RNS Number:4582RCentamin Egypt Limited19 February 2007 Centamin...

RNS Number:4582R
Centamin Egypt Limited
19 February 2007
Centamin Egypt Limited
("Centamin" or the "Company")
BOARD APPROVES DEVELOPMENT OF
WORLD CLASS SUKARI GOLD PROJECT
* Centamin's Board of Directors today formally approved the development of the
Sukari Gold Project ("the Project") in Egypt following the completion of the
Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS")
* The Base Case DFS concluded that a 4mtpa plant producing on average 200,000
ounces per annum, over 15 years of mining, is economically robust
* Total Capital Construction costs are estimated at US$216m with average cash
operating costs of US$290/oz (inclusive of 3% royalty) over the 15-year mining
period
* The Sukari Gold Project will be the first modern gold mine operation in Egypt
* The 8.26moz resource is not closed off and a 10 rig drilling program is
ongoing. Significant resource growth expected and potential to increase
future production profile
* Recent Drilling confirms growth 40m @ 8.65g/t, 30m @ 3.56g/t, 138m @ 1.35g/t
The Board of Directors of Centamin has received the results of the Base Case
DFS, is pleased with the economic robustness of the Project and has committed to
fast tracking its development. The Base Case DFS has been prepared by Roche
Process Engineering and is the compilation of work undertaken by them and
various other consultants.
Centamin engaged the following primary consultants during the DFS process:
*AMC Consultants Pty Ltd to undertake all the mine costing, planning and
scheduling work;
*Hellman and Schofield to undertake resource estimation;
*Ausenco Ltd for the metallurgical test work and process design studies; and
*Knight Piesold Pty Ltd for the tailings storage facility design.
Results of the study are presented below.
Development Schedule
Centamin has begun to assemble a strong owners' team to manage the project's
development. The industrial base in Egypt is well developed and all services
expected to be required during construction are available.
An overall schedule has been developed covering all phases of the project and
key dates are listed below:
Project Go-Ahead Decision Feb 2007
Project Finance Q2 2007
Commence Site Works Q3 2007
Commence Tailings Storage Facility Q3 2007
Kori Kollo Plant Arrives Egypt Q3 2007
Commence Mining Pre-Strip Q4 2007
Commissioning and Production Q3 2008
Summary of Construction Capital
US$
Process Plant* $150.5M
Mining Fleet $48.8M
Owners Costs (including pre-strip) $16.5M
Admin/HSE $0.7M
$216.5M
*includes a contingency of $13.7m
The capital estimate covers the design and construction of the process plant,
together with on site and off site infrastructure requirements, including power,
water supply and support services
Resources and Reserves
Drilling at the Project has identified a major gold resource. The global
resource estimate as previously announced on 06 February 2007 is detailed below:
Total Resource (February 2007 - Global All Data)
Cut-off Measured Indicated Inferred Total TOTAL
Mt g/t Mt g/t Mt g/t Mt g/t Moz
0.5 47.39 1.40 73.98 1.39 52.80 1.70 174.20 1.47 8.26
Note to Table: Figures in table may not add correctly due to rounding
The resources have been calculated by Hellman and Schofield Pty Ltd using
Multiple Indicator Kriging. The resources are assessed in accordance with the
2004 Australian Code for the Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves
("JORC Code"), National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral
Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and
Petroleum Standards (the "CIM Standards").
The resource estimate is based on data coming from 817 diamond and RC drill
holes combining to give approximately 168,000 meters of drilling. The Company
has 10 drill rigs at the Sukari Project and is advancing the drilling
northwards. The orebody is not closed off and significant further increases in
the resource are expected.
Mining and Reserve Statement
Pit optimisation was conducted with a mine planning model created in Datamine
from the Hellman and Schofield resource model. A series of pits was generated at
gold prices from US$200 to US$700. Optimisation pit shell 9, US$400 was selected
for the basis of design.
The mineral reserve statement is:
+----------------------+----------------------+-----------------------+--------+
| Proven | Probable | Total Mineral Reserve | |
+-------+-----+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-----+---------+ |
|Tonnes | Au | Cont |Tonnes| Au | Cont |Tonnes |Au (g|Cont Gold| Strip |
| | | Gold | (Mt) | | Gold | (Mt) | /t) | (Moz) | Ratio |
| (Mt) |(g/t)| (Moz) | |(g/t) | (Moz) | | | | |
+-------+-----+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-----+---------+--------+
| 34.1 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 44.2 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 78.3 | 1.5 | 3.7 |4.8 : 1 |
+-------+-----+--------+------+------+--------+-------+-----+---------+--------+
This Mineral Reserve estimate has been classified and reported in accordance
with Canadian National Instrument 43-101, 'Standards of Disclosure for Mineral
Projects' of February 2001 (the Instrument) and the classifications adopted by
CIM Council in August 2000. Furthermore, the reserve classifications are also
consistent with the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results,
Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' of 2004 (the Code) as prepared by the Joint
Ore Reserves Committee of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy,
Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Mineral Council of Australia (JORC),
with the minor exception that the Code refers to Ore Reserves while the
Instrument refers to Mineral Reserves. The Qualified Person responsible for the
mining aspects of the Mineral Reserves is Martin Staples who is a full time
employee of AMC Consultants Pty Ltd and a member of the AusIMM. He visited the
Sukari project site during December 2005. During the course of the Feasibility
Study another member of the AMC Consultants team engaged in the estimation of
Mineral Reserves has visited site.
The total Mineral Reserves at Sukari were estimated at 78Mt of ore at an average
grade of 1.5 g/t Au for 3.7M contained ounces of gold. A further 374Mt waste
material will also be mined giving a waste to ore strip ratio of 4.8:1. It is
anticipated that the waste to ore ratio will decline as infill drilling targets
areas of inferred resources and areas that remain undrilled due to steep terrain
and lack of track access.
The Sukari Project has been scheduled for open pit mining over an initial 15
year period which is to be followed by a 6 year period of treating low grade
stockpiles. The mining and treatment schedule developed through the Base Case
DFS uses an elevated cut-off grade through the early years to increase the head
grade to the treatment facility. Material between this elevated cut-off grade
and the cut-off grade used for the Mineral Reserve estimate is stockpiled and
will be treated at the end of the current project life.
The Mineral Reserves are contained within a single open pit based upon Measured
and Indicated Resources. The Inferred Resources which occur within the pit
design are treated as waste in the production schedule and project economic
evaluation. The cash flow evaluation used to confirm the economic viability of
the project and hence the Mineral Reserves assumed a realised gold price of
US$600/oz. Sensitivity analysis suggests that for the capital and operating
costs developed through the DFS the project has a positive NPV and an IRR in
excess of 10% at a gold price of US$500/oz.
It is proposed that Centamin will own and operate its mining fleet. The
production fleet will be based on 250t class excavators and 150t class rigid
body trucks. At full production, three production fleets, comprising a total of
four excavators and a maximum of 20 trucks, will be required. The capital cost
of the initial mining fleet has been estimated at US$48.8M.
Process Plant
The ore is relatively hard and competent being hosted in porphyry and is
suitable for SAG milling. The gold is fine and associated with pyrite which is
readily floated and ultra fine grinding renders the gold amenable to
cyanidation. Definitive test work by AMMTEC on Sukari ore has resulted in the
selection of three process routes.
The following table outlines the process routes and recovery predictions for
each of the three different ore types.
+----------------+-----------------------------+-----------------+
|Ore Feed |Process Route |Recovery |
| | |Prediction |
+----------------+-----------------------------+-----------------+
|Oxidised - M5 |Direct Cyanidation/CIL | 90.8% |
+----------------+-----------------------------+-----------------+
|Mixed - M2 to M4|Flotation with Concentrate | 87.4% |
| |Regrind and CIL Leach plus | |
| |Float Tail CIL Leach | |
+----------------+-----------------------------+-----------------+
|Sulphide M1 |Flotation with Concentrate | 89.7% |
| |Regrind and CIL Leach | |
+----------------+-----------------------------+-----------------+
Life of mine recovery is estimated at 90%.
Infrastructure and Services
The Project is located in a remote location and as such no existing services and
infrastructure exist suitable to support a mining operation of the proposed
magnitude.
Process water will be drawn from the Red Sea. The seawater will be pumped
approximately 25km to the mine site to satisfy all process plant and mining
requirements. Most of the seawater will be pumped into a raw water pond located
near the processing plant, whilst around 500m(3)/day will be pumped to a water
treatment plant for potable and fresh water supplies.
Power will be generated on site by a 28 MW power station, operated on heavy fuel
oil. It is anticipated that power costs will be less than US$0.03 kw/h.
Project Finance
The Company has commenced negotiations with financiers and is considering a
range of funding options for the development of the project. It is the Company's
intention to limit the amount of gold hedging incorporated into any potential
financing arrangement. It is the intention and requirement to have all project
finance in place by end of Q2 2007.
Further Work
The Sukari gold deposit is a felsic porphyry outcrop that currently is known to
extend for 2.5km. The majority of the existing resource is contained within the
first 1.1km of this outcrop and remains open at depth. Drilling continues to add
ounces as the program moves to the north and tests depth extensions.
Further drilling is expected to:-
* increase the confidence level in inferred resource areas such that
conversion to reserves is possible (currently 13.2Mt of inferred resources
fall within the pit shell but are treated as waste in the production
schedule and project economic evaluation)
* further add to the global resource base with drilling focussed in the Ra
and Gazelle zones with 10 rigs on site
* Provide the ability to significantly upgrade the production profile of
Sukari beyond the Base Case DFS Base Case scenario
For Centamin Egypt Limited
Josef El-Raghy
Managing Director/CEO
19 February 2007
For more information please contact:
Centamin Egypt Limited Bishopsgate Communications Ltd Evolution Securities
Ph: + 61 (8) 9316 2640 + 44 (0) 20 7562 3350 + 44 (0) 20 7071 4300
Josef El-Raghy Maxine Barnes / Nick Rome Frank Moxon / Simon Edwards
www.centamin.com www.bishopsgatecommunications.com www.evosecurities.com
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