We made the FT , lol . http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac97ae94-f10e-11e5-9f20-c3a047354386.html#ixzz44J93GTaH
Good article but like most press releases it has its inaccuracies ;
The plant won't be installed at Grangemouth , it will be at Cononish Farm, Tyndrum
We will start be processing 2,400 tonnes of stockpiled ore although there is 7,000 there
We need £ 18.5 million to fully fund the Mine , £ 24 million is for the LOM
None the less it seems to have had a positive effect on the SP with an 11% increase today
The chief executive of Scotgold, the company behind the venture, said it was a “significant milestone” in the decades-long battle to mine the site, which could contain 200,000 ounces of gold.
Richard Gray said he hoped an initial six-month attempt to process 7,000 tonnes of ore excavated since the mine was first tunnelled in the 1990s would pave the way for a bigger mine.
The processing equipment from South Africa will be installed at Grangemouth in May, subject to planning permission. Scotgold already has permission from the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park for the larger mining operation it is planning.
The company will have to pay a royalty to the Crown Estates for the precious metals, including small quantities of silver, that it produces. But Mr Gray said “100 per cent Scottish gold” could command a “significant premium”, capitalising on the market for jewellery and souvenirs among visitors to the Highlands.
The trial operation will create only a handful of jobs but Scotgold says about 60 could be created when the mine is fully operational.
“This will get people holding the gold bars and saying ‘This came out of the mine last week’,” Mr Gray says. “It will have an impact.”
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The small company, which is listed on Aim and on the Australian stock market, is trying to revive the project after an increase in interest in mining in the UK, countering the long decline of the coal industry.
A tungsten mine opened in Devon last year while other companies are exploring gold in Ulster and potash deposits in North Yorkshire. This month a Canadian company put forward plans to buy Cornwall’s South Crofty tin mines, shuttered for more than 15 years.
Gold back in vogue with investors
Higher demand for the precious metal is also boosting gold miners’ share prices
Signs of a revival in the gold price are also likely to help Scotgold, after the company’s attempts to win financing in 2013 were scuppered by a steep decline in the value of the precious metal.
Scotgold’s project is also helped by the weakness of the pound: in sterling terms the price of gold has risen about 20 per cent since the start of the year.
The gold-bearing rocks in central Scotland are part of the same geological belt that Dalradian Resources is now exploring in Northern Ireland. Attempts to mine gold at Cononish, which is about 90km north-west of Glasgow, started in the 1990s and produced a tunnel of about 1km into the hills near Tyndrum.
Mr Gray, who has worked as a mining engineer throughout Africa, says a trial will help Scotgold establish what sort of price it could command for gold that can be hallmarked as originating from Scotland. If the trial were expanded, it could start to generate cash to meet the estimated £24m development cost for the fully operational mine.
However if Scotgold does get to its intended production level of 2,000 ounces a month, it is unlikely to be able to sell all of its output at a premium price.
“It is like De Beers with diamonds — you have to create the market, says Mr Gray. “The more we can create a market the better the price will be.”
SGZ Price at posting:
1.3¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
