JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The share price of Aim- and TSX-V-quoted Galantas Gold surged more than 80% in London on Thursday, after the company reported solid progress at its Omagh gold mine development in Northern Ireland.

The dual listed miner’s share price climbed to 9p a share, from the previous day’s closing price of 4.88p each, before retreating to 7.62c a share by midday.

Galantas is using training equipment to progress mine development, which currently stands at 163 m, but said that the development rate will accelerate substantially once more drilling equipment arrives on site at the end of the month.

Atlas Copco has delayed the delivery of new drilling equipment until the end of March, but will provide a substitute rig, the miner reported.

The company has also received positive news from the Environment Agency, which concluded that there was no evidence that activities at the mine site were detrimental to the qualify of groundwater around the site or of the Kerr Burn.

On the exploration side, the miner said that there was potential for zinc and possibly lead mineralisation near Twigs Park. Galantas had found two core drilled by the past licence holder stored in the barn.

Two intersections were sampled on one of the cores. The first, of an intersect of 0.8 m, at a depth of 7.0 m, returned results of 8.1 g/t silver, 511 g/t copper, 70.8 g/t lead, 60.5 g/t antimony and 1.56% zinc. The second, of an intersect of 1.0 m at 42.9 m depth, returned results of 45.2 g/t silver, 250 g/t copper, 0.57% lead, 191 g/t antimony and 12.85% zinc. A historical hole, the exact location, azimuth and dip of the drill hole is not verified at this time.

The second drill core has not yet been sampled.

Regarding the third-party appeal against a positive judicial review of the planning consent for Omagh, the company said that a hearing was scheduled for February 6.