TIDMECR
8 May 2019
ECR MINERALS plc
("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")
Significant Update - Creswick Gold Project Australia
ECR Minerals plc (LSE:ECR), the precious metals exploration and
development company, is pleased to provide an update in respect of
the Company's exploration programme at the Creswick gold project
(the "Project") in Victoria, Australia.
Highlights:
-- The Company has completed 1,687 metres of reverse circulation drilling
in 17 holes at the Creswick gold project targeting multiple
quartz
vein orientations within the Dimocks Main Shale ("DMS");
-- Drilling identified more extensive quartz than anticipated, in a zone
exceeding 60m in width (more than twice the 25m width expected)
with
quartz identified in over one third of the 1,687 metres
drilled;
-- The majority of drill results have now been received and are being
reviewed by the Company's technical team. Of the 17 holes
drilled the
Company has identified gold mineralisation in all holes so far
with
grades in 9 holes ranging from 0.6 g/t gold to 44.63 g/t gold
(1.44 oz
per tonne);
-- Technical review of the drill programme and assay results has
confirmed elements of the complex geology at Creswick and
confirmed
that the gold mineralisation is 'nuggetty' in nature;
-- Nuggetty gold distribution can lead to understated assays, as the
larger the nuggets the less the chance they will be captured in
the
drilled metre. Compounding the problem is only a small portion
of each
reverse circulation sample bag is actually tested. Conversely
results
can be overstated if the nugget happens to be captured in the
small
sample;
-- ECR has therefore commenced a process of gravity concentration tests
from whole of bag samples from the reverse circulation drilling
and
will release results as the more representative whole of sample
bag
analyses are conducted;
-- From a trial sample bag tested from hole CSR011 a nugget has been
found in the previously untested portion of the sample and
overall the
sample has demonstrated gold of 11.8 g/t from whole-of-bag
gravity
concentration, some 528% greater than the 1.88 g/t assay
result;
-- Until further extensive whole-of-bag tests have been completed the
results of the assays from the drilling program may be
unreliable as
indicators of true grade at this stage;
-- The work undertaken indicates that we believe there is potential for a
very substantial gold deposit within the DMS as highlighted
previously
by the Company's technical team and ECR is now accelerating the
highly
important gravity concentration tests as outlined;
-- A fuller explanation of the nugget effect and its implications is
provided below and further updates will be announced to market
as soon
as practicable.
Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer commented: "The work we are
undertaking at Creswick is highly exciting given the
transformational potential this large footprint gold system
offers.
The question we have to answer is how much gold does the DMS
hold that would be amenable to a bulk tonnage gold mining
operation. We are closing in on the answer and the directors
believe that the outcome has the potential to be Company
transformational and is therefore deserving of our close
attention.
We eagerly await the findings from the whole of bag gravity
concentration work and will report back to the market as
significant developments occur."
Background:
Within the Company's announcement dated 25 September 2018 it was
confirmed that exploration mapping undertaken by the Company at the
Project had identified a large gold system in the Dimocks Main
Shale ("DMS") gold targets. The announcement can be viewed through
the following link:
https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/ecr_minerals/news/rns/story/xomoomr
The DMS sits between two large gold producing areas in Victoria,
Australia where it is estimated that, historically, 15 million
ounces of gold has been produced. It was the proposition of the
Company's technical team that they had identified the hard rock
source for a significant portion of the aforementioned 15 million
ounces of gold,. although further work was required to validate
this proposition.
A visual representation of the DMS and the Company's mapping,
which demonstrates the potential link from the alluvial source with
the DMS, is provided through following links to the ECR Minerals
website:
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map1.jpg
https://www.ecrminerals.com/images/Creswick_Map2.jpg
Reverse Circulation Programme:
On 28 January 2019 the Company announced the commencement of a
reverse circulation drilling programme targeting multiple quartz
vein orientations identified within the DMS.
The majority of drill results have now been received and are
being reviewed by the Company's technical team. Of the 17 holes
drilled the Company has identified gold mineralisation in 9 holes
so far with grades ranging from 0.6 g/t to 44.63 g/t (1.44 ounces
per tonne).
Further information in respect of the drill programme and the
complete assay results will be provided in due course when all
results have been received and analysed by the Company's technical
team; and alongside other important exploration and investigative
work as outlined below.
Gold Nugget Effect - Creswick Project
The gold mineralisation at the Project is reef gold, with
alluvial free gold which has eroded from the reef into the
surrounding gullies. This means that in our earlier work we
identified that a proportion of the in-situ gold has a nuggetty
distribution across the DMS.
The drill testing programme was designed to examine this
proposition, and the indications thus far demonstrate that the
proposition of an extreme nuggetty distribution rather than major,
minor or none. This is not unusual in these gold systems and
Bendigo and Wattle Gully (Castlemaine) have an extreme nugget
effect, whereas other deposits in Victoria and elsewhere are less
(Dominy et al. 2004).
The State of Victoria in Australia is renowned for large gold
nuggets and in the list of nuggets published by the Geological
Survey of Victoria (Dunn, 1912) it is reported there was a 112 oz
nugget found in a mine understood to be adjacent to one of the
Company's drill locations at the Project (hole CSR014). In
addition, it is reported several nuggets over 100 oz were found in
the vicinity of the Company's drill targets and nuggets up to 625
oz further south in alluvial gullies downstream from the DMS.
The reverse circulation drilling programme has identified gold
mineralisation, and the higher grade identified by the whole-of-bag
test, indicates the potential for significant grades. With nuggetty
gold however, the traditional assay testing can materially
understate or overstate the gold in the samples.
The reason for this potential understatement is that nuggetty
gold may be missed when samples from the reverse circulation drill
holes are sent for assay. This arises from having the gold
concentrated in a few large particles reducing the chances of a
gold particle being captured in a small sample.
In respect of the Creswick programme typically 1 metre of
reverse circulation drilling collected a 30kg sample. From each
30kg sample bag typically 2kg was sent to the assay laboratory,
pulverised and subjected to the Leachwell method of analysis.
This means that from each 1 metre sample bag 93% of the contents
were not initially tested and any nuggets within that untested
portion of the sample would not be represented in the assay
data.
The Company could have tested whole-of-bag samples from the
beginning of the process, but that would have been a costly
exercise prior to drilling completion, analysis of samples and
initial assay testing.
With the benefit of the initial field work and sample analysis,
together with guidance from the incoming assay results, the
Company's technical team has concluded that testing of the whole
contents of each sample bag is required to fully assess the gold
content.
After consideration of various methods the Company determined
that the entire 30 kg sample in each bag should be subject to a
gravity concentration test.
A trial bag has been tested and a 6.4mm 0.27g nugget was found
in material from a 22.9kg sample bag. This which equates to 11.8
g/t from hole CSR011. The actual assay result for the 2kg sample
from CSR011 was only 1.88 g/t. This reliably demonstrates that for
the first bag fully tested by gravity concentration the initial
assay test had understated the gold content by 84.2%.
As a result, the Company is now processing further whole-of-bag
samples through the gravity concentration testing process.
Whilst there can be no certainty that additional bags tested
will contain higher quantities of gold, it is unlikely that the
testing will not find a degree of repetition of this type of result
recognising what is now known about the DMS geology.
Should however the Company find in the testing process that
considerable gold is identified, in nugget form, this may indicate
a substantial in-situ gold deposit which may be amenable to a bulk
tonnage mining operation.
Further testing is ongoing at present and the Company will be
releasing regular updates with regard to this very important
work.
REFERENCES
Dominy, S. C., Cuffley, B. W., McCarthy, P. L., Thomas, O. K.
& Hill, R. L., 2004. The challenges of evaluating and
exploiting gold-quartz reefs in the Central Victorian Goldfield,
Australia. The AusIMM New Leaders' Conference, Ballarat.
pp121-141
Dunn, E. J. 1912. List of nuggets found in Victoria. Geological
Survey of Victoria. Memoir 12.
Table 1. Tabulated intersections (> 0.5 g/t gold).
HoleID Interval (m) From (m) To (m) Grade (g/t gold)
CSR006 1 15 16 44.63
CSR012 1 52 53 2.49
CSR011 1 12 13 1.88
CSR002 1 12 13 1.43
CSR009 1 4 5 1.27
CSR010 1 10 11 1.21
CSR002 1 36 37 1.09
CSR015 1 38 39 1.03
CSR005 1 12 13 0.95
CSR003 1 26 27 0.90
CSR002 1 69 70 0.76
CSR002 1 9 10 0.64
CSR011 1 6 7 0.63
CSR012 1 17 18 0.61
Table 2. Hole details.
Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Zone Hole Delination Azimuth
(m) (m) (m) depth
(m)
CSR001 759325 5854691 533 54 78 -50 278.5
CSR002 759328 5854697 533 54 84 -70 278.5
CSR003 759355 5854688 534 54 97 -85 278.5
CSR004 759329 5854691 533 54 114 -60 280.0
CSR005 759305 5854648 535 54 120 -50 278.5
CSR006 759316 5854651 535 54 133 -60 278.5
CSR007 759341 5854651 535 54 73 -60 278.5
CSR008 759338 5854651 535 54 91 -85 278.5
CSR009 759301 5854580 539 54 60 -50 278.5
CSR010 759301 5854581 539 54 90 -80 278.5
CSR011 759326 5854710 531 54 60 -50 278.5
CSR012 759328 5854710 531 54 91 -85 278.5
CSR013 759327 5854710 535 54 204 -60 281.0
CSR014 759420 5854696 539 54 176 -60 98.5
CSR015 759354 5854824 538 54 78 -50 278.5
CSR016 759356 5854823 538 54 60 -80 278.5
CSR017 759326 5854868 540 54 78 -60 98.5
COMPETENT PERSON STATEMENT
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration
Results is based on information compiled by Dr Rodney Boucher of
Linex Pty Ltd. Linex Pty Ltd provides geological services to
Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd, including the services of Dr
Boucher, who has a PhD in geology, is a Member and RPGeo of the
Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a Member of the
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Boucher has
sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the
activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as
defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting
of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Dr
Boucher consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the
material based on his information in the form and context in which
it appears.
MARKET ABUSE REGULATIONS (EU) No. 596/2014
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR). Upon the
publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service
(RIS), this inside information is now considered to be in the
public domain.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
ECR Minerals plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7929 1010
David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman
Craig Brown, Director & CEO
Email:
info@ecrminerals.com
Website: www.ecrminerals.com
WH Ireland Ltd Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174
Nominated Adviser
Katy Mitchell/James Sinclair-Ford
SI Capital Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1483 413500
Broker
Nick Emerson
ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC
ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR's
wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty
Limited has 100% ownership of the Avoca, Bailieston, Creswick,
Moormbool and Timor gold exploration licences in central Victoria,
Australia and the Windidda Gold Project in the Yilgarn Region,
Western Australia.
ECR has earned a 25% interest in the Danglay epithermal gold
project, an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold
and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines. An
NI43-101 technical report was completed in respect of the Danglay
project in December 2015 and is available for download from ECR's
website.
ECR's wholly owned Argentine subsidiary Ochre Mining has 100%
ownership of the SLM gold project in La Rioja, Argentina.
Exploration at SLM has focused on identifying small tonnage
mesothermal gold deposits which may be suitable for relatively
near-term production.
View source version on businesswire.com:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190508005494/en/
This information is provided by Business Wire
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 08, 2019 09:26 ET (13:26 GMT)
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