Connemara Mining provides exploration update for two Ireland concessions

Connemara Mining has issued an update on ongoing exploration activities at its Oldcastle and Donegal concessions in Ireland.

A diversified exploration company, Connemara Mining holds principal assets in gold, zinc and lead exploration licences in the country.

Connemara Mining chairman John Teeling said: “We are making progress on both active exploration programmes.”

At Oldcastle, the latest drilling intersected trace mineralisation within the Oldcastle Block located on the Meath/Cavan border. The Oldcastle block consists of five licences which are explored by Teck Ireland through an option agreement with Connemara.

Results from TC-1991-003 provided 0.3% zinc and 0.09% lead at 725-726m (1m), from the Top Micrites of the Navan Group.

Teck has earned 65% holding in the block, and continues advancing the Oldcastle ground as part of the North Midlands zinc exploration programme where the target is a Navan style zinc/lead orebody.

Teeling said: “The Oldcastle project, being funded by Teck, is grass a roots exploration programme. We are searching for a world-class system, with the Tara Mines style zinc orebody being the analogue.

“We have evidence for favourable stratigraphy, structures, alteration and trace mineralisation in an area that is 20 miles from Navan.”

The latest drill hole has traces of lead and zinc, as do the two previous holes in the area. The results are being built into a developing model of the area to improve targeting criteria for potential future drilling. The gold discovery in Donegal is a later stage and the firm has found gold bearing veins and good width and grades in one of them.

Teeling added: “We took a leap of faith, 8km away to an old lead/silver mine where the geology looked the same as that which we drilled. It was expensive to clean out the old workings but still proved dangerous to sample.

“We found lead/zinc and silver grades, but no gold. We will now look at a programme to follow the high-grade vein over a shorter distance.”

After successful drilling at Inishowen in Donegal, the company shifted the drilling team to focus on lead and silver mine at Glentogher, located 8km north.

The drilling results confirmed the presence of lead, zinc and silver within a 2m-wide bed, but did not find any connection to gold mineralisation.

Results will help upgrade the regional and local structural model before the next drilling campaign.

Connemara Mining holds interests in 40 licences in Ireland that cover a total area of around 1,350km².

Source: Mining technology