AuRico Gold has launched into commercial production at its Young-Davidson Mine at Matachewan in northeastern Ontario.

In a Sept. 4 release, the Toronto miner said commercial production was declared once the mine achieved certain commissioning milestones, which included an average daily mill throughput of 5,100 tonnes and a daily open pit extraction of 29,750 tonnes of ore and waste mining, all sustained over a 30-day period.

The company has a 178,000 tonne stockpile of high grade gold of approximately 1.52 grams per tonne.

AuRico also reports more than 2.3 million hours without a lost time injury.