ECR MINERALS plc

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

Discovery of Gold Bearing Quartz Veins in Flaggy Creek, Lolworth, Queensland.

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce that following rock chip sampling and outcrop mapping at the Flaggy Creek area at the Lolworth Project, N Queensland, Australia, gold bearing quartz veins have been discovered.

The Lolworth Project is located approximately 120km west of the historic gold mining centre of Charters Towers, North Queensland, Australia. The project consists of three exploration tenements (EPM27901, EPM27902 and EPM27903) which are operated by LUX Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ECR ("LUX"). Numerous Gold, Niobium and REE anomalies have been identified within the project.

HIGHLIGHTS

·      Results from mapping a quartz veinlet system within the upper creek drainage of Flaggy Creek have proven to be gold-bearing.

·      The veinlet system consists of multiple narrow veins outcropping over a length of 70 metres long and within a zone up to 100m wide.

·      Best rock chip results from outcrop include 6.05 g/t Au, 5.96 g/t Au, 4.66 g/t Au and 3.97 g/t Au.

·      Soil sampling programme just completed over the ridgelines in Flaggy Creek, above the best gold bearing pan concentrate samples.

ECR Technical Director Adam Jones commented: "The veinlet gold system we have now identified at Flaggy Creek has come about through our systematic approach to the groundwork. The geology field team have seen for themselves how the initial sampling work and mapping has through a process of elimination arrived at an outcrop that has delivered some encouraging grades within a concentrated area. We are confident that we have potentially identified a style of gold bearing vein system that we can expect to find throughout the region, and furthermore, we have identified other gold bearing creeks from our stream sampling programme that are in close proximity to and show very similar geological features to the Flaggy Creek area. Coupled with the major soil sampling work completed along strike at the Flaggy Creek outcrop, we are hoping the results from this work may show a much larger system than currently mapped."

ECR Chief Operations Officer Mike Whitlow added: "It is still early days, but the ECR Board share Adam's excitement at what would seem to be a robust gold vein discovery at Lolworth. We will continue to be led by the geology and the assay results, but the discovery announced today has indicated the potential for further discoveries along strike and over the broader area. This has certainly provided us with some cause for optimism." 

Figure One: Plan to show locations of reportable rock chips at Flaggy Creek:

https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/2023/Fig1_Flaggy-Creek_301023.png

ROCKCHIP RESULTS

Flaggy Creek is located in the NW part of ECR's Lolworth exploration tenements. Previous work in 2022 shows the presence of gold in pan concentrate sampling and a single rock chip from outcrop (see announcement from 12 December 2022 here). As a result of further mapping and multiple rock chip sampling work undertaken along the exposed outcrop, the team has now expanded on these initial results, with grades of up to 6.05 g/t Au recorded.

Geological mapping shows that the gold is contained within narrow quartz veinlets cutting through the granitic host rock. Each quartz veinlet ranges between 0.2 and 1m wide. Multiple veinlets have been observed, running in parallel groups that form a system 70 metres long and up to 100m wide. Significantly, a broken quartz rock 'float' sitting on top of the adjacent surface indicates the vein system could possibly be wider than mapped. Some of this quartz float has been sampled and results of up to 5.96 g/t Au have been recorded.

ADDITIONAL SOIL SAMPLING PROGRAMME

Further supporting the mapped outcrop detailed in this announcement, the field team have also completed a large soil sampling programme over and along strike of the quartz vein system identified. The extent of this programme can be seen by the black points shown in Figure 1 above.

The soil programme has two objectives. Firstly, to discover gold bearing soils that are likely sitting in close proximity to other quartz vein systems in the adjacent creek system and secondly, to identify the best gold 'hotspots' above the sub-cropping gold bearing quartz float. The geo team fully expect this methodology will provide specific targeting for subsequent trenching and drilling work.

With additional results still due from Flaggy Creek and other Lolworth prospects, further updates will be provided in the coming months.

Table One. Gold results greater than 0.1 g/t Au from recent rock chip sampling and outcrop mapping at Flaggy Creek (in order of best results):

REVIEW OF ANNOUNCEMENT BY QUALIFIED PERSON

This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Technical Director of Exploration 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.

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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 eight active exploration tenements and two in application (Ballarat and Tambo).

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 approximately 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.