ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) has rented a large aircraft hangar and bought large laboratory equipment as it looks at ways to speed up testing and “aggressively” advance its Creswick gold project in Victoria, Australia.
Earlier this month the miner started using metal detectors to scan sample bags containing rocks collected from recent drilling, helping it assess which bags to send to the lab for full testing.
READ: ECR Minerals reports progress on test programme at Creswick project
After the work programme produced visible fine gold in pan samples from gold panning in the vicinity of recent drill hole locations, ECR’s technical team is “examining ways to further expedite bag testing and ground exploration”, having already rented a large aircraft hangar and nearby house for sample storage and supervised preparation of bulk samples as well as the laboratory equipment for this.
After a visit to the site, chief executive Craig Brown said: “Discussions with our advisors have demonstrated the significant potential of the project and we will continue to move our work programmes forward as aggressively as possible.”
He said that, subject to ongoing results and assuming positive exploration outcomes, ECR would be “seeking to rapidly advance Creswick toward a JORC compliant resource”, which he said he believed will add “significant value for shareholders”.
Modelling by the company suggests the Dimocks Main shale area of Creswick could be large enough to potentially host a multi-million ounce gold deposit.
Shares in ECR were up 9% to 0.98p after the new came out mid-morning.