Commodity Online
LONDON: At a time when gold prices are ruling almost $1,000 per ounce in the international market, imagine around 300 villagers of a small hamlet sitting on gold worth over 450 million pounds.

Yes, that is the fortune landed on a small hamlet in Ireland, where a mining company has found gold deposits worth over 45 million pounds.

The village tucked away amid the rolling hills of Ireland’s County Monaghan, Clontibret, has enough gold reserves that could be the largest anywhere in the British Isles.

The village has a population of just over 300. With this discovery, the fortune of the villagers will change forever now.

Conroy Diamonds and Gold issued a formal announcement to the London Stock Exchange that an area just outside the village has more than 1m ounces of gold.

With precious metal prices soaring in these times of global economic instability, the exploration company estimated that the gold deposits could be worth up to £450m.

Conroy Diamonds and Gold said that there has never been a gold mine anywhere near this size in Ireland and the UK.

The declaration is expected to attract interest from major international players in the industry and raise hopes in the historically deprived border region of a modern-day gold rush that could restore its fortunes.

The rising price of gold in recent years — at present around £450 an ounce — has seen Scotland’s Cononish mine, near the village of Tyndrum, reopen after having lain dormant for years.

Conroy Diamonds and Gold, which has launched a study into the economic viability of mining the gold, said the deposits in County Monaghan were at least four times the amount in the Scottish mine.

Although the grade of the gold in County Monaghan is low by world standards, the size of the find and the surging prices of the metal mean it could still be hugely profitable.

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