WorldWide Drilling Resource

30 JUNE 2014 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® area of interest. The company now owns almost 600 square miles of property in the region. The most recent exploration drilling results at the Clontibret gold project indicate a new area of gold within the proposed mining zone. The results con- firmed higher grades as well as wider intersections than originally thought and showed lateral and vertical continuity within previously established gold zones. Conroy’s Irish gold exploration has produced a 1 million ounce, Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant, gold resource at Clontibret based on only 20% of its initial target area. Two other targets have also been defined and geologists believe they will be even larger. Even with such positive exploration results, the cost to produce gold is almost half its worth and not all of the metal can be accessed. Gold deposits are dispersed in tiny fragments through- out cores which must be ground to dust. A chemical extraction process then sifts precious metal from the dust. But Ireland is still optimistic. The country has much to offer the explo- ration and mining community, including a proactive government. Minister for Energy Fergus O’Dowd is eager to attract more exploration companies and sell off license areas. Minister of State for the Department of Communications, Marine, and Natural Resources, John Browne said, “I affirm the government’s commitment to strongly encouraging mineral exploration and environmentally- compatible extraction.” With Ireland’s dire financial situa- tion, a new mining project with potential employment opportunities, not to men- tion the gold it could possibly bring, could be extremely beneficial to the country’s economy. “Now where did that charge of explosives go?” by Ray Roerick Sales Manager, Well-Vu, Inc. During a recent visit with an explo- sives consulting engineer, he relayed the great need for a down hole inspec- tion camera they had to use. The day started out as usual; the location at the mine they were going to set the charge was laid out and marked for each blast- hole. The safety perimeter was estab- lished and cordoned off, and the drill rig was brought in to drill the blastholes. The drilling was routine, so they thought. Hundreds of holes had been drilled over the past few years, all at approxi- mately the same depth, all in the same location of the mine, all without any problems. As this series of blastholes was drilled and equipment moved off- site, the explosives crew came in and went to work to set the charges. When all the charges were set, and everyone assumed they were ready, the final in- spection was rather alarming. Seems one of the holes the charge was set in had something really strange happen. The charge was gone. That’s right, the charge was gone and the hole was open for quite a ways down. Skipping forward to the end of his story and the end of a long day, after all safety precautions were taken, a cam- era was brought in. Inspection of the drill hole revealed on one side of the borehole, right at the bottom, the bit had opened up a cavern. It had opened up the cavern enough to allow the col- lapse of the bottom of the hole and the product in the drill hole to settle out into the cavern. This conversation was lengthy, so I am just highlighting the noteworthy aspects of their day’s dilemma in this article, the general consensus was a down hole camera is worth its weight in gold to inspect and document bore- holes before a job continues. Not only in the mining industry. More engineers are requiring piling compa- nies to video their holes (and keep a record) of the drill hole prior to the com- pletion of the pilings. Once again, whether for safety or documentation, the down hole video camera has become another tool proving itself invaluable. Ray Ray Roerick may be contacted via e-mail at admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Gold for 30 Miles in Ireland Compiled by Amy White, Associate Editor WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Tall shelves full of core samples stand in a barn near Clontibret in County Monaghan, Ireland. They are evidence of one mans’ diligent 16-year search for gold. His name is Professor Richard Conroy, and he was previously an Irish senator. Currently, he’s the man behind Conroy Gold and Natural Resources, a mining company who’s exploration in Ireland has led to a new European gold district extending for 30 miles across coun- ties Armagh, Monaghan, and Cavan. Since discovering a sequence of major gold targets along the 30-mile trend, Conway Gold has been granted licenses giving security of tenure. The company’s first operational gold mine in the area is in the planning phase. Mining has taken place in Ireland for centuries, but most of the country’s precious metals were not previously realized. While mining for antimony (metal used to make bul lets) in the 1700s, gold was driven through and discarded as waste. In the early 1990s, Conroy Gold began exploration in the Longford Down Massif - a geologic region running northeast from County Longford in the Republic of Ireland to County Down in Northern Ireland - and found enough gold to justify acquisition of the entire The Clay Lake Gold Nugget was found in the 1980s at what is now Conroy Gold’s Clay Lake target area on the 30-mile gold trend. Photo courtesy of the Ulster Museum.