Revised Dewatering Permits Granted
Alba Mineral Resources Plc (AIM: ALBA) is very pleased to announce that Natural Resources Wales (“NRW”) has granted the Company’s applications for formal variations to its existing discharge and abstraction permits to enable it to dewater the Lower Llechfraith workings, its principal gold target at the Company’s 100% owned Clogau-St David’s Gold Mine in north Wales (“Clogau” or the “Mine”), at significantly higher rates.
As a result, the Company expects to be able to proceed to a successful completion of the dewatering exercise at the Lower Llechfraith workings in the first two weeks of January.
Key Points
· Revised discharge and abstraction permits have been granted to Alba, allowing the Company to dewater the Lower Llechfraith workings at a rate of up to 250 cubic metres per day, a significant increase to the previous maximum of up to 100 cubic metres per day.
· Safety and access works on Level 3 and towards Level 4 have now been substantially completed.
· Higher-rate dewatering will commence from early January, with completion of the dewatering exercise targeted for mid-January.
· Once Level 4 has been fully dewatered, Alba and its contractors will access Level 4 to carry out a risk assessment, plan and execute any further safety works required and carry out initial exploration surveys.
· In respect of the airborne geophysical survey being undertaken over Alba’s key regional gold targets, Alba’s contractors have advised that due to the weather conditions, it has not been possible to date to survey the Hafod Owen, Gwynfynydd and Castle Carndochan target areas and that this will now be deferred to January, weather permitting.
George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman, commented:
“We are delighted to have now received the revised permits which will allow us to complete the dewatering of the Lower Llechfraith workings. I would like to acknowledge the cooperation of the NRW permitting teams in helping us to achieve this outcome before the year’s end.
“We look forward to completing the dewatering as soon as possible in January and then finally setting foot on Level 4, the first time this key gold target will have been accessible to anyone for decades.”
