Fresh Northern Ireland gold drilling targets identified

Mon Sep 04 2023

Dublin-based exploration firm Conroy Gold has found additional gold drilling targets in Northern Ireland. The firm announced that it has just completed 6,000 metres of drilling in the first phase of its joint venture programme with Demir Export, one of Turkey’s biggest miners.

In return for providing €9m to fund Conroy’s drilling exploration programme, as well as covering all the costs to bring any subsequent developments to ‘shovel ready’ status, Demir will take a 57.5pc stake in the projects. London-listed Conroy said that as a result of the first phase of the drilling programme, it has identified four gold areas near its ‘Creenkill gold target’ located in the townland of Creenkill in Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The first phase of the joint venture involved Demir providing €4.5m to take an initial 25pc stake across all of the joint venture licences with Conroy Gold. It will now provide a further €4.5m during the second phase to earn an additional 15pc share in the joint ventures. Conroy Gold said Demir will also cover “all expenditure required to bring a given project to shovel ready status, including all planning and land acquisition costs, to earn a further 17.5pc (total 57.5pc) in that given project”.

Conroy Gold will retain the right to a 42.5pc interest. Professor Richard Conroy, the chairman of Conroy Gold, said: “I am very pleased that over 6,000 metres of drilling has been completed in phase one.

“[This is] together with other detailed technical work including the extensive deep overburden sampling programme. “The collection of over 1,500 samples has yielded extensive information for follow up drilling which we will pursue in partnership with Demir Export.”

Conroy Gold previously said the focus of the joint venture project would be exploring gold deposits in an area around Clontibret, Co Monaghan on a rock formation called the Longford-Down massif.

The firm is optimistic that the gold samples it has previously found indicate there is the potential to develop Ireland’s first ever commercial gold mine near the Irish border. Professor Conroy previously said that Demir had the expertise and cash to get the Clontibret gold mine to construction-ready status and bring it into operation.

Conroy Gold said in a statement yesterday: “The primary focus of the joint venture is to develop a mine at Clontibret, or elsewhere along the gold trends, with the long-term objective of the delivery of a series of mine developments across the new gold districts.”

Source: https://www.independent.ie/