Centamin hails record second-quarter

Egypt-focused gold mining Centamin achieved record production in the second quarter and said that it saw strong performance on all key operating metrics.

Centamin, which operates through its flagship Sukari Gold Mine, saw total gold production jump to 67,422 ounces in the three months to June 30th, a 40% increase on the second quarter of 2011 and a 37% improvement on the preceding quarter.

Quarterly throughput in the Sukari process plant was 1,269kt, up 49% year-on-year (y/y) and 24% quarter-on-quarter (q/q), with the plant continued to operate at and above the five million tonne per annum run rate.

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Total material movement from the open pit was 6,579kt and underground ore production was 117kt, a 172% q/q increase and up 63% q/q. With higher material movements from the open pit, the run of mine ore stockpile balance rose from 278kt to 497kt by the end of the quarter.

"Our team at Sukari has delivered a record quarter on tonnes mined from the underground and tonnes processed through the plant," said Chairman Josef El-Raghy.

"Open pit tonnes mined increased significantly from Q1 as staged development in line with the optimised mine plan announced in May opened up additional mining faces. We have delivered our strongest operating quarter to date and remain on track to deliver our full year production guidance of 250,000 ounces."

Shares in Centamin dropped on Monday after an Egyptian newspaper quoted an unnamed government source as saying that the company have breached its concession agreement at Sukari. The firm quickly released a statement denying this, assuring that operations at the mine were continuing as normal.

BC