Termination of option to acquire Hurricane Project

ECR Minerals plc (LON:ECR), the exploration and development company focused on gold in Australia, announces that it has today terminated its option to acquire the Hurricane project.

As announced on 27 October 2022, ECR was granted an option to acquire the entire issued share capital of Placer Gold Pty Limited, which is the beneficial holder of three granted mining tenements located in NE Queensland, together known as the Hurricane Project (the "Option"). Following the change of board announced on 15 September 2023, the Company had negotiated an extension to the Option period which was designed to give the new management team more time to analyse and review the project.

ECR has today sent a formal notification that it no longer intends to exercise its option to acquire Placer Gold Pty Limited. Although preliminary results from ECR's due diligence show promise, in the opinion of the board of directors, the potential value to ECR of the Hurricane project cannot be justified against the previously agreed acquisition terms. The vendors have indicated that they are prepared to make some adjustments to the terms but, nevertheless, it is the board's view that the two parties remain some distance apart and that the Company's time and resources should now be redeployed to other opportunities that could deliver higher returns.

ECR Managing Director Nick Tulloch commented: "The Hurricane project has been a feature of ECR's strategy for almost a year now and terminating the option to acquire it was not a decision that we took lightly. It is evident that that Hurricane has some excellent prospects but the combination with ECR is not right at this time. Results from our due diligence to date have been encouraging but the size and cost of the opportunity is very significant to ECR and we simply cannot justify the value placed on the transaction. I recognise this news may surprise some of our investors but we are determined to rebuild value in ECR and, however hard the decision may be, we will not proceed with projects that are not in the best interests of shareholders."