North American Palladium has released its third quarter results, showing that the first nine months of the year have yielded palladium production comfortably above expectations.

In the first three quarters the firm produced a total of 246,405 ounces of palladium, with the latest quarter yielding 79,174 ounces.

The figures compare favourably to the previous quarter, when 75,970 ounces were produced, and also with last year's third quarter output of 76,729 ounces.

During the latest quarter, the Lac des Iles mill operated at a recovery rate of 74.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, work has been continuing on developing the Lac des Iles underground mine, with all the ancillary facilities for the resource now in place.

Further work is now expected on the ventilation raise and secondary escape during the fourth quarter of 2004, but North American Palladium's president expressed his satisfaction at the work done so far.

"I am very pleased with the performance to-date of our operations and project teams. I am looking forward to the successful start-up of these projects," commented president and chief executive Andre Douchane.

The underground mine should be running at full production capacity by 2006.