Irish Marine Oil (IMO) is to carry out further drilling at its gold licences near Carnew, Co Wicklow, this spring, according to chairman Dr John Teeling. This follows the discovery of "significant gold mineralisation" in three holes, announced earlier this month. Dr Teeling told The Irish Times the gold was "high quality" and looks interesting but he stressed "we do not have commercial results". Further drilling was necessary, he added."

The interim results show a loss of £34,000 in the six months to October 31st, 1997. It has more than £400,000 cash in its balance sheet. IMO spent £250,000 on exploration in the six months and more than £200,000 of that was funded by the IMO joint venture partners.