Centamin says reserve estimate at Sukari helped by lower fuel prices

10th Sep 2015 08:03

(ShareCast News) - Centamin on Thursday said the fall in fuel prices has had a "positive impact" on the reserve estimate at the Sukari mine in Egypt.The company reported a total combined open pit and underground mineral reserve estimate of 8.8m ounces (oz), an increase of 7% compared to the end of September.The group said that a total measured and indicated mineral resource estimate of 13m oz gold is reported as an open pit resource at 0.3 gram per tonne (g/t), inclusive of the 1m oz underground resource.The open pit and surface stockpile reserve estimate is 8.3m, while the underground reserve estimate is 2.7mt containing 0.5m oz."It is pleasing to see that, as underground mining rates have ramped up to the current level of around 1m tonnes per annum, there has been continued growth of the underground reserve with the average grade in line with our production forecast of six grams per tonne," said chief executive Andrew Pardey."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."