The Clontibret prospect in Co Monaghan had the potential to be a commercial gold mine, the chairman of Conroy Diamond and Gold, Prof Richard Conroy, said yesterday after presenting the latest test results of the site. He said that five holes had been drilled to date and work had commenced on a sixth, while the company had the data from 32 test holes drilled by previous operators. He said that results showed high grade gold intersections of 12.89 grams/tonne gold over 3.34 metres, 10.52 grams/tonne over 2.96 metres and 7.65 grams/tonne over 1.82 metres were encountered in the recent drilling.

Prof Conroy said that he anticipated that there would be a mine at the site, but there was another 18 months examination work to be done. There would be another 100 holes bored "in due course", he said.

"It is very unlikely that there will not be a mine, let us put it that way," he said. The results were described by one independent geologist yesterday as "a reasonable grade" but said that it was early to speculate on the area's mining potential. He added that a mine would need to make a yield of $60 minimum per tonne of ore excavated to be viable.

Prof Conroy said he believed there was the potential for a one million ounces gold mine in three million tonnes of ore, an average of one-third of an ounce per tonne. Conroy Diamonds and Gold, an OFEX over-the-counter-quoted company, will seek an Irish listing on the Explorations Securities Market within the next three months. It has now begun a drilling programme to test for strike and depth extensions over the lode structures, and intends to re-enter the shafts of the existing Tullybuck/ Lisglassan antimony mine at Clontibret to extract a sample of mineralisation for testing.