Arkle Resources said it has begun trenching at its Inishowen project as it seeks to expand the gold veins discovered in 2016.

The company said a total of eight trenching locations have been identified from the recent soil sampling survey at the Donegal project. Arkle also said re-analysis of a visible gold sample from the Mine River project identified a higher grade sample, compared with the earlier analysis.

"The objective is to locate new gold veins," said John Teeling, chairman. "There is further good news from our Mine River gold project as more detailed analysis from the recent trenching programme has increased the grade of a significant sample from 5.5grams/tonne to an average of 6.39g/t gold on 30g and 50g representative crushed samples. The next step, in early 2021 is drilling on both projects."

Arkle also said drilling by Group Eleven at the Stonepark zinc project had been completed, with results expected in January 2021.