Alba Mineral Resources (ALBA ) has confirmed the production of a gold concentrate with “good recoveries” of gold to concentrate at its Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in Wales. 

The mineral exploration and development firm told investors that processing of small bulk samples at a third-party processing facility has now validated the Company's process flowsheet and confirmed the production of a 20.7 grams per tonne gold concentrate. 

A small amount of bulk sample material was sent by the Company to an independent laboratory for bench-scale testing, in order to validate the process flowsheet which has been designed by the Company for ore having the particular characteristics of Clogau ore.  

The bench-scale testing was ‘successful’ with good gold recoveries with 78.06% of the total gold content being captured in the Gravity concentrate plus Concentrate 1 of the Gravity tailings fractions; and a gold concentrate was produced, grading 20.7 grams per tonne. 

“This gives us great encouragement as we near the commencement of operation of our own dedicated pilot processing plant,” said George Frangeskides, Alba's Executive Chairman. 

Alba’s surface redrilling campaign has also recommenced at the mine (Fig. 1 and 2). Drill hole LL004 was drilled to 62.4 metres, but due to difficult ground conditions encountered, the end of the hole was called before the hole had intersected the expected quartz zone.   

 

Figures 1 and 2: 3D views of Llechfraith mine workings (labelled Adit Level and Levels 2-4), showing difference in dip of proposed drill hole LL005 compared to completed drill hole LL003. Drill traces for the November 2019 drilling campaign also shown (drill holes BH1-3). 

(Source: Alba Mineral Resources) 

The Company explained that its drilling contractors are currently preparing the drill collar for hole LL005.  It outlined that the trajectory of LL005 will be steeper (-55°) to obtain a deeper lode intersection around 20 metres below the intersections obtained in LL001-003. 

Final minor adjustments and tests are being carried out in respect of Alba’s pilot gold processing plant, and it accordingly expects to be able to commence processing the ~36 tonne bulk sample collected in September-October 2020 starting from next week. 

Processing of the bulk sample at the Company's pilot processing plant is expected to be ongoing throughout much of Q1 2021.  Alba said it does not expect to be in a position to release results until all processing has been completed and the results have been verified. 

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.  

Reasons to Follow Alba Mineral Resources

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 will kick-start this week 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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