The C-star envelope IRC +10216 harbors a rich variety of molecules, with more than 80 detected to date. During the course of a λ 3 mm survey of IRC +10216 carried out with the IRAM 30-m telescope we have detected various weak lines, with antenna temperatures of a few mK, that we assign to rotational transitions of four new molecules. The observation of three lines of C 5 S confirms a previous tentative identification of this molecule by Bell et al. (1993) based on a line at 24.0 GHz. We also report the tentative identification of three molecules not yet observed in space: MgCCH, the first metal acetylide detected in space, and NCCP and SiH 3 CN, the phosphorus and silicon analogs of cyanogen (NCCN) and methyl cyanide (CH 3 CN). We derive the following column densities: N(C 5 S) = (2-14) × 10 12 cm −2 (depending on the rotational temperature adopted), N(MgCCH) = 2 × 10 12 cm −2 , N(NCCP) = 7 × 10 11 cm −2 , and N(SiH 3 CN) = 10 12 cm −2 . The S-bearing carbon chain C 5 S is less abundant than C 3 S, while MgCCH has an abundance in between that of MgNC and those of MgCN and HMgNC. On the other hand, NCCP and SiH 3 CN are the least abundant P-and Si-bearing molecules observed to date in IRC +10216. Based on the behavior of similar molecules it is likely that these four species are formed in the outer circumstellar layers of IRC +10216. We discuss possible gas-phase formation routes.