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."

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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 km² over a relatively unexplored area in Lolworth Range, Queensland, Australia. The Company has also submitted a license application at Kondaparinga which is approx 120km² 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.