ARCON International, the mining group 44 per cent owned by Dr Tony O'Reilly, has increased reserves at its Galmoy orebody to more than 8.5 million tonnes, following the discovery of a further 314,000 tonnes grading over 16 per cent zinc.

And, in what is potentially a major development for Arcon, recent drilling six kilometres from Galmoy at Templetuohy has unearthed a new lead zinc discovery, so far only indicated reserves of more than 300,000 tonnes of ore grading more than 12 per cent zinc. The Templetuohy find is about nine kilometres from the Ivernia orebody at Lisheen.