REG - ECR Minerals PLC - Operations update and TVR

ECR MineralsAnnouncement

04/08/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 7304T  ECR Minerals PLC  04 August 2025

 

 

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Regulation
11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310.

 

4 August 2025

 

ECR MINERALS PLC

 

("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")

 

Operations update

and

Total voting rights

 

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused
on gold in Australia, provides the following update on its operations and
total voting rights.

 

Ongoing preparations at the Blue Mountain Project

 

ECR is leasing a percussion drill rig which will move later in August to the
Company's Lolworth gold and rare earths project in Queensland, Australia (the
"Lolworth Project"). Taking advantage of the drill rig travelling through
Queensland, the Company is carrying out some reconnaissance drilling at the
Blue Mountain project in Queensland, Australia (the "Blue Mountain Project").
This strategy has paid dividends. With holes circa 6m deep and around 5m apart
and drilling time at around 20 minutes per hole, including movement of the
drill rig and set up, the Company has been able to quickly drill and assess
prospective areas at the Blue Mountain Project.

 

Drill samples are catalogued, panned and inspected for signs of visible gold
before sending appropriate samples to the lab for further analysis.

 

By way of illustration, during the past week, ECR has identified and mapped a
potentially suitable area considered for future commercial production in the
form of a large creek flat. This area, which is previously un-mined, shows
positive visible gold in the form of drill chips over an area measuring
roughly 200m in length, 27m in width and up to 3m in depth. Samples are
currently being prepared for laboratory analysis with the results expected to
be used to assess the design of exploration trenches. Here, the estimated
16,200 cubic metres with an assumed project grade of 0.6 grammes per bank
cubic metre and the current gold spot price of approximately US$3,290
represents a potential gold value in situ of over US$1.1 million. The speed
and precision by which this area has been assessed was considerably advanced
by the drilling programme.  This area represents just a small fraction of the
potentially mineable zones across the Blue Mountain Project. In addition, this
illustrates not only the potential financial scale of the Blue Mountain
Project but also the speed at which ECR is able to assess its viability.

 

During last week, ECR's chairman, Nick Tulloch, and chief geologist, Adam
Jones, also conducted a review of the Blue Mountain Project to assess the
areas to be drilled.  With the scale of the Blue Mountain Project area being
extensive, management decided to keep the drill rig on site at the Blue
Mountain Project for the time being to continue operations. The drill rig will
move up to the Lolworth Project later this month.

 

Earlier this year, ECR published an illustration that the Blue Mountain
Project may be capable of generating monthly revenues of approximately
A$470,000 (US$295,000). This potential revenue illustration assumes an average
grade of 0.6 grammes per bank cubic metre and Gekko Systems Pty Limited's
projected 91.7% gold recovery rate, with a wash plant with a 25 tonne per hour
capacity, to provide prospective output per month of over 3,000 grammes (over
100 ounces), using a gold price of US$2,790 per ounce.

 

We are pleased to report that subsequent work continues to support the above
illustration, albeit it now equates to potential monthly revenues of
approximately A$544,000 (US$350,000) when using an updated gold price of
US$3,290 per ounce. More particularly, the work to date has increased the
Company's confidence in using higher capacity wash plants and the table below
illustrates the potential scale up that could be achieved.

 

Illustrative monthly revenue and production at the Blue Mountain Project

 

Alluvial gold recovery is highly sensitive to the rate at which material can
be processed.  The above illustration is based on a wash plant with a 25
tonne per hour capacity but the scale of the Blue Mountain Project would
potentially support a larger plant, subject to a suitable design and the
availability of sufficient water. Management will continue to examine the
feasibility of such plants and have already had a preliminary discussion with
the landowner regarding constructing a dam as part of the project.  The table
below illustrates how any potential revenue, and commercial production would
scale up with a larger plant (with all other assumptions above remaining the
same).

 

 Wash plant capacity (per hour)  25 tonnes  40 tonnes  50 tonnes    60 tonnes
 Monthly revenue                 A$544,000  A$871,000  A$1,088,000  A$1,306,000
 Gold (grammes)                  3,347      5,355      6,694        8,033
 Gold (ounces)                   118        189        236          283

 

Investors should note that the above figures are illustrative of the Blue
Mountain Project's potential based on the assumptions stated and the potential
commercial production should not be considered a forecast or guarantee of
revenue.

 

The opportunity at the Blue Mountain Project has attracted interest from third
party production partners.  Any such potential partnership may give ECR the
ability to scale up operations but on the basis that any revenue generated
would be shared.  The Company will keep these opportunities under review
whilst it assesses the potential scale of the Blue Mountain Project.

 

Lolworth Project drilling programme

 

Once work has completed at the Blue Mountain Project, ECR's team and the drill
rig will move up to the Lolworth Project.  At present, the Company
anticipates remaining at the Blue Mountain Project until at least the end of
this week, but potentially longer to ensure that it fully optimises the use of
the drill rig to map out potential resource areas.

 

This has necessarily delayed commencement of drilling at the Lolworth Project.
However, the planned work programme at the Lolworth Project to drill a series
of 40m to 80m holes across four locations at the tenement is unchanged. With
ECR's work at the Blue Mountain Project substantially adding to its knowledge
of alluvial mining, the team will for the first time assess whether this
methodology could also be employed at the Lolworth Project.

 

The drilling campaign at the Lolworth Project is likely to take 3 to 4 weeks.
Accordingly, it is expected that the drilling campaign will commence in
mid-August 2025 and will likely conclude in early September 2025.  As with
previous work there, ECR will seek to draw on the Company's partnership with
the Geological Survey of Queensland and James Cook University, whose
respective surveys will provide the Company with further data points across
the project area.

 

Total voting rights update

 

ECR also announces that application has been made for 212,728,300 new ordinary
shares of 0.001 pence each in ECR ("Ordinary Shares") to be admitted to
trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will become
effective on or around 5 August 2025.

 

The 212,728,300 new Ordinary Shares were previously validly allotted by the
board of directors of ECR (the "Board" or the "Directors"). However, the
previous Board did not at the time make an application for these Ordinary
Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM.

 

Admission and total voting rights

 

Upon Admission, ECR's issued ordinary share capital will remain unchanged at
2,269,512,954 Ordinary Shares. This number will represent the total voting
rights in the Company and may be used by shareholders as the denominator for
the calculation by which they can determine if they are required to notify
their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the
Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

 

Nick Tulloch, ECR's Chairman, said: "I spent much of the last two weeks in
Australia on a trip that covered Melbourne, our office in Bendigo, Sydney and
finally the Blue Mountain Project in Queensland.  Our decision to bring a
drill rig onto the site has immediately paid off with our understanding of the
Blue Mountain Project already considerably increased.

 

"This has been an efficient and accurate means of making preparations for the
location of trenches and, as we have illustrated in today's announcement, is
enabling us to map out the scale of the opportunity.  Our findings to date
continue to support our confidence in the Blue Mountain Project and its
potential to be a very significant generator of revenue for ECR."

 

Review of Announcement by Qualified Person

 

This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Chief Geologist 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 8080 8176
 Nick Tulloch, Chairman                                                                                                                                                                                                                             info@ecrminerals.com (mailto:info@ecrminerals.com)

 Andrew Scott, Director

 Website: www.ecrminerals.com
 (http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecrminerals.com%2F&esheet=51817334&newsitemid=20180605005810&lan=en-US&anchor=www.ecrminerals.com&index=1&md5=820ad49dc1fc2c84a0538453c017bc1b)

 Allenby Capital Limited                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Tel: +44 (0) 3328 5656
 Nominated Adviser                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  info@allenbycapital.com (mailto:info@allenbycapital.com)

 Nick Naylor / Alex Brearley / Vivek Bhardwaj

 Axis Capital Markets Limited                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Tel: +44 (0) 203 026 0320
 Broker
 Lewis Jones

 SI Capital Ltd                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413500
 Broker
 Nick Emerson

 Brand Communications                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Tel: +44 (0) 7976 431608
 Public & Investor Relations
 Alan Green

 

ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC

 

ECR Minerals is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR's wholly
owned Australian subsidiary ECR Minerals (Australia) Pty Ltd ("ECR Australia")
has 100% ownership of the Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central
Victoria, Australia, has six licence applications outstanding which includes
one licence application lodged in eastern Victoria (Tambo gold project).

 

ECR also owns 100% of an Australian subsidiary ECR Minerals (Queensland) Pty
Ltd which has three approved exploration permits covering 946 km(2) over a
relatively unexplored area in Lolworth Range, Queensland, Australia. The
Company has also submitted a license application at Kondaparinga which is
approximately 120km(2) in area and located within the Hodgkinson Gold
Province, 80km NW of Mareeba, North Queensland.

 

Following the sale of the Avoca, Moormbool and Timor gold projects in
Victoria, Australia to Fosterville South Exploration Ltd (TSX-V: FSX) and the
subsequent spin-out of the Avoca and Timor projects to Leviathan Gold Ltd
(TSX-V: LVX), MGA has the right to receive up to A$2 million in payments
subject to future resource estimation or production from projects sold to
Fosterville South Exploration Limited.

 

ECR Australia also has approximately A$75 million of unutilised tax losses
incurred during previous operations.

 

Glossary

 

 Au:    Gold
 g/t:   Grammes per Tonne (Metric)
 km:    Kilometres (Metric)
 km²:   Kilometre squared (Metric)
 M:     Metres (Metric)
 Sq:    Square (Metric)

 

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