Update : Proposed TSX Listing
Centamin Egypt Limited
07 March 2007
7 March 2007
Centamin Egypt Limited ('the Company')
Update Regarding Proposed TSX Listing and Definitive Feasibility Study
As announced in the Company's quarterly report for the three months ended 31
December 2006 published on 31 January 2007, the Company plans to list on the
Toronto Stock Exchange ('TSX'). The Company is pleased to report that it has
today filed a preliminary prospectus (the 'Prospectus') for approval with the
securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces of Canada (excluding
Quebec), which is available for review on the System for Electronic Document
Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) located at www.sedar.com.
Offering
The TSX listing to be effected through a public share offering in Canada under
the Prospectus filed with the Ontario Securities Commission (the 'Offering')
and, subject to applicable laws and regulation, to institutional investors in
the United States, UK and Europe. Further details of the offering will be
released in due course. The final pricing of the Offering will be determined by
the Directors before the lodgement of the final Prospectus. At a General Meeting
to be held on April 10, 2007, shareholders will be asked to approve the issuance
of shares which represent greater than 15% of the Company's ordinary securities
outstanding. The Company may close the offering in one or more tranches.
Westwind Partners Inc. is acting as sole agent for the Offering.
The proceeds are expected to be used for:
* partial funding of the development of the Sukari Project;
* drilling to test for extensions to resources at the Sukari Project;
* regional exploration programmes;
* working capital and general corporate purposes;
* expenses of the Offering.
The net proceeds of the Offering will not be sufficient to fully fund the
development costs of the Sukari Project and Centamin has commenced discussions
with potential finance providers.
Notice of General Meeting
As announced today, a notice of general meeting is to be sent to the Company's
shareholders convening a General Meeting to be held on 10 April 2007 at 11.00
a.m. (Australian WST) at 1st Floor, Rowing WA, The Esplanade, Mount Pleasant,
Western Australia. A resolution will be proposed to shareholders to seek their
approval to issue of up to 100 million new ordinary fully paid shares in the
Company at an issue price to be determined by the Directors being not less than
a minimum issue price of the Canadian dollar equivalent of A$0.90, the Canadian
dollar equivalent being calculated at the nominal noon spot rate quoted by the
Bank of Canada at the date on which the pricing is determined.
Sukari Project Definitive Feasibility Study
The information in this section is based on the technical report titled 'Form
43-101F1 Technical Report - Sukari Gold Project Egypt' (the 'Technical Report')
dated 2 March 2007 authored by Nic Johnson of Hellman & Schofield Pty Ltd, Paul
Newling at Roche Process Engineering Pty Ltd, Chris Orr at George, Orr and
Associates (Australia) Pty Ltd, Dave Morgan at Knight Piesold Pty Ltd, Martin
Staples of AMC Consultants Pty Ltd and Geoff Motteram of Geomett Pty Ltd, each
of whom is a 'Qualified Person' as defined in National Instrument 43-101 -
Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ('NI 43-101'). The Technical Report
has been filed with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the
provinces of Canada other than Quebec.
Portions of the following information are based on assumptions, qualifications
and procedures which are not fully described herein. Reference should be made to
the full text of the Technical Report which is available for review on the
System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) located at
www.sedar.com.
Background
In February 2007, a definitive feasibility study for development of the Sukari
Project was completed by Roche Process Engineering Pty Ltd ('Roche'). The DFS
provides that the capital cost to develop the project is estimated at US$216.5
million (including mining fleet and contingencies but not including the leased
mining fleet). According to the DFS, the Sukari Project reserve will be mined by
a single open pit over a 15-year period. During that time 78 Mt ore grading 1.5
g/t is expected to be mined, containing 3.7 Moz gold. Over this 15-year mining
period the project is expected to produce on average 200,000 oz of gold annually
at an average cash operating cost of US$290/oz.
The table below details Sukari ore reserves.
+-------+-------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------+
| | Proven | Probable | Total Mineral Reserve |
+-------+---------+---------+---------+----------+---------+---------+---------+
| | Mt | g/t | Mt | g/t | Mt | g/t | Moz |
+-------+---------+---------+---------+----------+---------+---------+---------+
|Total | 34.1 | 1.5 | 44.2 | 1.5 | 78.3 | 1.5 | 3.7 |
+-------+---------+---------+---------+----------+---------+---------+---------+
The table below details Sukari's total mineral resource.
+-------+-------------+-------------+-------------+--------+
| | Measured | Indicated | Inferred | Total |
| | | | | M,I&I |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-+
|cut-off| Mt | g/t | Mt | g/t | Mt | g/t | Moz | |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-+
| 0.5 | 47.39| 1.40| 73.98| 1.39| 52.8| 1.7| 8.26| |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-+
| 0.6 | 40.25| 1.55| 62.63| 1.54| 44.9| 1.9| 7.79| |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-+
| 0.7 | 34.44| 1.70| 53.45| 1.69| 38.6| 2.1| 7.35| |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-+
In October 2006 Centamin agreed to acquire the Kori Kollo CIL plant from a
subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation. The Kori Kollo plant is located in
Bolivia and was built and commissioned by Minproc Engineers in 1993. The plant
operated for ten years and on-site inspections by Centamin representatives have
shown the key plant components to be in excellent condition due to the site
altitude providing a non-corrosive environment and the high standard of
maintenance practices during operation. The plant is ideally suited to the
Sukari Project and key equipment sizing is well matched to the 4 Mtpa processing
rate currently envisaged for the Sukari Project.
Approximately 5 Mt of ore will be mined and 4 Mt of ore will be processed
annually such that a low-grade stockpile will be developed. According to current
schedules, this stockpile will be processed after mining has ceased, extending
the operating life of the project for a further six years.
An overall schedule has been developed covering all phases of the project; key
dates are listed below:
Project Go-Ahead Decision Feb 2007
Project Finance Q2 2007
Commence Construction at Site Q3 2007
Commence Tailings Storage Facility Construction Q3 2007
Kori Kollo Plant Arrives in Egypt Q3 2007
Commence Mining Pre-Strip Q3 2007
Plant Commissioning and Production Q3 2008
The schedule assumes that all approvals are in place upon project approval.
Project development, mining and processing are subject to various permitting and
consent requirements and, accordingly, the Company will process applications for
permits and consents related to land access for the seawater pipeline route,
transporting, storing and using hazardous materials and other environmental
approvals.
The Company has commenced negotiations with financiers and is considering a
range of funding options for the development of the project.
Centamin Egypt Bishopsgate Communications Ltd Evolution Securities
Limited Limited
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
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN
THE UNITED STATES
The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility
for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of
an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale or any acceptance of an offer to
buy these securities in the Selling Jurisdictions before a receipt for the final
prospectus is obtained from the securities commission or similar authority.
These securities have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United
States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the
United States without registration or an applicable exemption from the
registration requirements of that Act. This news release does not constitute an
offer for sale of these securities in the United States.
APPENDIX I - GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS
'activated carbon' a chemical used in extracting gold from the leach
solution, the gold is absorbed into the porous
matrix of the carbon
'adsorb' to attract and retain other material on the
surface; to conduct the process of adsorption
'Au' is the chemical symbol for gold
'CIL' carbon-in-leach; a process in which finely ground
gold ore is leached with weak alkaline solutions of
sodium cyanide bubbled with air or oxygen, and the
slurry (pulp) has added to it tough porous carbon
particles about the size of wheat grains onto which
gold cyanide ions are adsorbed; following
adsorption, the loaded carbon is washed and
stripped of gold cyanide ions by heated stronger
alkaline cyanide solutions from which metallic gold
is recovered by electro-winning.
'concentrate' a product containing valuable metal from which most
of the waste material in the ore has been
eliminated.
'cyanide' sodium cyanide (NaCN).
'EPCM' engineering, procurement and construction
management.
'feasibility study' a comprehensive study of a deposit in which all
geological, engineering, operating, economic and
other relevant factors are considered in sufficient
detail that it could reasonably serve as the basis
for a final decision by a financial institution to
finance the development of the deposit for mineral
production.
'float tail' those mineral particles that sink during the
process of flotation
'flotation' a milling process by which some mineral particles
are induced to become attached to bubbles of froth
and float, and others to sink, so that the valuable
minerals are concentrated and separated from the
remaining rock or mineral material
'grade' the amount of mineral in each tonne of ore.
'leach' to dissolve minerals or metals out of ore with
chemicals.
'open pit' mine workings for ores open to the surface, a pit;
like a quarry for stone
'strip ratio' the ratio of waste that needs to be mined to obtain
a unit of ore, usually expressed as tonnes of waste
to tones of ore
'sulphide' a mineral compound in which one or more metals are
found in combination with sulfur
'tailings' refers to finely ground effluent rock waste from
ore treatment plant, in aqueous suspension as it
leaves the plant; pumped to large containments
where treatment water is recovered, and the
tailings dry out
Abbreviations
'm' meter
'km' Kilometre
't' metric tonne (1000 kg)
'Mt' million metric tones
'g/t' gramme / metric tonne
'g' gramme
'kg' kilogramme
'oz' troy ounce (used for precious metals)
'Moz' million Troy ounces
'MW' megawatts
Conversion
'1 ounce Troy' 31.103477 g
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