By Ian McConnell
The company developing the Cononish gold mine near Tyndrum in Argyll yesterday hailed “record-breaking" production in December – which exceeded the previous all-time high monthly figure by around 60 per cent.
Scotgold Resources’ shares rose 11% or 7.5p to 75p on the back of its production and operations update.
The company said its production in the fourth quarter of 2021 totalled 1,508 ounces of gold.
And Scotgold declared it was targeting a run rate for gold production of around 23,500 ounces per annum by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
It noted November production had been impacted negatively by “Covid-related supply of explosives for the mine”. The company added that this short-term supply issue had been resolved in November and ore extraction now continued in line with its mine plan.
Scotgold declared that a record 101 tonnes of concentrate had been produced in December, equating to approximately 700 ounces of contained gold. It noted this was an increase of around 60% on the previous best monthly concentrate production.
Chief executive Phil Day said it had “taken hard work, dedication, extensive planning and committed teamwork to transform...mining operations during the past nine months since I joined as CEO”.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Bizarre for Johnson to crow about this post-Brexit event
He added: “I’m delighted to report on our record-breaking gold concentrate production in December 2021, which saw a [circa] 60% increase in production from our previous record month. Our 2021 initiatives to increase production efficiencies and ramp up production are working.”
Mr Day said Scotgold Resources had “almost completed phase-one ramp-up production” and continued “to be cash-generative as...production revenues exceed operational costs”.
READ MORE: Covid travel rules: Will 2022 be year overseas holidays are painless again?: Ian McConnell
Looking ahead, the company said that, with the implementation of its phase two expansion stage, expected to start by the first quarter of 2023, the current life of the mine stands at eight-and-a-half years.
However, it added: “The company believes there is significant potential to increase the resource at Cononish, with corresponding increase of life of mine. There are several areas within the Cononish resource that have not yet been adequately tested but are capable of hosting mineable high-grade pods.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel