Alba Mineral Resources Expands Gold License
(ALBA ) been awarded the grant of an additional exclusive mineral exploration licence, known as an Option Agreement, which secures further prospective gold exploration are within and adjacent to the Dolgellau Gold Field (“DGF”).
The Clogau Shales and adjacent stratigraphic packages are known to be critical controls on the development of vein-hosted gold mineralisation, so securing these areas of ground gives Alba extended control of prospective gold exploration ground in and adjacent to the DGF.
New Exploration Licence
Alba’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dragonfire Mining Limited, has been granted a new Option Agreement (“Licence”) by The Crown to expand Alba’s existing exclusive exploration ground into new and prospective areas.
The Licence, which is granted for a period of six years, covers all areas of Clogau Shale exposure north of the Barmouth Estuary, adding an additional 64 km2 of ground and bringing the total area under licence to Alba to 188 km2 as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: License area (shown in black) with new license areas (shown in red)
The area hosts some recorded mine workings, which were working sulphide-bearing quartz veins. Whether mining here was developed in search of gold or base metals is unknown, but the structures highlighted by these workings show that mineralisation conforms to north-east to south-west striking structures, in some cases more than 10 km in length, similar to what is seen elsewhere in the DGF.
Figure 2: Known Gold anomalies within the new license area
Of particular interest to Alba is the large tract of land added to the north-west where historical data sets, including the Mineral Reconnaissance Programme (“MRP”) completed by the British Geological Survey in the 1980s which analysed a suite of panned drainage samples for gold, indicate that the area hosts gold mineralisation (see Figure 3).
Alba’s geologists have identified a suite of these prospective structures to investigate further, especially where these structures interact with the Clogau Shales (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Map of how prospective target structures (green) interact with known workings (yellow) and the critical Clogau Shales (blue) in the new Licence area.
[Source : Alba Minerals]
While the source of the gold is currently poorly understood, Alba is well-positioned to apply the comprehensive knowledge base it has developed in the Clogau St. David’s Gold Mine and in the DGF to explore for the bedrock sources of these anomalies.
Alba’s Executive Chairman, George Frangeskides, commented: “We are very pleased to have been granted this new licence area within the Dolgellau Gold Field. It consolidates our control of the prospective gold exploration ground both within and adjacent to the Gold Field. This new area will be included within our overall plan for continued regional exploration of the Dolgellau Gold Field, details of which will be announced soon.”
View from Vox
With the spinout of Greenland Assets snaring much or managerial capacity, it’s reassuring to see operational progress at Dolgellau continues apace.
It’s worth noting the half year results, released in August, highlighted the exploration license at DGB has been extended until February 2025 and this extension last up to 2027, providing plenty of opportunity to release the significant latent value from this asset.
Whilst the spin out of all the Greenland Assets into GreenRoc Mining plc and its imminent admission to the KLSE has grabbed all the headlines and investor focus of late, long term investors will be pleased with this expansion into adjacent highly prospective areas.
Shares in ALBA have traded within a tight range over the past six months between 0.24p and 0.28p the near to medium outlook provides plenty of opportunity for the shares to re-rate higher as both DGF moves into production and GreenRoc starts producing positive newsflow.
3 Reasons to Alba Minerals
Diversified Mineral Exploration
Alba Mineral Resources is a well-diversified mineral exploration and development company which owns and operates mining projects in Greenland, Wales and Ireland. Its strategy is to identify and secure undervalued assets with a diversified commodity mix where there is potential for discovering further unexploited resources alongside the existing mine site.
Positive Assays and JORC Resource Newsflow expected in 2021
Despite losing field time to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Alba said it is in a position to execute one of the most significant underground work programmes seen for several decades at its Clogau gold mine in Wales, just as the commodity is reaching all-time highs in value.
Alba will now move into the formal assaying of all the drilled and sampled material at Clogau, the start of its first phase of regional surface trenching programme and preparations for the surface drilling campaign.
Alba said all its mining projects remain on ‘a sound footing’, with JORC resources at both Thule Black Sands and Melville Bay, and plans to drill a maiden JORC resource at Amitsoq in 2021.
Alba said it does not expect the campaign at Clogau to be affected by Welsh Government coronavirus restrictions which were implemented from 23 October to 9 November 2020.
Transition from Exploration to Production in Greenland
Other ‘significant’ progress has also been made in recent years towards Alba’s ultimate goal of achieving commercial production at one or more of its sites, including at the Thule Black Sands in Greenland, the Amitsoq project in Greenland and the Horse Hill well in Surrey.
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