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Group Eleven, Ireland’s biggest mining license holder, to list in Canada later this year
Who holds more ground under license for mining exploration in Ireland than anyone else? Glencore? Teck? Boliden?
Step forward Group Eleven, a privately-held vehicle that’s less than two years old but which already has over 2,700 square kilometres under license.
Run by ex-Raymond James mining analyst and geologist, Bart Jaworski, the company was seeded late in 2015 and early 2016 which, as anyone who follows capital markets knows, was an interesting time in mining.
“The Chinese market was crashing, the majors were divesting and juniors were looking the other way,” says Jaworski.
“And that made it a really good time to get in. A lot of ground was made open, a lot of ground was being let go.”
That included 1,000 square kilometres of ground neighbouring Glencore’s famous Pallas Green project, and projects on two other of Ireland’s most famous mineralised trends, the Rathdowney Trend and the Navan-Silvermines Trend.
It’s enough to have attracted the billion dollar Canadian company MAG Silver (TSE:MAG) onto the register. MAG came in for half of Group Eleven’s C$1.5 mln placing in the autumn of last year. The company will list in Canada later in the year.
But given that Ireland is famously prospective for zinc and gold, wherein lies the interest of this major silver company? The answer, perhaps, lies in the silver which is commonly associated with Irish zinc.
But there may be more to it than that.
Down in the southwest, on the Navan-Silvermines Trend, Group Eleven has opened up a series of licenses that have been closed for exploration for the better part of a generation.
And it may be that the traditional model of mineralisation used to define Irish zinc deposits may be in need of modification here.
“It could be that we have CRD or ‘carbonate replacement deposit’ type systems as well,” says Jaworski.
“The story in Ireland has traditionally been that deposits match the Mississippi Valley-style. But the big idea here is that if you go to the south west of the country the geological model changes to a more intrusive one.”
It’s an intriguing proposition, and one that may start to gain a lot more traction now, as mining markets finally start to recover from the fall-out of the global financial crisis and investors begin to look for new inspiration. MAG has already bought into the story, as have other European and Canadian investors.
With Jaworski’s background allied to that of his co-founders John Barry and David Furlong, and with MAG’s Peter Megaw as an advisor, the company ought to be able to pick up speed pretty quickly.
It appears that over the way, on Glencore’s Pallas Green project, things are pretty quiet. But Group Eleven plans to liven things up in the area. It will be interesting to watch.
Story by ProactiveInvestors
Source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/176291/group-eleven-irelands-biggest-mining-license-holder-to-list-in-canada-later-this-year-176291.html
