The Geological Survey of Ireland’s ‘Tellus’ airborne geophysical survey, covering TSX-V-listed explorer Group Eleven’s Stonepark, PG West and Silvermines zinc projects, have yielded some “large surprises”, including a number of previously unknown geological features.
The Canadian company said on Wednesday that the geological features opened up new areas of prospectivity and added significant refinement to its already-established zinc target areas.
"To have such an extensive, uniform and high-quality data set over the entire 1 200 km2 Stonepark and PG West project is a big step forward for Group Eleven," stated CEO Bart Jaworski.
"We are excited to now use this information to fast-track and refine our plans for what should be an exciting exploration programme in 2020 on this project."
The survey provided clearer detail of the Limerick Volcanic Complex (LVC). Specifically, the key exploration concept remained very much intact and was now better refined.
A number of previously-unknown large circular features appeared along the southwestern margin of the LVC, likely representing buried volcanic centres or intrusions.
Cutting through the recently drilled Ballywire prospect, a strong east-northeast linear trend confirmed and refined the 'Navan-Tipperary line', long considered to be the southwest continuation of the famous 'Rathdowney Trend' (hosting the Lisheen and Galmoy zinc deposits).
Group Eleven stated that about 20 km to the west of – and sub-parallel to – the Pallas Green corridor, the data showed a previously-unknown, strong northwest linear trend, at least 40 km long, which appeared to represent a corridor of suspected buried volcanic centres or instrusives.
London-listed Arkle Resources, which is a joint venture partner in the Stonepark project, welcomed the news. CEO Patrick Cullen said that the work continued to build evidence supporting new exploration targets to the south of the Stonepark project.
"Very few exploratory holes have been drilled through the cover rocks that lie above these targets. We expect further holes to be drilled in the vicinity of Kilteely, where we had exciting drilling results earlier this year. The detail visible in the new data will assist with refining these decisions.
"In addition, new features, which appear to be buried intrusives, have been identified in the southwest of the project. These are prospective targets. We look forward to further updates,” said Cullen.