Colin Andrew, one of the men behind the rise of Navan Resources in the past few years, has not stood still since he left the ESM-listed exploration group at the beginning of the month.

An engineer and geologist, Andrew is seen as being largely responsible for bringing Navan's Spanish lead-zinc operations to an advanced stage.

Now, Andrew has bought a 3.5 per cent stake in Hereward Ventures, an OFEX-listed exploration group with eight lead-zinc exploration licences near Tullamore.

Hereward was set up last month by David Bramhill, chairman of Cambridge Minerals, the AIM-listed group that is exploring for diamonds in Inishowen.

Still on resources, another OFEX-listed exploration tiddler, Allen & Ross, has just raised £150,000 sterling (€231,000) to fund exploration for tantalum in Carlow and Wexford.

Tantalum? Seems it's a pretty obscure mineral used as a component in capacitors, which are in turn used in various electronic devices.