Centamin to Proceed With $216 Million Mine in Egypt
By Jesse Riseborough
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Centamin Egypt Ltd., an Australian gold exploration company drawn to look for gold in Egypt by a 3,000-year-old map, will proceed with its $216 million Sukari project in Egypt amid soaring prices for the precious metal.
The mine, which the company says will be Egypt's first modern gold producer, will produce 200,000 ounces of gold annually for 15 year once it starts in 2008, the Perth, Western Australia-based company said today in a statement.
Gold prices have more than doubled in the past five years amid increased investor demand for the metal. Bullion for immediate delivery rose 80 cents to $671.55 at 5:32 p.m. in Sydney, it's risen 5.5 percent this year.
First production from Sukari, which has a resource of 8.26 million ounces of gold, will start in the third quarter next year, the company said in the statement. Operating costs will average $290 for each ounce of gold, Centamin said.
Centamin shares closed unchanged at 95 Australian cents. They have risen 32 percent in the past year on the Australian Stock Exchange compared with the 25 percent rise on the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Financing for the mine is expected to be in place by the end of the second quarter this year, the company said. Drilling work at Sukari is continuing with the gold resource and future production rate expected to increase, it said.
The company said in 1999 that it had been spurred to explore the site by a map of Egyptian gold sites thought to have been drawn by King Seti more than 3,000 years ago. The map was found early last century and is held by a museum in Turin, Italy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Riseborough in Melbourne at jriseborough@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 20, 2007 01:35 EST
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