Alba Mineral Resources prepares for drilling at Clogau Gold Mine

Diversified mineral exploration and development company Alba Mineral Resources announced on Thursday that its drilling contractors have mobilised to site at the Clogau Gold Mine in north Wales.

The AIM-traded firm said that as a result, what is believed to be the first ever exploration diamond drilling programme at the historic Clogau Gold Mine would commence imminently.

It explained that historic mining at Clogau-St David's was limited to the mining of visible gold, and said it was employing modern exploration techniques, designed to maximise the prospects for unearthing new zones of economic gold mineralisation and extensions to existing mine workings.

The first drilling campaign would focus on one of the high priority gold targets, being the Llechfraith Mine area where mining last occurred in the 1980s, and where three potential gold shoots and areas of visible gold were reported.

Given the anticline fold structure present at Llechfraith, the Clogau shale within that area was potentially up to 200 metres thick and was considered a “high priority target area” for future mining activities.

The primary drilling objective was to test for structure at Llechfraith, in order to confirm the geological model and provide support for follow-up infill drilling and future mining activities targeting those gold-bearing structures.

“I am very pleased to announce the start of a diamond drilling programme at the Clogau Gold Mine, which to the best of our knowledge is the first such programme in the long and illustrious history of the mine,” said executive chairman George Frangeskides.

“During the previous periods of operation, the Clogau Mine owners limited their efforts to chasing and mining out visible gold-bearing quartz veins within the host Clogau shales.

“By contrast, Alba's approach is multi-faceted, and the Llechfraith Mine area is a prime example of this.”

Frangeskides said it was last mined in the 1980s, and visible gold had been reported in two out of three ore shoots within the mine area.

That, when added to the results of the company’s soil sampling programme which confirmed a strong gold anomaly above the Llechfraith workings, marked out Llechfraith as a strong prospect for the discovery of unexploited gold zones, he added.

“While this is a fairly short drilling programme, primarily designed to test the structural model, if that model is confirmed it will provide us with the necessary support to then move onto infill drilling and bulk sampling and processing at Llechfraith.

“The strong recovery in the gold price, which recently hit a five-year high of more than $1,500 per ounce, allied to the premium prices which Welsh gold fetches on the open market, underpins our belief in the Clogau Gold Mine as a key prospect for significant future revenue generation.”

At 1613 GMT, shares in Alba Mineral Resources had dipped below the waterline, being down 2.11% at 0.17p.