Glencore, Gentile back historical Irish region project sporting 3.3% zinc, 10% lead

New drilling by Glencore-backed (LSE: GLEN) Group Eleven Resources (TSXV: ZNG; US-OTC: GRLVF) at the PG West project in Ireland has expanded the property’s high-grade zinc-lead-silver mineralization, the company said.

Hole 26-3552-57 at the Ballywire discovery cut 62.5 metres of 2.9% zinc, 2.7% lead and 25 grams silver per tonne from 329 metres downhole, Vancouver-based Group Eleven said Thursday in a statement. This included 11.8 metres of3.3% zinc, 10.1% lead and 45 grams silver.

Fueled by the $12 million (US$8.7 million) raised from investors in March, Group Eleven has more than tripled the size of its planned drilling program for PG West – with most of the efforts targeting Ballywire, which the company calls the most significant discovery in Ireland in a decade. Crews are now aiming to drill between 67,000 metres and 75,000 metres, up from a previous goal of 20,000 metres.

“Today’s results are pivotal, showing high-grade massive sulphide mineralization continues further southwest than previously recognized at Ballywire,” CEO Bart Jaworski said in the statement. “This opens-up potential to significantly extend the high-grade massive sulphide corridor drilled to date” over a strike length of about 1.5 km, he said.

Three projects

PG West is one of three projects that Group Eleven is looking to develop in Ireland, along with the Stonepark and Ballinalack zinc-lead deposits. All three are located within the Irish zinc district, which has been a major source of metal production in Europe since the 1960s and hosts large deposits including Boliden’s (STO: BOL) Tara mine, Glencore’s Pallas Green zinc-lead deposit and the past producing Lisheen and Galmoy mines.

While Group Eleven has published inferred resources for Stonepark and Ballinalack, it hasn’t done so for PG West.

Located about 200 km southwest of Dublin, Ballywire sits about 20 km from Stonepark, which is itself adjacent to Pallas Green. Glencore holds about 13% of Group Eleven, trailing only Canadian mining investor Michael Gentile, who owns about 14%.

Gentile, who spent 18 years as an institutional money manager, has been investing his personal capital full-time in TSX Venture-listed junior mining companies after striking out on his own in 2018. He is the largest shareholder in more than 25 Canadian juniors.

Four rigs

Other results from Ballywire released Friday include hole 25-3552-53, which cut 6.6 metres grading 0.13% zinc, 0.19% lead and 29.8 grams silver from 390 metres depth. Hole 25-468-22, meanwhile, cut 11 metres of 0.53% zinc, 0.21% lead and 1.2 grams silver from about 336 metres.

Mineralization reported Friday consists mostly of sphalerite, galena and pyrite, with copper-silver bearing zones also containing chalcopyrite and locally, suspected tennantite-tetrahedrite.

Some 79 holes have drilled and reported to date at Ballywire, whose discovery was first announced in September 2022. Four rigs are now turning at the target.

Group Eleven shares fell 1.8% to C$1.08 Friday in Toronto, valuing the company at about $304 million. The stock has traded between 28¢ and $1.30 in the past year.