Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer of ECR Minerals plc, commented: “This was a valuable reconnaissance programme at a gold prospect which had never been drilled before, located immediately south of ground recently applied for by a subsidiary of Newmont Mining.
The drilling targeted numerous quartz reefs with 18 holes drilled in total. Most of the locations had some historical gold mining activity, and all of them had positive previous rock chip sampling results.
I am delighted with the positive outcomes from this programme. As well as some encouraging grades, the drilling has provided important geological information which may help vector further exploration in the project area towards achievement of ECR’s prime strategic objective, which is the discovery of a multi-million ounce gold deposit.”
Successful Reconnaissance Drilling at Black Cat Gold Prospect Victoria, Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the findings of the reconnaissance rotary air blast (RAB) drilling programme recently completed at the Black Cat gold prospect, which is located within the Bailieston gold project area (EL5433) in the state of Victoria, Australia.
ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (“MGA”) has 100% ownership of the Bailieston project.
Readers are advised to review ECR’s announcement dated 4 February 2019 regarding the initiation of the Black Cat drilling programme, which can be viewed at the following link:
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/ecr_minerals/news/rns/story/w1mok9w
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Reconnaissance RAB drilling programme targeted numerous quartz reefs at Black Cat with a total of 18 shallow holes for 485 metres of drilling;
- Significant intersections are reported in Table 1 below and include 7 metres at 1.76 g/t gold from 35 metres in BCD11, 3 metres at 4.26 g/t gold from 16 metres in BCD18, and 1 metre at 6.3 g/t gold from 18 metres in BCD03;
- The potential for supergene enriched mineralisation at the water table interface and for deeper primary mineralisation could be investigated by drilling deeper holes;
- The Black Cat prospect is located immediately south of ground recently applied for by Newmont Mining, and is among the high priority targets identified by the geophysical interpretation and targeting study completed for MGA in late 2017;
- Important geological insights have been generated by the drilling programme, which will guide further exploration at Black Cat and other prospects in the Bailieston gold project area.
Further Information
Rotary air blast (RAB) drilling is a low-cost method well suited to the first pass, reconnaissance testing required at the Black Cat gold prospect. Eighteen holes were drilled, to a maximum depth of 47 metres downhole, for a total of 485 metres.
Full details of all drill holes are reported in the tables below. A map showing the location of the drill holes may be downloaded at the following link:
https://www.ecrminerals.com/black-cat
Composite samples representing 3 or 4 metre downhole lengths were initially compiled from the drill cuttings and sent to be fire assayed for gold. After receipt of the assay results, composites which returned anomalous gold grades were re-sampled on a metre by metre basis. This second set of samples was sent for fire assay, and the intersections reported in this announcement are based on those assay results. All assays were carried out at On Site Laboratory Services in Bendigo, Victoria.
Each of the three main quartz reefs that were worked historically at Black Cat is around 350m long. Drill holes were located along each of these reefs, especially near the most significant workings.
Discussion of Results
The main Black Cat reef comprises a series of en-echelon quartz lenses within a shear zone, as is found at various other reefs within the Redcastle goldfield, and for this reason the drilling completed did not always intersect the quartz veined sections. Apart from the quartz veined material that was mined historically, there exist siliceous pyritic sandstones and heavily fractured limonitic siltstones that can also be auriferous.
Hole BCD11 was drilled at the southern end of the main reef and the intersection of 7 metres at 1.76 g/t gold is associated with a diorite dyke and a zone of significant quartz veining at the footwall of the dyke in the host sandstone.
Narrow high-grade zones were intersected in BCD03 (1 metre at 6.3 g/t gold from 18 metres) and BCD18 (3 metres at 4.26 g/t gold from 19 metres) on two separate reefs, the main reef and the north reef, both of which appear to be shoot types of mineralisation because of the discontinuity along strike which has been established by other drill holes. In the case of both BCD03 and BCD18, no quartz veining was observed in the drill cuttings where gold was found to occur. The gold-mineralised intersections here are associated with limonitic siltstone.
The drilling indicates that there is typically a supergene enriched zone near surface that reaches a vertical depth of around 10 metres. There remains potential for additional supergene enrichment near the water table (approximately 50 metres), and for higher gold grades in deeper primary mineralisation. The three most significant intersections are all on different reefs and each could be investigated further by deeper drilling.
Further exploration could also focus on larger nearby structures that may be the source of the gold mineralisation, such as the Moormbool and Black Cat faults.
Table 1
Significant Intersections from Q1 2019 RAB Drilling at the Black Cat Gold Prospect
EL5433, Victoria, Australia
NB: intersections reported are apparent width with a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t gold
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
This announcement has been reviewed by Neil Motton BAppSc (Hons), MAusIMM (CP), FSEG, a geological consultant to the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd with more than 30 years of professional experience. Mr Motton is a qualified person as that term is defined by the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.
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.
ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC
ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick, Moormbool and Timor gold exploration projects 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.
