Centamin continues solid production performance in Q2

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Centamin continued its upward production trend during the second quarter of 2016 after starting the year strongly.

The miner on Thursday posted a preliminary 12% quarter-on-quarter and 30% year-on-year surge in gold output from its Sukari gold mine, in Egypt, reaching 140 306 oz during the three months to June.

“The Sukari operation has continued to build on the strong start to the year, with total first half production of 265 574 oz of gold,” said Centamin CEO Andrew Pardey.

“The continued optimisation of the processing operation saw plant throughput increase further during the second quarter,” he said, pointing to the process plant throughput of 2.9-million tonnes, a 2% increase on the previous quarter.

“Annualised throughput exceeds our base case target rate of 11-million tonnes a year,” he said.

Meanwhile, openpit ore production at Sukari increased by 42% to 3.4-million tonnes at an average mined grade of 0.90 g/t of gold, while the openpit total material movement decreased by 1%, compared with the previous quarter, to 15-million tonnes.

The underground mine continued to deliver both tonnes and grade in excess of Centamin’s base case forecast, delivering 256 000 t of ore, a 9% reduction on the previous quarter, at an average mined grade of 9.3 g/t.

“Productivity remained above our forecast rate of one-million tonnes a year at 6 g/t. Ore from stoping was 143 000 t at 8.5 g/t, comparable with the previous quarter of 145 000 t at 9.2 g/t,” Pardey said.

The full-year 2016 production and cost guidance would be updated when Centamin released its second-quarter financial report.