Scotgold Resources Ltd is expected to carry out its first gold pour at its Cononish mine in West Scotland by the end of November, the company announced today.
Construction and development activities at the low cost, high grade gold and silver project in the north of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park have been progressing well, and the company’s geoscience team has expanded.
The bigger team will be important to the Cononish mine and Scotgold’s Grampian exploration project as the business looks to long term growth.
A company statement issued today read: “Both underground development activities and the critical path plant construction activities at Cononish have progressed well.
“The underground development has benefited from the arrival on site of the previously announced standby ST2G scooptram and the first of the two new T1D drill rigs is currently in transit.
“With the completion of the critical platform earthworks, concrete works and placement of major equipment items, plant construction is now focussed on the building structure, to be followed by the installation and connections of pumps, drives, piping and electrics and ultimately commissioning.”
Dr Simon Dominy has been appointed group manager – resources and reserves and David Catterall is exploration consultant.
Cononish currently has estimated reserves of 550,000t at a head grade of 11.8g/t gold which, at an average annual production rate of 23,370oz, equates to a nine-year life of mine, with the potential to increase this in the future.
The Grampian exploration project is focused on identifying gold and base metal mineralisation within the highly prospective Grampian Terrane which consists mostly of metasediments and volcanics of Dalradian age.
It is a direct continuation of the Dalradian gold province of Northern Ireland which hosts the Curraghinalt and Cavanacaw gold deposits.
Scotgold chief executive Richard Gray added: “The depth of our geological understanding of both Cononish and the Dalradian belt is obviously key to our long-term success and with the appointments made today, we are building a world class geoscience team to unlock the fantastic potential of this whole area and our significant land holdings in particular.
“Our objective is to use the cash flow generative platform which Cononish is expected to provide to build a highly profitable, low risk gold mining company operating in stable jurisdictions.”