Search is on for Limerick's precious metals

Precious minerals could be buried in townlands across Co Limerick, with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in the process of granting a prospecting licence to a Dublin-based company to search the land for gold, silver, base metals and barytes.

A public notice issued by Minister Denis Naughten says the department intends to grant the licence to Group Eleven Resources Ltd, which will allow the company to search the land for the valuable minerals.

If granted, the licence will cover an area of approximately 1050sq km consisting of 179 townlands in the Pallas Green region of Co Limerick.

The company is particularly interested in searching for zinc, rather than gold or silver.

Set up by John Barry, David Furlong and Bart Jaworski in 2015, Group Eleven Resources focuses on exploring for minerals.

Mr Barry was involved in the original discovery of the Lisheen zinc-lead deposit, which later became the Lisheen mine in Co Tipperary. The plans the company has for the area are purely “exploratory” at the moment, according to Bart Jaworski with the first stages involving screening for potential mineralisation in the ground.

“Whether there is mineralisation there remains to be seen but that’s the question we’re trying to answer,” he said. The entire process of examining the land for zinc could take five to 10 years, with the team not guaranteed to find what they are looking for, according to Mr Jaworski.

While a prospecting licence permits the holder to explore for mineral deposits it does not allow mining of any minerals, according to the Department. Mr Naughten’s notice says the proposed activities by Group Eleven Resources Ltd are not likely to have a significant environmental effect.