ECR Minerals sets sights on nine new gold licences in Western Australia

ECR Minerals on Thursday submitted nine new exploration licence applications covering a package of ground prospective for gold mineralisation in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia.

The AIM traded company said that the package, which is to be called the Windidda gold project, covers 523 graticular blocks representing approximately 1,600 square kilometres and will complement its existing extensive gold exploration portfolio in the state of Victoria if granted.

Craig Brown, chief executive of ECR Minerals, said: "I am particularly pleased to announce this strategic move into Western Australia, which, like Victoria, has exceptional gold exploration potential in a first world operating environment."

A statement from ECR said that the application areas have been identified as a potential greenstone hosted orogenic gold exploration opportunity with significant potential to contain Archaean greenstones buried beneath what it is believed may be shallow cover.

Archaean greenstones host many of Western Australia and the world’s most prolific gold deposits but gravity and magnetic anomalies interpreted to be hosted in greenstone units have not been targeted in previous exploration efforts within the project area.

“Greenstone-hosted gold trends in the Western Australian Yilgarn province are very tightly held and access to free ground, when it becomes available, is highly competitive. So it is very encouraging that ECR has managed to compile a large land position of contiguous tenements covering untested gravity-magnetic anomalies representative of potential greenstone-hosted gold trends,” said Brown.

Brown added that the pursuit of new initiatives such as the Windidda project had been enabled by the funds secured by ECR in strategic financings in July and December.

ECR Minerals’ shares were unchanged at 0.75p at 1637 GMT.