Announcement • May 03
Alba Mineral Resources plc Provides Operational Update on Clogau-St David's Gold Mine and Motzfeldt Critical Metals Project
Alba Mineral Resources plc (AIM: ALBA), the gold and critical raw materials focused exploration and development company, was pleased to provide this update in respect of its core projects, the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in north Wales and the Motzfeldt Critical Metals Project in south Greenland. This includes high-grade assay results from the Merino target within the Motzfeldt mineral licence area from samples obtained in the 2025 field season. Motzfeldt: High-grade Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO), Niobium and Zirconium assay results reported from samples taken at Merino prospect in 2025. The average grades are 2.6x higher than the equivalent grades in the Aries JORC deposit area, with an average of 19% of the TREO composed of key magnet metals Praseodymium, Neodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium. Host minerals are bastnäsite (LREE), xenotime (HREE), columbite (Nb) and zircon (Zr), readily processable minerals with established extractive industries. 2025 drone photography revealed the continuity of multiple similar structures on all sides of Merino cliff faces continuing in excess of 150m. Results confirm that hydrothermal critical metal structures exist at Motzfeldt in addition to the known magmatic pyrochlore microsyenite mineralization observed at the Aries deposit. Clogau-St David's: Ten blasts completed in programme to date at Level 5 of Llechfraith, for 13.8m in total. Significant sulphide material observed on current development face and adjacent footwall. Historical data indicates that next blasts may intersect a possible payshoot, the "No.2 Shoot". Ca. 165t extracted in total from the ten blasts to date, with 16t in total processed through the Alba onsite pilot plant and resulting concentrate assays returning uneconomic grades. Blasts 7-10 material yet to be processed at all. New iCON centrifugal gravity gold concentrator purchased and installed at the onsite pilot processing plant at Clogau, expected to improve the throughput of material plant and enhance recoveries. The Company announced high-grade assay results from its Merino target within its Motzfeldt mineral licence area in South Greenland from 13 surface rock samples collected during the 2025 field season. The assay results for the principal minerals of interest can be summarised as follows: Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO): up to 1.36%, with an average of 0.71%. Niobium: 0.73% Nb2O5 (average 0.5%). Zirconium: 2.3% ZrO2 (average 1.2%). An average of 19% of the TREO in these assay results is composed of key magnet metals Praseodymium, Neodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium. Furthermore, an average of 11% of the TREO is composed of high-value Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs), which compares favourably to a number of advanced rare earth projects around the world. To put these results in context, the average TREO, Niobium and Zirconium grades in these samples is in each case at least 2.6 times greater than the equivalent grades in the current Motzfeldt JORC resource area which was delineated solely from drilling at the Aries deposit, around 2km away from Merino. Previous mineralogical work from other Merino vein samples collected in 2023 and field observations from 2025 suggest host minerals in these structures are bastnäsite (LREE), xenotime (HREE), columbite (Nb) and zircon (Zr), minerals which are readily processable and with established extractive industries, as opposed to the more complex REE-silicates found elsewhere in South Greenland. Mineralogical studies are currently underway to confirm this mineralogy. The samples were collected from an exposed metres-scale hydrothermal vein structure on the Merino plateau. Drone photography during the 2025 field season revealed the continuity of multiple similar structures on all sides of the cliff faces at Merino continuing in excess of 150 m in depth. These results have confirmed a key part of Alba's exploration model for Motzfeldt, namely that hydrothermal critical metal structures exist at the project in addition to the known magmatic pyrochlore microsyenite mineralization observed at the Aries deposit. Work planned for the 2026 field season will investigate rare earth enrichment in these structures to expand the Company's understanding of the potential scale of mineralisation at the Merino prospect. A number of samples were collected from around 61.217274N, -44.973379E at the Merino prospect area at the Motzfeldt licence using geological hammers. These samples were subsequently bagged and numbered. All samples were sent to an accredited laboratory, ALS Geochemistry, Loughrea, Ireland, for analysis. Samples were prepared through crushing to 70% under 2 mm, split using a riffle splitter and pulverized to better than 85% passing 75 microns. Samples were then analysed through method ME-ICP06 using four acid digestion and a combination of ICP-AES and ICP-MS for whole rock and trace element and Li borate fusion and ICP-MS (ME-MS81) for REE, Nb and Zr. ME-MS85h was used as the overlimit method for Nb and Zr. ALS inserted blanks and standards into the analytical process. To date, ten blasts have been completed at the new development on Level 5 of the Clogau-St David's gold mine in north Wales ("Clogau" or the "Mine"), with the most recent blast taking place in the week commencing 30 March 2026. The total length of the new development on Level 5 now stands at around 13.8m. As previously reported (see Alba RNS dated 9 March 2026), roof support measures have continued to be implemented, which has slowed the speed of development. Of the ca. 165 tonnes of blast material extracted to date, around 16 tonnes have been processed in the Company's onsite processing plant, all from blasts 1-6. The assaying at a third-party laboratory of the concentrates produced from those ca. 16 tonnes has returned uneconomic gold grades. The hiatus in drilling and blasting during April has been due to a combination of the availability of specialist personnel and the focus in the past few weeks on integrating a new concentrator into the pilot plant circuit, which has required several modifications to be implemented including regarding electrics, pipework and water. Alba is working towards a resumption of drilling and blasting in the week commencing 4 May 2026. There is sulphide material on the current exposed face and a significant amount of sulphide material on the adjacent footwall. From a visual inspection, there appears to be spots of chalcopyrite on the face and predominantly pyrite on the footwall. Historical records indicate that the ca. 13.8m of new development has reached almost to the start of what has been previously described as a potential gold payshoot.
