Evolution Mining has announced that commission of the 800,000 tonnes per annum processing plant at its 100 per cent owned Mt Carlton gold-silver-copper mine in North Queensland has commenced.

Dry commissioning of the crushing circuit has started and commissioning procedures are now expected to continue for a six to eight-week period.

All major fixed plant has been installed and construction of the main water supply dam and tailings storage facility is also complete.

Mining if the A39 and V2 open pits is well advanced and around 200,000 tonnes of ore from the silver-rich A39 has been delivered to the run-of-mine pad in preparation for crushing.

Ore processing is anticipated to commence in February.

Mr Carlton is forecast to contribute 25,000-30,000oz gold equivalent in FY2013 as it ramps up to full production.

The project is currently expected to product 720,000oz of gold, 14.4Moz of silver and 25,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate over its initial 12-year life.

?To commence commissioning of this project within 12 months of receiving the mining lease approval is a tremendous achievement,? Evolution Mining executive chairman Jake Klein said.

?Mt Carlton is a high quality project that is expected to become Evolution?s lowest cost gold producer.?