Precious metals prospector Scotgold Resources said it is in the throes of commissioning a new development study for its troubled mine at Cononish by Tyndrum.
The firm, which has struggled to finance the ambitious project, said an external mining, metallurgical and tailings consultant would look at fresh proposals for smaller-scale workings and processing facilities over the coming months.
The move follows an equity raise of around £450,000 during the final weeks of last year.
Scotgold had previously warned that it was considering downsizing its hopes for the gold and silver deposits it discovered in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park amid poor trading for the precious metals.
On Monday it revealed it had taken the decision to concentrate on higher-grade seams for the time being.
“Amongst other possible opportunities, the company is considering a smaller initial project, treating higher-grade material through a smaller processing facility,” it said.
“Examination of the Cononish resource indicates a number of ‘higher’-grade zones that may be able to be mined discretely from other lower-grade areas of the resource.
“Mining of the higher-grade portion of the resource initially would not necessarily preclude the mining of the balance of lower-grade material should gold prices and cost profiles be suitable at that stage, but this would have to be decided under a separate mine plan.”
Pre-production development of the full plan had previously been estimated at more than £20m, but the plunging price of gold has now put paid to ambitions of that scale.
The company had anticipated gold and silver production worth up to £17 million per year over a seven-year lifespan, but those expectations have suffered as the traded price of gold collapsed from around $1,650 an ounce early last year to $1,250 yesterday. Silver has fallen from more than $30 an ounce to less than $20 over the same period.
Scotgold meanwhile saw pre-tax losses double to £1.43m in the year to June.
Revenues totalled just £8,000.