ECR Minerals PLC fully funded for ‘quite some time’ after share placing

(), the gold exploration and development company focussed on Australia, has raised £2mln through a share placing.

The shares were placed at 2.2p. Shares in ECR Minerals were trading at 2.33p in early deals on Friday, down 9.7% in the day.

The net proceeds of the placing will be used to ramp up drilling and exploration activities on ECR’s wholly owned gold exploration projects in Victoria, Australia and for working capital purposes.

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 told investors.

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.

READ ECR Minerals completes first hole at Ballieston

“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,” said Craig Brown, the chief executive of ECR.

“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,” Brown said.