Business
Infill Drilling Commences at Clontibret
Infill Drilling Commences at Clontibret.
About this update from Conroy Gold & Natural Resources Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n 4 March 2011\n\n \n Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc \n\n (\"Conroy\" or \"the Company\") \n\n Infill Drilling Commences at Clontibret \n\n * Drilling follows Positive Results from Scoping Studies\n \n * 3,500 metres of Infill Drilling Planned Initially\n \n * Potential for Increased Resource within Mine Area\n \nConroy (AIM: CGNR; ESM: CGNR.I), the Irish based resource company exploring and\ndeveloping gold and other natural resource projects in Ireland, is pleased to\nannounce that it has commenced infill drilling at its Clontibret gold target.\nThis decision follows the Scoping Study completed by Wardrop Engineering\n(\"Wardrop\") which yielded positive results on both technical and financial\ngrounds and its recommendation that infill drilling should proceed.\n\nOver 3,500 metres of infill drilling is planned initially. This drilling will\nfurther define gold zones within the proposed mine area, potentially increasing\nthe resource. The infill drilling will also provide geotechnical information\nfor mine design purposes together with ore material for metallurgical test\nwork.\n\nA conventional open pit operation was designed by Wardrop as part of the\nScoping Study. A pit optimisation commodity baseline of US$970/oz gold price\nwas applied for the purposes of the study with a potential gold recovery of\n174,840 oz gold, a head grade of 2.13g/t oz gold, a process rate of 400,000\ntonnes per annum, an assumed overall gold recovery of approximately 88 per\ncent. and a mine life of 7.2 years - giving an average annual production rate\nof over 24,000 oz of gold.\n\nThe economic evaluation was based on a pre-tax financial model, taking a base\ncase commodity price for gold of US$1,144/oz. This gave a 17.7 per cent.\nInternal Rate of Return (IRR) and a Net Present Value (NPV), at 8 per cent\ndiscount rate, of US$14.4M. Reflecting recent current gold prices, a rate of 20\nper cent over the base case - US $1,373, gives an IRR of 58.3 per cent. and an\nNPV of US$77.9M.\n\nThe area of the Scoping Study comprises only 20 per cent of the Clontibret\ntarget. The remaining 80 per cent of the Clontibret target remains open and two\nother larger targets (Clay Lake and Glenish) lie in close (7km / 4.5miles)\nproximity.\n\nCommenting, Chairman, Professor Richard Conroy said:\n\n\"Following the positive technical and financial result...