This breakthrough at its recently commissioned gold mine was thanks to the optimisation of the mine design, allowing the explorer to access ore peaking at 40 grammes per tonne in June, where uninterrupted mining works helped boost the ore volumes stored on the stockpile. 

 

The Scotgold team is also working to open up multiple faces of ore in the underground mine itself to improve the flexibility of the operation. 

 

The company expects further mining to achieve a blended grade averaging above 10g/t to the mill over the next two months. 

 

 

However, a bearing failure in the process plant ball mill prevented a full ramp up of operations, the company confirmed, although expects the "one off" issue to be resolved in the coming days. 

 

The increased ore stockpiled in June is expected to be processed at the plant in due course, with Scotgold's second shipment of gold concentrate expected to take place in the first half of this month. 

 

"Gold doré sent to the refiners in May was able to be refined through normal treatment processes, providing validation of Scotgold's process plant production," said the company. 

 

The gold miner expects to release new production estimates for 2021 in future updates. It previously set a gold production target of 9,910 ounces for this year.  

 

Shares in the company rose 0.9% on Friday to 54p versus the previous day's close, valuing the company at just north of £30 million.