Sorry for the late reply Goosegog been under the weather. Looks...

Sorry for the late reply Goosegog been under the weather. Looks more and more likely to me that Centamin has amassed a war chest for Acquisitions.

The recent planned expansion does not change that in my view.
"It remains our target to complete the Stage 4 expansion by the end of 2012 and to fund this expansion out of existing Sukari cashflow." Key here is "existing cash flow". Suggest the money was not for that. Also money too much for exploration.

Lots of head scratching over possible targets over multiple boards think if the Daily mail piece was accurate Gip most be a candidate for some kind of deal along with Nuinsco as pointed out by Ourmark.

"News of a ?93m placing of 51.5m shares at 167p a share dragged Centamin Egypt 10.6p lower to 169.3p. The funds apparently will be used to acquire other gold assets, probably held by a private company, either within Egypt or potentially further south towards Ethiopia or Eritrea.

Oriel Securities is a fan and expects Centamin to next week issue results from its feasibility study on a Phase 4 expansion to double production."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1337204/MARKET-REPORT-Shamsul-Azhar-Abbas-gushing-Heritage.html#ixzz19X5I7Q5G

Well not many prospects in Ethiopia apart from Nyota and some explorers.
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/12746/nyota-minerals-takes-full-ownership-of-ethiopian-gold-tenements-12746.html

http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1565:british-co-seeks-gold-mining-license&catid=98:news&Itemid=511

Think NYO is already to big to be swallowed up by Centamin and will get bigger. Not a lot of candidates in Eritrea and Egypt either, they seem to largely fall into the too small or too big category.

If the Daily mail snippit is wrong though and targets could be elsewhere in the region or worldwide it is anyone guess.
Would not expect CEY to be obvious about it as of course it would only add to the SP of any target for a deal.

Hopefully new more generous mining laws in Egypt could give people a clue too Centamin future direction.

Robert