ECR Minerals plans to commence drilling at the Itogon gold-silver project in Philippines, following the selection of Quest Exploration Drilling as the contractor.

The drilling contract requires Quest Exploration to complete about 24 holes over 3,850m with diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling.

Drilling is planned to be completed in three phases with phase one scheduled to commence around 7 April.

Phase one will include 1,050m of RC drilling while the second phase will include 1,800m of RC drilling or 1,000m of diamond drilling.

"Assay results from this first phase of drilling will be a very important indicator as to the potential of the Itogon project."

The third phase will cover any RC or diamond drilling not completed in phase two.

Phase one drilling is anticipated to be completed by the end of April, and assay results from the phase are expected to be available by the end of May.

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ECR Minerals CEO Stephen Clayson said that the first phase of the drilling programme will start following preparatory work, which has included discussions with relevant surface claimants, community relations activities and 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," Clayson said.

ECR said that the drilling programme aims to intersect all of the currently interpreted sub-parallel quartz vein structures across the width of the main prospect area, which is characterised by a ridge trending approximately north-west.

Itogon is an advanced exploration project located in a gold and copper mining district on the island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines.