ECR Minerals acquires Victorian gold licence

Exploration and development company ECR Minerals has acquired 100% ownership of the Creswick gold project in central Victoria, Australia, via its wholly owned subsidiary Mercator Gold.

Hosted within the Dimocks main shale, which extends over a 15km trend from the mining centre of Ballarat to the south, ECR considers the project to be highly prospective for gold mineralisation

The Creswick exploration licence, which is set to expire on 28 December 2021, was transferred to ECR from its previous holder with no consideration made by either ECR or MGA.

Dimocks, the source of much of Victoria's alluvial and deep lead gold, has been estimated to have had historical alluvial production levels of up to 2.5m ounces from the Creswick/Berry lead system, and up to 11m ounces in the Ballarat area as a whole.

ECR highlighted that only two holes had previously been drilled to test the DMS within the Creswick licence, both in the 1990s, with the results of which including an intercept of 2 metres at 12.28 grams per tonne of gold.

Craig Brown, ECR's chief executive, said, "We are pleased to add another highly prospective licence to MGA's portfolio in Victoria, especially for no acquisition cost. The mines in and around Ballarat have been immensely productive in the past, and gold mining continues in the town today. With this in mind, we look forward to commencing field activities at the Creswick project."

As of 0920 BST, shares had climbed 9.89% to 0.94p.