Underground mine development at the Beresford mine, part of the 1.6 million ounce Westralia resource, began in mid-May, intersecting first ore last week.

Development, which is being completed by contractor RUC Mining, remains 328m ahead of schedule, with 1837m completed at the end of September.

First ore wasn’t originally due until November 5.

Mining at the second Westralia underground, Allanson, is expected to start this month, while open pit development at Jupiter is due to begin in December.

Dacian today also formalised an agreement with Zenith Energy to build, own and operate a 17MW power station for Mt Morgans.

Dacian executive chairman Rohan Williams said construction remained on time and on schedule for the first gold pour in late March next year.

“At the same time, we are running a highly promising exploration campaign, including the ongoing drilling program at the emerging Cameron Well discovery, which has the potential to generate substantial growth at Mt Morgans and generate further significant value for shareholders,” he said.

Dacian is spending around $1 million a month on exploration throughout the construction period.

“It is remarkable that it was less than five years ago that we completed our IPO as a junior explorer and now we have mined the first ore from the two 1 million ounce discoveries we have made since then and, in less than six months, we will be Australia’s newest mid-tier gold producer,” Williams said.

Williams told the Precious Metals Summit in Colorado last month that Mt Morgans was set up to have a good first quarter, with stockpiles at above reserve grade.

Mt Morgans is set to produce 1.2 million ounces of gold at 2 grams per tonne gold over eight years at all-in sustaining costs of $1039 an ounce.

An expansion prefeasibility study released with last year’s definitive feasibility study outlined the potential for 1.7Moz at 2.4gpt for AISC of $975/oz.

Dacian expects to have the resources in the expansion PFS converted to reserves within 6-9 months.

Shares in Dacian rose by 2.5c to $2.035 this morning. The stock has traded in a range of $1.52-2.55 this year.