Alba Mineral Resources, a UK-based gold ore mining company, will launch a pitting and sampling programme at the waste rock dump at the Clogau-St David's gold mine in Wales, UK.

The company said it would focus specifically on "higher-grade zones" and that it had received clearance for the pitting and sampling exercise from the Mineral Planning and Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

It will dig at five pits within an area of 400m squared with 60kg samples of fines material from each pit to be submitted for independent assessment.

Additionally, Alba said it intends to process larger volumes of the excavated fines through an existing gravity plant to extract gold content. It is estimated that the entire waste dump holds up to 5,000 tonnes of fines material, which can be "mined at low cost."

The company said its objective is to assess grades and tonnages more accurately so that Alba can proceed to a formal decision on the commercial exploitation of the dump as a whole.

Mark Austin, Alba's chief operating officer, said the pitting and sampling phase will give the company "a more accurate assessment of the economic potential of one section of the waste rock dump."

Alba initially announced plans to open the Clogau Saint David's mine in November 2019 and unveiled plans to have five historic mines in the area commercially viable by 2022.