SCOTGOLD Resources has discovered traces of platinum among a potentially "significant" mineral deposit close to Scotland's first commercial gold mine.

Drilling results from the Sron Garbh area, about five kilometres north-east of the Cononish mine site but outside of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, indicated gold, platinum, palladium, nickel, copper and cobalt are all present.

The best samples had 0.58 grams per tonne (g/t) of platinum and 0.22 g/t of gold.

The discovery of platinum is particularly rare, with very few instances of it in Scotland.

The company, listed on AIM and the Australian Securities Exchange, said the "highly promising" geochemical signatures in the area may indicate an extensive mineral system which shares some characteristics with major deposits found in Spain and Canada.

Chris Sangster, chief executive of Scotgold, said: "Primarily we have been looking for gold and our main target to date has been gold in vein occurrences.

"This is a different type of deposit which has different metals associated with it and is potentially a very significant one.

"We did the sampling work then drilled it because it looked interesting and it has revealed the presence of platinum.

"It underpins our idea that Scotland is underexplored for minerals and has lots of potential.

"It is a bit odd if you are looking for gold and come across platinum, but when you find things like that it makes life very interesting."

Dr Dave Holwell, from Leicester University's department of geology, has visited the site and reviewed the results.

He said: "This is most certainly an exciting discovery. The geochemical signatures show that the sulphides cannot have gained their high precious metal contents without the presence of a much larger magmatic system than is currently exposed.

"If this has been preserved beneath the current surface it could represent a potential host for massive sulphide mineralization at depth."

A more extensive drilling programme will start shortly to extract further data.

Mr Sangster added: "The characteristics of those deposits indicate we are looking for somewhere where the metals are more concentrated than where we have found so far.

"The models suggest that if the conditions are right we should find those areas and those would hopefully be economic to extract depending on the size.

"These results are a lead on to something else. Beyond that it depends on the results of the next drilling so we will have to wait and see."

The mine at Cononish, which was granted planning permission earlier this year, could extract up to 20,000 ounces of gold and 80,000 ounces of silver annually.