Centamin advances on positive Q1 gold production results

Shares in Egypt-focussed gold mining company Centamin rose on Tuesday morning after the FTSE 250-listed company unveiled its first quarter preliminary production results revealing record gold production levels at its Sukari mine.

Total gold production for the quarter ended March 31st was 87,016 ounces, representing a 77% increase on the corresponding quarter in 2012 and a 2.0% increase on the fourth quarter in fiscal year 2012.

The company said that formal guidance for the current year was 320,000 ounces of gold at a cash operating cost of $700 per ounce.

Open pit total material movement of 10,550 kilotonnes (kt) increased 56% and ore production of 2,133kt was up 11% on the fourth quarter of 2012.

The underground mine delivered 119kt, up 6.0% on the fourth quarter 2012. The run of mine ore stockpile balance increased by 38kt to 759kt at the end of the period.

Centamin said that the performance was driven by continued high levels of productivity coupled with a reduced impact from stoppages compared with the previous quarter.

Josef El-Raghy, Chairman of Centamin, said: "This marks a solid start to the year and output remains on target to achieve the 2013 guidance of 320,000 ounces."

"With the plant running at consistently high levels of productivity, the processing function is well placed to deliver the next step change in throughput from the stage four expansion, which remains on course to complete commissioning by the end of the year," he added.

Centamin's share price was up 2.86% to 47.11p at 09:08 on Tuesday.

MF