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I have some news on this water permit. I can let you know that NRW received the application for the dewatering permit today, from this we can assume the species license has been approved. So now lets see how fast NRW process this and come to a decision. Still 100% confident that we will get the permit.
Nothing new, but a decent clear article about the graphite situation..
https://www.mining.com/web/graphite-deficit-starting-this-year-as-demand-for-ev-battery-anode-ingredient-exceeds-supply/
Just an update to any new investors, what is exactly happening with the dewatering permit application. As far as we know the granting of the permit is now not about water quality or potential pollution of rivers, that side of things has all been given the green light. It is also not about damaging the environment in any other way. Unless something new has come up, everything has come down to Alba needing to prove bats and otters using the mine site will not be adversely affected. The bottom line is, to get the water permit Alba need a European Protected Species Licence. As part of the EPS licence application Alba have to provide a HRS (Habitat Regulations Assessment) proving that Alba will not harm any protected species too much and outline measures they will put in place to cause as least disturbance as possible to the animals. In Natural Resources Wales opinion It was Alba failure to provide an acceptable HRA that led to the initial dewatering application being refused back in October last year. The only sticking point was to do with humidity levels in the mine and Albas failure to provide enough data, due to Albas data tracking monitors failing. The data that was provided was very acceptable, and proved the humidity levels would not be affected in anyway to harm anything, they just needed more. So where are we now?
It was on the 12 May 2022 that Alba got the feedback from NRW on the revised HRA document that was put forward containing the new data NRW had requested. Since that date the ball has been in Alba's court to act on the feedback from that document. Alba could have gone ahead and submitted the document without revision, but they decided to take further action and revise the document again, and NRW are now awaiting the submission of the newly revised final HRA document from Alba as part of the European Protected Species Licence application, that in turn will give us the Water Permit. Since that date in May, it has not been NRW that have been holding anything up. Alba and an external specialist HRA company have just been gathering the new additional data that they believe is needed, and have been revising the document to include that new data. During Albas last Q and A, George F said the revised HRA document was currently be written up by the company employed to produce the HRA report. We do not know if the final HRA report has been finished and submitted to NWR yet as part of the EPS application, or they are still waiting. Will Alba inform us when they submit the final HRA document, or will we just here when the final decision is made, we don’t know. It is important to realize that the person from NRW who looked at the revised HRA document in May and provided feedback will not see the new revised document again before submission and he is independent of the decision makers from NRW who grant the European protected Species Licence/ water permit. The process has been extremely long and frustrating. I firmly believe it will all end wel
I will just add all the locals I talked to were 100% behind Alba, and I got told many tails of people finding gold all around our area.
I myself found a very large pile of broken rocks and ruble, containing alot of broken quartz, just off the public footpath very near our mine. After just a few minutes of searching through this pile with the help of a hand held metal detector, I found my self a small piece of quartz that I am pretty sure contains gold. I do know a bit about gold in quartz, I would have to smash the quartz and pan it to be sure, but I am happy I have a little souvenir from my visit.
Am back now from my trip Wales. I would just like to say the southern Snowdonia National Park area is amazingly beautiful. Thanks for the couple of messages on here before I left. I visited the Alba office in Dolgellau, it was closed at the time, it had a message in the window, saying no mine tours or visits were available right now, and then gave some information of other places where you could visit some goldmine sites. I visited the Gold mine site itself - Clogau St Davids Liechfraith Audit- accessing from the village of Bontddu. No activity on site when I visited. I was hugely impressed by the mine site. It certainly was not a blot on the landscape being situated in such a picturesque setting. The site was very clean and tidy and looked well maintained. The entrance to the main shaft was protected by a red solid metal door, the area around the door looked like it had been very recently reinforced by concrete making it a totally secure mine entrance. Security cameras were visible, and the whole area was fenced off, with a padlocked gate and was secure. On the site was a large storage building/ unit where they store everything out of sight. The only things visible on the site were a number of massive plastic, water containers, encased in a steel frames. Maybe ten of those, stacked up, also some tubing, maybe of ventilation type . Whilst you could climb over the perimeter fence and get onto the site, the site and our gold is safe. No one will be getting into the shaft its self, and everything else of value is locked away, out of sight. There was another mine entrance just off the main site, accessed by going down a steep flight of steps, this had a locked iron railing door preventing access. I came away from my visit to our gold mine in very positive mood, Alba are certainly respecting the environment and everything looks in order for when we get the green light to go. I can also sleep easy knowing no one will be poking around in our gold mine.
I will be staying in Dolgellau for a couple of weeks from Saturday, and sure will be checking in on our investments. I am thinking it could be an exciting time to be at the "coal face" or should I say "gold face" of Alba Minerals Resources PLC, when with any luck, some good news should be forthcoming.
Hats off to anyone who could have predicted Alba's failure to get the de watering approved, the first time because of the failure of data monitors, and the second time, due to more data being needed, the nature of which is still unknown. It could still be due to cave humidity data, as before or maybe something else that came up in the HRA draft report that needed to be addressed. For sure if Alba had been granted the permit, the share price would be alot different now.
One thing I am pretty sure about is that once Alba make the submission of their final documents for European Protected Species Licence application ( I would think will be within in the next two weeks, if not sooner), going hand in hand with the application for actual water permit application, the granting of the permit will not take long, yes it will be fast tract by NRW. infact most of the submission is complete in terms of what has been done previously and did not have to be re done. Such things as submitting the draft HRA document to NRW and then waiting for the feedback and then actinng on the feedback took a long time. The HRA document will not have to be submitted again as a draft. I am 100% confident in a positive decision at last, never doubted they would get the permit, it always been a case of when they will get it. As you say Ocelot "It's a very favourable risk/reward ratio, isn't it? " yes it is.
"Investors cheered the announcement that would make Alba Mineral Resources the mine’s sole owner, given the large number of gold targets identified by the company and the former gold workings outside the mine’s footprint.
Alba Minerals intends to issue 200 million new shares priced at 0.2p each to pay for the acquisition, representing a 25% premium to yesterday’s closing price of 0.16p. The new shares will have a 12-month lockup period and are accompanied by 81.93 million two-year share warrants exercisable at 0.4p each.
Significantly few companies can issue 200 million shares at a premium to their current price, which means that the market agrees that the firm’s share price should be higher than its current price. Alba Minerals not only pulled off such a unique capital raise but also managed to issue exercisable warrants at twice the price of the new subscription shares.
Therefore, it is clear that investors are confident in Alba’s prospects; hence, they were willing to pay more for the company’s share price than its current price. In addition, the company has been making progress at the mine and is proceeding with plans to dewater the Llechfraith Shaft at Clogau Gold Mine"
Fantastic RNS
100% ownership of all that Gold...that is a great move by a shrewd George Frangeskides
A very welcome update on the dewatering progress, confirms every thing is going to plan.
The dewatering process has indeed been a long frustrating and torturous path, no blame on Alba for that, just NRW doing a thorough JOB.
Just remember what Alba told me in an e mail from them in the first week in August 2022 "I assure you the Alba team is doing all they can to move forward with both the dewatering and waste dump. Once Alba receives the required permits, things will be able to progress quickly from there."
Alot to look forward to in the very near future, and that is just the Gold.
I am one very happy Alba share holder today.
I had e mailed Alba twice recently with specific questions on de watering and the waste dumps, they have now replied to both of my e-mails the latest reply came today.
"Regrettably, I cannot share any information on either subject at this time due to the regulatory AIM rules. We fully appreciate how frustrating it is, and Alba's directors are equally frustrated with the delays. I assure you the Alba team is doing all they can to move forward with both the dewatering and waste dump. Once Alba receives the required permits, things will be able to progress quickly from there."
If it is of interest...My most recent e mail from Alba.
"The Company continues to progress the workstreams for the submissions required to seek further consideration by the relevant authorities of the dewatering application and awaits for the regulators to come to a final decision. The management team is making every effort to move forward with this but as yet do not have any visibility on timings due to factors outside of their control.
Alba will share any material updates or news regarding this process as soon as they become available via the usual regulatory channels in accordance with the AIM listing rules."
Some news on Elizabeth Henson our non-executive director
https://smallcaps.com.au/tng-strengthens-board-new-director-appointment-mount-peake-development/
Cheers Robbie,
I am thinking that the fact that the filming was done sometime ago would not have anything to do with yesterdays activity. I assume the TV show will be highlighting the Royal connecting to Welsh gold, rather than Alba exploits. Alba will not have seen the finished edited version of the show and so the Clogau section may just be one small segment, but anything on TV will be good publicity.. The fact that ALBA high lighted it in your message from them has to be a good sign.
The ducks are certainly lining up and are ready to go!!
I have been doing some digging about the TV show. The filming was done earlier this year. Alba team members were on site at the time but they are not expecting to be featured as part of the show. Sure it will still be a good watch and will generate some welcome publicity.