Production of palladium at North American Palladium has nearly doubled, according to the firm's latest figures.

Earnings of C$16.1 million in the last quarter was in large part due to the rising price of the precious metal and a boom in production.

The Toronto-based outfit said its Lac des Iles mine near Thunder Bay, Ontario, produced 94,114 ounces of palladium in the final quarter of 2003.

The figure marks a massive increase on the 52,067 ounces produced in the 2002 December quarter.

For the year the Lac des Iles mine produced 288,703 ounces of palladium, another significant step up from the 219,325 ounces in 2002.

Production was helped by the mining of higher grade material and improved processing of the raw material.

The activation of the new primary crusher in June 2003 and continued improvements in mill throughput and availability were key in these processing developments.

Indeed, with production and prices both rising, total revenue from by-product metals including platinum, nickel and gold, soared by 64 per cent to $63,424,000 in 2003, compared to $38,666,000 in 2002.