Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) has poured the first gold from its Oksut mine in Turkey.
Oksut will be the company's third operating gold mine, joining Kumtor and Mount Milligan.
A 2015 feasibility study for the project outlines an operation producing an average of 110,000 oz. gold per year at all-in sustaining costs (AISCs) of US$490 per oz., with a development capital cost of US$200 million.
Reserves for Oksut total 28.8 million tonnes grading 1.4 grams gold per tonne for a total of 1.3 million ounces.
The project is planned as an open-pit heap leach mine, with the current mine plan extracting material from two open pits over an eight-year mine life. Construction activities started at the site in March 2018.
Centerra has identified additional exploration targets within the Oksut operation license boundaries.
Oksut lies within the Tethyan metallogenic belt, also host to Dundee Precious Metals' (TSX: DPM) Chelopech and Eldorado Gold's (TSX: ELD; NYSE: EGO) Kisladag mines.
The mine is in the Kayseri province of south-central Turkey, 295 km to the southeast of the capital city of Ankara and 48 km directly south of the city of Kayseri.