LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Alba Mineral Resources updated the market on development plans at the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine on Thursday, reporting that drilling campaigns completed over the last 12 months had successfully identified new development opportunities, both along strike and down dip of areas of known historic gold production.
The AIM-traded firm said two clear targets had been defined for near-term development, with the first being the Llechfraith Payshoot (LLP), below the Llechfraith Adit, where drilling had proven vein continuity up to 122 metres below existing workings.

It said the second was the Main Lode System Extension (MLS-EX), where drilling defined a previously-unknown lode termed the New Branch Lode, while also intercepting the 7-10 Lode and Grandfathers Payshoot at up to 60 metres below existing workings.

Alba said its preliminary conclusions regarding a development plan for those high-priority areas included development at the LLP below the number 4 level, involving either rehabilitating and extending the existing shaft or developing a new inclined shaft from the Llechfraith level, with a current preference for a new inclined shaft.

With the identification of the New Branch Lode between the 7-10 and Jack Williams lodes in the MLS-EX, a 48 metre crosscut could be driven from the Llechfraith level to reach both the New Branch and Jack Williams lodes.

From that drive, Alba said it would be able to gain on-reef exposure of the target veins, allowing for gold grades to be better quantified by bulk sampling.

It said the next steps were to settle detailed engineering plans and budgets, secure contractors and obtain regulatory consents.

"Having successfully established gold-bearing structures and defined high-priority development opportunities through drilling, we are now focussed on putting the detailed plans in place to undertake continuous exposure of those new structures by underground development," said executive chairman George Frangeskides.

"This is the most effective method to assess economic gold content in a project of this type.

"We will update the market again as soon as we have settled the detailed engineering plan."

At 1453 BST, shares in Alba Mineral Resources were up 2.67% at 0.2p.

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