REG - ECR Minerals PLC - Termination of option to acquire Hurricane Project

ECR MineralsAnnouncement

20/10/2023 17:00

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RNS Number : 8622Q  ECR Minerals PLC  20 October 2023

ECR MINERALS plc

("ECR Minerals" or the "Company")

Termination of option to acquire the Hurricane Project

ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the exploration and development company focused on
gold in Australia, announces that it has today terminated its option to
acquire the Hurricane project.

As announced on 27 October 2022, ECR was granted an option to acquire the
entire issued share capital of Placer Gold Pty Limited, which is the
beneficial holder of three granted mining tenements located in NE Queensland,
together known as the Hurricane Project (the "Option").  Following the change
of board announced on 15 September 2023, the Company had negotiated an
extension to the Option period which was designed to give the new management
team more time to analyse and review the project.

ECR has today sent a formal notification that it no longer intends to exercise
its option to acquire Placer Gold Pty Limited.  Although preliminary results
from ECR's due diligence show promise, in the opinion of the board of
directors, the potential value to ECR of the Hurricane project cannot be
justified against the previously agreed acquisition terms.  The vendors have
indicated that they are prepared to make some adjustments to the terms but,
nevertheless, it is the board's view that the two parties remain some distance
apart and that the Company's time and resources should now be redeployed to
other opportunities that could deliver higher returns.

ECR Managing Director Nick Tulloch commented: "The Hurricane project has been
a feature of ECR's strategy for almost a year now and terminating the option
to acquire it was not a decision that we took lightly.  It is evident that
that Hurricane has some excellent prospects but the combination with ECR is
not right at this time.  Results from our due diligence to date have been
encouraging but the size and cost of the opportunity is very significant to
ECR and we simply cannot justify the value placed on the transaction.  I
recognise this news may surprise some of our investors but we are determined
to rebuild value in ECR and, however hard the decision may be, we will not
proceed with projects that are not in the best interests of shareholders."

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

 

 ECR Minerals plc                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010
 David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman

 Nick Tulloch, Managing Director

 Andrew Scott, Director

 Email:

 info@ecrminerals.com (mailto:info@ecrminerals.com)
 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)

 WH Ireland Ltd                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666
 Nominated Adviser

 Katy Mitchell / Andrew de Andrade

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

 Novum Securities Limited                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Tel: +44 (0) 20 7399 9425
 Broker

 Jon Belliss

 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 Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd ("MGA") 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 LUX Exploration Pty Ltd ("LUX")
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
approx 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), Mercator Gold Australia Pty Limited 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 holds a 90% interest in the Danglay gold project; an advanced exploration
project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of
the Philippines, which has a 43-101 compliant resource. ECR also holds a
royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina and can
potentially receive up to US$2.7 million in aggregate across all licences.

 

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