Group Eleven assays highlight Ballywire’s critical minerals role

Group Eleven Resources’ (TSXV: ZNG) Thursday exploration update at its Ballywire discovery returned among the highest-grade silver intercepts in Ireland in more than 60 years, the company says. Shares rose.One highlight intercept in hole 25-3552-31 returned up to 1,880 grams silver per tonne and 10.45% copper, which was among results indicating a copper-silver feeder system lies below the zinc-lead-silver lens at Ballywire. It’s part of the PG West project, about 20 km southwest of Limerick, in the Irish midwest.“Intersecting spectacular copper-silver grades over significant thicknesses is a pivotal moment for the Ballywire discovery,” CEO Bart Jaworski said in a release. “These results not only strongly point to a stratigraphically deeper copper-silver horizon but also represent a proof of concept that substantial grades and thicknesses of copper and silver exist at the discovery, in addition to excellent grades of zinc and lead.”Ireland’s key metalsEurope’s race for critical minerals needed for the green energy transition – copper for electrification, silver for solar panels and zinc for galvanized steel in wind turbines – positions Ballywire as a potential key source. The project sits within a 6-km prospective trend on the PG West licence in County Tipperary, the country’s second most prolific zinc camp outside Navan in eastern Ireland.The company’s Toronto-quoted shares gained as much as 31.6% in early afternoon trading for a market cap of C$53.1 million.Bonanza resultsHole 25-3552-31, a 65-metre step-out, also intersected two mineralized horizons. The copper-silver horizon cut 19.9 metres grading 1.5% copper and 356 grams silver from 348.7 metres depth. It included a section of 12 metres at 2.3% copper and 560 grams silver. Within that was a higher-grade intersection of 6.4 metres of 3.7% copper and 838 grams silver.The zinc-lead-silver zone cut 47.1 metres at 3.1% zinc, 1.4% lead, and 22 grams of silver from 297 metres depth. A sub-section of 12.9 metres graded 7.7% zinc, 3.2% lead, and 151 grams silver.Group Eleven has two rigs exploring north-east extensions. A third rig is now testing deeper targets. The company aims to prove the presence of large copper-silver system beneath the zinc-lead-silver zone.Geological potentialThe copper-silver horizon sits along the base of the Waulsortian Limestone, next to a fault structure. It appears dominated by tennantite-tetrahedrite with accessory chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena, the company said. Higher antimony – up to 0.27% antimony inside a 6.4-metre interval – raises the project’s profile as a source of so-called critical metals, Jaworski said.This hole extended the mineralized footprint down-dip by at least 65 metres to 170 metres and remains open at depth, the company said.PG West sits 20 km east of the company’s Stonepark zinc-lead deposit, which it owns 76.6% in a joint venture with Arkle Resources. This deposit hosts 5.1 million inferred tonnes at 11.3% zinc plus lead. It is close to Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) Pallas Green deposit which hold 45.4 million indicated tonnes at 5.4% zinc and 1.6% lead for 2.45 million contained tonnes zinc and 730,000 tonnes lead.  Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com