Centamin excitement

Exciting times lie ahead for Perth-based Centamin NL — recently renamed Centamin Egypt Limited — following corporate moves to break into gold producer status.

The company, which listed on the Australian bourse as early as 1970, has been approved for dual listing on the Cairo and Alexandria stock exchanges in Egypt, and its shares should be trading there soon.

Centamin has also recently raised $1.25 million which was used to acquire its partner, Pharaoh Gold Mines NL, to gain 100 per cent title in its principal target, the Sukari gold project, near the Red Sea in Egypt.

The 1,400 square kilometre concession contains the Sukari deposit and 16 old workings which date back to the days of the Pharaohs.

Centamin’s flagship is expected to be the old Sukari gold mine where the independent London-based consultant ACA Howe Mining and Metallurgy has estimated a resource in the measured category of 31.5 million tonnes grading at 2.13 grams/tonne for a contained 2.1 million ounces of gold.

Since then, Centamin has undertaken an infill drilling program which covers 600 metres of the southern zone of the deposit. These results should be released within weeks, and are expected to increase grade and the number of contained ounces of gold.

Centamin spokesman Bill Klasens said the next step in the company’s plan was to move towards a full feasibility leading to gold mining. He said the company’s improved capitalisation had been achieved in a “very hostile gold market environment”.

“Despite all the gloom and doom, the directors will continue with the long-term plan of transforming Centamin from a junior explorer into a significant gold producer,” Mr Klasens said.