Alba Mineral Resources (LSE:ALBA), the gold and critical raw materials focused exploration and development company, said assays from 13 surface samples at the Merino prospect returned TREO up to 1.36% and averaged 0.71%.
Niobium reached 0.73% Nb2O5 (average 0.5%) and zirconium 2.3% ZrO2 (average 1.2%), with roughly 19% of TREO composed of Praseodymium, Neodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium and about 11% comprising high‑value heavy rare earths.
The average TREO, niobium and zirconium grades in the Merino samples are each at least 2.6 times greater than the equivalent grades in the Motzfeldt JORC resource area at Aries, roughly 2km away.
"The confirmation of high‑grade results at Merino underscores the Motzfeldt Project's significance as a polymetallic deposit across a large licence area," Executive Chairman George Frangeskides said.
Drone photography from the 2025 field season showed multiple hydrothermal vein structures continuing in excess of 150m down Merino cliff faces and Alba says this confirms hydrothermal critical‑metal structures in addition to the known magmatic pyrochlore mineralisation at Aries.
Work planned for the 2026 field season will investigate rare earth enrichment in these structures to better define the potential scale of mineralisation at Merino.
At the Clogau‑St David's gold mine in north Wales Alba has completed ten blasts on Level 5 totalling about 13.8m, extracting ca. 165 tonnes of material of which roughly 16 tonnes have been processed and produced concentrates that returned uneconomic gold grades to date.
The company has installed an iCON centrifugal gravity concentrator at the onsite pilot plant to improve throughput and recoveries and expects drilling and blasting to resume in the week commencing 4 May.
