Gold and zinc explorer increases losses with results expected in ‘near future’

Arkle Resources raised an additional £230,000 in March

Exploration company Arkle Resources, formally known as Connemara Mining, increased its pre-tax loss from €214,331 to €337,306 in 2018 compared to the previous year.

The company led by John Teeling had a cash balance of €106,031 at the end of 2018, something the directors saw as being sufficient for the coming 12 months.

In March, the company raised an additional £230,000 (€256,906) from the issue of shares and warrants.

Mr Teeling said he expects results from work on gold licences in Wicklow "in the near future", with new drilling targets expected to be identified around the company's existing discoveries.

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His concern for the company was down to the fact it has a low share price, giving it a market value of just above £1 million. Mr Teeling said he believes this "significantly undervalues the potential of our exploration portfolio" which includes zinc assets in Limerick.

Its principle zinc project is Stonepark at which more than €8 million has been spent on exploration with more than 180 holes drilled to date. Arkle’s joint venture partners are said to believe that “significant potential exists for large world class discoveries at depth”.

On its gold assets, the company has reduced its licences at its Inishowen project in Donegal following "detailed analyses of drilling and other exploration data".

Nevertheless, Mr Teeling said he is “confident that we maintain the essential core of a gold system first discovered by Arkle in 2016”.

"The geology on the Inishowen licences is similar to that in the Dalradian gold deposit in Tyrone and bears similarities to areas being explored for gold in Scotland, " he added.

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in business