Connemara Mining Company plc has achieved its key objectives at its 100% owned Mine River gold project in Wicklow/Wexford in Ireland. Slightly less than 300 m have been drilled on three holes and sampling and mapping has been completed elsewhere across the project area. Drill and field samples are scheduled for delivery to the assay laboratory on 22 December 2017. Results are expected in January 2018.
Chairman of Connemara Mining Company, John Teeling, stated: "Our geologists and drill contractors have been busy for the past month on our Mine River project in Wicklow and Wexford. 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. We look forward to publishing assay results in early 2018."
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. The principal trend follows the Caledonian northeast - southwest trend. The airborne geophysical survey flown by Hendrick Resources in 2012 (combined with the Tara Exploration survey of 2000) has facilitated the development of a more robust structural model that puts the significant gold occurrences found to date into context and has assisted with targeting.
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 (Au) from 70.7 m (2558-3). Six holes were drilled at Knocknalour with results including: 40cm grading at 19.9g/t Au from 96.0 m (2554-2) and 30 cm grading at 10.45g/t Au from 88.5 m (2554-3). 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 in-situ grade of 7.37g/t Au.