Alba starts drilling at Irish base metals site

Alba Mineral Resources said it had started drilling at its base metals project in the Republic of Ireland.

The mineral exploration company said drilling at the Limerick site targeted soil and gravity indicators of zinc identified during field programmes. The area already has several good quality zinc mines including the Tara mine and Glencore's Pallas Green deposit, Alba said.

The AIM-traded company's shares rose 4.9% to 27p at 0941 BST.

Alba's executive chairman George Frangeskides said: "This excellent news that drilling has commenced at Limerick means that we have now hit all our principal objectives for our mining operations in this quarter. I will be on site in Limerick today to see the progress of drilling for myself, and I look forward to reporting on the results in due course."

Frangeskides said Alba had already announced a maiden resource estimate for its Thule Black Sands project in Iceland and completed phase one of its regional exploration campaign in Clogau, Wales.