Alba Mineral Resources plc said it would soon start the evaluation pitting of the historic waste rock dump at the Clogau-St David’s gold mine in North Wales.
PROGRAMME
The dump, containing material derived from the internal development of the mine during past periods of production, is estimated to cover some 30,000 km2 (7/10th of an acre) and contain 20,000 tonnes of rock.
Alba will dig nine pits and extract around 15 tonnes of material per pit over the next two weeks.
The material will be screened and a sample of the finer material from each pit sent for gold assaying.
PILOT PLANT
If the gold content is found to be sufficiently high-grade, the company will extract large tonnages of the waste rock dump material and process the material in Alba’s pilot processing plant.
The company will first modify and extend the pilot plant to enable it to handle the large tonnages extracted from the waste rock dump.
POTENTIAL
Executive chairman George Frangeskides said there were good prospects for finding “significant quantities” of gold in the finer grain-size fractions.
“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.”
“Although we will be initially shifting a lot of rock in this exercise – around 135 tonnes of it – the samples that we will be screening, collecting and sending for assay will only weigh around 50-100kg per pit.”
Alba expects an answer on the gold-bearing potential of the waste rock dump by mid-May.
BACKGROUND
The majority of the underground development comprised on-vein reef drives, from which stopes were developed.
It was reported that previous operators blasted six-foot blasting rounds in the development face and hand sorted the large pieces of vein quartz before sending them to the mine’s processing plant.
The finer material was cleaned out of the development end and sent to the adjacent waste rock dump.