More Drilling Planned

Conroy Diamonds & Gold PLC
16 January 2002



                       CONROY DIAMONDS AND GOLD P.L.C.

 CONROY PLANS SPRING START FOR DRILL TESTING OF UP TO TEN NEW TARGETS AT ITS
                          GOLD PROSPECTS IN IRELAND

  * More Drilling Also Planned At Tullybuck-Lisglassan And Cargalisgorran
    Deposits
  * 2002 Programme Designed To Evaluate Known Gold Deposits And Increase
    Potential Of Armagh-Monaghan Gold Belt

AIM-listed Conroy Diamonds and Gold is to drill up to ten new gold prospects,
identified by soil geochemistry and trenching, as part of the Company's 2002
exploration programme in Ireland announced today. The programme, to begin in
the Spring, will also include further work on Conroy's established gold
deposits at Tullybuck-Lisglassan in County Monaghan and Cargalisgorran in
County Armagh.

Six drill holes are planned at Tullybuck-Lisglassan as part of the Company's
ongoing advanced drilling programme on this deposit where all holes completed
to date have intersected gold. The new holes will test for extensions of the
known gold mineralisation both along strike to the NW and SE, and also at
depth. The presence of targets adjacent to the deposit was indicated by the
findings last year of the British Geological Survey/Craft study.

Follow up drilling of the Armagh gold discovery at Cargalisgorran, where the
Company recently outlined a third mineralised structure, will initially
comprise a further six drillholes. These will test for strike extensions of
mineralisation associated with this new structure, as well as the two other
structures previously identified at Cargalisgorran.

Three additional targets, where trenching to bedrock has confirmed the
presence of gold, will be tested by drilling two holes on each target. All
three lie within the Armagh-Monaghan Gold Belt. Two are situated between
Tullybuck-Lisglassan and Cargalisgorran; the third is located approximately
seven kilometres to the south west of Tullybuck-Lisglassan. All targets are
spacially related to the Orlock Bridge Fault which the Company believes is the
major geological control over mineralisation in the region.

A further four targets within the Armagh-Monaghan Gold Belt have been
identified by detailed soil geochemistry. These will be followed up by
trenching to bedrock with a view to identifying drilling targets.

Three additional targets have been defined by soil geochemistry at Slieve
Glah, in the Longford-Down Massif, forty five kilometres to the SW of
Tullybuck-Lisglassan. Trenching will be undertaken with a view to defining
drill targets.

The objective of the proposed 2002 exploration programme is to gain further
information on the Company's known gold deposits at Tullybuck-Lisglassan and
Cargalisgorran, and add to its pool of knowledge and understanding of the
Armagh-Monaghan Gold Belt, which the Company believes may contain a series of
gold deposits.

Further Information:

Professor Richard Conroy, Conroy Diamonds and Gold Plc. Tel: [phone]

www.conroydiamondsandgold.com