Alba Mineral Resrcs. - Operational Update
16/05/2025 07:00
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.
| Alba Mineral Resources plc George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman | +44 20 3950 0725 |
| SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad) Andrew Emmott | +44 20 3368 3555 |
| CMC Markets plc (Broker) Thomas Smith / Douglas Crippen | +44 20 3003 8632 |
| 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 MaterialsPlc (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 |