Gold company reports widening losses

PRECIOUS metals exploration company Conroy Diamonds and Gold has reported a widening of its losses, but has also declared that its combined operations here potentially contain between 15 and 20 million ounces of gold.

The AIM-quoted company, which is headquartered in Dublin, yesterday reported a pre-tax loss of €202,464 for the first half of its current financial year; covering the six months to the end of November.

This was up from a loss of €166,698 for the same period last year, which had been a slight narrowing from the previous first half.

The first-half loss per share total rose by 3c — on a year-on-year basis — to 19c.

Conroy has already upgraded its expectations for capacity at its main asset at Clontibret in Co Monaghan to more than one million ounces of gold.

The latest positive outlook has been boosted by the more recent extensive “gold-in-soil” discovery at the company’s Clay Lake resource in Co Armagh, which lies just 7km to the north-east of Clontibret and is larger than the Co Monaghan site.

The Clay Lake and Clontibret resources combined, cover more than 1,000km across counties Cavan, Monaghan and Armagh. Yesterday’s announcement added that the Clontibret resource “has the potential to become an economically viable mining project”, but said that studies must be treated with caution as they are based on estimates. It is hoped, however, that further testing will provide sufficient confidence in the resource estimate and enable full evaluation of the economic viability of the site.

“While there has been insufficient exploration to date to define such a mineral resource, and there is no certainty that further exploration will result in a resource of this magnitude being realised, the directors believe that the potential is clear and the possibilities exciting,” the company said yesterday.

The company also said that the board is considering “various options” regarding the financing of its operations.