Operations update and TVR

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310.

4 August 2025

ECR MINERALS PLC

("ECR Minerals", "ECR" or the "Company")

Operations update

and

Total voting rights

ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, provides the following update on its operations and total voting rights.

Ongoing preparations at the Blue Mountain Project

ECR is leasing a percussion drill rig which will move later in August to the Company's Lolworth gold and rare earths project in Queensland, Australia (the "Lolworth Project"). Taking advantage of the drill rig travelling through Queensland, the Company is carrying out some reconnaissance drilling at the Blue Mountain project in Queensland, Australia (the "Blue Mountain Project"). This strategy has paid dividends. With holes circa 6m deep and around 5m apart and drilling time at around 20 minutes per hole, including movement of the drill rig and set up, the Company has been able to quickly drill and assess prospective areas at the Blue Mountain Project.

Drill samples are catalogued, panned and inspected for signs of visible gold before sending appropriate samples to the lab for further analysis.

By way of illustration, during the past week, ECR has identified and mapped a potentially suitable area considered for future commercial production in the form of a large creek flat. This area, which is previously un-mined, shows positive visible gold in the form of drill chips over an area measuring roughly 200m in length, 27m in width and up to 3m in depth. Samples are currently being prepared for laboratory analysis with the results expected to be used to assess the design of exploration trenches. Here, the estimated 16,200 cubic metres with an assumed project grade of 0.6 grammes per bank cubic metre and the current gold spot price of approximately US$3,290 represents a potential gold value in situ of over US$1.1 million. The speed and precision by which this area has been assessed was considerably advanced by the drilling programme. This area represents just a small fraction of the potentially mineable zones across the Blue Mountain Project. In addition, this illustrates not only the potential financial scale of the Blue Mountain Project but also the speed at which ECR is able to assess its viability.

During last week, ECR's chairman, Nick Tulloch, and chief geologist, Adam Jones, also conducted a review of the Blue Mountain Project to assess the areas to be drilled. With the scale of the Blue Mountain Project area being extensive, management decided to keep the drill rig on site at the Blue Mountain Project for the time being to continue operations. The drill rig will move up to the Lolworth Project later this month.

Earlier this year, ECR published an illustration that the Blue Mountain Project may be capable of generating monthly revenues of approximately A$470,000 (US$295,000). This potential revenue illustration assumes an average grade of 0.6 grammes per bank cubic metre and Gekko Systems Pty Limited's projected 91.7% gold recovery rate, with a wash plant with a 25 tonne per hour capacity, to provide prospective output per month of over 3,000 grammes (over 100 ounces), using a gold price of US$2,790 per ounce.

We are pleased to report that subsequent work continues to support the above illustration, albeit it now equates to potential monthly revenues of approximately A$544,000 (US$350,000) when using an updated gold price of US$3,290 per ounce. More particularly, the work to date has increased the Company's confidence in using higher capacity wash plants and the table below illustrates the potential scale up that could be achieved.

Illustrative monthly revenue and production at the Blue Mountain Project

Alluvial gold recovery is highly sensitive to the rate at which material can be processed. The above illustration is based on a wash plant with a 25 tonne per hour capacity but the scale of the Blue Mountain Project would potentially support a larger plant, subject to a suitable design and the availability of sufficient water. Management will continue to examine the feasibility of such plants and have already had a preliminary discussion with the landowner regarding constructing a dam as part of the project. The table below illustrates how any potential revenue, and commercial production would scale up with a larger plant (with all other assumptions above remaining the same).

Investors should note that the above figures are illustrative of the Blue Mountain Project's potential based on the assumptions stated and the potential commercial production should not be considered a forecast or guarantee of revenue.

The opportunity at the Blue Mountain Project has attracted interest from third party production partners. Any such potential partnership may give ECR the ability to scale up operations but on the basis that any revenue generated would be shared. The Company will keep these opportunities under review whilst it assesses the potential scale of the Blue Mountain Project.

Lolworth Project drilling programme

Once work has completed at the Blue Mountain Project, ECR's team and the drill rig will move up to the Lolworth Project. At present, the Company anticipates remaining at the Blue Mountain Project until at least the end of this week, but potentially longer to ensure that it fully optimises the use of the drill rig to map out potential resource areas.

This has necessarily delayed commencement of drilling at the Lolworth Project. However, the planned work programme at the Lolworth Project to drill a series of 40m to 80m holes across four locations at the tenement is unchanged. With ECR's work at the Blue Mountain Project substantially adding to its knowledge of alluvial mining, the team will for the first time assess whether this methodology could also be employed at the Lolworth Project.

The drilling campaign at the Lolworth Project is likely to take 3 to 4 weeks. Accordingly, it is expected that the drilling campaign will commence in mid-August 2025 and will likely conclude in early September 2025. As with previous work there, ECR will seek to draw on the Company's partnership with the Geological Survey of Queensland and James Cook University, whose respective surveys will provide the Company with further data points across the project area.

Total voting rights update

ECR also announces that application has been made for 212,728,300 new ordinary shares of 0.001 pence each in ECR ("Ordinary Shares") to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission") and it is expected that Admission will become effective on or around 5 August 2025.

The 212,728,300 new Ordinary Shares were previously validly allotted by the board of directors of ECR (the "Board" or the "Directors"). However, the previous Board did not at the time make an application for these Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM.

Admission and total voting rights

Upon Admission, ECR's issued ordinary share capital will remain unchanged at 2,269,512,954 Ordinary Shares. This number will represent the total voting rights in the Company and 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 Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Nick Tulloch, ECR's Chairman, said: "I spent much of the last two weeks in Australia on a trip that covered Melbourne, our office in Bendigo, Sydney and finally the Blue Mountain Project in Queensland. Our decision to bring a drill rig onto the site has immediately paid off with our understanding of the Blue Mountain Project already considerably increased.

"This has been an efficient and accurate means of making preparations for the location of trenches and, as we have illustrated in today's announcement, is enabling us to map out the scale of the opportunity. Our findings to date continue to support our confidence in the Blue Mountain Project and its potential to be a very significant generator of revenue for ECR."

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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

ABOUT ECR MINERALS PLC

ECR Minerals is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR's wholly owned Australian subsidiary ECR Minerals (Australia) Pty Ltd ("ECR Australia") has 100% ownership of the Bailieston and Creswick gold projects in central Victoria, Australia, has six licence applications outstanding which includes one licence application lodged in eastern Victoria (Tambo gold project).

ECR also owns 100% of an Australian subsidiary ECR Minerals (Queensland) Pty Ltd which has three approved exploration permits covering 946 km2 over a relatively unexplored area in Lolworth Range, Queensland, Australia. The Company has also submitted a license application at Kondaparinga which is approximately 120km2 in area and located within the Hodgkinson Gold Province, 80km NW of Mareeba, North Queensland.

Following the sale of the Avoca, Moormbool and Timor gold projects in Victoria, Australia to Fosterville South Exploration Ltd (TSX-V: FSX) and the subsequent spin-out of the Avoca and Timor projects to Leviathan Gold Ltd (TSX-V: LVX), MGA has the right to receive up to A$2 million in payments subject to future resource estimation or production from projects sold to Fosterville South Exploration Limited. 

ECR Australia also has approximately A$75 million of unutilised tax losses incurred during previous operations.

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