A gold mine jointly financed by an Australia-registered mining company and a geological prospecting organization in Jilin Province began production on Sunday.

The mine, located 7 km from Baishan City, was financed by the Tonghua Institute of Geology and Prospecting and Sino-Gold Mining Ltd., a Sydney-based company.

The Australian company's website says it owns 95 percent of the project and exploration permits to the surrounding 128 square km of land.

Proven gold ore reserves are 6.5 million tons at 3.8 grams per ton. The mine is expected to process 660,000 tons of ore annually, yielding 1,580 kg of crude gold, according to Xu Hanjing, executive director for China Business Development with Sino-Gold Mining Ltd.

About 500 million yuan (about US$73.53 million) has been spent on the project thus far, said Xu.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2008)