(AFP File Photo)
Centamin, an Arabian-Nubian Shield-focused mineral exploration, issued a statement announcing the preliminary production results from its Sukari Gold mine, which began production in 2009.
The mine is considered to be the first large scale modern gold mine in Egypt and is located in the south-easterly region of the Eastern Desert.
Centamin produced 93,624 oz of gold for the second quarter in 2013, ending in June, bringing the total production so far to 180,640 oz. The second quarter gold production is 8% more than first quarter production, which totalled 87,016oz, and it is 39% more the corresponding quarter in 2012.
Josef El-Raghy, the chairman of Centamin, cited continuing operational improvements as the main reason behind the production increase.
“The second quarter saw continued improvements in mining and processing productivity at the Sukari operation which, combined with average grades in line with the mine plan, delivered a third successive quarter of record output,” he said.
Centamin will announce its full second quarter results on Wednesday 14 August, via the Regulatory News Service of the London Stock Exchange and Marketwire on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Despite production increases, the stocks of the company have not returned to their 2012 levels, due to the ruling of an Egyptian court that challenged the company’s right to operate the Sukari mine. The case was filed by Hamdy El Fakharany, an independent member with the previous parliament.
The issue is scheduled to be settled in September after the ruling on the company’s appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court.
