Sino Gold Mining has recovered 9,840 ounces of gold in the second quarter at its Jinfeng gold mine in southern China, after beginning gold production there in mid-May.

Jinfeng's gold production is currently forecast to be between 70,000 and 75,000 ounces for 2007, while the mine's ore reserves rose 12 per cent to 3.2 million ounces during the period.

On its White Mountain project, in north-east China, Sino Gold reported "significant progress in engineering studies and permitting to enable development to commence in 2007".

Targeted production at White Mountain still is between 70,000 to 80,000 ounces a year.

Drilling at White Mountain is under way now, with nine drill rigs on site.

Sino Gold also said it was expanding exploration, with additional licences acquired along the prolific Jiaojia Fault in Shandong Province and drilling programs continuing at various joint ventures, including Jinluo, Guangxi, Jinfeng near-mine and Hexi.

At the Jinfeng mine, of which Sino holds 82 per cent, 2,542 ounces was sold at an average $US646/ounce.

"Following the slow start to production in July, it is anticipated the plant will ramp-up to design throughput and production levels over the course of the September quarter," the company said.

The mine's new ore reserve estimate represents an increase of 341,000 contained ounces over the previous estimate.

The planned underground mine includes an estimated 2.2 million ounces of ore reserves, with the remaining one million ounces contained in the planned open pit and ore stockpiles.