Alba’s Llechfraith drill hole exceeds expectations

Alba Mineral Resources plc said that its final hole reached 46% deeper than the previous hole at the newly identified vein system in Clogau-St David’s gold mine, North Wales.

The junior miner added that its initial geological modelling indicated that the total tonnage estimation for the newly identified lode structure was between 24,000 to 27,000 tonnes in the lower lode alone.

The new vein has a down dip extent of 122 metres below the existing workings.

The news comes as the junior miner completes Phase 1 of the surface drilling programme at the Llechfraith mine area.

LL010, the final hole in Alba’s Phase 1 surface drilling programme, was the deepest hole drilled at 176.4m.

It intersected the upper lode quartz vein system from 120 to 129m and the lower lode quartz vein system from 139 to 145m.

A total of 1.82m of quartz veins were intersected in the upper lode and 5.92m in the lower lode including one intercept of 3.73m which is the widest intercept in the entire programme.

At its deepest point, LL010 intersected the lode structure 122m below the existing Llechfraith mine workings, almost doubling the depth extent identified previously by LL009 (66m).

Alba said that the western strike extent had yet to be constrained, meaning that the tonnage estimation for the lower lode had the potential to be materially increased by further drilling.

KEY TARGET

The company’s newly modelled zone – the Llechfraith lode – is a key target for development and production at Clogau-St David.

“Hole LL010 was designed to assess whether the newly identified lode system beneath the Llechfraith mine area extends to 100 metres below those previous workings,” said Alba chief operating officer Mark Austin.

“In the event, the hole has greatly exceeded our expectations, intersecting the lower lode at a depth of 122 metres below the lowest workings.

“Perhaps even more significant is the fact that we have intersected the Llechfraith Lode structure at such depth.

“This has implications for the entire Clogau St. David’s gold mine, as it indicates that gold-bearing structures mined in and around the mine could extend significantly to depths which historical mining never reached.

“This will be further tested very soon, as we embark on Phase 2 of our surface drilling programme targeting the depth extensions of the 7-10 and Grandfathers lodes, which were significant sites of past production on the Llechfraith Adit Level.”