Scotgold Resources tumbles on project downsizing

26th Nov 2013 13:59

Scotland focused gold prospector Scotgold Resources has admitted to struggling in its attempts to raise funding for its Cononish Gold and Silver project and has instead proposed a smaller initial development. The AIM-listed company said it was in the early stages of considering a smaller initial project where it would treat higher-grade material within the resource through a smaller processing facility. Scotgold's examination of the resource indicates an overall higher-grade zone above the current 'adit' entry that would be suitable to be mined separately from other lower grade material above and below this. "Internal, pre-scoping estimates indicate that the capital expenditure could be reduced significantly. Mining of the higher grade initial portion of the resource would not preclude mining the balance of lower grade material should gold prices and cost profiles be suitable at that stage but this would have to be decided under a separate mine plan." Shares in Scotgold were down 20% to 0.8p at 15:45 on Tuesday. OH