Centamin Egypt Limited (TSX:CEE)(LSE:CEY), the gold mining group with operations in Egypt, has announced 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.
Source: Centamin Egypt Limited