TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Denver, Colorado-based Newmont last week declared commercial production at its Ghana subsidiary’s Akyem gold mine, in the Birim North district, in the east of the country.

The NYSE-listed company also poured the project’s first gold bar early last month.

Newmont said the $1-billion project reached commercial production on Friday, within budget and on schedule.

The project was expected to produce between 350 000 oz/y and 450 000 oz/y during the first five years of operations, at all-in sustaining costs of between $750/oz and $850/oz.

During 2013, the attributable gold output was expected to total between 50 000 oz and 100 000 oz.

Newmont said Akyem would employ about 1 300 employees and contractors, many of which would be sourced from the mine-area communities.