09:57 AM EST - Avion Gold Corporation : announced that production operations have started at its newly developed underground mine at the Tabakoto gold deposit in Mali, West Africa. The first stope blast from the Tabakoto Northwest 1 orebody was fired on February 9, and ore is currently being extracted from the stope. The entire stope is estimated to contain 10,600 tonnes of ore at an average diluted grade of 4.11 g/t Au. The Tabakoto underground mine is scheduled to produce approximately 470,000 tonnes of ore in 2012, at an average grade of 4.34 g/t Au, for approximately 60,000 ounces of gold recovered by the process plant. This represents 41% of estimated gold production for 2012. The other 59% of the gold production will come from open pit mining. Avion Gold Corporation
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