10th Sep 2015 06:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Centamin PLC on Thursday said that its Sukari mine in Egypt is in a strong position to cope with low gold prices, as it updated its mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates for what is its main asset.
In a statement, the FTSE gold mining company said that total measured and indicated mineral resource estimate of 13 million ounces gold is reported as an open pit resource at a 0.3 grammes per tonne cut-off grade. That total includes the 1.0 million ounces underground resource.
The company reported a total combined open pit and underground mineral reserve estimate of 8.8 million ounces, which it said was an increase of 7% from the previous 8.2 million ounces at the end of September 2013. It said the increase was the result of to lower operating mining and processing costs due to lower international fuel prices, and continued drilling from underground to move ounces up through the resource categories and increase the underground reserve.
It reported open pit and surface stockpile reserve estimate of 8.3 million ounces, and an underground reserve estimate of 2.7 million tonnes, containing 0.5 million ounces.
It said that resource and reserve definition continues in parallel with expanding underground infrastructure, targeting higher grade areas.
Chief Executive Andrew Pardey said that Sukari's "robust" resource supports an open pit mine life of more than 20 years.
"It is pleasing to see that, as underground mining rates have ramped up to the current level of around 1 million tonnes per annum, there has been continued growth of the underground reserve with the average grade in line with our production forecast of 6 [grammes per tonne]," Pardey said in a statement.
"Also of note is the continued increase, net of mining depletion, in both the Measured & Indicated and Inferred components of the underground resource, providing support to our expectation for further material increases over the coming years as development, and hence drilling, continues to extend along strike and at depth," Pardey said.
"Sukari remains in a strong position to continue to operate in the current low gold price environment and we maintain our existing five-year production forecast. We remain focussed on ensuring costs are closely controlled and on realising the potential for further improvements in operational efficiencies over the coming quarters," the chief executive added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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