(Sharecast News) - Precious metals exploration and development company ECR Minerals has submitted new licence applications to augment its existing gold exploration interests in the Australian state of Victoria, it announced on Tuesday.The AIM-traded firm said four new licence applications in Victoria had now been submitted by its wholly-owned Australian operating vehicle Mercator Gold Australia.Three of those applications were submitted on the Bailieston/Moormbool gold project area, to augment existing licences and secure available ground south and south and south west of an application submitted by Newmont Exploration in recent weeks.One application was submitted to augment ground in the Creswick project area, and covered a southern portion of the Dimocks Main Shale.As it outlined on 25 September, ECR said the Dimocks Main Shale sat between two large gold-producing areas, where it was estimated that historically, 15 million ounces of gold was produced in Victoria.It was the proposition of the company's technical team that they had identified the hard rock source for a "significant portion" of the aforementioned 15 million ounces of gold production, the board claimed, although further work was required to validate that proposition/Further work was being undertaken to add additional licence application ground in Australia, it added, where the company had identified strategic exploration opportunities."I am delighted to announce today that the company has successfully submitted four new applications which materially bolster our strategic ground holding and provide significant additional exploration opportunities for our Australian operations," said chief executive officer Craig Brown."The recent application submitted by Newmont Exploration over a large area bordering our Bailieston and Moormbool gold projects is an important ratification of our strategic Australian gold positioning."The presence of Newmont adds weight to the potential prospectivity of the area."Brown said ECR's exploration work at Bailieston had recently demonstrated gold prospectivity, as highlighted by the results of the company's Bailieston sampling programme, with gold grades up to 67.4g/t."At Creswick and as announced on 25 September 2018 our exploration mapping revealed a large gold system, and reflecting our wider exploration work to date, we have taken the opportunity to secure more strategic ground south of our existing Creswick project area."ECR continues to examine new opportunities and will move to secure additional ground where appropriate."
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