(ShareCast News) - Dalradian Resources announced on Wednesday that it has been granted option agreements for precious metals and prospecting licences for base metals, in two new licence areas contiguous with its existing licences in Northern Ireland.The AIM-traded company said the two new licence areas have the same structure as the pre-existing licences.Its licence areas now stretch over 122,000 hectares of proven prospective ground, up from approximately 84,000 hectares previously.Dalradian said its field crews began regional prospecting and sampling in June as part of its 2016 regional exploration program, which will include the new licence areas."We first visited Northern Ireland in 2009, when the government was looking for a group with the experience and resources to grow and develop Curraghinalt," said Dalradian CEO Patrick Anderson."In addition to the merits of the small but high-grade gold deposit, we appreciated the foresight of the government in having produced the Tellus survey, a comprehensive package of geological data across Northern Ireland that was designed to attract investment in mining."Anderson said that since the beginning, Dalradian has been able to grow Curraghinalt more than sixfold and has derisked the project by bringing it to the feasibility stage."In addition, we have identified numerous regional gold targets, compiled historic exploration data from elsewhere on our properties into one master exploration database and currently have crews out in the field sampling and prospecting, with the goal of making more discoveries.""With the addition of DG5 and DG6, we are now the largest mineral licence holder in Northern Ireland," Anderson confirmed.