Goldmines near border 'worth hundreds of millions'

Prospectors who believe they have discovered a massive untapped gold mine in Ireland today said tests have confirmed their suspicions.

Share prices in the exploration company jumped after it told the stock exchange about the results of sampling at Clay Lake, near Keady in south Armagh.

Conroy Diamonds and Gold is also making plans to begin mining at another seam just seven kilometres across the border in the hills outside Clontibret, Co Monaghan.

Four samples taken from the bedrock along a 100-metre section of a stream at the south Armagh site all contained gold, the company told the London Stock Exchange.

Professor Richard Conroy, the firm’s chairman and a former Irish senator, believes the mines could be the biggest ever in Ireland or Britain and are worth hundreds of millions of euro.

“Overall, this confirms and enhances our long-held belief of the huge potential of this area,” he said.

The discovery by a local farmer of a large gold nugget near Clay Lake in the 1980s, which now lies in the Ulster Museum, led the prospectors to the site.