Alentejo gold

Canadian mining group Colt, which has the concession rights to a series of potential sites in the central Alentejo region, said last week that its preliminary tests show that there is an “impressive” amount of gold near the surface, in particular at its Boa Fé site. Colt also said its Montemor site showed promise, saying that it plans to speed up full extraction capacity at both sites. Colt has agreed to invest more than €50 million in the sites, and foresees potential gold production of 12 million ounces from them. The operation is expected to move to the next stage in 2013.