Sukari gold mine increases production

London, England — 12 April 2012 – Centamin plc “’ an Arabian-Nubian Shield focused mineral exploration, development and mining company dual listed on the London and Toronto Stock Exchanges “’ has revealed that total production at its Sukari gold mine in Egypt for the first quarter of 2012 was 49,071oz “’ a 9% increase on the corresponding quarter of 2011.

Announcing its preliminary production results for the quarter ended 31 March 2012, the company noted that, despite the strike activity that occurred during the quarter, gold production was only marginally below budget.

The announcement added that while disruptions to operations during the quarter had resulted in lower overall tonnes mined from the open pit and lower overall tonnes treated by the process plant than in Q4 of 2011, the resultant gold production had been underpinned by the plant achieving record productivity, with tonnes per hour rates exceeding 5Mtpa consistently during the quarter. Quarterly throughput in the Sukari process plant had been just over 1Mt “’ 38% higher than the corresponding quarter in 2011 and just 4% lower than Q4 2011, which was a record quarter.

The underground mine achieved record quarterly material movement, and underground ore
production increased to 71,815t “’ a 3% increase on Q4 of 2011.

Centamin chairman Josef El-Raghy commented: “Despite a challenging quarter, the team at Sukari delivered a solid quarter of gold production, and the250,000 oz guidance for 2012 remains intact.”

Source: Centamin plc. For more information, click here.