Last December, Erris Resources and Green Ore plc entered into an option agreement to explore for gold and associated base metals across a licence area of more than 237 square kilometres in Loch Tay. 

The agreement followed the discovery of a 10g gold nugget by a Leeds University team in the area last July.

Since then, the firm has seen consistently promising results from its activities, which continued yesterday when it announced 53 rocks samples were received with additional gold mineralisation identified at Lead Trial area. 

First metallic screen analyses at its Lead Trial confirmed coarse gold in an 8.5kg mine waste sample – giving a weighted average of 7.22g/t Au. Samples from western lower mine waste in the Corrie Buidhe area also returned up to 6.98g/t Au and high silver.

The firm said fieldwork at the project continues to upgrade the Lead Trial prospect and other new targets, including the Corrie Buidhe silver mine area, where gold has been sampled in the lower dump west of the old mine.

David Hall, Erris Resources chief executive, said: “With the gold price currently beyond $2,000/oz, we are pleased with the progress being made at the Loch Tay project and look forward to updating shareholders on future developments.

“The fieldwork at the Loch Tay Project continues to upgrade the Lead Trial Prospect and other new targets including the Corrie Buidhe silver mine area where gold has been sampled in the lower dump west of the old mine. At Lead Trial, the mapping of outcrop and boulders along with sampling has outlined an extensive area of well-developed quartz vein stockworks and localised hydrothermal breccias over a distance of at least 400m.

“These observations and results point to a vigorous hydrothermal system in the area while the highest-grade samples are located 2km to the southeast at Lead Trial-Dunan, the area in between having poor exposure. A work programme including systematic soil sampling has commenced that will aim to link the two areas into a coherent major target area extending over 3km.”

The firm intends to continue mapping and sampling operations at Lead Trial in parallel with the soil survey, which is now under way. TIt also plans to trial a ground magnetic survey across the Lead Trial prospect to ascertain whether the contacts of the felsite sills and structures can be mapped.

If the results are positive, then the survey can be expanded to cover the entire +3km trend, with the combination of geophysics, detailed mapping and soil and rock geochemistry used to identify future drill targets at Lead Trial.

The other targets within the Loch Tay area will be investigated to determine if they have economic potential.