REG - Alba Mineral Resrcs. - Operational Update

Alba Mineral ResourcesAnnouncement

16/05/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 9216I  Alba Mineral Resources PLC  16 May 2025

Alba Mineral Resources Plc / EPIC: ALBA / Market: AIM / Sector: Mining

16 May 2025

Alba Mineral Resources Plc

("Alba" or the "Company") 

 

Operational Update

Alba Mineral Resources Plc (AIM: ALBA) is pleased to provide this operational
update in respect of the Company's 100% owned Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in
north Wales ("Clogau" or the "Mine") and its farm-in high-grade REE and gold
prospect, Finnsbo, in Sweden.

Key Points

Clogau (Gold)

·      Processing ongoing at the Company's onsite pilot processing
plant, focused on -20mm Waste Tip material. The addition of a trommel screen
has greatly aided the separation of the <1mm material from the <20mm
material.

 

·      Following the renewal of its exploration rights, the Company is
in the process of finalising the next phase of blasting at Clogau (to be
announced next week).

 

Finnsbo (Rare Earths and Gold)

·      A specialist geophysics contractor has been commissioned to carry
out a ground-based geophysical survey at Finnsbo, commencing shortly.

 

·      The programme will focus on the area of the known high-grade rare
earth and gold outcrop at Finnsbo with the objective of providing greater
definition of the target area for the planning of follow-up drilling.

George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman, commented:

"We are very pleased to be close to finalising our revised work plan for the
next phase of blasting at Clogau. Our recent gold sales, which achieved 8.5x
the spot price of gold, have given us great confidence as we move into the
next stage of underground exploration and development.

"We are also excited to be about to embark upon our first significant field
programme at Finnsbo, our high-grade gold and rare earth prospect in southern
Sweden. Access to the rare earth minerals which are integral to so many of the
high-tech products that we take for granted, from mobiles phones to cars, as
well as to the global energy transition, has become an absolutely hot button
topic for Western nations in the face of China's current near monopoly in the
mining and downstream processing of rare earths. One of the attractions of
Finnsbo, apart from its location in northern Europe, is that the rare earths
and gold have been found outcropping at high grades at surface. This
forthcoming survey should help us to understand better the potential scale of
the target area."

Details

Clogau Update

In our last update (RNS dated 29 April 2025), we reported that further
sampling, processing and refining of the Waste Tip trench samples had returned
an average concentrate grade of 450.6 g/t, equating to an average
back-calculated head grade of 9.2 g/t.

That exercise was focused on the <1mm material from the Waste Tip. Since
that exercise, the Company has been focused on the sampling and processing of
Waste Tip material in the size range 1-20mm. The addition of a trommel screen
has greatly aided the separation of the <1mm material from the <20mm
material. Concentrates from this latest processing exercise have shown visible
gold on the table, however grades and gold content are not known at this
stage.

In the announcement of its Final Results (see RNS dated 2 May 2025), the
Company confirmed that it had recently been granted a multi-year renewal of
its exclusive exploration rights over the Clogau Gold Mine and surrounding
areas. Following this news, the Company has been finalising its plans for the
next round of underground blasting, with further details expected to be
announced next week.

Finnsbo Rare Earths & Gold

The Company is pleased to announce that it has commissioned a Finnish
contractor specialised in the carrying out of geophysical surveys to perform a
ground-based magnetic survey and data processing exercise on a key target area
within the Finnsbo licence in Sweden (see Figure 1).  This exercise will
commence in the next few days.

 

The total ground to be covered will comprise approximately 24 line kilometres
with a 25m line spacing. Three GEM GSM19W Overhauser magnetometers will be
used in walking magnetometer mode, providing better than 1 metre spatial
resolution.

 

A magnetic susceptibility survey in mineral exploration uses the magnetic
properties of rocks and minerals to locate and characterise potential mineral
deposits. It involves measuring the degree to which earth materials become
magnetised when exposed to an applied magnetic field. The purpose of the
survey at Finnsbo will be to provide information in the immediate area
regarding the near-surface occurrence of the mineralisation that was sampled
on surface. It is expected that drill targets will be generated from this
survey. Additionally, the presence of historical magnetite mining operations
in the area could lead to further magnetite iron ore occurrences being
located.

 

Figure 1: Inset map showing extent of Finnsbo licence (black outline) and,
within that area (and also in the centre of the main image), the extent of the
proposed geophysical survey (black and yellow outline).

 

Previous work by the project owners at Finnbso has returned assay results of
up to 3.5% Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) (with overall grades ranging from
0.5% to 3.5% TREO), with 37-38% of the TREO in each case being made up of
high-value NdPrDy (neodymium-praseodymium-dysprosium) oxides, as well as gold
and copper grades of up to 27g/t (with overall grades ranging from 7 to 27g/t)
and 2.9% (with overall grades ranging from 0.9% to 2.9%) respectively.

 

Samples taken by Alba from broken rock blasted during previous operations at
Finnsbo have been found to contain visible gold and returned assay results
including grades of 9.72 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 2.36% total rare earth
oxides (TREO) (see Figures 2 to 5).

 

As referred to in the Company's RNS of 11 December 2024, as the high-grade
gold assay reported in that RNS of >10g/t was above the maximum reportable
grade for the assay protocol selected

(being 10g/t), the laboratory was subsequently ask to run the assay again
using a different protocol to arrive at a precise gold content for the sample,
hence the revised figure stated above of 9.72g/t.

 

Clockwise from top left: Figure 2: Finnsbo outcrop (approx. 50 m in length
extent); Figure 3: Sampling historical blast at Finnsbo outcrop; Figure 4:
Grab sample from Finnsbo outcrop showing visible gold; Figure 5: Section of
Finnsbo outcrop. These sampled areas will be covered in the planned
geophysical survey.

 

Forward Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or
anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in
nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such
as general economic, market, financial and business conditions, competition
for and availability of qualified staff and contractors, regulatory processes
and actions, technical issues, new legislation, uncertainties resulting from
potential delays or changes in plans, uncertainties resulting from working in
a new political jurisdiction, uncertainties regarding the results of
exploration, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of prospecting
rights, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of regulatory and
other third party consents and approvals, uncertainties regarding the
Company's or any third party's ability to finance, execute and implement
future plans and programmes, and the occurrence of unexpected events. Actual
results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of
numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors.

Competent Person Declaration

The information in this release that relates to Exploration Results has been
reviewed by Mr Mark Austin. Mr Austin is a member of SACNASP (Reg. No.
400235/06), Fellow of The Geological Society and Fellow of the Geological
Society of South Africa. He has a B.Sc. Honours in Geology with 40 years'
experience.

Mark Austin has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity
being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012
Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration targets,
Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves', also known as the
JORC Code. The JORC code is a national reporting organisation that is aligned
with CRIRSCO. Mr Austin consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the
matters based on his information in the form and context in which they appear.

**ENDS**

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 Alba Mineral Resources plc                 +44 20 3950 0725

 George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman
 SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)    +44 20 3368 3555

 Andrew Emmott
 CMC Markets plc (Broker)                   +44 20 3003 8632

 Thomas Smith / Douglas Crippen

 

 Alba's Projects & Investments

 Projects Operated by Alba                            Location   Ownership
 Clogau (gold)                                        Wales      100%
 Dolgellau Gold Exploration (gold)                    Wales      100%
 Gwynfynydd (gold)                                    Wales      100%
 Investments Held by Alba                             Location   Ownership
 GreenRoc Strategic Materials Plc (graphite - anode)  Greenland  28.01%
 Horse Hill (oil)                                     England    11.765%
 Earn-in Projects                                     Location   Earn-in Rights
   Finnsbo (rare earths, copper, gold)                Sweden     Up to 100%
 Optioned Projects                                    Location   Further details
   Norrby (gold, other metals)                        Sweden     RNS 6/11/24
   Glava (copper, gold)                               Sweden     RNS 6/11/24

 

 

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