Scotgold Resources has turned a £167,200 profit in 2021 into a £9.92m profit this year.
Its annual results for the year to the end of June also showed that losses before taxation in 2022 of £6.01m, up from £2.78m in 2021, with commercial production achieved after three consecutive months of positive operating cashflow.
The Cononish Gold and Silver Mine near Tyndrum continued to make progress towards production targets, with a circa 23,500oz per anum run rate of gold being aimed for next year.
Continued optimisation initiatives across underground mining and processing have helped to enhance efficiencies, increase mining rates, gold recovery and production.
A phase one production - 3,000tpcm/9,000 ounces of gold p.a. run rate - was achieved in the first quarter of this year, with an "optimised production rate" of 4,000tpcm/16,000 ounces of gold p.a. reached by October.
Scotgold has grown its headcount from 73 to 96 employees during the last year, with "ambitious growth plans" to increase staffing further during 2023.
Cash at the end of June stood at £93,600 - down from £1.44m at the same point last year - while net debt was £13m.
The company also now holds 13 licences, covering 2,900km of the Dalradian Belt across the Grampian Mountain range, for future exploration, with plans to build a multi-asset gold production company in Scotland.
Scotgold chief executive Phil Day said: “As I write this, 2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for us in terms of mine development and gold production.
“We have grown ambitiously, increasing our workforce 156% since I joined in April 2021, to 96 people, of which 51 are from Scotland.
“We will continue to increase our headcount during 2023 and beyond, through apprenticeships, internships, and student bursaries such as ours with the University of St Andrews, to become the employer of choice in the region.“
He continued: “Cononish is an exceptionally high-grade gold underground mining operation with a reserve grade of c.11.9g/t Au and has a current life of mine of 8.5 years with an estimated 555,000 tonnes of ore.
“Notably, even without any further resource exploration and expansion, Cononish’s in-situ value is estimated to be £288m, at current gold prices of £1,456 per ounce and projected All in Sustaining cost of £554 per ounce, will place Scotgold as one of the highest yielding and lowest costing gold producers globally, once in full production in 2023."
Day added that along with cash generation, the company is committed to growing value through exploration.
“Our resource/reserve and life of mine has the potential to be substantially increased within the immediate Cononish mining area, and to this end we have completed very low frequency magnetics to determine a 2023 exploration programme to do this.”
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