Aim-listed Scotgold Resources says it has accessed higher-grade ore zones at the Cononish gold/silver project, in Scotland, quicker than anticipated.
This follows after the company optimised the mine design to open up faces of ore underground.
Mining in the latter part of June accessed ore peaking at 40 g/t.
The company says mining in this zone will continue for two months and should return a blended average grade above 10 g/t gold.
Despite the inroads made with underground access, Scotgold reports that a bearing failure in the process plant ball mill hampered efforts towards achieving full ramp-up.
The company expects to resolve the issue in the coming days.
To avoid these issues in future and take on a more preventive maintenance approach, Scotgold is following a risk analysis approach going forward, which the directors believe, once fully implemented, will increase the reliability of the mine and process plant operations, as well as enable more consistent runtime.
Scotgold aims to ship its second shipment of gold concentrate during the first half of July.
Gold doré sent to refiners in May was able to be refined through normal treatment processes, which provides validation of Scotgold’s process plant production.