ECR Minerals granted two exploration licences in Victoria

The AIM-traded firm has 100% ownership of the Bailieston Project and the Creswick Project, both of which were currently undergoing intense exploration by its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia (MGA).

It said the two new tenements were granted for exploration work, with MGA now having a total of 523 square kilometres of ground granted for exploration for gold within Victoria.

One tenement, EL006907, was “strategically placed” between the historical rich Ballarat East-Nerrina goldfield and the current exploration licence EL006148.

The tenement was host to the continued strike of the Dimocks Main Shale (DMS) horizon, believed to host the source veining for much of the alluvial gold within the Creswick deep lead alluvial system.

ECR said the second tenement, EL007484, is situated 50 kilometres north of Bairnsdale in the east of Victoria, encompassing the alluvial fields of Swifts Creek and the mid to upper reaches of the Tambo River.

“The granting of licence EL006907 linking Creswick to Ballarat East-Nerrina goldfield was something our former CEO Craig Brown always viewed as a key step in developing our Creswick interests and our understanding of the Dimocks Main Shale,” said chairman David Tang.

“With the data and knowledge base we have amassed now, I know our team on the ground, headed by Adam Jones, are very keen to start work in the new area and bring Craig’s vision to fruition.”

Tang said licence EL007484, meanwhile, was an “important addition” to the company’s enlarged footprint to the east of Victoria in the Tambo region.

“With a second drilling machine due to arrive any day now, I look forward to reporting further exploration progress as our intensive exploration and drilling campaigns expand and develop.”

At 1255 GMT, shares in ECR Minerals were up 5.65% at 1.22p.