The Dolaucothi Property

In August 1997 Anglesey acquired the Ogafau/Dolaucothi gold property at Pumpsaint near Lampeter in mid Wales, through the purchase of Anglo Canadian Exploration (Ace) Limited.

The Dolaucothi property has a long history of gold production going back to Roman times. Within the property is the former producing Ogofau gold mine which is believed to have been one of the primary mining interests of the Romans in Britain.

History

The Dolaucothi mining area consists of a series of old workings including open pits, trenches, adits and shafts which are distributed over a distance of 1.1 kilometres. These old workings are the product of four main periods of mining, the first in Roman times, the second in the late 19th century, the third in the early 20th century whilst the final and most intensive phase lasted from 1931 until the onset of war in 1939.

The Romans began exploiting the gold from the main Ogofau pit before progressing under-ground to a depth of approximately 45 metres beneath the floor of this pit. Two adits where driven 250 metres to the southwest and these terminated in large open stopes. No records exist of any further mining activity until 1844 when gold was rediscovered. Between 1872 and 1912 several adits and a small shaft were developed, the adits being extensions of the old Roman workings. A small mill was also erected and production maintained until about 1910.

For eight years from 1931 the Roman Lode (a flat lying quartz reef) was the primary target of mining. The shaft was extended to a depth of 146 metres and development drives put in at five levels. The lode was progressively stoped out between the 30 and 100 metre levels at a rate of a few hundred tons per week. Production expanded in 1938 (when about 165 men were employed at the mine) and reached a peak in the month of September 1938 when 4,800 tons of ore containing 38 kgs of gold were sent to the mill. With the outbreak of war and the shortage of capital, mining was suspended. Mining exploratory work continued until 1940 when the mine was abandoned and allowed to flood. The Dolaucothi Estate in which the mine workings are situated was bequeathed to the National Trust between 1941 and 1943 by the Lloyd Johnes family.

In the early 1970s an exploration licence was acquired by Anglo Canadian Exploration (Ace) Limited and Ace carried out intermittent exploration. At the same time the Cardiff University of Wales established a mining field and research centre managed by the Department of Earth Sciences and the School of Engineering. Parts of the old workings have been rehabilitated for educational and tourist use.

Current Developments

Ace has recently been granted a mining lease from the Crown which expires in 2012 and which covers a contiguous area of approximately 11,000 acres surrounding the mining area but excluding a small parcel of about 8.5 acres at the Ogofau pit which is leased by the Crown to the University for research and educational purposes.

The Dolaucothi property is an exciting new initiative for Anglesey which presents the company with opportunities in an area with past production and good gold exploration potential. All previous work concentrated in the old workings and there was only minor effort to explore elsewhere within the property.

Anglesey intends to initiate a gold exploration programme at Dolaucothi, in conjunction with the Cardiff University of Wales, which will involve general exploration of the entire lease area and diamond drilling of specific targets down dip from the old Ogofau mine. There has been no previous exploration of these targets. For updates on this programme see the Annual Accounts and press releases.