South32 Base Metals Ireland will hold the right to acquire a 70% interest in the projects, in exchange for spending €3,500,000 on exploration for four years

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South32 Base Metals Ireland will hold the right to acquire a 70% interest in the projects. (Credit: Pixabay/Alex Banner)

Adventus Mining has signed an earn-in agreement with South32 Base Metals Ireland, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32, to advance the exploration of Rathkeale, Kingscourt and Fermoy projects.

The Rathkeale, Kingscourt and Fermoy projects are located in Limerick Basin, in the Republic of Ireland, and are owned by Adventus Zinc Ireland (AZIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adventus.

Under the terms of the earn-in agreement, South32 Base Metals Ireland will hold the right to acquire a 70% interest in the projects, in exchange for spending €3,500,000 on exploration for four years.

In addition, a technical committee, with representatives from Adventus and South32 Base Metals Ireland, is expected to review and approve the exploration programmes and budgets for the projects.

The company said that the projects are provided with prospecting licences, and covers an area of approximately 1,155 km2 and highly prospective for zinc-lead-silver mineralization.

Details of Rathkeale, Kingscourt and Fermoy projects

The Rathkeale project has eight licences covering 256km2 area for carbonate-hosted Irish Type zinc-lead-silver mineralisation within Waulsortian limestone.

In 2017, the company has conducted a detailed structural-stratigraphic interpretation, under-pinned by 2D high-resolution seismic surveying, and advanced geochemical techniques on historical records as an initial foundation to define areas of elevated mineral potential.

The Kingscourt project has thirteen prospecting licences covering 422km2 with Irish-type zinc-lead-silver deposits within the Pale Beds and Waulsortian limestone-hosted spectrums.

The project is located in Meath, Louth and Monaghan Counties, and the exploration is primarily aimed at footwall, pale beds-hosted zinc-lead-silver mineralisation in the Moynalty Basin.

The Fermoy project consists of twelve prospecting licences covering 477 km2 and is located in the southern sector of the Irish zinc-lead-silver orefield.

Adventus has identified the area as geologically poorly resolved, with some key unrecognised structural characteristics yet to be interpreted by modern exploration models, based on the historic data.

The exploration is expected to start in the first quarter of 2020, subject to the approval of the Irish Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.