PEGASUS GOLD <PGULF> STARTS MILLING IN MONTANA Pegasus Gold Inc said milling operations have started at its Montana Tunnels open-pit gold, silver, zinc and lead mine near Helena. The start-up is three months ahead of schedule and six mln dlrs under budget, the company said. Original capital cost of the mine was 57.5 mln dlrs, but came in at 51.5 mln dlrs, the company said. After a start-up period, the mill is expected to produce 106,000 ounces of gold, 1,700,000 ounces of silver, 26,000 tons of zinc and 5,700 tons of lead on an annual basis from 4,300,000 tons of ore, the company said.