Brd approves dev of Sukari

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 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
UK 100