Firm behind Scotland's only gold mine near West Highland Way hails record production

Scotgold Resources, the company behind the Cononish gold and silver mine near Tyndrum on the West Highland Way, has reported record production for April and May.

Releasing a trading update, the firm said gold concentrate shipments for the two-month period yielded a sales value of just over £2.4 million.

Chief executive Phil Day said: “We are pleased to report that April and May have delivered record profitable gold production, a trend we expect to continue in June and the rest of 2022, in line with our mine schedule.

“Crucially, as we continue to develop the mine and access areas to stope mine - cut and fill, our mining visibility, mining efficiencies, gold grade definition and control further improve which places us in an ideal position to implement the processing plant and mine optimisation plans to yield further growth.

“With £1.915m now received and drawn from our Fern Wealth debt facility, I am looking-forward to [the second half of the year] as we commission the tailings thickener and deliver step changes in performance, gold grade, stability of production and reduced costs per tonne of ore mining.”

Scotgold recently entered into an agreement with Swiss firm Fern Wealth to arrange the procurement of up to £3m in funding from a syndicate of high-net-worth investors to fast-track Cononish.

The group also said in its latest update that it was committed to responsible mining and was one of the only global gold producers that does not use cyanide for either its flotation gold concentrate production or gravity gold.