Alba Mineral Resources Plc provided this update on its work at the Lower Llechfraith workings (the ?Llechfraith Target?), its principal gold target at the Company's 100% owned Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in north Wales (?Clogau? or the ?Mine?), at the historic waste tip and on its regional exploration activities over the Dolgellau Gold Exploration Project. Llechfraith Target: The Company has taken more than 40 samples from No.4 Level at the Llechfraith Target to date.

Of those samples, 25 have so far been put through the Company's Processing Plant to produce heavy mineral concentrates. A majority of the concentrates produced to date have contained a significant proportion of sulphides, including discrete fine grains of gold. These concentrates have been dispatched to an independent laboratory for assaying of their gold content.

While the presence of sulphides is a positive, it is not in itself an indication of gold content or grade, so the assay results will need to be awaited. As previously advised, Alba is planning a programme of underground bulk sampling to test the mineralisation in the Lower Llechfraith workings. Conventional channel chip sampling is not a suitable method of evaluating this type of mineralisation, as the gold mineralisation is of a highly nuggety nature and is not disseminated throughout the orebody.

Large samples are therefore required in order to take account of the irregular distribution of gold. This bulk sampling exercise will provide valuable data regarding the gold grades within the sampled locations which will be critical to Alba's assessment of the potential viability of the Llechfraith Target as a future location for mining operations at Clogau. The dimensions of any underground development would be typically around 1.5m x 1.5m and no more than 10m in vertical extent in order to benefit from Permitted Development Rights.

Other sites within the delineated area will likely be bulk sampled by rock sawing. The bulk samples extracted from the sites will then be processed for their gold content and the results used to generate an economic model in order to assess the prospects for further successful exploration and development of the Llechfraith Target area. As such, a notification has been submitted to the competent local planning authority (?LPA?) under Permitted Development Rights in respect of the Company's intention to proceed with a bulk sampling programme at the Llechfraith Target.

While the Company must allow for a 21-day period to elapse from the date of notification during which the LPA may object to the works, the Company expects to be able to proceed with the works following the end of the notification period given that the planned bulk sampling is in accordance with, and expressly envisaged by, the previously completed Habitat Regulations Assessment (?HRA?) for the Mine as well as the existing permissions granted to the Company, including pursuant to the current European Protected Species Licence (?EPSL?) covering the Llechfraith Target area. Dolgellau Gold Exploration Project: The airborne geophysical survey undertaken over Alba's key regional gold targets has been completed. Alba's consulting geophysicists are in the process of verifying the data set following which they will move to data interpretation and reporting.

Waste Tip: While the grades returned in the first two pitting exercises of the Waste Tip were very positive, the Company has determined that a further phase of bulk sampling is desirable in order to have further data to underpin a decision to proceed with a planning application to process the Waste Tip. Given the likely costs associated with Waste Tip exploitation, on reflection it is considered prudent to collect further data to confirm the overall gold grade before proceeding with that application. Consequently, and given the coarse nature of the gold mineralisation at Clogau, the excavation of trenches is now proposed in one section of the Waste Tip, allowing for closer sampling and therefore a more representative bulk sample for that section of the tip.

As such, a notification has been submitted to the competent planning authority under Permitted Development Rights in respect of the Company's intention to proceed with a trenching programme at the Waste Tip. Although the proposed exercise involves trenching as opposed to pitting, this involves substantially the same work activities as were performed under the previous two phases of pitting at the Waste Tip, which phases of work were also carried out under Permitted Development Rights.