Centerra Gold Inc. on March 23 announced the restart of the second ball mill circuit at the Mount Milligan copper-gold mine in British Columbia.

Operations were suspended in December 2017 due to insufficient water resources and were partially restarted in February.

The company expects the mine to achieve sustainable mill throughput levels averaging approximately 55,000 tonnes per day for the second half of the year.

Mount Milligan experienced a drier-than-normal spring and summer in 2017, which limited the amount of spring snowmelt, which reduced reclaim water availability in the mine's tailings storage facility. A harsher-than-expected winter worsened the situation due to higher ice formation at the facility.