Group Eleven to treble drill at Limerick sites after €7.5m fundraise

Toronto-listed Group Eleven intends to use the proceeds of its CAD$12m (€7.5m) private placement funding round for a major expansion and acceleration of its exploration drill programmes at Ballywire and Stonepark in Co Limerick.

It expects the current total of 20,000 metres that has been drilled at the two prospects will now more than treble to over 60,000 metres.

The company has described its Ballywire prospect, which it discovered in 2022, as “the most significant mineral discovery in the Republic of Ireland in over a decade”.

The drilling programme at that prospect to date has demonstrated high grades of zinc, lead, silver, copper, germanium and antimony.

Its Stonepark zinc-lead prospect, in which it holds a 78pc share, is located 20km from Glencore’s Pallas Green zinc-lead deposit.

Mining giant Glencore declined to exercise its participation right, which was triggered by the share offering, meaning its share of the metals explorer has fallen to 13pc.

There has been ongoing speculation in the Irish minerals sector that Glencore is considering a sale of its Pallas Green asset, which could contain more than 40 million tonnes of ore.

The share price of the explorer has risen strongly over the past 12 months, from just CAD$0.20 to a high of CAD$1.15 last week.

That strong performance has come on the back of a series of very positive drilling reports from Limerick.

In January, Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski told the Sunday Independent business section that its most recent drilling results from Ballywire had displayed a strong presence of copper and “spectacular” silver numbers.

He hailed Ballywire as potentially a new Tara Mines-style zinc opportunity and said there was a renewed interest in the metals sector in Ireland because of the geopolitical backdrop.