONAL WORK PROGRAMMES

Other exploration work continues to be undertaken on the Lolworth Project and results are due shortly from soil sampling over the ridgeline of Gorge Creek West. The Board believes this work could help the Company confirm whether other hidden gold bearing outcrops are present under the soil cover, particularly given that the streams draining this ridgeline have already been proven to contain gold.

The field team are also continuing to soil sample two other gold-bearing areas, namely Woolshed/Flaggy Creek and Reedy Creek. Rock chip results from a system of narrow stringer quartz veins from Flaggy Creek are also expected shortly.

Further announcements will be made when the results are known.

Table One. Gold results greater than 0.1 g/t Au from recent rock chip sampling and outcrop mapping at Gorge Creek:

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.