THE idea of the hills in Argyll running rich with gold is a romantic notion. And it is certainly a story that has helped generate plenty of headlines for Scotgold Resources, the mining company which established the Cononish mine near Tyndrum, over recent years.
Scotland’s first commercial gold miner poured its first gold from the mine in December 2020, a development hailed by its then chief executive Ricard Gray as a landmark not just for the company, but a “milestone on the road to a Scottish gold mining industry”.
The milestone was reached around four-and-a-half years after initial production began at the mine, in May 2016, when Scotgold commissioned a bulk processing trial of ore taken from a stockpile sitting on a hillside close to the mouth of the mine.
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The aim then was to demonstrate the extraction and marketability of gold from the ore without having to wait for the full mining plant to be installed. “There is a certain amount of scepticism around,” Mr Gray said in February 2016. “Being able to demonstrate we have something up and running, and people can see and touch and feel it – that is the way forward.”
The ore processed from the trial did indeed offer gold people could see and touch.
But suddenly those pioneering days seem like a long time ago. In an operational and corporate update to the stock market today, Scotgold stunned investors when it stated that a “material uncertainty would exist that casts significant doubt over the ability of the consolidated entity to continue as a going concern in the very immediate term”.
Shares in the company duly lost around two-thirds of their value.
The prospect of a material uncertainty was raised following a period of underperformance at the Cononish mine, the company said, and would become a very real prospect if a change in mining strategy to long-hole stoping is delayed or the anticipated tonnes of ore mined in April and subsequent months is “significantly below the current plan”.
The sudden downturn in fortunes comes only weeks after investors backed a share offer that raised £3 million to support the new mining plan for Cononish. Should Scotgold fail in the coming months, those shareholders could face losing their investment, and a once-romantic story would suddenly come to a heart-breaking end.
Meanwhile there was some respite for UK banking stocks after a tumultuous few days after it was emerged First Citizens Bank has bought all the loans and deposits of failed US bank Silicon Valley Bank following a "competitive" bidding process, the lender has announced.
Shares in Barclays were up around 2.5%, with NatWest Group and Lloyds Banking Group also gaining ground.
Airline introduces free twilight bag drops at Scottish airport
EasyJet has introduced its twilight bag drop service for travellers at Edinburgh Airport.
The free service, which is available for the first time today, provides customers on early morning flights with the option to drop their bags off the evening before in a move designed to save time for people booked on early morning flights.
First minister must make it work for small businesses
For those of you who celebrate it, Happy New First Minister Day!
Whichever one of the three hopefuls emerges victorious at lunchtime today (presuming there hasn’t been another twist in what has been a truly extraordinary leadership contest), they are set to take the helm of a government being tossed in some very rough waters.
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