Dual-listed Dalradian Resources (TSX:DNA) (LON:DALR) published Thursday a resource update for its Curraghinalt gold project in Northern Ireland showing a 46% increase in gold ounces and a 32% increase in inferred gold ounces when compared to the previous feasibility study from 2016.
Inferred resources rose by 32% to 3.0 million ounces of gold in 7.7 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 12.2 grams per tonne of gold. The update mineral resource statement will be combined with an improved geotechnical study and ore sorting test work and used to support an updated feasibility study, expected in the third quarter of the year.
Dalradian's proposed Curraghinalt gold mine is estimated to have enough resources to run for an initial 20 years.Dalradian acquired mineral rights in 2009 to more than 80,000 hectares of land in Northern Ireland, including the Curraghinalt gold deposit outside Gortin, identified as one of the top ten undeveloped gold deposits by grade in the world.
Since then, it has carried out exploratory drilling at the asset and compiled a planning application running to 10,000 pages, which it expects to take about two years to process, including a public enquiry.
Dalradian plans to operate the proposed gold mine for an initial 20 years, though it says Curraghinalt has the potential to remain in production longer than that.
The company is already employing 100 people on the project and the number would rise to 350 workers once the mine is operating, plus hundreds more indirect jobs.
The firm says Northern Ireland has the seventh richest undeveloped seam of gold in the world, but political violence kept most investors away for about three decades.
Shares in Dalradian were up 3.42% at 60.50 pence close to the end of the trading session in London and had climbed 9.4% to Cdn$1.05 in Toronto by noon.