Has Scotland's only gold mine lost its Midas touch? Company close to going into ... trends now
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Scotland's only gold mine is close to going into administration, its largest shareholder has said.
Nat le Roux, who owns a third of Scotgold Resources, has announced he is resigning from the board ‘with considerable regret’.
He confirmed that administrators are due to be appointed soon, adding that he faced an ‘unavoidable conflict of interest’ if he stayed on the board.
The company operates the Cononish gold mine near Tyndrum, which it has been developing since 2007.
The Cononish gold mine near Tyndrum extracted 8,500oz (241kg) of gold last year
Its management was confident about the mine’s prospects at the start of this year, having trebled gold production during 2022 to more than 8,500oz (241kg).
But in March, the firm warned fresh funds were needed to help it stay afloat after output was below expected amid a fall in the purity of metal being dug out.
The Highlands-based silver and gold mine had planned to extract nearly 6,000 tons of mineralised ore in February and March.
But it only mined 977 tons in February and around 600 in March, saying at the time there was ‘significant doubt’ over its ability to continue in the short term if output remained weak.
Mr le Roux and a company he controls is reported to have delayed payments on money he was owed, and he contributed to £4.5million of new funding from shareholders in two tranches this year.
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