As announced on 15 May 2023, Scotgold Resources Limited, Scotland's first commercial gold producer, commenced long hole stoping, along the 115m strike length in the underground mine at its Cononish gold and silver mine ('Cononish'). Long hole stoping on block 1 was safely completed on time. Drilling of stope block 2 has now commenced with blasting targeted for around a week'stime.

The raise air vent to establish better air ventilation between the 400 and 415 level has also been completed. In parallel the waste ramp development to the 445 level was also completed, this allowed development mining on the 445 East level ore body to commence. The 445 East level development ore currently being fed to the process plant is good gold grade ore, in line with expectations, with an average grade of 8.3g/t, with the last three assays coming in at 13.7g/t, 12.9g/t and 16.9g/t respectively.