CEO Mick Wilkes said in a statement the milestone represented a special moment in the history of Haile as the historic goldfield was re-established with a world-class modern mining operation in Lancaster county, South Carolina.
"From the start of the year [2016], we established a firm timeline of key milestones we have achieved throughout the year, culminating in the start of milling ore at year-end as planned."
Oceana had established a strong team in South Carolina, including technical experts from across the business to carry out commissioning activities and transition to operations.
Achieving the important benchmark in just 15 months since taking ownership of Haile was a true testament to the leadership and dedication of the team, Mr Wilkes said.
In early October, the company started dry commissioning by focusing initially on the crushing circuit and emergency stockpile system. Since then, the grinding, carbon-in-leach and tailings circuits had been commissioned to treat oxide and transition ores.
Construction of the flotation and fine grinding circuits were now complete and commissioning of those circuits to treat sulphide ore was planned to start over the next couple of weeks, he said.
The company had about 675,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled, including 275,000 tonnes grading of 2.3g/tonne of sulphide ore, 245,000 tonnes grading 0.6g/ tonne of oxide ore and 155,000 tonnes grading at 1.1g/tonne of transitional material.
The company previously said it expected to produce 150,000 ounces to 170,000 ounces of gold at Haile this year at sector-leading costs of between $US500 ($NZ722) and $US550 an ounce.
Mr Wilkes said the company would continue to advance the Haile expansion study and results were expected in the middle of the year.
