TSX-V-listed Hannan Metals has received final drill permissions for a diamond drilling programme to get under way at the Kilmurry project, near the Kilbricken zinc/lead/silver resource in county Clare, Ireland.

The company stated that several geological factors made the fault zone a prospective target for zinc/lead/silver mineralisation. Firstly, the entire fault zone was active during the formation of the Waulsortian limestone. The individual fault segments are closely spaced and have significant vertical offset, with the maximum mapped offset being one of the largest basin-scale displacements mapped in Ireland. Closely spaced faults and significant fault offset along a relay fault system have a direct correlation with rock deformation and mineralising fluid pathways in Irish-style zinc/lead/silver deposits.

Furthermore, historic drilling has identified significant alteration and mineralisation immediately south in the footwall of the Kilmurry fault zone. Four historic drill holes that have tested the hanging wall of the fault zone never reached the target depth. The holes were drilled over 3.5 km strike and all encountered geological evidence to support the seismic interpretation of the fault zone. Drill hole 11-3643-10 is the most significant and it intersected structurally hosted massive sulphides at 166 m depth.

The drill programme will extend an existing drill hole by between 200 m and 250 m to test the mineralisation target zone at the base of the Waulsortian limestone within the hanging wall of the Kilmurry fault. This hole was terminated short of target at 754 m by earlier explorers.

"The Kilmurry area is highly prospective and demonstrates all the right ingredients for a major base metal system where the scale of the untested fault and host rock point to the potential for a transformative discovery. This target is a direct outcome of the regional target generation work, driven by the seismic surveys completed by Hannan over the last year," said Hannan chairperson and CEO Michael Hudson.