Australian miners see silver lining in rural Irish mission
Mineral explorer has identified prospects with airborne survey, writes Fearghal O’Connor
AUSTRALIAN exploration firm Walkabout Resources has identified copper, cobalt and silver targets in the Co Tyrone countryside following an airborne survey it carried out last May.
Walkabout is just one of a number of mineral explorers to have upped the ante across a large swathe of the Border counties in recent times, with gold causing the most excitement.
The Australian company said the airborne survey had established drilling targets across its licensed area in Co Tyrone.
The company said soil sampling around the Corvanaghan-Golden Hollow area had delineated several anomalies associated with previously reported high-grade gold and other minerals in samples from the area.
“We are assembling a portfolio of highly prospective exploration licences for gold and base metals in a part of Europe that has seen significant under-prospecting for decades,” said Walkabout Resources chairman Trevor Benson. “While European exploration environments are somewhat different to those in Africa and require extensive community engagement, Walkabout believes that potential value upside for all stakeholders is achievable and will strive to introduce our unique brand of inclusive, community-integrated mineral exploration.”
Meanwhile, Canadian company Group Eleven Resources welcomed the recent commencement of the Geological Survey of Ireland’s airborne geophysical Tellus survey covering 2,500 sq kms of its exploration ground in the Limerick and Silvermines Basins.
Eleven Resources said the survey would help materially advance high-quality nearterm drill targets “in this very prospective region”.
It added that the survey could answer some of “the biggest questions still lurking in this very under-explored portion of the Irish zinc-lead district”.