ECR Minerals : Placing of Shares

AIM: ECR

US OTC: MTGDY

ECR MINERALS plc
('ECR Minerals', 'ECR' or the 'Company')

LONDON: 4 JULY 2016 - The directors of ECR Minerals plc (the 'Directors') announce that firm commitments have been received in respect of a placing (the 'Placing') of 3,500,000,000 new ordinary shares of the Company of 0.001 pence (the 'Placing Shares') at a price of 0.01 pence per share raising gross proceeds of £350,000.

Smaller Company Capital Ltd, an appointed representative of Vicarage Capital Ltd, acted for ECR in the Placing, which is conditional upon receipt of funds and admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM. A Placing commitment of £60,000 has been received from PrimaryBid, the crowdfunding platform for AIM listed companies.

Use of Placing Proceeds

The Directors intend that the expected net proceeds of the Placing (approximately £323,750) will be used to repay all amounts owed by the Company under the convertible loan facility (the 'Facility') in place with YA II PN Ltd (formerly known as YA Global Master SPV Ltd), an investment fund managed by Yorkville Advisors Global LP. Any funds remaining following the repayment will be utilised by the Company as working capital.

While recognising the value to the Company of the financial support provided by the Facility to date, the Directors do not intend to make further use of the Facility, or to make use of similar facilities in the foreseeable future.

ECR Activities

ECR is pressing ahead with its assessment of the Avoca gold project in Victoria, Australia, where the potential to generate relatively short-term cash flow from the reprocessing of historical waste dumps to extract remnant gold is being evaluated. For further information, please see the Company's announcements dated 13 June 2016 and 30 June 2016.

Admission of Placing Shares to AIM

Pursuant to the Placing it is expected that an application will be made for admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM ('Admission'). Settlement and Admission are expected to occur on or around 18 July 2016. Following Admission, it is expected that the Company will have a total of 11,988,066,586 ordinary shares in issue. The Placing Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the ordinary shares of ECR currently traded on AIM.

ABOUT ECR

ECR is a mineral exploration and development company. ECR's wholly owned Australian subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia (MGA) has agreed to acquire 100% ownership of the Avoca and Bailieston gold projects in Victoria, Australia. Mercator Gold Australia is estimated to have tax losses of approximately AUD 66M as at 30 June 2015, which may be available, subject to certain conditions (as described in ECR's announcement dated 4 December 2014), to reduce MGA's future taxable profits. This is considered particularly significant in view of an opportunity which may exist at Avoca to establish relatively near term gold production from the reprocessing of historical mine dumps, with the potential for sale of gravel and sand by-products. A competent person's report in relation to the Avoca and Bailieston projects is available for download from ECR's website.

ECR has the right to earn a 50% interest in the Danglay epithermal gold project in the Philippines. Danglay is an advanced exploration project located in a prolific gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines. An NI43-101 technical report was completed in respect of the Danglay project in December 2015, and is available for download from ECR's website.

ECR's wholly owned subsidiary Ochre Mining has a 100% interest in the SLM gold project in La Rioja Province, Argentina. Exploration at SLM has focused on identifying small tonnage mesothermal gold deposits which may be suitable for relatively near term production.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This announcement may include forward looking statements. Such statements may be subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and therefore actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Any forward looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date hereof (unless stated otherwise) and, except as may be required by applicable laws or regulations (including the AIM Rules for Companies), the Company disclaims any obligation to update or modify such forward looking statements as a result of new information, future events or for any other reason.