LONDON (Alliance News) - Scotland-focused gold miner Scotgold Resources Ltd on Tuesday said its pretax loss widened in the first half of its financial year on the back of exploration costs at the Grampian gold project and further costs involved in advancing the Cononish project to production.
Scotgold said its pretax loss for the six months to the end of December was AUD1.2 million, compared to an AUD1 million loss a year earlier. The loss was pushed higher by the company spending AUD200,000 on exploration activities. It said revenue for the half was AUD9,141, down from AUD12,429 a year earlier.
Scotgold said it is continuing to review possible alternative models for the Cononish gold and silver project. It said the initial option is has considered for the mine include varied processing rates, strategic mining sequences and mining selectivity. All remain under review, Scotgold said, along with potential options related to the construction, commissioning and production build-up periods.
The company has started work on using the 3D geological survey model for Cononish to assess the mining options for the project, with the company targeting completion of a revised mine development plan in the second quarter of 2015.
Elsewhere, Scotgold said it is following up a a stream sediment sampling programme at the Grampian gold project with a more detailed infill sampling programme and said work on this testing is ongoing.
Scotgold shares were down 10% to 0.721 pence on Tuesday, one of the worst performers in the AIM All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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