Centamin Egypt has started mining at its Sukari gold project, which will be Egypt's first modern gold mine. With most of the initial fleet of dump trucks and excavators on site, the company has begun blasting and stockpiling ore ahead of the scheduled completion of the process plant in the second quarter of 2009, when production is formally due to commence.
The company has also announced another increase in gold resource - measured and indicated categories now stand at 9.4m ounces, with a further 3.5m ounces in the less confidently assessed 'inferred' category.
After incurring unrealised exchange losses of $20.5m (£14.4m) - which if crystallised might have required the company to curtail exploration and development activities - Centamin raised C$69m (£39m) in January 2009 through a bought-deal fund-raising. With no debt, these funds and the company's existing cash will not only pay for initial open pit mining, but will probably also finance the early development of higher value underground mining operations.
Broker Ambrian forecasts EPS of 10¢ for the year to June 2010.
| CENTAMIN EGYPT (CEY) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 52p | MARKET VALUE: | £460m | |
| TOUCH: | 52-53p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 78p | LOW: 22p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 37¢ | NET CASH: | $97.5m | |
| Half-year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 3.29 | 5.66 | 0.75 | nil |
| 2008 | 2.11 | -24.4 | -2.78 | nil |
| % change | -36 | - | - | - |
£1=$1.421 | ||||
