ECR Minerals plc announced the latest gold exploration developments at its Lolworth Project, North Queensland, Australia. The results from the latest pan concentrate stream samples, whilst still early stage, are considered significant by the Directors as they suggest an extension in the size of the gold footprint south of the Reedy Creek area into Butterfly Creek. The latest soil results from the Gorge Creek West area also correlate with a quartz sub-crop which has been mapped across the ridgeline.

The Lolworth Project is located approximately 120km west of the historic gold mining centre of Charters Towers, North Queensland, Australia. The project consists of three exploration tenements (EPM27901, EPM27902 and EPM27903) which are operated by LUX Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ECR ("LUX"). Numerous Gold, Niobium and REE anomalies have been identified within the project.

Butterfly Creek runs south from the dividing range that separates the Reedy Creek area to the north. Recent field work completed infill pan concentrate sampling along the headwaters of streams in the Reedy Creek area and Butterfly Creek, with visible gold consistently noted throughout the sampling process. The most recent lab results confirm these findings, with high concentrations of gold resulting in 962 ppm Au, 139 ppm Au and 29.7 ppm Au.

One ppm is equal to One g/t Au; however, these results are from concentrating a 5kg stream sample into a laboratory sized sample and therefore are not representative of an in situ-resource within the stream. The results do however show the coarse nature of the gold, confirming that the stream is strongly gold-bearing and close to a nearby source up the hillslopes. From the sampling evidence received ECR can conclude the source of gold is likely to reside within the saddle ridge as marked on Figure One.

The round coloured markers on the map relate to the corresponding gold grades in the map legend, with previous pan sampling results shown as coloured stars. Gold anomalies are clustered as shown on Figure One at Reedy Creek West, Reedy Creek and Gorge Creek West. ECR is still waiting for final soil sampling results within the Reedy Creek West area.

Results from soil sampling over part of the western ridgeline above the gold-bearing streams of Gorge Creek West have also been received. 14 samples report gold above background levels of 0.01 g/t Au, with best results of 0.39 g/t Au and 0.32 g/t Au. Although modest, these results are important in context as they correlate spatially along strike of a large quartz sub-crop vein exceeding 4 metres wide.

This vein was sampled previously and delivered a best result of 0.56 g/t Au. The results from the quartz sub-crop vein do not match the results from the creek below, where the team located numerous gold nuggets during previous pan concentrate sampling. A single rock chip along strike to the east returned 13.75 g/t Au, while rock chip results immediately to the north of the soil sampling and the quartz sub-crop show promise, with large outcrops of quartz veins (grading up to 3.13 g/t Au) sited adjacent to the contact of the intruded granite.

Further investigation is required. Niobium (Nb) and Rare Earth elements discoveries have also been reported previously at Oaky Creek, which contains an anomalous (Nb) zone located in the northern part of the project area. Sampling work at Oaky Creek transitioned from Nb and REE exploration to gold exploration during the last couple of months to give landholders the chance to conduct agricultural activities in the north of the project area.

ECR has a good working relationship with all landholders in the area, and field work to follow-up on the Niobium and REE regions will recommence at the earliest availability.