{"id":1195366,"date":"2020-07-13T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T10:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1029490"},"modified":"2020-07-13T05:45:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T10:45:00","slug":"centamin-reviewing-expansion-options-as-results-exceed-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1195366","title":{"rendered":"Centamin reviewing expansion options as results exceed forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Egypt-focused gold miner Centamin (LON:CEY) (TSX:CEE) said on Monday<\/a> it was looking at expansion opportunities as soaring bullion prices and the country\u2019s decision to open up its riches to foreign capitals unlock opportunities.<\/p>\n

Gold prices have hit nine-year-highs of about $1,800 an ounce<\/a> in recent weeks, boosting miners\u2019 bottom-line and spurring merger and acquisition activity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Martin Horgan said current gold prices have made \u201cthings interesting\u201d in the company\u2019s ability to do transactions. He acknowledged, however, that striking a deal could prove challenging, given that all gold miners are benefiting from the metal’s price strength.<\/p>\n

Hogan also highlighted Egypt\u2019s new drive to attract foreign miners. Until February this year, Centamin was the only international company with a mining license in the country. But on Feb. 13, Canada\u2019s Aton Resources (TSX-V: AAN) secured a mining permit<\/a> \u2014 the first one in 15 years.<\/p>\n

A month later, Cairo began auctioning 56,000 square kilometres of exploration concessions in the Eastern Desert.<\/p>\n

It recently extended the auction\u2019s original July deadline to September 15 due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic and to extend the opportunity to more potential bidders.<\/p>\n

Centamin\u2019s boss said the company would participate in the ongoing auction.<\/p>\n

“We have significant infrastructure in Egypt and leveraging off that would be a good thing,” Horgan said, adding that the company was waiting for details on the process before preparing any bid.<\/p>\n

Unlike Egypt\u2019s natural gas sector, its mineral wealth remains largely under-explored and undeveloped.<\/p>\n

The lack of activity was due, in part, to the nation\u2019s past system of royalties and profit-sharing agreements. They made it difficult and unprofitable for miners to explore for and exploit minerals. <\/p>\n

Sukari shines<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Centamin reported that its flagship Sukari asset, the only operating gold mine in Egypt, produced 130,994 ounces of gold in the March-June period, above the 115,000 ounces<\/a> anticipated in April.<\/p>\n

The company attributed the better-than-expected output figures to higher mill feed grades. Deferring plant maintenance shutdowns to the third quarter, a coronavirus-related precautionary measure, also helped, Centamin said.<\/p>\n

Net cash generated in the period totalled $144 million, a 151% improvement year-on-year. As of June 30, cash and liquid assets were sitting at $367 million,  after the first interim dividend distribution of $69 million, paid on May 15.<\/p>\n

While the gold miner said the current pandemic has not affected significantly its business, it decided to lowered guidance for the year to reflect minor delays in the supply chain.<\/p>\n

Centamin now expects to mine between 510,000 and 525,000 ounces of gold this year, slightly down from a previous range of 510,000 to 540,000 ounces.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources revealed last month the discovery of a gold deposit with estimated resources of 1 million ounces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the government did not provide details on the methodology used to determine the deposit\u2019s size, it noted it expected at least $1 billion in investments related to the development of the deposit over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gold miner is planning to participate in Egypt’s auction of exploration concessions in the Eastern Desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,4],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1195366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1195438,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195366\/revisions\/1195438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1195366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1195366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1195366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}