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Nenagh Block

The Nenagh Block is located in the Tipperary north area, the licences wrapping around the town of Nenagh. The block consists of four contiguous licences (PL’s 3156, 3425, 3678 & 3953), covering an area of 138.26 km2 of rolling hills flattening out to the north. The land usage is primarily pasture for sheep & cattle rearing, but also with significant tillage ground to the north. The Block is located to the north of the old Silvermines deposit (17.6Mt 6.43% Zn/ 2.53% Pb), Irish Type, carbonate hosted massive sulphide deposit, which closed in the 1980’s. This block has been held since September 2008.

The block is located along the Navan-Silvermines regional basement trend, along strike to the southwest of the Knockshigownagh, Lower Palaeozoic inlier, which is controlled by a major basin margin defining fault that can be seen to influence facies distribution over a strike length of c.90km. This block is underlain by extensive and well developed Waulsortian Reef lithologies that have a maximum thickness of c.400m. Historic drilling at Shinrone has intersected intense dolomitisation with associated disseminated and semi-massive pyrite. There are a number of small, structurally controlled, basinal limestone outliers to the east of the block and possible shelf-basin facies boundary within the supra Reef lithologies to the northwest. Mapping by Noranda along the route of the Nenagh Bypass discovered extensive zones of intensely reddened basal Waulsortian Reef Iron formation to the southeast of the town of Nenagh. This mapping also discovered pyritic veining and crackle brecciation within the Waulsortian Reef succession proximal to the inferred Iron Formation.

A total of 4 Regional spaced IP Lines were completed across this block during 2010, targeting prospective areas underlain by Waulsortian Reef. This data is currently being assessed along with the compiled historical database to produce drill targets.