First ore went through the mill last week, in line with the schedule.

OceanaGold president and CEO Mick Wilkes described the milestone as a special moment in the history of the mine as marked the re-establishment of the area as a gold mining centre.

“From the start of the year, we established a firm timeline of key milestones that we have achieved throughout the year, culminating in the start of milling ore at year-end as planned,” he said.

“We have established a strong team in South Carolina that include technical experts from across our business to carryout commissioning activities and transition to operations.

“Achieving this important benchmark in just 15 months since taking ownership of Haile is a true testament to the leadership and dedication of our team.”

OceanaGold acquired Haile in the mid-2015 takeover of Romarco Minerals in a $C856 million deal.

Haile started commissioning in October, with commissioning of the flotation and fine grinding circuits to occur over the next couple of weeks.

The company currently has roughly 675,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled on surface including 275,000 tonnes grading 2.3 grams per tonne of sulphide ore, 245,000t at 0.6 gpt of oxide ore and 155,000t at 1.1 gpt of transitional material.

Haile is expected to reach commercial production shortly, and is expected to produce 150,000-170,000 ounces of gold this year at low all-in sustaining costs of $US500-550 an ounce.

An optimisation/expansion study is due by mid-year after the company completed a preliminary economic assessment into an underground operation last year.

Shares in OceanaGold were down by 3.5% to $A4.05 after rallying from $3.47 on December 22.