Victoria Gold Corp has achieved its first gold pour at the Eagle mine in the Yukon, Canada.

The inaugural gold bar was poured by Sandy Silver, Yukon’s Premier, and weighed in at 1,001 oz, the company said.

John McConnell, President & CEO of Victoria Gold, said: “After all the blood, sweat and tears required to explore, develop, permit, finance and build a gold mine in Canada’s north, it is extremely gratifying to pour the first gold bar at Eagle.

“With this key milestone behind us, we are focused on building ore on the heap leach pad and exceeding expectations for all our stakeholders.”

Ramp-up of operations at site continues to proceed and the company said it was exceeding the ramp up schedule for ore mined and ore tonnes placed on the heap leach pad.

Eagle was expected to cost C$487 million ($367 million) to build and has the potential to produce around 200,000 oz/y from a mine operating at 33,700 t/d. The operation will produce doré from a conventional open-pit with a three-stage crushing plant, in-valley heap leach and CIL adsorption-desorption gold recovery plant.