Underground Update and Q3 Res

RNS Number : 6065U

Centamin Egypt Limited

19 October 2010

 



Centamin Egypt Limited ("Centamin" or "the Company")

(LSE:CEY, TSX:CEE)

SUKARI UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT REACHES

HIGH GRADE HAPI ZONE

ORE DRIVES COMMENCE

Q3 RESULTS DATE

Centamin, the gold mining group with operations in Egypt, is pleased to announce its underground decline development has intersected the high grade Hapi zone mineralisation as expected at the 920 level of the mine, approximately 1190 m from the portal entrance and at a vertical depth below surface of 180m.

The development of multiple ore drives to develop trial stopes and position drilling equipment for definition drilling has now commenced. Ground conditions in the ore drives are as anticipated, and are very favourable. Additional equipment has successfully been mobilised to site by the underground mining contractor, which includes:

-       an additional AD55 (55 tonne) Elphinstone articulated 4WD haulage truck;

-       an additional R2900G Elphinstone Bogger; and

-       one Tamrock 7-7V Longhole Production Drill rig.

An Atlas Copco MCR diamond drill rig is in country and is expected to be in Sukari during the course of October, whilst a further AD55 haulage truck is scheduled for arrival in November, which will complete the initial production mobilisation programme.

One metre channel chip samples collected within the ore zone confirm gold mineralisation, with grades ranging from 3.3g/t to 66g/t being encountered. Once sufficient ore development has taken place, definition drilling will begin, with the determination of the optimal underground mining method to be selected thereafter.

Commenting on this key milestone of the development of the Sukari underground mine, Josef El-Raghy, Chairman of Centamin, said:

"Reaching the high grade Hapi Zone from our underground development is an important contributor to Centamin's strategy to increase our gold production from the current Sukari plant.  The initial sampling from underground is very encouraging and we look forward to bringing Sukari's underground operations into commercial production over the coming months. I would like to thank our dedicated underground development team at Sukari and our underground mining contractor Barminco for their commitment to delivering the first stage safely, on budget and on time for what we will believe will be a substantial and long term underground mining operation."

Q3 Results Date

Centamin will announce its results for the quarter ended 30 September 2010 (Q3) on Wednesday, 03 November 2010. In order to inform both the London and Toronto Stock Exchanges simultaneously, the announcement will be screened via the Regulatory News Service of the London Stock Exchange at 11am, and at 7am on Canada News Wire on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  A conference call for analysts and investors with the Centamin management team will take place at 11.30am GMT / 7.30am Eastern Time on the day of the Q3 results.  Dial in details for the conference call will be announced at the time of the Q3 results.

For Centamin Egypt Limited

Josef El-Raghy

Chairman

19 October 2010

For more information please contact:

Centamin Egypt Limited + 203 5411 259 or + 61 8  9316 2640 Josef El-Raghy www.centamin.com

Buchanan Communications Limited + 44 (0) 207 466 5000 Bobby Morse Katharine Sutton

The information in this report that relates to ore reserves has been compiled by Mr Andrew Pardey. Mr Pardey is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and is a full time employee of the Company. He has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity he is undertaking, to qualify as a "Competent Person" as defined in the 2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" and is a "Qualified Person" as defined in the "National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators" and "CIM Definition Standards For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" of December 2005 as prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions of the Canadian Institute of Mining. Mr Pardey's written consent has been received by the Company for this information to be included in this report in the form and context which it appears.

Information in this report which relates to exploration, geology, sampling and drilling is based on information compiled by geologist Mr Richard Osman who is a full time employee of the Company, and is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy with more than five years experience in the fields of activity being reported on, and is a 'Competent Person' for this purpose and is a "Qualified Person" as defined in "National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators". His written consent has been received by the Company for this information to be included in this report in the form and context which it appears.

All exploration and resource samples were analysed by Ultra Trace Pty Ltd, Canning Vale, Western Australia. All mine based production samples were analysed by Sukari Assay Laboratory, Egypt.

The information in this report that relates to mineral resources is based on work completed by Mr Nicolas Johnson, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.  Mr Johnson is a full time employee of Hellman and Schofield Pty Ltd and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style ofmineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a "Competent Person" as defined in the 2004 edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" and is a "Qualified Person" as defined in "National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators".  Mr Johnson consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

Refer to the Technical Report which was filed in May 2009 for further discussion of the extent to which the estimate of mineral resources/reserves may be materially affected by any known environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issue.

 

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