www.ecrminerals.com
ECR Minerals (formerly Electrum Resources) plc is a diversified mining investment company with quality assets and the capability to undertake significant, value accretive transactions. ECR Minerals is dedicated to creating value for its shareholders through a process of finding value, adding value and realising value. In order to achieve this, Electrum Resources is able to access a pipeline of projects sourced from its global network and utilises the expertise of its directors and advisers.
ECR Minerals holds interests in the USA, Argentina, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia.
ECR Minerals shares up strongly as samples from Argentina project reveal bonanza gold grades
ECR Minerals (LON:ECR, OTC:MTGDY) opened strongly this morning after it published another batch of surface sampling results from its Sierra de las Minas project in Argentina’s La Rioja Province.
Three separate samples from the Cuerpo SI and Don Chiche prospects returned grades of 51 and 54 grams of gold per tonne.
The share leapt almost 10 per cent early trade to 1.48 pence. In the last three months the stock has advanced more than 29 per cent.
Managing Director Patrick Harford said: “These further high grade assays from sampling at Sierras de las Minas have identified another two exciting prospects as high priority for further exploration.
“They particularly demonstrate the potential of Sierra de las Minas for the generation of highly promising exploration targets. The project area contains a large number of historic prospects still to be visited for first pass evaluation.
"Results from the upcoming drilling and geophysical programme at El Abra will allow a more detailed understanding of the local geology and will be used to guide exploration across the Sierra de las Minas project area.”
The latest data follows on from the some highly encouraging sampling results last week, which returned grades of 32.5 grams per tonne of gold and 21.9 grams.
Four of these prospects, Maestro Agüero, Mina San Antonio, Casa Viejas and Mina Azul, represented a combined potential strike length of approximately 800 metres making them priority targets for further work.
Earlier today ECR said it is planning further detailed sampling of the Cuerpo SI and Don Chiche prospects, along with the Maestro Agüero, Mina San Antonio, Casa Viejas and Mina Azul prospects.
It will also continue sampling of historic prospects at Sierra de las Minas in order to expand the identified prospective areas for further exploration and identify new ones.
Preparations for the ground based geophysical survey planned to commence at the El Abra prospect later this
Phil Swinfen, the mining analyst at Old Park Lane Capital, repeated his "buy" recommendation on the stock this morning.
“With seven samples returning gold grades in excess of five grams of gold (per tonne) and three samples returning spectacular grades in excess of 50 grams, the results are testament to the prospectivity of ECR’s Argentinean licences,” he said.
“As part of this early stage of reconnaissance exploration, ECR is successfully teeing up a number of promising targets for further evaluation.”
ECR is an explorer and developer with assets in Argentina, the US, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia, and has a particular focus on gold and base metals.
Swinfen said believes the firm's relatively complex structure and variety of different interests meant ECR is poorly understood and largely overlooked by the wider market.
“ECR is an incubator for growth projects and we assert that ECR has a place in a portfolio for investors looking for a mixture of diversification, growth, and built-in option value,” the analyst added.
“At current levels ECR’s discount creates a compelling investment opportunity with potential value likely to come from a range of different interests.
“The recent gold results set the scene for more intriguing developments as the company moves towards a maiden drilling programme at Sierra de las Minas.”
