LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Alba Mineral Resources updated the market on activities at its wholly-owned Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in North Wales on Monday, reporting progress in both waste tip processing and underground operations.
The AIM-traded firm said that in the waste tip operations, it had processed all fines from trenches one and three at the historic Clogau waste tip for their gold content.

It said the processing yielded 16.4 grams of gold from trench one, and 14.2 grams from trench three.

That corresponded to a back-calculated head grade of 3.83 grams per tonne from trench one and 2.68 grams per tonne from trench three, resulting in an overall average grade of 3.19 grams of gold per tonne for the 20-millimetre fines material.

Underground operations had also advanced significantly, with safety and access enhancements, including the installation of ladderways, had been completed to facilitate access to the number five level.

The ongoing work uncovered significant historic development between the number four and five levels, around 20 metres in length, opening further opportunities for sampling and access to the payshoot.

Additionally, the number five level had been successfully dewatered and surveyed, with no further safety concerns identified.

However, substantial amounts of ore and tailings from previous mining activities remained, and would need to be removed and assayed for gold content.

"I am pleased to report on ongoing operations at the Clogau Gold Mine; at the Waste Tip, the latest results from our processing of a significant, 9.5 tonne bulk sample of fines material from trenches one and three combined have returned an average back-calculated head grade for those fines of more than three grams per tonne," said executive chairman George Frangeskides.

"This is a highly creditable result for an on-surface waste tip and gives us a lot of confidence in the exploitation of the Waste Tip as a whole.

"We will continue and complete the remainder of our planned trenching and processing programme before making a final decision on the wider exploitation of the tip."

Frangeskides added that with regard to the ongoing underground preparations, while the firm discovered a lot of left behind ore on the number five level, together with what looked like tailings from past processing, which material would need to be removed to surface, it also provided a potential further source of gold content.

"We are pleased to report that we have so far found no other significant issues requiring remedial works on number five level.

"Further updates will be provided in due course."

At 1029 BST, shares in Alba Mineral Resources were up 7.09% at 0.06p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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