Scotgold in ‘record gold production’ at Cononish

Shares of Scotgold Resources Limited, the Australia-based gold exploration firm focused on Scotland, rose about 9% on Monday after it reported “record gold production” at its Cononish Gold and Silver Mine near Tyndrum.

In a second quarter production, sales and operations update for the three months ended June 30, 2022, Scotgold said Q2 2022 gold concentrate shipments totalled 415 tonnes with a sales value of £5 million and H1 2022 gold concentrate shipments totalled 551 tonnes with a sales value of £6.3 million.

The company said Q2 2022 gold production totalled 3,531 ounces, a 188% increase on Q1 2022, exceeding guidance, and that 7,541 ounces of gold have been produced at Cononish in total, 3,531 ounces in the last quarter (47% of the total).

Scotgold shares trade in London, where they are up about 40% for the past 12 months to give the firm a stock market value of about £47 million.

Scotgold Resources CEO Phil Day said: “This has been our strongest quarter yet for Scotgold, characterised by record gold production which exceeded guidance, record gold sales translating into significant cash generation and continued progress on the ground to meet our production and operational targets.

“In the short term, we are focusing on our transitional optimisations at Cononish, undertaking low capex initiatives to continue to drive the production ramp up.

“The recent arrival of our thickener, currently undergoing installation in our process plant, will bolster our throughput of ore, generating further increases in gold concentrate output.

“Furthermore, with our 2022 mine development work, we continue to move rapidly towards phase 2 production levels of 23,500oz run rate of gold.

“Our team are performing exceptionally well and, together, have facilitated the achievement of our forecasted results.

“We remain impressed with Cononish’s high-grade gold geology and anticipate that the operations and cost control discipline of our team will enable the mine to be even more cash generative and profitable as it moves from phase 1 to phase 2 production.”