Centamin looking to double Sukari capacity

21st Dec 2010 15:47

Shares in Egypt-focused gold miner Centamin picked up after a bullish scoping study on its Sukari project upgrade. "Substantially superior comparative project economics were delivered on the 10mtpa plant and required mining scenario compared to the base case 5Mtpa process plant," Centamin said.Resultant gold production peaked at 700,000 oz pa in 2015 and averaged 415,000 oz pa over the 15 year study period (2012-26) with life of mine operating costs of around $425/oz; Capital cost for the expanded plant was estimated at approximately $179M (excluding contingency and additional mobile mining equipment). "With the significant and growing size of the Sukari deposit, the scoping study justified that Centamin can more than double the capacity of its process plant and deliver strong returns over a long mine life," Josef El-Raghy, Centamin's chairman said.