A recently completed, reconnaissance soil sampling programme has resulted in the discovery of a series of anomalous zones of gold enrichment and these will now be explored in more detail.
Connemara Mining Company plc (“Connemara”) (AIM:CON) holds five licences in the Wicklow/Wexford area which are prospective for gold. Hendrick Resources Ireland Ltd (“HRI”), a Canadian gold explorer is spending €1m to earn a 75% interest in the licences.
The sampling was targeted upon regions considered as prospective following detailed re-modelling of the local geology using the high quality airborne geophysical data acquired by HRI in the spring of 2012. The soil sampling was carried out along traverses 300 metres apart with samples collected at 50 metre spaced intervals.
In total, 800 samples were collected on the Connemara licences. This work has resulted in the discovery of a number of zones with significant gold enrichment. These are located in previously untested areas and close to known occurrences – notably Tombreen and Knocknalour. These results appear to extend the Tombreen and Knocknalour occurrences.
John Teeling, Chairman, commented, “The second phase of exploration by Hendrick Resources Ltd continues to yield positive results. I am very pleased with the discovery of previously unknown gold occurrences on two of the Connemara licences. Follow up close spaced soil sampling will be conducted early in 2013 to refine drill targets. The full programme is being carried by Hendrick at no cash cost to Connemara.”
Connemara is a diversified exploration company with principal assets in base metal zinc/lead exploration licences as well as shear hosted gold exploration licences in Ireland. The company holds interests in 29 licences covering an area of approximately 1,073 sq km.
This announcement has been reviewed and approved by the Company’s technical director Graham Reid (P.Geo) in his capacity as the Qualified Person for the purposes of the AIM Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange. Mr Reid is a Professional Member of The Institute of Geologists of Ireland (IGI) and The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and has over 30 years’ experience in mineral exploration and site investigation fields.