LONDON (ShareCast) - Exploration and development company ECR Minerals has signed a deal with Quest Exploration Drilling (QED) for it to complete up to 24 drill holes at the Itogon gold-silver project in the Philippines.

The drilling will be completed in three phases: 1,050m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling; a second phase of 1,800m of RC drilling or 1,000m of diamond drilling; and a third phase consisting of RC or diamond drilling not completed in the second phase.

The group anticipates that the first phase of drilling will begin on or around April 7th and be completed by the end of the month. The assay results from this phase are expected to be available by the end of May.

ECR has the option to terminate the agreement after the first phase or the second phase; both the second and third phases are dependent on satisfactory results from prior phases, but could potential be completed simultaneously.

Stephen Clayson, the Chief Executive Officer of ECR, said: "The first phase of our 3,850m 2014 drilling programme for the Itogon project is about to commence following an intensive period of preparatory work, which has included negotiations with relevant surface claimants, community relations activities and extensive road and access improvements.

"Assay results from this first phase of drilling will be a very important indicator as to the potential of the Itogon project, particularly as all historical drilling is reported to have been completed vertically and therefore does not provide a proper test of the steeply dipping veins identified at Itogon."

The drilling programme is intended to generate information as to the overall grade of the deposit, as well as to assess its cohesiveness and whether it can be mined in bulk, either by open pit or underground techniques, or as discrete higher grade zones mineable underground, the group further explained.

The news prompted a 13.18% jump in the share price to 0.249p by 09:35 Wednesday.

NR

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