ECR Minerals shifts focus towards operations
Feb. 24, 2014, 5:08 am by Giles Gwinnett
At the Itogon gold-silver project in the Philippines, where the firm has significant interest in an advanced exploration venture, it is not starting from square one, the firm said' () focus is now on operations from restructuring, it said, posting final results.
Over the past year, the mining company has reshaped, refocused and refinanced, said chairman Paul Johnson, who added the firm's two current projects offer significant opportunity.
At the Itogon gold-silver project in the Philippines, where the firm has significant interest in an advanced exploration venture, it is not starting from square one, he said.
The company has "been able to utilise substantial historical data in order to devise our exploration programme with a view to accelerating the project along its development pathway," said Johnson.
"Secondly, in Argentina, the enhanced financial strength of ECR in the latter half of 2013 enabled us to deploy resources to further investigate the Sierra de las Minas project and, specifically, to review in greater depth the work undertaken previously and the results received.
"This review paid dividends, and we are now moving forward with a revived project. Careful operational planning has taken place to maximise the impact of our renewed exploration which, if successful, provides us with the possibility of small scale gold production in the relatively near term."
The firm added that it continued to assess potential new projects for acqusition in what is a distressed mining environment.
In the year to end September 2013, the loss before tax was £7.52mln compared to £4.07mln in 2012.