John Clifford
Director - Exploration
Minco Exploration
EurGeol John Clifford PGeo, holds a degree in geology from University Cork, Ireland, and post-graduate degrees from Royal School of Mines and London University and is a Senior Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. He has over 50 years’ experience in the mineral resource sector, working mainly in mineral exploration and project evaluation in over 40 countries. He was part of the technical team that discovered economic resources at Cerro Negro, Argentina; in the Centinela District, Chile; Cononish, Scotland, and Curraghinalt, Ireland. He is currently Director – Exploration for Minco Exploration Plc. He has served at Board level for several associations and has been recognized by several international awards, including the Council of Mining and Metallurgical Institutions Medal, European Federation of Geologists' Medal of Merit, and the Institute of Geologists of Ireland Medal of Honour.
Mineral Exploration in Ireland – A Renewable Industry: The Minco Experience by John F. Kearney and John A. Clifford
Minco Exploration and its predecessors have been engaged in mineral exploration in Ireland for almost 70 years. During that time, our group has had many exploration successes, and we believe that we have made another discovery last year at our Rapla project. Ireland is a very small country when compared to other prospective mineral exploration areas worldwide. “Surely the whole country is well explored?”, one might ask. “If there is another mineral deposit, it would have been discovered before now”, another might say. In this paper we will demonstrate, using Minco’s experience, why this is not the case, and that, given the right conditions, Mineral Exploration in Ireland is a “Renewable Industry” and that by using Irelands extensive geological data base, there is a good probability of the discovery of a new deposit, like Rapla, in areas of Ireland that could, at first glance, be considered well explored.
