In Wales, a mining company revived an abandoned gold mine, attracted by the sharp increase in ore prices. The gold it contained had been melted for the British royal alliances.
It is accessed by flickering scales, along narrow, stony and humid hoses, to land 50 meters below: at the bottom of this long -abandoned Welsh mine, a company attracted by the outbreak of prices hunts out a rare gold, melted for royal alliances. It sometimes seems to rain in the fifth basement of the Clugau-St David’s mine, where the frozen drops which escape from the ceiling sneaks in the neck of visitors.
These winding galleries were flooded recently. It took more than six months in Alba Mineral Resources, holder since 2018 of the exploration license, to empty them. The fifth level is the one that interests them the most, with a high concentration of quartz, this white rock with false snow tunes, a classic indicator of gold deposits. Here, we forest, we dynamite, then we hoist the ore on the surface in a rusty wagon, mounted on cable.
“Until now, the mine is in the exploration phase. We are slowly moving to the exploitation,” says Mark Austin, main geologist and veteran of African mines. Nestled in a national park, Clugau experienced its first picks in 1854, first for lead, then quickly gold. According to legend, a minor discovered the first glitter by accident, with a kick in the rock. After six flourishing decades, the mine closed in 1911 and will only be operated intermittently.
A new record for gold
When she definitively ceased her activity in 1998, gold is 300 dollars on the ounce. It is worth ten times more today, and its course broke a new record on Wednesday, at 3.317 dollars, worn by the concern around Donald Trump’s customs duties. “Finding unexplored gold veins obviously becomes very interesting,” enthuses George Frangeskides, the CEO of Alba. “We said to ourselves that with modern techniques, we could find veins,” he continues in front of the mesh entrance to the mine, at the end of a earthy path that winds in the forest.
The gold of this mine is all the more attractive since it can sell more than ten times more expensive, despite an identical composition. First due to a “Welsh” label sought, then thanks to a historic link with Buckingham. For a century, for a century, royal alliances have been shaped with the precious metal, a tradition dates back to the wedding of Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the “Queen Mother”, in 1923. Her daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, Princess Anne, but also Lady Di, Camilla, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle: all have worn a Gallish gold ring. Charles III too.
“This obviously adds to the cachet and the appeal of the project,” admits George Frangeskides. Even with an extraction limited to a few hundred ounces per year, he believes his profitable business. Four million pounds have been invested in the site, where a dozen people work. Three pieces of an ounce (about 30 grams) were struck from old mining waste, then auction. The first sold 20,000 pounds ($ 26,000), eight times the price of gold.
“Very limited quantities”
Under the rubber boots of the CEO, only old oxidized rails and ancient wooden foundations show past decades, during which 80,000 ounces were extracted (2.5 tonnes). Helmet on his head, Mark Austin designates the hollows with a glimpsed hand in the wall where the explosives will be installed. The ore will then be crushed, then sifted, to extract tiny gold particles. A promising extension to the original quartz vein, about 120 meters, was identified, in an exploration area of 107 km2.
“It will be a small mine (…) which will produce very limited quantities”, explains to AFP John Reade, of the Global Gold Council (CMO), representative of industry. But its royal link can attract “very traditionalist or fervent monarchists” buyers, ready to pay the high price. In the midst of the old gray stones of Dolgellau, a few kilometers, it is not the promise of gold that agitates conversations, but fears of pollution linked to the resumption of activity.
Alba claims to have reassured the authorities and ensure the protection of bats who live in the premises. For the rest, nobody here seems to derive the slightest pride of this mine with royal accents, so much the Wales remains indifferent to the chronicle of Buckingham. Attendance at the Cross Keys, agitated advertising of the small town, Williams, a retired doctor of 75 years old, has fun: “I would not be surprised that many young people even ignore (his) existence.”
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