Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: “I am pleased to confirm that the rock dump sampling from old workings is now underway at the Timor Gold Project and look forward to the findings from this work.
We are aware of many prospectors searching for gold in and around the Company’s licence areas, and that includes the Timor gold project. This is interesting and demonstrates the potential of our ground.
However, it is worth noting that should ECR make a discovery within its licence areas, it would be seeking to implement a significant commercial gold production operation which has a different scale to that seen in local prospecting and for which extensive preparatory planning and execution would be needed.
I look forward to providing further market updates in respect of Timor and our other Victoria gold fields interests, including Creswick where significant work is underway at present testing whole of reverse circulation sample bags for gold.”
Update – Timor Gold Project – Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to provide an update in respect of exploration activities at the Timor Gold Project (the “Project”) in Victoria, Australia. The Timor Gold Project is one of five projects held by ECR in the Victorian Goldfields region.
The Company has now commenced the rock chip sampling programme which will include the sampling of rock dumps from old gold workings on the licence area. The sampling will be undertaken along the two fault zones and the objective will be to establish the style of gold mineralisation present.
In total 91 samples have been collected from Timor and submitted to the laboratory for assay testing.
The Company has noted a recent gold prospecting documentary that was filmed in the Victorian Goldfields, Australia close to some of the Company’s licence areas.
During the documentary the team working near Dunolly, approximately 5 km from the boundary of the Timor gold licence area discovered a 2.2kg gold nugget in an old alluvial channel with an estimated value of circa $200,000.
Whilst this discovery has not been independently verified by the Company and there is no guarantee that any more such nuggets will be found in the area, the directors are very encouraged by the discovery which they believe validates their ongoing belief in the untapped potential of the primary mineralisation in the area; the nuggets have to have a local, primary source.
While gold nuggets are not the ECR objective in discovering a new economic primary gold deposit at Timor, they do form an added occasional bonus to the overall economics, especially when they form part of a rich high grade ore shoot.
A map showing the approximate location of the discovery in relation to the Company’s licence areas may be viewed through the following link on the Company’s website:
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Background to the Timor Gold Project
Timor Gold project is located in Victoria, Australia and held under exploration licence EL006278;
Historical records demonstrate that the Maryborough goldfield has produced over 640,000 ounces of gold from hard-rock and alluvial sources, with 220,000 ounces mined from hard-rock operations at an average grade of 14g/t gold. (See references below).
Two major fault zones have been identified on the Project, namely the Shaw-McFarlane Fault Zone (“SMFZ”) and the Leviathan-Mariners Fault Zone (“LMFZ”), which are responsible for the majority of the hard-rock gold production.
The SMFZ has been shown to have consistently produced high grade gold mines along its length with Shaw’s Reef, McFarlane’s Reef and Havelock Monte Christo having recorded production at average grades ranging from 22g/t gold to 217 g/t gold with certain operations having been impacted by metallurgical challenges. (See references below.)
Opportunities exist within the SMFZ to identify and process gold mineralisation at potentially very high grade by applying modern processing techniques to resolve processing challenges that limited production many years ago.
The LMFZ hosts a large number of variably sized reefs that occur within the fault zone. These reefs are associated with diorite dykes and generally offer larger gold targets, albeit at lower grade compared to the SMFZ and historical mining records demonstrate that mining activities were often to relatively shallow depths.
Most of the LMFZ is under shallow alluvial cover which produced a considerable amount of gold in the early days of the Maryborough gold rush of the 1850s.
Both the SMFZ and the LMFZ have potential for modern open cut and underground mining techniques, because of the scale of the deposits present.
A program of reconnaissance rock dump sampling from the old workings is to be undertaken initially, along the two fault zones, to establish the style of gold mineralization.
Subject to the findings from the sampling programme this may be followed by a grid-based GPS pXRF survey for antimony and arsenic as pathfinders to gold mineralization where outcrop or shallow cover exists.
Thereafter a scout Rotary Air Blast (“RAB”) drilling program on the best developed targets may be undertaken.
Further information to follow as each step of the exploration programme is implemented and the results interpreted.
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.
