The historical mine in Western Australia's Wheatbelt is processing about 100,000 ounces and is on track to hit an annual rate of 160,000oz following commissioning of the 2.7 million tonne per annum crusher and processing facility.

The company went on a $25 million exploration drive last year and found additional mining reserves at both historic and greenfields sites across the 1100 square kilometre Barto Mine lease.

Another $20 million of exploration spend this year will help meet the 2.7 million tonne per annum nameplate capacity of the crusher.

Barto general manager Guy Simpson said exploration had identified a series of open-pittable ore reserves to the north and to the south of the existing processing plant.

"The first of those is a series of four open pits at the Glendower complex, about 20km to the north of the plant," he said.

"We commenced mining at Glendower about two and a half months ago once we got all the approvals in place."

Simpson said a relatively greenfields resource at Windmills had a lot of potential.

"It's the tip of the iceberg and we're going to start mining that in Q1 or Q2 of next year," he said.

The investment gamble will allow the resources to be exploited quicker than first expected and help pay it off in three years or less.

Simpson praised the company, staff and contractors for jointly staring down challenges of COVID-19, the tough employee market, and increased regulatory burden in executing the project.

"We're not a large organisation [and] people have more of a sense of being part of our business, there's a lot more flexibility in their employment," he said.

"We're fairly fleet of foot [and], don't operate under a laborious approvals process and our staff like the variability that they get in the operation here."

Simpson said the mine was in a nice part of WA surrounded by forest and wheatfields.

"We have great accommodation and excellent catering only a 50-minute flight from Perth," he said.

"We generate quite a lot of employment for the locals and the small businesses around town, so it's almost like a niche operation in that it's not big and it's more family-oriented."