Scottish gold miner strikes first sale deal 

The firm has agreed to sell up to 120 tonnes of mineral containing the precious metal to Dutch-based Ocean Partner “as soon as the appropriate logistics have been put in place”.

Scotgold has been developing its £24 million Cononish mine in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and recently raised £46,000 by selling 10 commemorative coins at auction at it continues with its plan to open UK’s only underground mine.

The auction, overseen by accountants Scott-Moncrieff, saw Scotgold sell the one ounce coins at a price which represented a mark-up of nearly 400 per cent on the current market price of $1,192 (£959) per ounce.

The company hopes that the auction, the first sale of Scottish gold in recent history, will attract enough investment to fund its expansive and long-delayed mining operation.

Meanwhile, the company’s bulk processing trial (BPT) at Cononish has so far generated about 13.5 tonnes of pyrite concentrate – a mineral commonly known as fool’s gold due to its superficial resemblance to the precious metal.

However, Scotgold said preliminary estimates showed that 1,100 tonnes of treated stockpile material at its site contained about 91 ounces of gold.

In a separate development, the Aim-quoted firm has been working with testing specialist SGS and minerals analyst Wheal Jane Laboratory on the extraction of gold and silver from galena concentrate that has also been generated by its processing trial.

As of 26 October, the trial had generated about 300kg of gold-rich galena concentrate, containing some 77 ounces of gold, and Scotgold is now working with the Edinburgh Assay Office to “establish and certify a chain of custody”.

It added: “As such the company will be able to supply greater volumes of gold of proven provenance to the Scottish jewellery industry in the next phase of our marketing strategy.”

Chief executive Richard Gray said: “We continue to find opportunities to improve the BPT and, more importantly, the ultimate development plan for the Cononish mine. The technical work to verify these potential opportunities is ongoing and we anticipate an update to the Cononish bankable feasibility study to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.”