ECR Minerals (AIM: ECR) is an AIM-listed mineral exploration and development company, with a strategic objective to deliver the next multi-million oz gold resource in Australia.
The company’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd has 100% ownership of the flagship Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central Victoria, Australia, and has eight licence applications outstanding including two licence applications lodged in eastern Victoria (Tambo gold project).
Well-funded following a recent fundraise, ECR currently has some £5m+ in the coffers, enough to fund all drilling and exploration activities for the foreseeable future. Late last year the company acquired its first drilling rig, currently engaged at Bailieston, and is about to purchase a 2 nd rig to accelerate the series of drilling programmes currently underway.
MGA has recently signed a contract for the purchase of a new Cortech CMR1000 multi-purpose drilling rig for a total of US$402,957. This follows the purchase of the Midas Drilling Rig (“Midas”) currently engaged in an aggressive drilling programme at the Bailieston project. The new rig is a high capacity, heavy-duty multi-purpose drill rig which is highly effective in diamond coring, reverse circulation and rotary drilling techniques. It has been purchased complete with spares and all downhole equipment and is capable of drilling as deep as 2,000 metres*. The rig will be delivered in Q4 2021 and will further boost MGA’s in-house drilling capability.
With access to a growing team of experienced drilling personnel to operate the rig, along with Midas, the addition of the new CMR1000 rig increases MGA’s flexibility in the field and is expected to accelerate future drilling schedules and enable drill programmes to be completed at lower cost.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer of ECR Minerals plc, commented:
“Following the purchase of our second drilling rig, ECR’s strong funding position and growing local infrastructure ensures the Company can continue to maintain a series of aggressive drilling campaigns across the Victoria Goldfields. We have also made a small bit of history; ECR’s Australian subsidiary MGA completed the first ever diamond drillhole at Cherry Tree (HR4) and I am delighted to report a highly significant early result there from hole BCTDD003, both in terms of the geological setting and the gold mineralisation identified.”
“As the data continues to arrive, our senior geologists are working hard to ascertain structural geological interpretations. It is widely accepted that culminations in folded strata cut by shears and faults are favoured locations for deposition of fold-hinged gold deposits, and with the cross-striking faults at this anticline filled with quartz-gold-bearing fluids in Holes BCTDD001, BCTDD002 and BCTDD003, there is encouraging early evidence. We are keen to see what the next raft of data will reveal so we can determine our next exploration steps.
Alan Green
Brand Communications
Public Relations Tel: +44 (0) 7976 431608
Disclaimer: This update provided for general information about the company. It does not constitute investment advice and does not buy or sell shares, warrants or bonds in any company written about within the blog. Information is taken from publicly available sources and any comment is that of the author who does not take any third party comment in the blog * No one was paid for this interview
