ECR Minerals will begin a program of diamond drilling on or about January 15 at the Itogon Gold Project in Benguet Province, northern Philippines. ECR is the operator of Itogon and has the right to earn a 50% interest in the project.

The program has been designed in view of the results of reverse circulation (RC) drilling completed at Itogon by ECR’s contractors in April 2014, and with the benefit of the extensive surface and underground mapping and sampling that has taken place at the project since the earlier phase of drilling.

The program is primarily intended to provide information as to the orientation of the interpreted mineralized structures, the extent of near surface supergene enriched zones, and the continuity of certain zones of mineralization intercepted by the RC holes.

ECR's CEO Stephen Clayson says, “ECR’s second phase of drilling at the Itogon project will be a crucial one. The results of the first phase were encouraging but, but as would be expected of a first pass program, left a number of geological questions unanswered. It is hoped that this second phase will enable a geological interpretation for the main prospect area at Itogon to be set out with confidence. That interpretation would then guide decisions regarding further work.

"The second phase had been planned to commence during the final quarter of 2014, but additional time to consider the exploration data generated by ECR to date was deemed necessary before the program could be finalized. Management and technical personnel also devoted considerable time to the review of potential new projects during quarter four of 2014.”