Director dealings: Highland Gold brass ups stake

Highland Gold executive chairman Eugene Shvidler and former chief executive Valery Oyf both significantly upped their stakes in the AIM-listed gold miner on Thursday.

Shvidler, who took over as chairman back in 2015, purchased 3.86m ordinary Highland shares at 146.11p each, for a total of £5.64m, while Oyf added 1.93m shares for a total of £2.82m.

Highland Gold saw a rise in both profits and revenues in its last trading year after the firm's total production exceeded guidance range.

Revenues rose 4% to $316.7m compared on the previous year thanks to a pretax profit of $100.3m, which dwarfed the previous year’s registered figure of $66.2m, in what appears to have been a highly successful year for the AIM-listed company.

Highland's revenue boost was driven by increased gold production, which achieved a record rate of 261,159 ounces, a 4.3% increase on 2016, and a rise in realised gold prices, which saw prices jump to $1,162 per ounce from the $1,136 per ounce in seen across 2016.

As of 1620 GMT, Highland shares had climbed 4.67% to 152.10p.