JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Connemara on Thursday reported that slightly less than 300 m have been drilled on three holes, with sampling and mapping having been completed elsewhere, across its 100%-owned Mine River gold project area, in Wicklow and Wexford, northern Ireland.
The company now expected drill and field samples to be delivered to the assay laboratory on Friday, with results expected in January 2018.
Connemara chairperson John Teeling, who also chairs Botswana Diamonds, noted that the miner’s geologists and drill contractors have “been busy for the past month” on the project. “There have been challenging weather conditions as expected but we are satisfied with progress. The geological mapping and field sampling has already yielded information and we will have new drill targets for the new year.”
The focus of the Mine River project is a 15-km-long target that has been identified by geochemical surveys in streams and soils completed across the Block, indicating significant strata-bound gold mineralisation associated with the contacts between Ordovician volcanic rocks and metasedimentary rocks.
Historic drilling has proven gold mineralisation in bedrock along the trend. Five holes were drilled at Tom Breen with results including 50 cm grading at 21.28g/t gold from 70.7 m.
Six holes were drilled at Knocknalour with results including 40 cm grading at 19.9g/t gold from 96 m and 30 cm grading at 10.45g/t gold from 88.5 m.
The newly drilled target at Gibbet Hill is 2.5 km further south along trend where favourable geological observations have been made and a grab sample from a road cutting returned an onsite grade of 7.37g/t gold.