Alba Mineral Resources plc said it planned to conduct an underground drilling programme in a newly identified vein system at Clogau-St David’s mine in North Wales.
Six drill holes, LL001-LL006, have been completed for 724 metres in total including and holes LL004-006 have been completed for a further 324.5 metres.
LL005 intersected the projected vein system some 16 metres below the intercepts for drill holes LL001-LL004. Hole LL005 intersected significant quartz veins at 90m and 102m.
Alba said it now projected the newly identified vein system as extending 66 metres below the deepest previously worked zone at the Llechfraith mine area.
The junior miner has submitted an application for a bespoke water discharge permit to allow lower workings in the Llechfraith Shaft to be dewatered in order to undertake underground drilling and bulk sampling directly from that zone.
The company also announced that its pilot gold processing plant was now fully operational. Ore stockpiles from prior periods of exploration are initially being utilised to test and refine the operation of the plant.
The stockpile from the September and October 2020 bulk sampling will be processed progressively through Q1 2021, and concentrate samples will be sent for assaying.
The company also announced that airborne geophysical and stream sediment sampling data is being reprocessed to define more narrowly the regional gold targets in the Gwynfynydd and Dolgellau gold exploration project.
PHASE TWO
LL007 is expected to be the final hole in the Phase 1 programme and is designed to intersect the projected lode structure a further 16 metres below LL005.
Phase 2 of surface drilling will consist of an eight to 10 hole programme for around 2,000 metres.
This will target the 550m main lode extension indicated by the recently completed underground drilling. It also aims to intersect the projected depth extensions of certain historically worked lodes, namely Grandfathers Lode and the 7-10 Lode.
“This surface drilling campaign is delivering on our objectives in spades,” said Alba executive chairman George Frangeskides.
He added that the vein system below the historic workings at Llechfraith provided the team with a significant zone or follow-up channel and bulk sampling.
“Ultimately, assuming that sampling programme stacks up well, we would then look to sink an extension to the main shaft some 60 metres down from No 4 Level, with several new levels then being driven across from the extended shaft in order to be able to access the lode structure at a number of intervals.
“Thanks to modern engineering techniques and equipment, putting this new development in place would not be anything like the endeavour it would have been when the last development was put in place at Clogau some decades ago.”