TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Metanor Resources on Thursday announced that it had reached commercial production at its flagship Bachelor property, located 225 km north-east of Val-d'Or, Quebec.

The company’s stock rose 15.6% to C$0.185 in Toronto on Thursday, after it announced that it had reached commercial production on November 2, having operated for a period of 60 consecutive days, at over 80% of its theoretical mill capacity, with an average of 629 t/d.

According to criteria established by Metanor, commercial production would be declared on the first day of the calendar month following the mill having achieved the required throughput rate and, therefore, the company would start reporting operating costs as of December 1.

During the past 60-day period, the mill had processed 37 743 t of ore and the company now planned to maintain the milling rate over 18 500 t/m, producing close to 10 000 oz a quarter.

Metanor expected its operating cash cost to be near $1 000/oz in the next months, and it forecast a decrease in the operating cost once in full production. It also expected to produce more than 40 000 oz for the year ended June 30, 2014.

The company maintained its objective of increasing the production at its Bachelor mine toward 713 t/d, as established in the prefeasibility study published in April 2011. Also, the company continued to drill underground to maintain its gold inventory at the operation.

Total proven and probable reserves as at April 2011, were 645 495 t, with a grading of 7.54 g/t gold.

“To reach commercial production at Bachelor mine is an important milestone for the company that we can proudly take credit for. We want to personally thank all our employees, suppliers, financial partners such as Sandstorm, Ressources Quebec and our shareholders, as well as members of the Cree communities and James Bay communities for their effort and support,” Metanor president and CEO Ghislain Morin and executive chairperson Serge Roy said in a joint statement.

On Friday, the stock gave back 8.11% to trade at C$0.17 at noon.