ECR Minerals (LON:ECR, OTC:MTGDY) wung into a profit in the first half and reported a strong rise in net assets as a result of selling the option over the Copper Flat copper-molybdenum-gold-silver project in New Mexico to THEMAC Resources Group. The group made an operating profit of £4.03 million profit of in the six months to end-March 31, compared with a £3 million loss in the previous first half. ECR booked a gain of just over £6 million arising from the Copper Flat project and net assets rose to to £14.4 million as at March 31 2011, compared with £3.26 million a year earlier. Managing director Patrick Harford said: “I expect that the magnitude of gain generated by the Copper Flat transaction will be the first of many such gains for the company. “ECR’s business model of locating undervalued assets and structuring transactions to place them in preferred corporate vehicles for capital raising has now been strongly validated, and we continue to cast our net widely in order to locate other attractive assets, as well as working diligently to advance our existing portfolio,” he added. Earlier this month, ECR’s 19.5 percent held partner THEMAC started an 18,000 metre core and reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme at Copper Flat with the aims of achieving an upgrade of the current NI43-101 resource to higher resource categories and a more precise delineation of the orebody. The programme will also provide additional geotechnical data and samples for further metallurgical test work. At its 100 percent-owned El Abra gold prospect in La Rioja Province, Argentina, ECR plans a programme of ground based geophysics followed, if warranted, by drilling in order to evaluate the continuity to depth of the high grade mineralisation identified on surface. It is anticipated that the geophysical programme will be initiated before the end of August. El Abra forms part of the company’s Sierra de las Minas project area. ECR’s primary exploration objective for the Sierra de las Minas project area is to identify one or more high grade, small tonnage gold deposits that may be suitable for development to production within a relatively short timescale, and El Abra is judged to be a promising prospect of this type. The company is additionally evaluating the prospectivity of the Sierra de las Minas project area for copper porphyry mineralisation. ACS Asia, the Thai steel products business in which ECR holds a 70 percent interest, saw gross profits and revenues fall due to testing trading conditions in 2011 and early 2011. However conditions for ACS are improving and a better second half to the financial year is expected, in part thanks to a number of significant export orders secured in recent months. Warm Springs Renewable Energy Corp (WSREC), in which ECR currently has a 90 percent interest, is operating at a reduced level of activity while the impact of recent changes in the state government of New Mexico and developments in the US renewable power sector are evaluated. Work towards permitting of a number of sites in the vicinity of Copper Flat for solar development has laid the groundwork to exploit future opportunities, which may begin to crystallise as the time at which the Copper Flat project is expected to enter production and become a significant new consumer of electricity in the area draws nearer. Completion of the acquisition of the Meekatharra gold project in Western Australia held by ECR’s 100 percent subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia Pty Ltd (MGA), in administration since 2008, by Reed Resources Ltd (ASX: RDR) is expected to occur on 30 June 2011.

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