Ormonde ‘positive’ in search for gold at Spanish mining project

ORMONDE Mining yesterday announced positive results from a detailed rock sampling programme for gold at the Tracia Project in Spain.

Swedish company IGE AB, the group’s joint venture partner, is funding all exploration activities at Tracia, one of Ormonde’s four active gold projects in Spain.

Last year, two international investment groups, Gartmore and JP Morgan, each took a 7% stake each in the Irish-based mining group at 3.4 cent per share.

At the time Ormonde raised €1 million. In a similar move recently, the group raised a further 1m while the two big investment houses maintained their stake in the business at 7%.

At this stage in the group’s development the shares have moved up to 12 cent, but the latest findings from the rock sampling show that the group has identified the key areas in which to start their drilling for gold reserves.

All the “excellent results” do is confirm that the company is in the right area from which to start to its drilling programme, a group spokesman said.

However, sufficient gold was found in the samples to justify the company in calling the results “excellent” while making its submission to the stock exchange yesterday.

As a result, the group is currently finalising drilling targets while soil sampling grids are near completion.

In the past Ormonde has generated excitement with gold searches in Tanzania when Des Burke was managing director and the main driving force of the group.

They came to nothing. Mr Burke has since retired from active management but remains the company’s dominant shareholder.

In a further development, the mining company said the geochemistry of large unexplored areas in northwest Spain is helping it to identify new target areas with a similar profile to the Tracia area.

While it is still too early to make any definite statements about this latest project, the company has pointed out that a fully-fledged mine is located near its current exploration territory where the geology was similar to that in Tracia.

Again the spokesman said all the company could say at this stage was that at a “grassroots level” it knows it is in the right area from which to start its drilling programme, and added that it could be up and running in the next few months.

That reduces the risks of wasted exploration in the region.

The spokesman added “we know that we are in the right area” from the point of view of carrying out a drilling programme.

However, for the company the real test is when the drilling for gold starts later on in the year.