The massive $621m Gruyere gold project in Western Australia poured first gold over the weekend.

These three doŕe gold bars, about 1139oz worth, were produced:

Once ramp up is complete, Gruyere – a 50-50 JV between Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) and Gold Fields — will produce about 300,000oz a year over an initial 12‐year life.

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It’s something to be celebrated, because not too long ago the $870m Gold Road Resources was a small cap explorer itself.

In late 2013, $54m market cap Gold Road had just discovered Gruyere on the under-explored Yamarna Belt.

But to get where it is today the explorer was forced to battle things like weak gold prices and poor junior market sentiment (sound familiar?).

Gold Road boss Duncan Gibbs says the weekend’s gold pour was a “tremendous milestone” given that the Gold Road team only discovered Gruyere less than six years ago.

“Importantly, Gold Road joins the ranks of ASX-listed gold producers as owner of a 50 per cent stake in the world‐class Gruyere gold mine,” he says.

See? Dreams do come true.

In other ASX gold news today:

Exore Resources (ASX:ERX) hits “best-ever” gold  at the new Veronique gold discovery in Cote d’Ivoire.

Results like 20m at 6.46 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 8m from surface, means Veronique will now become a priority drilling focus, the company says. “In an area that has no visible outcrop, shallow drilling at Veronique continues to correlate well with the highly anomalous soil geochemistry which extends over 8km in length,” Exore managing director Justin Tremain says.

“The first aircore results at Veronique were reported only three months ago in March, and it is quickly shaping up as a major gold discovery of high-grade and significant scale; similar to other major deposits in West Africa.” Exore was up about 7 per cent in morning trade.

 

Moho Resources (ASX:MOH) discovers more broad zones of gold and base metals at its virgin Empress Springs discovery in north Queensland.

Results from the Arrowhead prospect included 22m at 1g/t gold, 46m from surface. A bunch of holes also intersected anomalous copper, lead and zinc mineralisation. “It confirms our initial assessment that Empress Springs has the potential to host major mineralised systems,” managing director Shane Sadlier says.

 

Gold-lithium play Ardiden (ASX:ADV) will assume full ownership of the Pickle Lake gold project in northwest Ontario.

The explorer has exercised an option to acquire TSX-listed Murchison Minerals’ 51 per cent interest in the highly prospective gold project. The explorer will now aim to deliver a maiden inferred resource for the project.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Moho Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.