PLACING OF SHARES, ACCELERATION AND EXPANSION OF DRILLING CAMPAIGN

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 

ECR MINERALS plc

(“ECR Minerals”, “ECR” or the “Company”)

PLACING OF SHARES

ACCELERATION AND EXPANSION OF DRILLING CAMPAIGN

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the gold exploration and development company focussed on Australia, is pleased to announce the placing (“Placing”) of 90,909,091 new ordinary shares of 0.001p (the “Placing Shares”) at a Placing price of 2.2p per share to raise gross proceeds of £2,000,000.

The net proceeds of the Placing, which is conditional on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM (“Admission”), will be used to ramp-up drilling and exploration activities on ECR’s 100%-owned gold exploration projects in Victoria, Australia and for working capital purposes. The Placing was arranged by the Company’s joint-broker Novum Securities.

Drilling with the Company’s own diamond drill rig is continuing in the HR3 area of the Bailieston gold project in Victoria. Five drill holes have been completed, and a sixth hole is in progress. ECR expects to be in a position to report assay results from initial holes later this month. Visible gold has been noted in the hole first drilled at the Byron prospect (see announcement dated 12 February 2021).

Placees will receive one warrant (“Warrant”) for every two Placing Shares and accordingly, subject to the Placing completing, 45,454,545 Warrants will be issued by the Company. Each Warrant permits the holder to subscribe for one new ordinary share in ECR Minerals plc at a price of 3.75p for a period of 24 months from the date of Admission. If all the Warrants were to be exercised, this would generate proceeds of approximately £1.7 million for the Company, although there can be no guarantee that this would occur.

Craig Brown, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We are delighted by the tremendous show of support for ECR from investors in the placing announced today. We believe this reflects both the high degree of market interest in Victorian gold projects generally, and ECR’s success in assembling a highly prospective portfolio of projects and establishing an in-house drilling capability which is being put to full use.

The net proceeds of the placing announced today will take the Company's cash position to in excess of £5.8 million and, in addition to funding a modest expansion of our operational capabilities at our Bendigo HQ in Central Victoria, will enable ECR to drive hard towards its twin targets of establishing a maiden JORC compliant gold resource at the Bailieston project and completing further drilling at the Creswick project. The funds raised will also provide ECR with the financial flexibility to consider potential new opportunities as they arise. We are now fully funded for these programmes and don’t envisage requiring additional equity financing for quite some time.”

ADMISSION OF NEW SHARES AND TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS

Admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM is expected to occur on or around 30 April 2021. Following admission, ECR’s issued ordinary share capital will comprise 985,528,390 ordinary shares of 0.001p. This number will represent the total voting rights in the Company, and, following admission of the Placing Shares, may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. The new shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the ordinary shares of the Company currently traded on AIM.

MARKET ABUSE REGULATION

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR) (as in force in the United Kingdom pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018). 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: [phone]
David Tang, Non-Executive Chairman
Craig Brown, Director & CEO
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.ecrminerals.com
WH Ireland Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser Katy Mitchell and James Sinclair-Ford
Novum Securities Limited Broker Jon Belliss	Tel: [phone]
SI Capital Ltd	Tel: [phone]
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 Ltd has 100% ownership of the Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central Victoria, Australia. ECR is currently drilling high priority targets on the Bailieston gold project using the Company’s own diamond drill rig. ECR has an experienced exploration team with significant local knowledge in the Victoria Goldfields.

Following the sale of the Avoca, Moormbool and Timor gold projects in Victoria, Australia to Fosterville South Exploration Ltd (TSX-V: FSX), ECR has the right to receive up to A$2 million in payments subject to future resource estimation or production at those projects.

ECR has earned a 25% interest in the Danglay gold project, an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines, and holds a royalty on the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina.