Alba Mineral Resources Regulatory News (ALBA)

11 Apr 2006 09:03

Alba Mineral Resources PLC11 April 2006 Alba Mineral Resources plc ("Alba" or "the Company") Alba Enters Joint Venture With Boliden Tara Mines Limited. Alba Mineral Resources plc (AIM: ALBA), the UK based exploration company, ispleased to announce that it has signed a Joint Venture arrangement (the JointVenture) with Boliden Tara Mines Limited (Tara) on 31 March 2006 to explore forgold at the Company's Lough Gowna licence block in Ireland. Alba and Tara eachhold a 50% interest in the licence block which the two companies jointly appliedfor and were awarded on 27 May 2004. Under the cooperative venture both parties have committed to fund an initialstudy of the Lough Gowna block's potential for palaeoplacer and shear hostedgold mineralization. The Joint Venture has compiled and digitally acquired all relevant historicalexploration data for the project and intends to shortly commence explorationwhich will focus on the quartz-pebble conglomerate target-horizon. An ultra-finestream sediment survey is planned during April 2006, with any highlightedanomalous areas to be subjected to detailed follow-up surveys to generatedrill-targets. ENDS For further information contact: Lance O'Neill, ChairmanAlba Mineral Resources plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7499 8334 Wilson Robb, Exploration DirectorAlba Mineral Resources plc Tel: +353 (0)46 9059959 Justine Howarth/ Victoria ThomasParkgreen Communications. Tel: +44 (0)20 7493 3713 Liam MurrayCity Financial Associates Tel: +44 (0)20 7090 7800 Notes to Editors Alba Mineral Resources PLC is a junior explorer with a diversified commodityportfolio, primarily nickel, gold, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals,focussed on the Appalachian-Caledonide trend, a zone extending from the easternseaboard of North America to Scandinavia. Alba currently has interests in anumber of well researched properties in Scotland and Ireland, owned in its ownright or in conjunction with other parties. Background The Lough Gowna Block gold project consists of six contiguous explorationlicences totaling 222.50 square kilometres at the southwestern end of the SlieveGlah Shear Zone, on the south-western margins of the Longford-Down Inlier,approximately 20km north-east of Longford Town, Co. Longford. The main target of exploration activity on the block is gold-bearing quartzpebble conglomerates which have been previously identified in the lowerCarboniferous clastic beds that unconformably overly Ordovician and Silurianturbidites. Gold has been panned from streams in the area and a sample of quartzpebble conglomerate outcrop taken by Tara Mines Ltd. in 1992 returned a value of1.0 g/t gold. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange