THERE’S gold in them thar other hills too. Following last week’s discovery of the precious metal in Monaghan, leading mining companies have stepped up their search for gold in other parts of the country.

Last Tuesday’s announcement by Conroy Diamonds and Gold that the area outside Clontibret has more than 1m ounces of gold drew scepticism. But miners in Wexford and Mayo are taking the hunt seriously.

Tara Mines, one of the largest zinc extraction firms in Ireland, revealed it has found traces of gold in north Wexford. John Kelly, the company’s human resources manager, said they had gold exploration licences for several parts of the country, but the stretch between Avoca in south Wicklow and Gorey in north Wexford was the only region they were taking seriously.

“We’ve been there for a number of years and we’ve had enough luck to keep us interested”, he said. “We’ve taken samples from stream sediments that were looked at in laboratories. We’ve had very small results that would indicate the mother lode is somewhere.”

Miners at the site, which runs for several hundred kilometres, are focusing on igneous rocks in mountainous areas.

“Conroy’s discovery in Monaghan is encouraging,” Kelly said. “An announcement like that gives you a bit of a boost. They’ve been looking for a years and finally found it, so maybe we should keep going.”

Other groups are searching for gold in Galway and Mayo. Mayo’s Gold, a subsidiary of Aurum Explorations, has applied to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for a licence to set up a tourist mine near the Croagh Patrick mountain, where a small amount of extraction would be carried out.

Traces of gold were previously reported in the area but the site’s religious and historical importance led to the refusal of applications to drill.

There are currently 434 prospecting licences held in Ireland, with the vast majority being used to search for base metals such as zinc and lead. None of the state’s 22 mining facilities is extracting gold. Conroy Diamonds and Gold chairman

Professor Richard Conroy said he expected the number of organisations searching for gold to increase after his discovery.

“When we made our zinc find in Fermoy, others came in looking for zinc,” he said. “It’ll be the same now with companies coming into the area and looking for gold.”

But there have been strong objections to the Croagh Patrick proposal and warnings from politicians and former mining communities on the danger of extracting at the Monaghan site. Mayo residents have been protesting the Croagh Patrick application since it was lodged last year.

Keith Martin, a councillor in the Westport area, said submissions on the licence closed six months ago but a ruling was still awaited. “It is my concern that the delay in the minister’s decision is based on a desire to allow opposition to the proposal to die down before granting a prospecting licence,” he said.

Liz McManus, the Labour spokesperson on energy and natural resources, also had concerns over mining at Clontibret. “It’s good news for an area that is underdeveloped but there is a portfolio of areas where mining has gone terribly wrong,” she said. “Before anything is done there is a concern that it will have an acute environmental impact and that it will disturb our natural resources.”

McManus named north Tipperary’s Silvermines site, which closed in 1993, as an example of the negative effects of mining — particularly its impact on the Gortmore region.

Michael Leamy, chairman of the Gortmore Environmental Action Group, said the devastating aftereffects on the area,

including an increase in neurological problems locally and the death of cattle by lead poisoning, made him “very wary” of mining in Monaghan.

While safety and planning regulations are more stringent than in 1965, the year Silvermines opened, he said the government would welcome any big business and the Environmental Protection Agency did not have enough autonomy to make accurate rulings.

“The government will always come down on the side of big business, especially in the current economic climate. Anything that looks like it’ll make money will be welcome,” he said.

Places where gold has been found:

1. Clontibret, Monaghan: the recent drilling by Conroy Diamonds and Gold has yielded the best results

2. The Gold Mines River, Wicklow: It is estimated that 300kg were extracted in the 1700s and 1800s; the true figure is likely to be higher

3. Lecanvey, Mayo: Gold was discovered in south Mayo in 1984 and a significant quantity at Lecanvey in the late 1980s.

4. Kildare: After following up on 17th-century documents that reported gold artefacts in the forests south of Dublin, gold was found here in 1993.

5. Kilmichael, Wicklow: Drilling by Irish Marine Oil in 1998 on a gold-bearing structure found significant deposits.

6. Cavanacaw, Tyrone: Preliminary searches in 1987 confirmed gold in this mountainous region. A small-scale open-cast mine is in operation.

7. Inishturk island, Mayo: Traces can be found in quartz veins on the island. A substantial find has yet to be made.

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