Erris Resources shares soar on new results from Loch Tay

Shares in Europe-focussed mineral exploration company Erris Resources were through the roof on Tuesday morning, as it reported new results from recent sampling on the Loch Tay gold project in Scotland.

Those results confirmed the two highest grade gold results to date, with 17.15 grams and 14.8 grams of gold per tonne from the Lead Trial Prospect.

The AIM-traded firm said the prospect had been expanded to the east, with a cluster of new high-grade mineralised boulders.

Nine samples returned more than five grams of gold per tonne, between 1.6 and 2.9 kilometres southeast of the Lead Trial historic workings.

It also said a Sample with 1.61% copper and 247 grams of silver per tonne, 3.2 kilometres southeast of the Lead Trial workings, suggested a possible zoned mineral system.

Erris Resources said the results were from a batch of 121 rock samples, including three certified reference material samples, collected in February and early March on the Loch Tay project.

Prospecting and mapping, which was underway, had ceased temporarily in line with the recent restrictions introduced by the UK government to combat the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The prospecting was focussed on the eastern extension of the Lead Trial Prospect, being the Lead Trial-Dunan valley between 1.4 and three kilometres southeast of the historic workings, and also on the Lead Trial-Almond valley between two and four kilometres south of Lead Trial.

Out of a total of 118 samples, 30 had greater than 0.1 grams of gold per tonne, 13 had greater than one gram of gold per tonne, and nine samples had between five grams and a maximum of 17.15 grams of gold per tonne, being the highest grade result to date on the project.

The majority of samples were float or boulder samples, with 19 samples taken from outcrop or subcrop including the highest-grade sample, which was thought to be subcrop.

“These are highly encouraging results and reveal a large mineralised system in the Lead Trial and adjacent areas,” said chief executive officer David Hall.

“The current restrictions have allowed the team to review all the data and that of the Grampian Gold Belt that includes the nearby Cononish mine and the Curraghinalt deposit in Northern Ireland.

“We clearly see common characteristics in geochemistry, structure and mineralisation style that lead us to believe that the prospects in the Loch Tay area have the potential to host significant gold mineralisation.”

At 1108 BST, shares in Erris Resources were up 124.56% at 7.64p.