GLENCAR, the Irish gold mining firm, has announced a 30 per cent increase in its gold reserve in Wassa, Ghana. The company said the latest estimations has surpassed its own expectations, and propelled the mine into an "international class" of production over 100,000 ounces a year.

The company's chief executive, Mr Hugh McCullough, said the feasibility study currently being carried out would be finished by July, and he expected the report to predict annual production of 110,000 ounces.

"On that production, what we are into is an international class deposit, one which will register on the computer screens in Johannesburg, Toronto, New York and Perth," he added.

The mine would be developed from September or October, and in production before the end of 1998, he said.

Allowing for a gold price of around $350 per ounce, he added the concern would be worth $40 million (£26 million) a year.

At the annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday, Glencar's chairman, Mr Richard Hooper, said an independent consultancy firm, Pincock Allen & Holt (PAH), of Denver, Colorado, was carrying out the study, and had already estimated a proven and probable mine able reserve of 1.1 million ounces.

"The average grade of the orebody is 1.7 grammes per tonne. In addition, PAH estimates an in pit inferred resource of a further 0.08 million ounces at a grade of 1.6 grammes per tonne," Mr Hooper said.

Mr McCullough said that last September Glencar had increased its stake in the Wassa mine from 45 per cent to 64 per cent.