APPLICATION SUBMITTED TO EXCAVATE FARMLAND
THE hunt for rare Welsh gold has seen plans submitted to dig eight large trenches in the Snowdonia countryside.
Gold Mines of Wales is exploring areas to the east of the former Clogau gold mine near Bontddu, part of the Dolgellau Gold Belt.
Alba Mineral Resources snapped up a 90% stake in Gold Mines of Wales Limited (GMOW) in 2018 and wants to bring the Clogau mine back into production and investigate if there are any other potential rich seams of gold in the area.
A planning application has been submitted to planners at Snowdonia National Park to dig trenches to the east of the Clogau mine as the hunt for the precious metal steps up.
Gold Mines of Wales said: “The proposed works would comprise a surface trenching campaign using an excavator.
“All currently proposed trenches lie within areas of farmland and GMOW has discussed the programme of works with the single landowner.
“The purpose of the trenching is to remove the soil cover in the areas of the gold-in-soil anomalies identified with the underlying bedrock being exposed for cleaning, mapping and sampling.
“In total, it is proposed to excavate eight trenches.”
The trenches planned would be up to two metres in depth, depending on the depth of the bedrock, and are anticipated to be up to one metre in width.
The length of individual trenches would vary from approximately 40 metres to 90 metres.
The work is expected to take six weeks and the trenches will be backfilled after the required exploratory work has been completed.
The results of the trenching programme will be used to assess the merits of a surface drilling campaign over the most prospective of the regional targets.
The founder of jewellery firm Clogau, William Roberts was the last person to mine gold at the Clogau site after finding the abandoned mine in 1989.
Gold was there in 1998.
This gold was stockpiled and the Welsh gold is added to jewellery pieces made by Clogau.
Clogau has bought the Gwynfynydd mine in the Dolgellau Gold Belt with hopes to also restart mining one day at that site. last mined