Alba Mineral Resources (AIM:ALBA ) has now successfully completed its 2020 underground drilling and bulk sampling programme at the Clogau-St David’s Gold mine in Wales. 

In recent weeks, Alba has resumed its underground exploration programme at the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in Wales where it had already drilled four holes to a depth of 252m. 

The company recently reported ‘excellent progress’ in its campaign since it recommenced activity at the site, with a 121m drill hole completed and a large bulk sample collected at the Jack Williams stope, taken from material left behind during previous periods of mining. 

Alba confirmed this morning that it has completed its underground drilling programme with seven holes drilled for a total of 559.5m. The below picture includes two drill holes (L003 and L004) which have been completed since Alba’s last announcement on 21 October 2020.

Meanwhile, Alba has also successfully completed its underground bulk sampling programme at the site, with seven bulk samples collected for a total of 36 tonnes of material, as demonstrated in the below figure which also shows the total mass of each bulk sample

“I would like to thank our underground teams for their skill, dedication and hard work. We now move straight into our surface drilling campaign. The surface drill rig is on site and our team has started collaring the first hole,” said Alba’s Executive Chairman, George Frangeskides.

The group’s contractor’s surface drill rig has been mobilised to site and a planned first phase of a surface drilling campaign of up to 1,500 metres in total has now commenced.

This drilling programme has been designed to target mineralisation below the existing mine workings at the Llechfraith mine area, thus testing the continuation of mineralisation at depth.

Alba said that this is the first phase of a longer term drilling programme of up to 5,000m to test areas of interest that cannot be easily or safely accessed from underground, which further phase shall be separately notification to the planning authorities in due course.

Figure 3 (right): Phase 1 Surface Drilling Programme (initial drill holes LL001-003 shown in yellow, with drill traces for Nov 2020 drill holes BH1-3 also shown).

Shares in Alba Mineral Resources have skyrocketed over 500% in the last three months to open 1.69% lower this morning at 0.465p following the announcement.

Diversified Mineral Exploration

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.  

Positive Newsflow from Assays and JORC Resource

Despite losing field time to the ongoing 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 will now move into the formal assaying of all the drilled and sampled material at Clogau, the start of its first phase of regional surface trenching programme and preparations for the surface drilling campaign.

Alba said all 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.

Alba said it does not expect the campaign at Clogau to be affected by Welsh Government coronavirus restrictions which were implemented from 23 October to 9 November 2020. 

Transition from Exploration to Production in Greenland

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.

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