Alba Mineral Resources reports new findings at Clogau-St David
(ALBA ) has reported its latest results from the ongoing Phase 1 surface drilling programme at the Clogau-St David’s Gold Mine in Wales.
The results enable the company to project the newly identified vein system as extending some 66 metres below the deepest previously worked zone at the Llechfraith mine area.
This Phase 1 surface drilling programme has been designed to target mineralisation below the existing mine workings at the Llechfraith mine area (see Figures 1 and 2), thus testing the continuation of mineralisation at depth.
Six drill holes have been completed for 724m in total. Since the last drilling update, covering holes LL001-LL003, holes LL004-006 have been completed for a further 324.5 metres.
Hole LL005 succeeded in intersecting the projected vein system some 16 metres or so below the intercepts for drill holes LL001-LL004 while hole LL005 was also reported to intersect significant quartz veins at 90m and 102m.
Figure 1: 3D diagram depicting traces of Phase 1 surface drill holes at Llechfraith. The red zone shows projected continuation of pay shoot that was mined at Llechfraith. Quartz vein intercepts are shown in purple and red.
(Source: Alba Mineral Resources)
Figure 2: Plan view of Phase 1 Surface drill holes. Lode intersections represented by red circles; other veins represented by purple circles. Drilling indicates a strike length of pay shoot to be about 40m with depth extension below Level 4 of 66m.
(Source: Alba Mineral Resources)
The identification of this ‘significant’ projected lode structure below No 4 Level now provides Alba with a significant zone for follow-up exploration drilling and bulk sampling. The objective will be to access this zone directly from the Llechfraith shaft, once dewatered.
This will enable far more targeted exploration than has been possible to date, initially by channel and bulk sampling from the newly dewatered No 4 Level and, in due course, by extending the existing Llechfraith Shaft from No 4 Level down 60 metres or so and creating a number of sub-levels forking off from the shaft extension (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Conceptual mining layout from a deepened Llechfraith Shaft. Projected lode structure (red) modelled from results of Phase 1 drilling (drill traces for LL003 and LL005 shown with quartz vein intercepts shown in purple and red). Conceptual shaft and sub-levels (yellow) indicative of further development which would allow ready access to the lode.
(Source: Alba Mineral Resources)
Once this Phase has been completed, the next phase of surface drilling (Phase 2) will commence, which consists of an 8-10-hole programme for around 2,000 metres.
This phase will target the 550m Main Lode extension indicated by the recently completed underground drilling and will also seek to intersect the projected depth extensions of certain historically worked lodes, namely Grandfathers Lode and the 7-10 Lode.
On the results, George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman said, “This provides us with a significant zone for follow-up channel and bulk sampling once we can get much closer access, which we will be able to do as soon as we have dewatered the Main Shaft at Llechfraith.”
He added, “Ultimately, assuming that sampling programme stacks up well, we would then look to sink an extension to the Main Shaft some 60 metres down from No 4 Level, with several new Levels then being driven across from the extended shaft in order to be able to access the lode structure at a number of intervals.”
Excellent phase 1 drilling results clearly justifies additional investment in dewatering and extending the main shaft at Llechfraith to provide the Company with the opportunity for further resource sampling during Phase 2 drilling. Early stage investors in ALBA have rewarded handsomely with the shares increasing over the past 12 months from 0.11p in February 2020 to close at 0.36p yesterday. Today’s news will also be well received by more recent investors wanting to test 52 week highs of 0.55p seen over the past three months.
Reasons to Follow ALBA
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.
Limerick Base Metals Project
Historically, only eight drillholes have been completed within Alba’s Project area of the Limerick Base Metals Project, the most recent being the three holes drilled in Q2 of 2019.
Alba said these low levels of drilling are unusual in the Irish context and, for this reason, the area is considered under-explored. Alba has previously identified a number of attractive targets that have never been drilled before.
Alba’s current technical team, led by Mark Austin, Alba’s COO and Senior Geologist, will undertake a comprehensive review of the licence area before determining the next phase of planned exploration activities.
The expenditure conditions attaching to the renewal of PL 3824 require Alba to incur expenditure of €15,732 by 26 May 2021 with a further €50,000 to be spent by 26 May 2022.
JORC Resource expected at St David’s Clogau Gold Mine
Despite losing field time to the 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 said 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.
Transition from Exploration to Production in Greenland and Wales
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.
In 2020, Alba has announced that surface trenching activities would kick-start over the first of the group’s 10 regional gold targets over the Dolgellau Gold Field.
The trenching will target the first of 10 separate new gold targets over the Dolgellau Gold Field which have previously been identified by Alba.
Alba said up to eight trenches have been planned in this first phase, each varying in length from 40-90m for a total of 575m, with each trench being 1m wide and up to 2m deep.
Once exposed, the quartz veining and other structures from the trenches, those of which are pictured below, will be sampled, and those samples sent to a laboratory for assaying.
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