Who We Are
Connemara was established in 2000 by veterans of the Irish zinc industry with the goal of discovering another major zinc/lead orebody. A discovery hole with high grade zinc and lead at Stonepark in Limerick announced in November 2007 is a major step on the way.
Ireland is known as a zinc province with two world class giant zinc mines operating; Tara, owned by Boliden and Lisheen, owned by Anglo American. Lundin owns the smaller but world class Galmoy mine. Former large zinc mines, Tynagh and Silvermines are worked out. Despite the prospectivity, interest in Ireland declined for 20 years from 1980 until 2000 when only a handful of companies continued to prospect. Ground was abandoned. It was the availability of highly prospective ground and a belief in the future of zinc which led to the establishment of Connemara.
The Company used their Early Mover Advantage to obtain good ground. Initially 23 licences were obtained mainly in the Limerick and Lough Sheelin regions. Subsequently a further 15 licences were added, mainly close to current or former mines.
In 2002 Xstrata/Minco announced good exploration results at Pallas Green. Tara/Boliden is rumoured to have positive zinc results in the same area. This led companies to a land grab. 30 companies are now exploring.
In November 2007 Connemara, who had Joint Ventured their Limerick ground with Teck Cominco announced a significant high grade zinc/lead drill intersection. Connemara/Teck have in mid-2008 4 drill rigs in Limerick and Minco/Xstrata have 12 rigs.
Connemara announced positive drilling results on their 5 licence Lough Sheelin block where 9 of 11 drillholes encountered zinc mineralisation. A follow up drilling programme is planned for the second half of 2008.
The Connemara exploration philosophy is trendology and closeology - follow the mineralised trends and obtain ground as close as possible to existing or former zinc/lead mines.