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Newcastle West Block

The Newcastle West block comprises ten contiguous prospecting licences and is located approximately 20km southeast of the Stonepark prospect on the Monaster Block. The area is relatively underexplored when compared to the Pallas Green-Monaster area but is considered to be prospective for base metal mineralisation. These licences form part of the Joint Venture with Teck, who are the operators for the block, in the Limerick Zinc vehicle.

The geology of the block is dominated by two roughly east-west trending, large anticlinal folds that are flanked by prospective Waulsortian Limestone. A number of large east-west to northeast trending normal faults have also been mapped on the licence. This is significant as Irish-Type base metal deposits are structurally controlled and occur in the hanging wall rocks of normal faults.

The sub-cropping Waulsortian Limestone in the southern portion of the Newcastle West block is on-trend from known mineralisation at the Killmallock prospect currently being explored by Boliden. Historic intercepts from Killmallock include;

• 5.3m grading 9.6% Zn, 2.1 %Pb
• 4.5m grading 12.3% Zn, 1.6% Pb

Connemara Mining carried out a programme of geological mapping, geophysical and geochemical surveys on the Newcastle West block following up on a number of historical soil anomalies.

Further geochemical and geophysical exploration work was carried out by Teck in 2009. This work helped Teck to plan for their drill strategy. The drilling started during 2010, and was finished with the 14th drillhole of the campaign at the end of January 2011. Analysis of the results and plans for the next phase of exploration will continue after that. This exploration work has not yielded the positive results hoped for, however the licences have been renewed in good standing and the next phase of exploration is being planned.

Total Drillholes completed – 14 (3228 mtres)