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THERE IS DEFINITELY gold in the hills of Donegal, but it is likely to take years to establish whether it is worth the effort to mine it.
Irish exploration firm Connemara Mining has confirmed “without a doubt” that there is a gold-bearing vein system within the rocks of Inishowen, Donegal after drilling three holes in the area.
The announcement saw the firm’s valuation immediately spike – more than tripling from just over one pence a share initially before settling at just under three pence by the time markets closed.
The area where the find was made is believed to be geologically similar to Curraghinalt, Tyrone where there is a potentially massive gold deposit.
Promising results
Speaking to Fora, company chairman John Teeling said that the results are very promising but added that the company will have to carry out more work to find out whether the site is commercially viable.
“As part of our drilling programme last year we found gold veins that were OK, but were narrow, maybe about 10cm wide which wasn’t commercial,” he said.
“One of the veins that we found (as part of the new drilling programme), was 10 feet wide, so it is quite significant.”
The company drilled three holes, the best of which had about $200 worth of gold for every tonne of rock in the area. However, the company has not established how widely this concentration of the precious mineral can be found.
More exploring
Teeling said that the findings give an additional incentive to spend more on exploration.
“We would need to drill a minimum of 16 holes to be able to say whether it is geologically viable, which would cost about £800,000 (€989,000). We will drill in lots of four because we don’t have all of that at the moment,” he said.
Telling added that the next phase will likely take 12 months to complete, after which the company will then look at a feasibility study – which he says would cost “millions”.
“You could spend £10 million easily on the feasibility phase, that is some way off. We would have an additional partner by then as well, I would imagine,” he said. “It is a promising discovery but at the moment that is all it is, it’s not a mine or anything near it yet.”
Connemara, which was established in 2004 and is not yet revenue-generating, has 35 prospecting licences across the country.
Ireland has never had a commercial gold mine, although there have been several signs of promise in areas such as Monaghan, where exploration company Conroy Gold has reported evidence of high-grade gold deposits.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and originally published on Fora, a new business publication for Irish startups and SMEs.
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5%. Who makes this suff up! More like 25% at least.
@Cars: Facts mostly.
@Cars: it’s a rolling year stat….. It’s up 18.4% from January 2021. Maybe that’s what you refer to. Google “CSO CPI inflation calculator”….. An eye opening tool
@Daniel Roche: skewed statistics more like. If only it was 5%, that’s fairytale stuff to feed to the general population. The current government (and previous) failed miserably to deliver. Their only option to stand any chance of remaining in power will be to try indoctrinate the citizens with complete BS to paint a fictional picture of delivering.
Ii’ a lot more than that, grocery prices have soared.
5% ? put 2 if front or the 5 and it’s correct
Diesel gone up over 10c in Circle K in two weeks in Tallaght
@Eddienowy Byrne: same here in Wicklow
@Eddienowy Byrne: just in time now that the government are putting on 5c on Friday on diesel and 7c on petrol .. they hate giving people a break
@Gavin Kelly: That would imply that a break has ever been given.
@Gavin Kelly: Especially handy when they can claim their fuel and expenses.
@Gavin Kelly: That’s a lie and you know it,I’m not agreeing with it but at least tell the truth,that is a major problem and why people will vote FF or FG,they can’t trust the other side,better the devil you know, maybe tell the truth.
@George Vladisavljevic: You know the old saying ” All pigs are equal but some pigs are more equal”, Animal Farm.
5% and the rest. They having a laugh
Fuel rocketing back up as well since they put taxes back on ….this will lead to the increase of prices on everything
Full shopping bags are down 50%! And the Price has increased by 25%!
That’s just fact.
Who ever compiled this,please let us all know where you shop.
@Thomas: I shop in German supermarket and the numbers look about right to me, for the period over the last 12 months.
Definitely not 25% or even +40% as claimed here.
But maybe it’s my shopping habit – very little processed food on much meat either.
@Wolfgang Bonow: me also,the numbers may not be as high as 25 percent in some cases,but nothing is near as low as 5 percent.
@Wolfgang Bonow: even the German supermarkets have increased prices big time way more than the 5% spoke abouts.
They can no way still call themselves discount supermarkets
@Wolfgang Bonow: I do too.
But I noticed bread had increased in price by 17% between my last 2 visits.
These so called “journslist” from the journal printing lies and spreading falsehoods for the irish government..
Shame on you all at the journal,
@Adam: I agree,the authors of this article obviously know this is way down on the reality,but go ahead and publish it anyway.
Absolute rubbish. Inflation is really running at about 43% easily. I haven’t changed my spending at all and unfortunately for banks their apps are the real key to finding out just how bad inflation really is. My app had my spend at 43% higher than this time last year and I’ve actually cut back on certain things.
5%??? try 15 or 20% with some of the price increases ive seen lately……greed greed and more greed
They will most definitely need revision,
Brown Thomas getting a Lidl ‘middle isle’ this week apparently
It can’t be that number…. Most of the prices have increased by 30 to 50 percent… That are lying.
5%? Do they take us for fools or what…And as a lot of comments state the fuel increases will add to inflation even more, not to mention the carbon tax coming in the budget.
have your say