Centamin to bring back gold in land of the Pharaohs

After a long hiatus Egypt is on the cusp of getting a new major gold mine.

Centamin Egypt (CEE-T, CEY-L) has started blasting rock at its Sukari gold project with the aim of stockpiling ore in the same area where Pharaohs once ordered ore to be mined some 5,000 years ago.

While the stockpiling is being done, Centamin will finish up the processing plant at the site which is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of this year.

Once up and running, Sukari will be the first large scale modern gold mine Egypt has seen.

To get to this stage Australian-based Centamin has logged serious hours in the North African country. It began exploring in Egypt in 1995 and in 2005 was granted a 160 sq. km exploitation lease over the Sukari Hill gold project.

Centamin started construction at the project in early 2007 on the project which sits in the eastern desert of Egypt roughly 23-km southwest of the Red Sea coastal town of Marsa Alam and 750- km by highway from Cairo.

Sukari has 183.8 million tonnes grading 1.52 grams gold for 9.01 million oz. of measured and indicated resources and another 60.7 million tonnes grading 1.7 grams gold for 3.3 million oz. of gold in the inferred category.

Centamin says ore will be hauled to the run of mine pad next to the Processing Plant and either direct tipped to the crusher or stockpiled for future reclaim at an initial throughput rate of 4 million tonnes per year.

In Toronto on February 13, Centamin shares finished 3% or 3¢ higher at 92¢ on roughly 5.8 million shares traded. The company has 880 million shares outstanding and its share price has moved between $1.60 and 43¢ over the last 52-week period.