Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation produced 554,120 ounces of gold equivalent in Russia in the nine-month timeframe from January to September 2016, two percent less than in the corresponding period of the previous year, the company said in a press release on November 13, 2016.

Production in Russia declined six percent to 178,032 ounces in the third quarter of 2016 due to a decline in the ore grade to 11.79 grams/ton (g/t) in the third quarter of 2016 from 13.65 g/t a year earlier, consistent with the mining plan. Kinross has two existing mines in Russia’s Chukotka autonomous district: the Kupol mine and the Dvoinoye mine. The mill at Kupol processes ore from both sites. Dvoinoye accounted for approximately 71,000 ounces of gold-equivalent production in the third quarter of 2016, the company said.

Kinross said mining at the September Northeast site located 15 kilometers from Dvoinoye is now expected to commence in the first quarter of 2017. Previous estimates listed late 2017 as the start date. Mining at Moroshka, a site four kilometers away from Kupol, will commence in the first half of 2018.

Kinross is among the world’s 10 largest gold mining companies and has projects in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ghana, Mauritania, Russia, and the United States. The company’s overall production rose four percent to 2.043 million ounces in the nine months of 2016. Russia accounted for 27 percent of the total.