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ECR Minerals plc (AIM: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, is pleased to announce assay results from the recently completed maiden drilling programme on the 100% owned Lolworth Project, North Queensland, Australia.  The Company also provides an update on progress in respect of its other activities.

Highlights

• Highly encouraging maiden Reverse Circulation drilling programme at the Uncle Terry and Gorge Creek West prospects delivering multiple gold and silver intercepts.
• Notable shallow intercepts of gold and silver include:

4m @ 7.18 g/t Ag

4m @ 3.33 g/t Ag

2m @ 3.57 g/t Au

5m @ 0.47 g/t Au

• Silver mineralisation may be significantly more widespread than the areas drilled based on outcrop mapping and sampling.
• Results reinforce Lolworth as a high-priority growth project within ECR’s portfolio.
• Blue Mountain assay results expected before mid-December, anticipated to support near-term production momentum.
• Raglan Project acquisition documentation now agreed in all material respects, with completion expected in December, marking progress toward ECR’s first alluvial gold production.
• Creswick JV negotiations advancing positively, following a successful meeting between the parties.

ECR Chief Geologist Adam Jones commented: “We are pleased to present assay results from what has been a very successful maiden drilling campaign at the Lolworth Project.  This follows the encouraging surface exploration previously completed and validates our expectations that gold mineralisation extends underneath the outcrops at the Uncle Terry and Gorge Creek West prospects.  However, the stand out result is the extensive presence of silver grades.  Our outcrop mapping and geochemistry indicates that this silver mineralisation is likely to be significantly broader than the areas drilled, adding further potential upside to the overall Lolworth Project.  A further drilling programme will determine the scale of this potential mineralisation.”

ECR Chairman Nick Tulloch added: “We frequently talk about our near-term production prospects at Blue Mountain and our proposed acquisition of the Raglan project, but today’s announcement of results from Lolworth, the largest project in our portfolio, is a reminder of the scale of the wider opportunities that we have before us.

“The drilling results speak for themselves, evidencing extensive mineralisation over our target prospects of Uncle Terry and Gorge Creek West.  But significantly, for a project that we have previously referred to as being focused on gold and rare earths, we can now add silver as a target metal.  Silver prices have reached all-time highs earlier in 2025, with its price growth so far this year outpacing that of gold.  Many analysts forecast ongoing silver price strength.  We had already identified Lolworth as being one of our core tenements, but the opportunity has now become even more interesting. 

“In a year of considerable change for ECR, we are still working on several projects.  At a corporate level, we are looking to conclude our proposed acquisition of the Raglan project and pursue our proposed Creswick JV and, at the operational level, we look forward to the remaining results from the drilling at Blue Mountain which we expect to announce before mid-December.”

Summary of the Maiden Drilling Campaign at the Lolworth Project

A total of 28 reverse circulation drill holes (1,058 metres in aggregate) were completed in September and October 2025 over two gold prospects at the Lolworth Project known as Uncle Terry and Gorge Creek West. This is the first drilling campaign to be completed by an exploration company within this part of the Lolworth Range. Drilling followed up on previous years’ rock chip sampling of outcrops, where sporadic Galena (AgPb sulphide) mineralisation had been observed.

The Uncle Terry prospect was formally named and discovered by previous tenement holders A.R.I Limited in 1988 where Galena was observed in a quartz outcrop. Grab samples from the outcrop during their discovery included 34 g/t Au and 6 g/t Au. The original location of the discovery has only been recently identified. The outcrop was initially thought to strike in a north-south direction; however, ECR’s recent mapping and drill programme suggests that the vein strikes east-west, dipping to the south. 

See Figure One for the location of drill holes at Uncle Terry and Figure Two for the location of drill holes at Gorge Creek West.

Six drill holes (LWDR001 to LWDR006 and LWDR008 to LWDR009) were initially drilled underneath and down plunge of the original Uncle Terry discovery outcrop.  Another six holes (LWDR007 and LWDR010 to LWDR013) were drilled just south of the discovery site to test for mineralisation located underneath sporadic quartz outcrops where previous rock chips of up to 75 g/t Au have been taken.  Eight holes (LWDR014 to LWDR021) were drilled underneath a swarm of quartz shear zones located towards the south of the prospect.

Seven holes (LWDR022 to LWDR028) were drilled underneath a north-south striking quartz stockwork zone at Gorge Creek West. Previous campaigns of rock chipping and channel sampling across this outcrop have returned values including 14.7 g/t Au and 50.2 g/t Ag and 6.34 g/t Au and 5.2 g/t Ag.

A total of 1,058 metres were drilled during this maiden campaign. All of the drilling was shallow with a maximum depth of 45 metres. All samples were split at the drill rig into 2 to 5 kg samples. Analysis of the samples was undertaken at ALS Global’s Townsville laboratory using methods AuAA-26 (50g fire assay for gold) and ME-ICP41 for multi-element analysis (Ag, As etc).

Table One: All Drill hole details for the Maiden Reverse Circulation Drilling Programme, September – October 2025

*Drill hole locations given in GDA94 Zone 55 co-ordinates.

Overview of Drill Results

Individual drill results have been composited to a minimum cut off of 1m @ 0.25 g/t (Gold) and 1m @ 2 g/t (Silver). Contained metal per metre (grammes multiplied by metre, shown as ‘Gramme Metres’) has also been calculated.

Results for Gold and Silver are set out in Table Two (Gold) and Table Three (Silver) below.

Table Two: Drilling results for significant Gold intercepts and depths of zones tested at cut-off 1m @ 0.25 g/t Au.

Table Three: Drilling results for significant Silver intercepts and depths of zones tested at cut-off 1m @ 2.0 g/t Ag.

Drilling underneath the Uncle Terry discovery outcrop has demonstrated that mineralisation extends underneath dipping to the south as hypothesised, with silver intercepts up to 4m @ 7.18 g/t Ag from 33m deep.

Drilling also shows localised gold mineralisation underneath quartz outcrops immediately south of the Uncle Terry outcrop, such as 2m @ 3.57 g/t Au from 14m in hole LWDR012. This intercept lies directly underneath an outcrop that has previously graded 75 g/t Au from rock chip sampling. Drill holes also show evidence of multiple parallel veinlets with multiple mineralised intercepts including 1m @ 1.44 g/t Au (LWDR011), 1m @ 0.58 g/t Au (LWDR011), 1m @ 0.74 g/t Au (LWDR024), as shown in Table Two.

Previous mapping of the outcrop at Gorge Creek West showed that the stockwork zone consists of a network of narrow north-south striking quartz shears. Drilling has picked up on some of these broader mineralised zones such as 4m @ 0.33 g/t Au (LWDR026).

A particular highlight of the results is the predominant Silver mineralisation at both prospects (see Table Three).

Indications of a Broader System

Previous soil sampling at Uncle Terry has been analysed internally by ECR with a pXRF analyser. It has been hypothesised that high Lead (Pb) concentrations in soil could be related to a silver mineralisation system. A number of high Pb anomalies have been identified across the greater Uncle Terry area, such as those shown in Figure One. During the drilling campaign, a number of Pb soil anomaly locations were visited, mapped and any outcrop sampled. A number of outcrops were found to contain visible spotty galena within quartz shear zones. Rock chip sampling results confirm the presence of silver mineralisation and also confirm the high probability of linking high lead anomalies within the soil to silver mineralisation in the area. The best outcrop is located in the centre of the Uncle Terry prospect. This outcrop can be traced along a broken line for approximately 70 metres. Best rock chip sampling results include 44.9, 46.5, 35.2 g/t Ag. Geochemistry mapping indicates that mineralisation is contained within NNW and NNE striking structural trends, with the strongest mineralisation concentrated around the intersection of such structures.

Table Four: Rock Chip Sampling Results from the Uncle Terry Prospect

*Rock Chip locations given in GDA94 Zone 55 co-ordinates. (btl = below detection limit).

Next Steps 

The results from this maiden drill programme demonstrate the presence of silver and gold mineralisation at shallow depths within these two prospects at the Lolworth Project. Outcrop mapping and geochemistry also indicates that silver mineralisation is also broader than the areas drilled. Due to time constraints and drilling logistics, these outcrops were not able to be drilled whilst the rig was present on site on this occasion. However, off the back of these highly encouraging results, the Board believes that these outcrops (and other prospects) should be drilled during the next campaign at the Lolworth Project. Proposed follow up drilling methods would include diamond drilling, which will allow structural measurements to be taken and to determine what is controlling this mineralisation. Deeper drillholes will also be beneficial on both prospects.

This maiden drilling campaign and associated mapping has significantly increased ECR’s understanding of mineralisation at the Lolworth Project.  In addition, the team have already established that a number of other anomalies exist adjacent to these areas drilled which show similar geological traits. These include:

• A mineralised vein traceable for over 30m lying 350m east of Gorge Creek West. Rock chip samples of up to 14 g/t Au and 54 g/t Ag have been obtained from here.
• Visible gold halo in soils with no visible outcrop located only 170m west of the drilling at Gorge Creek West, indicating other blind deposits.
• At Flaggy Creek, sub-cropping multiple narrow quartz veins over an area 70m x 100m. Rock chip samples of up to 6.6 g/t Au and 24.3 g/t Ag have been obtained from here.

Raglan Project – Near-Term Production of Alluvial Gold

As announced on 1 October 2025, ECR is proposing to acquire Raglan Resources Pty Ltd (the “Proposed Acquisition”), the holder of Licence ML 3665 (the “Raglan Project”) for A$1.01 million.  The purchase price is fully funded by the subscription announced on 1 October 2025. Legal documentation for the Proposed Acquisition is now agreed in all material respects.  The final step is for the vendors to remove certain unrelated tenements and non-core assets from Raglan Resources Pty Ltd, the owner of the Raglan Project and the company that ECR is proposing to acquire.  The vendors are currently finalising their tax and restructuring advice in order to proceed and, as such, ECR anticipates completing the Proposed Acquisition later this month.

There can be no certainty that final binding terms will be agreed in order to complete the Proposed Acquisition, nor as to the timing or final terms, value or conditions of the Proposed Acquisition. Further updates will be provided in due course.

Creswick

On 18 September 2025, ECR announced that it had entered into a non-binding heads of terms with Exertis Pty Ltd trading as Bold Gold (“Bold Gold”) for a proposed joint venture (the “Creswick JV”) covering the Company’s Creswick Gold Project in Victoria, Australia.  Following a successful meeting between the parties in the last week of November, these discussions are progressing well and ECR is working with Bold Gold to seek to finalise the terms of the Creswick JV.

The Creswick JV will be subject to, among other things, entry into a legally binding JV agreement and the satisfaction of regulatory requirements. There can therefore be no certainty that final binding terms will be agreed, nor as to the timing or final terms, value or conditions of the proposed Creswick JV.

Figure One. Plan of Uncle Terry

Figure Two. Plan of Gorge Creek West.

Review of Announcement by Qualified Person

This announcement has been reviewed by Adam Jones, Chief Geologist at ECR Minerals Plc. Adam Jones is a professional geologist and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG). He is a qualified person as that term is defined by the AIM Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies.

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