Scotgold Resources gets £2.5 million boost to support new drilling at Highland mine

The company behind the Cononish gold and silver mine near Tyndrum on the West Highland Way has raised £2.5 million to back its growth ambitions.

Scotgold Resources plans to ramp up production following the fund raising which has seen seven directors and significant shareholder Nathaniel le Roux participate. Further to the capital raising, Bridge Barn, a company owned and controlled by le Roux and provider of debt funding to the company, has agreed the option to defer a total of £2.5m capital repayments due in 2023 by up to nine months.

The potential deferral of capital repayments would be used to further drilling activity at Cononish and exploration work on the wider Grampians area. It comes after Scotgold last month said its mining plans were getting back on track after a “challenging” December.

The firm has now set its 2023 production guidance at between 11,500 and 13,500 ounces of gold, with the aim of achieving a “sustainable ramp up” to 2,000 ounces per month. Last year, gold production totalled 8,564 ounces, more than three times the quantity produced in 2021. During 2022, gold concentrate shipments totalled 1,078 tonnes with a sales value of £11.9 million.

Scotgold Resources is behind the Cononish gold and silver mine near Tyndrum, which lies in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

Scotgold recently said it was looking to ramp up its headcount as it targets further mines in the area. Unveiling full-year results in December, chairman Peter Hetherington noted that the group held 13 licences, covering 2,900 square kilometres of the Dalradian Belt across the Grampian mountain range. He said the group had 96 employees with “ambitious growth plans” to continue to increase the headcount during the coming year.