Early-stage exploration firm has received all funds from investors for long-term ambitions to develop gold mines in Monaghan and Armagh

Precious metal finder Conroy Gold and Natural Resources has turned its sights to a stock market listing in Toronto in the coming months following a successful €1.5m private placement. 

The early-stage exploration firm, which has long pursued its ambition to develop a gold mine near Clontibret in Co Monaghan, has received all funds from investors and closed its non-brokered private placement for a total of £1,313,000 at a price of 8 pence per share.

A well-placed source said the next major step for the company was to list on the stock exchange in Toronto, which attracts a lot of resources and mining firms.

The company was hopeful that a Toronto listing would open an avenue to raise further new investment, said a source with knowledge of the company.

But, said the source, listing in Toronto could also lead to opportunities to find a partner with which it can pursue its ambitions along both sides of the border near Clontibret, Co Monaghan and at Clay Lake in Armagh.

The firm’s latest private placement fundraising was oversubscribed and the funds will be used to accelerate exploration on its Irish exploration assets and for general working capital purposes, the company has said.  

It holds 100pc of the licences for two parallel district-scale gold trends extending over c.90km, which are 100pc held under licence by the company, anchored by the Clontibret gold deposit. Currently, Conroy is undertaking exploratory drilling in the Clay Lake area.

“That drilling suggests this stool has a couple of legs on it,” the source told the Sunday Independent. 

Conroy has previously worked on two different joint venture partnerships with larger mining development companies that would have the capabilities to develop a mine but neither was brought to fruition.

In 2021 the company had agreed a joint venture agreement with Turkish conglomerate Demir Export that was supposed to lead to the development of Ireland’s first gold mine in many years but the deal did not last.

The firm was founded by Professor Richard Conroy in 1995. He had a long track record in natural resources and helped discover the lead and zinc prospect that became the Galmoy mine.

After Professor Conroy passed away in 2024 at the age of 91, his long time business partner Maureen Jones took over the running of the company as managing director. 

Even if the company does strike a new development deal it will face a very challenging planning process before it – or a partner – can move into the development phase to extract the gold.

There have been concerns raised over the years by rural border communities about the prospect of gold mining in the area.

But, said the source, it was expected that any mining in the future would be carried out via “a necklace of quarry-like developments” rather than potentially more problematic underground mining. 

“The Canadian listing is being worked on at the moment and the documents are being prepared for an application. The company is hoping that it will happen maybe before the end of the year but certainly early next year,” said the source.

It was notable that in the last two placings that Conroy was now attracting investment from experienced industry players from North America, including a number of major Canadian investment managers.

“That will be very important to the future development,” said the source.

Chairman of the company John Sherman said: “The level of demand, particularly from long-term value investors in North America, is a clear endorsement of the scale and quality of the Company’s ‘Discs of Gold’ project in Ireland.

“We look forward now to the next phase of exploration at Clontibret and Clay Lake and progressing with our work towards a dual listing on the TSX-Venture Exchange in Canada.”