1 April 2025

ECR MINERALS PLC

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

Issue of Equity, Total Voting Rights

and

PDMR dealings

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce the issue of new ordinary shares of 0.001 pence each in ECR (the "Ordinary Shares") in respect of the board of directors of ECR's (the "Board" or the Directors") ongoing remuneration policy, whereby each Director and certain consultants to the Company are remunerated partially through the issue of new Ordinary Shares.

In accordance with their existing share-based remuneration arrangements, announced originally on 19 September 2023, Nick Tulloch, Chairman, and Mike Whitlow, Managing Director, will each receive 9,816,325 new Ordinary Shares, as payment in lieu of £22,500 of their accrued remuneration for the period from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025.

Also on 19 September 2023, it was announced that the Company's Non-Executive Directors had agreed to subscribe for new Ordinary Shares as payment in lieu of their salary. As subsequently announced on 2 October 2024, with the salary sacrifice scheme passing its first anniversary, the Board updated the arrangements such that each Director will continue to accept a material part of their remuneration through the issue of new Ordinary Shares for at least a further 12 months.  In accordance with these updated arrangements, Andrew Scott, Non-executive Director, will also receive 2,617,686 new Ordinary Shares, as payment in lieu of £6,000 of his accrued remuneration for the same period. The new Ordinary Shares will be issued at a price of 0.22921 pence per new Ordinary Share, which was the volume weighted average share price for Ordinary Shares over the previous 14 days.  

A further 2,617,686 new Ordinary Shares will also be issued at a price of 0.22921 pence per new Ordinary Share as payment in lieu of £6,000 of the remuneration of a consultant to the Company during the period from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025.

Additional Issue of Equity

The Company has agreed to issue and allot 2,617,686 new Ordinary Shares as payment in lieu of £6,000 of accrued fees owed by the Company to a professional adviser, in order to assist the Company in conserving its cash resources. These new Ordinary Shares will be issued at a price of 0.22921 pence per new Ordinary Share, which was the volume weighted average price for Ordinary Shares over the 14 trading days prior to the date of the invoice.

PDMR dealings

Pursuant to the arrangements set out above, a total of 27,485,708 new Ordinary Shares will be issued by the Company. Following this issuance, the total numbers of Ordinary Shares that will be held following Admission (as defined below) by the Directors, as Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ("PDMRs") of the Company as at the date of this announcement, are as follows:

The FCA notification in respect of these PDMR dealings, made in accordance with the requirements of the UK Market Abuse Regulation, is appended further below.

Admission and Total Voting Rights

Application has been made for 27,485,708 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will become effective on or around 7 April 2025. The 27,485,708 new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares. Upon Admission, ECR's issued ordinary share capital will comprise 2,242,655,302 Ordinary Shares. This number will represent the total voting rights in the Company, and, following Admission 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, Chairman of ECR, said: "Our policy of remunerating directors and senior members of our team partially through new Ordinary Shares has now passed 18 months and remains ongoing.  We continue to focus on maximising the value of our assets and cash resources while aligning our interests with those of the Company's shareholders.

"We have a great deal to look forward to during 2025.  The highlight will be the ongoing work to bring our Blue Mountain gold project potentially into production but, in the nearer term, we expect to commence our drilling campaign at Bailieston to examine the possibility of an antimony resource.  The rising price of this metalloid makes it one of the best performing commodities over the past 12 months and our own prior drilling results, coupled with proven resources nearby, gives cause for optimisim on this project.  Alongside that, we are putting plans in place for drilling at Lolworth and continuing to conduct due diligence on our potential acquisition of Maximus Minerals.

We may be a small company but, through the breadth of our assets and efforts of the team, we punch above our weight."

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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 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), 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. 

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

ECR is also in exclusive negotiations to acquire Maximus Minerals Ltd for £500,000 along with exercising that company's option over the Cat Key advanced gold project for C$600,000.  The consideration, if the transaction completes, will be settled in new ECR shares, issued at no less than 0.33 pence per share.

Director/PDMR MAR disclosures

The following notification, made in accordance with the requirements of the UK Market Abuse Regulation, gives further details.