Scotgold boosted by positive production news at Cononish

Shares in Scotgold Resources rose slightly yesterday, by nearly 1% to 54p, after it said it was mining high-grade gold ore in the hills of Argyll “far quicker than anticipated”.

Scotgold has been in production at Cononish, near Tyndrum, since late last year and in an update last month said it was pleased with the quality of ore.

In its latest production and corporate update, the Alternative Investment Market-listed company said: “As previously stated, Scotgold’s dual focus is to further enhance safe production through consistency and stability of mine and process plant operations, in parallel with the opening of multiple faces of ore in the underground mine itself.

“Successful roll-out of this strategy has enabled the company to optimise the mine design, allowing access to higher-grade ore zones far quicker than anticipated.

“Mining in the latter part of June was accessing ore which peaked at 40 grammes (1.4oz) per tonne. Mining in this general zone will continue for two months and is expected to achieve a blended grade average above 10 grammes (0.35oz) per tonne.”

Meanwhile, London’s top index closed the week slightly in the red, as a quiet day for UK news was eclipsed by happenings across the pond. The FTSE 100 dipped 1.89 points to 7,123.

Banks led the downward trend, with Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Barclays all crowding in the day’s bottom 10 performers.

Scotgold said they are mining higher-grade gold ore.