Alba to start evaluation pitting at Clogau-St David's

Alba Mineral Resources announced on Tuesday that the evaluation pitting of the historic waste rock dump at the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine would be starting shortly.

The AIM-traded firm said the waste rock dump contained material derived from the internal development of the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine during past periods of production.

It said the dump was estimated to cover about 30,000 square feet, and to contain 20,000 tonnes of rock.

Nine pits would be dug, with around 15 tonnes of material to be extracted per pit.

The material would be screened, and a sample of the finer material from each pit would then be sent off-site for gold assaying.

“We are constantly looking for ways to unlock early revenue streams at Clogau-St David's while we continue with our work to prove up, through drilling, the new gold-bearing zones within the mine complex which will ultimately justify a decision to reopen the mine for long-term commercial production,” said executive chairman George Frangeskides.

“One such potential source of early revenue is in the waste rock dump at Clogau.

“We estimate that this dump contains around 20,000 tonnes of rock extracted from the mine during previous periods of production, and we believe there are good prospects for finding significant quantities of gold in the finer grain-size fractions within the dump.”

Frangeskides said that, although the company would initially be shifting a lot of rock at around 135 tonnes, the samples sent for assay would only weigh between 50 and 100 kilograms per pit.

“Assuming normal processing times at our preferred external assay laboratory, we expect, therefore, to have a definitive answer on the gold-bearing potential of the waste rock dump by the middle of next month.”

At 1604 BST, shares in Alba Mineral Resources were down 6.51% at 0.28p.