After completing a diamond drilling program at the Itogon Gold Project ECR Minerals is starting a trenching program designed for the main prospect area. Trenches are planned to be up to 5 metres deep and are intended to expose certain of the larger mapped quartz vein structures and other interpreted mineralized zones, including supergene zones, in the main prospect area.

Each trench will be mapped and sampled in order to obtain additional information regarding the geology and gold grades in the zones exposed.
The company expects to receive results from the six-hole drilling program by the end of the month.

If successful, the trenching is expected to enable a near surface inferred resource to be estimated for the main prospect area, on the basis of the results of drilling completed to date in combination with the results of the trenching. Estimation of resources in the measured and indicated categories, which represent higher levels of confidence, would require additional drilling.

The trenching may be carried out in two phases so as to allow the effectiveness of the technique to be evaluated, with the second phase and any resource estimation being subject to this evaluation.

This month ECR also plans to commence a detailed topographical survey of the main prospect area using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The resulting data is expected to be used in resource estimation.

ECR is a mineral exploration and development company with, among other interests, the right to earn a 50% interest in Itogon, an advanced exploration project located in a gold and copper mining district in the north of the Philippines.