JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Planning Authority has confirmed receipt and has validated Scotgold’s application for revised operations at the Cononish gold and silver project, in Scotland.
The validation defines the start of the statutory determination period, Aim-listed Scotgold said on Friday, adding that it hoped for a decision to be made by December.
Scotgold is revising the permitting requirements for Cononish, after it in March announced a new project plan. The development is based on a two-phase project wherein the second phase build-up in the third quarter of 2021 to 6 000 t/m is funded from the first phase of 3 000 t/m.
The new plan changed the tailings storage facility to a dry stack system.
"The revisions made to the project in this application offer significant advantages, both in terms of environmental impacts and economics with the peak funding requirement reduced from £18.5-million to £7.4-million. In parallel to the permitting process we are continuing to examine the financing options now available," CEO Richard Gray commented in a statement.
The application covers an underground gold mine with process plant building and tailings stacks, a settlement pond, flow gauging point, a site drainage system including discharge to the River Cononish, as well as a recirculation pipe returning water from the pond to the processing plant, a new bridge over the Crom Allt at the Dalrigh ford, construction of a small car parking area adjacent to the existing public car park at Dalrigh and related track accesses.
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