In November 2009 the Company was granted a Prospecting Licence for base metals, barite, silver, gold and platinum group elements near Bantry, County Cork, in the south-west of the Irish Republic.

The Company is targeting the Derryginagh barite deposit for the production of high value white "paint-grade" barite for use as mineral filler in paints and plastics. White paint-grade barite is the highest-value use for barite having significant sales volumes. Off-white barite is used as a lower value mineral filler and high volumes of low- grade barite are used as a weighting agent in drilling mud in the oil and gas industry.

The Derryginagh mine was worked in the period 1864-1922, supplying white barite to the local paint industry. The mine workings extend over a strike length of 200m and to a maximum depth of 60m. In the 1970s the mine workings were de-watered and mapped by a local company and in the 1980s four holes were drilled to intersect the barite vein at 100 meters below surface by Dresser Minerals International Inc., which was then a major supplier of drilling mud grade barite around the world.

All four Dresser holes intersected white barite over an average width of 2.4m and over a total strike length of 200m, with the vein being open along strike and at depth.

There is a significant demand for white paint-grade barite in Europe but no major mine supply outside of China and India. Consequently there is a niche opportunity for a new European supplier as China's own internal demand limits traditional exports. The price currently quoted for white paint-grade barite is £195-220/tonne delivered to the UK.

Initial tests have previously been carried out by SGS Mineral Services UK Ltd on two vein barite samples hand picked from the surface mine dumps and included a simple gravity separation test which produced a very high- grade barite concentrate that exceeds the required chemical specification for the purest and highest value white filler grades of barite. Colour testing, carried out by an existing buyer of filler grade barite, was also favourable.

In August 2010 the Company conducted an underground sampling programme from the No. 1 level. These samples were delivered to SGS Mineral Services (UK) for metallurgical testwork, the results of which were reported in RNS dated 3rd November 2010 along with details of a geophysical survey conducted in October at selected locations across the property.

In February 2011 a limited program of trenching was conducted to assess anomalies identified by the geophysical survey resulting in the recovery of barite from a number of trenches including a large sample of vein barite recovered from a trench located east of the existing workings. This large barite sample has formed the basis of further metallurgical testwork in 2011/12. The trenching was reported in an RNS dated 21st March 2011.

In May 2011 the Company announced positive results from a technical and economic concept study that suggested a project producing 50,000 tonnes per year of barite filler could be economically feasible and in late 2011/early 2012 a drilling programme was carried out that demonstrated that the Derryginagh vein continues at depth hosting high grade barite at depth of at least 180m below surface where the vein remains open to expansion.

Feasibility studies are continuing.