There’s (miles of) gold in them thar hills!
MILES of new land has been discovered to contain Welsh gold. Alba Mineral Resources has been exploring in north Wales looking for rare Clogau gold.
And the company was thrilled to discover gold samples in the ground across a 9km stretch of the Dolgellau gold belt.
The largest one of these, Cerys-Gwyneth, is 2km long – four times longer than the legendary Clogau-St David’s mine, which has produced the largest quantity of gold from any region in the UK.
Alba is now planning trenching of selected areas and a drilling campaign to target extensions to the Llechfraith mine area.
Alba’s executive chairman,
George Frangeskides, said: “The completion of this extensive exploration programme over the Dolgellau Gold Belt has confirmed what should already have been apparent from previous announcements.
“Alba’s licence area has serious potential to host one or more new gold deposits that could rival the historic Clogau-St David’s Mine in importance.
“The fact that the Cerys-Gwyneth anomaly trend is four times the size of the anomaly over the Clogau Mine should need no further explanation.
“While that ongoing exploration success alone represents a huge and unique opportunity for Alba, the key focus for the company in the coming 12 months will be in pushing forward with the work to re-open one or more of the historic mines for commercial production, as that represents a clear cash-flow generative opportunity for the company.
“The next stage of work will involve identifying potential zones of unexploited gold for commercial production.”
Welsh gold is incredibly rare and incredibly expensive with huge historical significance.
There is a custom of using Welsh gold for royal wedding rings, which was started by the Queen Mother in 1923 and has been used by royal brides, including Meghan Markle when she married Prince Harry last year, ever since.
The Queen Mother’s wedding ring, the Queen’s in 1947, Princess Margaret’s in 1960, the Princess Royal’s in 1973 and that of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981 were all made from the same nugget.
In 2017, nuggets and flakes of Welsh gold were sold at auction for £44,000.
There are two distinct areas of Wales which have historically been mined for Welsh gold. In the north of the country is a geographical band known as the “the Dolgellau gold belt”, which stretches from Barmouth, past Dolgellau and up towards Snowdonia.
The second is in further south, in a small area in the valley of the River Cothi at Dolaucothi.