ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce updated soil sampling results from the on-going geochemistry exploration on EL006184 at Creswick, Victoria, Australia. These results highlight a potential new parallel gold system within the Dimocks Main Shale (DMS).
ECR Minerals plc has 100% ownership of the Creswick Project within licence areas EL006184 and EL006907, which resides 14km north-east of the City of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. License EL006907 also links Creswick to the Ballarat East-Nerrina Goldfield. The Company is exploring a number of parallel-gold mineralisation trends that are believed to extend 10km south towards Ballarat.
ECR CEO Andrew Haythorpe commented: “With so much investor interest focussed on Creswick, it is gratifying to see the project move into a new and exciting phase of development. My visit to Creswick with Adam Jones earlier this year and the subsequent success from the re assay of the drill core confirmed to me that our asset has considerable potential to host gold at several locations.”
“Today’s soil geochem results and the subsequent new gold system identified confirm beyond doubt that Creswick is host to a gold system that warrants an extended and detailed exploration campaign.”
“We will continue to employ LIDAR Geochem across our Creswick tenements as we draw up a list of drill targets in 2023. I look forward to reporting back to you very shortly with further progress.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Soil geochemistry results identify the presence of anomalous gold in a potential new gold system 500m east of the Dimocks Main Shales.
Figures related to this announcement can be viewed as follows:
Figure 1: Location map
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2022/fig1_CDY_Location-plan_221220.png
Figure 2: Plan of Davey Road Workings
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2022/fig2_DaveyRd_221220.png
Figure 3: Plan of Davey South prospect
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2022/fig3_DaveyRd-Sth_221220.png
CRESWICK LIDAR IMAGERY
Recently, LIDAR imagery covering ECR’s Creswick exploration tenements became publicly available. The imagery reveals the surface terrain, which otherwise is hidden underneath thick forest canopy and undergrowth. Additional historical alluvial gold workings along the numerous creek drainages within the tenement have been revealed in creeks 500m to the east of the Dimocks Main Shale trend (DMS), which was recently drilled throughout 2021 (see Figure 1 above for location). Although the primary source of the alluvial gold has not yet been discovered, ECR geologists quickly identified possible locations for a primary gold source on the hillslopes above these alluvial workings. The field team have recently finished soil sampling on these hillslopes and the first announced results are detailed below.
PARALLEL GOLD SYSTEM IDENTIFIED
Two main areas have been identified with anomalous gold, respectively named the Davey Road Workings and the South Davey (see Figure 1 above).
The Davey Road Workings consist of historical trenches and shallow shafts with a strike length of 150 metres. Two worked alluvial gullies lead up to the outcrop from the west (see Figure 2 above). A soil sampling grid was completed over the extent of the workings, aiming to identify gold near the surface through its presence within the surrounding soil. Results to date show gold is present within soils located at the north end of the old gold workings, and these anomalies also coincide with shallow pits and trenches on the land. The historical workings gradually get deeper to the south of the site, potentially indicating a south plunging gold system. Additional duplicate soil samples were taken and panned down by gravity separation to check for visible gold. A number of fine visible gold samples were present within the soils, correlating with the laboratory samples returning gold concentration above 0.11 ppm Au. The extent of the anomaly is highlighted in red in (see Figure 2 above).
The South Davey prospect is located approximately 600m along strike to the south of the Davey Road workings (see Figure 1 above). Historical alluvial workings heading east from Jackass Gully lead up to this area, showing where previous prospectors were searching for the primary gold source without success. Results to date again show gold is present within these soils with the best anomaly located on the north end (see Figure 3 above). Duplicated samples are also showing the presence of visible fine gold within the anomalous area. An example of the fine gold is shown in (see Figure 3 above).
Table 1. Anomalous Soil Samples (=> 0.11 ppm Au), Davey Road Workings and South Davey.
SampleID |
Grid |
Easting |
Northing |
Au_ppm |
CDY360 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759837.9 |
5853958 |
16.50 |
CDY470 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759870.9 |
5853954 |
8.54 |
CDY457 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759845.1 |
5853909 |
0.73 |
CDY330 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759882.9 |
5853502 |
0.66 |
CDY369 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759865.8 |
5853969 |
0.38 |
CDY370 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759878.9 |
5853975 |
0.33 |
CDY385 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759887.3 |
5853988 |
0.23 |
CDY464 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759868.5 |
5853936 |
0.19 |
CDY361 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759845.6 |
5853960 |
0.16 |
CDY376 |
GDA94_Z54 |
759875.8 |
5853982 |
0.11 |
NEXT STEPS
The results to date have proven up our exploration methods using LIDAR imagery and targeted soil geochemistry, and have narrowed down a potential location for the primary source of gold mineralisation. As we prepare a shortlist of drill targets across the best anomalies for a 2023 Creswick drilling campaign, our ‘LIDAR Geochem’ approach will be applied across all of our Creswick tenements in the coming months. ECR now has 10km of strike along what we believe is the most prospective ground towards Ballarat.
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:
ECR Minerals plc
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010
David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman
Andrew Haythorpe, CEO
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ecrminerals.com