Scotgold Resources Ltd recorded a 24% increase in gold concentrate produced, exceeding costs for the second consecutive month, at Cononish gold and silver mine near Tyndrum, Scotland.
PRODUCTION
During September 2021, the company produced 62 tonnes of gold concentrate compared with 50 tonnes during August 2021.
The concentrate graded at an average of about 311 g/t gold equating to around 580 oz of contained gold (August: >450 oz of contained gold).
An average 1,200 g/t silver equating to >2,400 oz of contained silver was produced (August: >1,900 oz of contained silver).
BARRIER
Scotgold also completed the third of four planned cuts of the vertical cut and fill stope which is an interim measure prior to the long-term production plan expected to start in 2022.
“The current barrier to achieving higher throughputs relates to the quartz in the ore, which causes higher wear on certain parts of the process plant,” said Scotgold in a statement.
“The Scotgold team is capitalising on this information to fine tune the intervals for replacing various wear parts and as such, the management expects that the changeouts will become more scheduled using the company’s planned maintenance system which will result in higher throughput per month. “
During Q4 2021, the company will focus on critical spares for maintenance and on options for continuing development mining on the original portal 400 level and/or ore ramp to the development tunnel at the 415 level.
Additionally, significant waste mining occurred during September to support the long term mine plan.
During the month, the second DUX truck arrived at the Cononish site.
PROCESSING
Scotgold said that the tailings filter had been de-bottlenecked and the gravity circuit was consistently operational.
During October it will be optimised to start providing gold to Scotgold’s partners in the jewellery industry this quarter.
CONFIDENT
“The operational turnaround at Cononish continues to gain pace and we are really encouraged by the performance of the mine and the overall improvement in our production profile,” said chief executive Phil Day.
“Importantly, September marked our second month where production revenues exceeded operational costs and we are confident that we are now on the correct growth trajectory to realise the full potential of Cononish.”