'It was a busy fourth quarter - we commissioned the 36Mw Sukari solar plant, delivering immediate cost savings and reductions in carbon emissions; we completed the Sukari underground expansion study confirming the ability to increase mining rates by 30% from 2025; for the consecutive second year, we materially grew the Sukari reserves; and we signed a
'During 2023, we look forward to further increasing gold production from Sukari year on year while continuing to manage cost pressures, and progressing the multiple identified opportunities across our portfolio.'
HIGHLIGHTS
2022 guidance delivered
New Group safety record achieved: the Company recorded no Lost Time Injuries ('LTI') in the fourth quarter ('Q4') and Sukari has achieved a site record of eight million hours LTI free. The lost time injury frequency rate ('LTIFR') for the twelve months ended
Annual gold production of 440,974 oz in line with guidance: Q4 production of 109,564 ounces ('oz'), totalling FY production of 440,974 oz
Annual revenue of
Costs delivered in line with guidance: Q4 cash costs of
Capital expenditure of
Geological focus delivers a second year of reserve growth at Sukari: total Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 320 million tonnes ('Mt') at 1.08 grams of gold per tonne ('g/t Au') for 11.11Moz of contained gold, reflecting a 13% increase in ounces (1.3Moz) after depletion, including Proven and Probable Reserves of 163Mt at 1.1g/t Au for 6.0Moz, reflecting additions of 0.8Moz in the open pit and underground before depletion. Link to full announcement here
Confirmed Sukari underground expansion potential : increasing underground ore mining rates to 1.5Mt , which is more than30% above current life of mine averages, driving future production growth from Sukari. Link to full announcement here
Upgrading the Doropo resource: total Indicated Resource of 51.2Mt at 1.52g/t Au for 2.52Moz of contained gold, including a 22% increase in grade and significant exploration upside potential. Doropo pre-feasibility study ('PFS') well progressed. Additional work underway on the processing circuit assessing potential capital and operating cost savings . PFS completion expected H1 2023. Link to full announcement here
Secured
Robust balance sheet: cash and liquid assets of
The Company will publish its audited full year 2022 financial results on
WEBCAST AND CONFERENCE CALL
The Company will host a webcast and conference call today, Thursday, 19 January at 08.30 GMT to discuss the results, followed by an opportunity to ask questions.
Webcast link : https://www.investis-live.com/centamin/63b6ddfbaba36a0c00072b18/eabie
Conference call dial-in telephone numbers :
Participation access code: 349884
PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION of the quarterly results: www.centamin.com/investors/results-reports/
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Operational safety continues to be a key focus across the Group with no LTIs being reported in the quarter (FY: 1) and Sukari continues its site record of over eight million hours worked LTI free.
The Q4 LTIFR was zero per 1,000,000 site-based hours worked (FY: 0.08) comparable to the corresponding 0.31 LTIFR for the fourth quarter of 2021. The total recordable injury frequency rate ('TRIFR') for Q4 was 2.95 per 1,000,000 site-based hours worked, down 50% year on year ('YoY'). TRIFR for 2022 was 2.61, which was better than our 2022 target.
(Q4 2022 vs Q4 2021)
Production
Production guidance range for 2023 is 450,000 to 480,000 ounces representing an increase in annual production from 2022, driven predominantly by higher mining rates from the underground following the transition to owner-operator mining.
Open Pit Mining
Total material moved (waste and ore) in Q4 increased by 20% YoY to 36.4Mt (FY: 136.4Mt) a new quarterly record, resulting from improved productivity, as well as increased waste moved as part of the accelerated waste stripping programme.
Total open pit waste material mined (owner and contractor) for the quarter was 33.3Mt (FY: 124.7Mt), a 20% increase YoY, driven largely by the ongoing contractor waste-stripping programme (11.5Mt), further improving mining flexibility within the open pit. The strip ratio for the quarter was 10.6:1 (waste:ore) (FY: 10.7:1).
During Q4, open pit ore was mined from multiple working areas and continued to focus primarily on Stage 5 North, with further ore contributions from Stage 4 and Stage 7. Total open pit ore mined for the quarter was 3.1Mt (FY: 11.7Mt), a 17% increase YoY, at an average mined grade of 0.93 g/t Au (FY: 0.99g/t Au), no change YoY.
During 2022 the accelerated waste-stripping programme has delivered increased mining flexibility and access to higher grade areas in the open pit, resulting in a 9% increase in ounces mined year on year.
Underground Mining
In Q4, underground performance improved from Q3 as the new underground equipment was delivered and commissioned.
Total material mined (waste and ore) was 300kt (FY: 1,077kt), a 47% increase YoY. Total ore mined was 233kt (FY 2022: 829kt) at an average combined (stoping and development) grade of 4.25g/t Au (FY: 4.75g/t Au). This represented a 61% increase in ore tonnes YoY and a 14% decrease in grade YoY.
The underground ore mined consisted of 138kt of ore mined from stopes at an average grade of 5.79g/t Au, and 95kt of ore mined from development, at an average grade of 2.01g/t Au. Mined grades were in line with H1 2022 with ore mined primarily from Ptah with additions from Amun, Horus and Bast zones.
FY 2022 total material mined was in line with budget and consistent with FY 2021, evidence to the capability of our team and prudent planning to successfully manage the transition to owner mining.
Processing
During Q4, the plant processed 3.0Mt of ore (FY: 12.1Mt), a 5% decrease YoY, at an average feed grade of 1.23 g/t Au (FY: 1.26g/t Au), a 11% increase YoY reflecting the higher open pit and underground grades mined over the period.
The metallurgical gold recovery rate was 88.6% for the quarter (FY: 88.2%), in line with budget.
During the quarter, the low-grade stockpiles remained broadly unchanged at 18.9Mt at a grade of 0.46g/t Au.
For FY 2022 we saw an increase in throughput and grade with the site team focussed on continued optimisation across areas such as power consumption plus consumable and reagent usage. The addition of a gravity circuit (under evaluation and development in 2023) will target the recovery of higher-grade ore especially as we aim to increase the contribution of underground ore.
EXPLORATION PROJECTS
The total greenfield exploration spend for the quarter was
The update provided in
The PFS is expected to be completed in H1 2023.
Eastern Desert Exploration ('EDX') (
Systematic fieldwork continued during Q4 aimed at identifying potential commercial scale targets for drill testing. Fieldwork consisted of regional-scale screening using bulk leach extractable gold ('BLEG') sampling and identification of mineralised corridors with soil sampling and chip channel sampling.
BLEG sampling was completed for the Nugrus and
Sukari Concession Exploration
Brownfield exploration across the 160km 2 Sukari Concession amounted to
Work is focused on the development of additional Mineral Resources within the Sukari mining concession that can be converted to Mineral Reserves and incorporated into the mine plan in the shortest timeframe. The focus is on re-evaluation of old prospects (Kurdeman and
3,324 metres of resource drilling at the Kurdeman prospect
5,815 metres of second phase exploration drilling at the new V-Shear East prospect
Re-logging, geological review and modelling with further drilling planned on the update of a pit optimisation study at
Geological mapping of three newly defined drill targets (ARC, SE Corner and Sami South), based on 2022 soil sampling programmes. Drill testing scheduled for H1 2023.
SALES AND COSTS
Gold sales for the quarter were 108,441 oz (FY: 438,638oz), a 9% increase YoY. The average realised gold price for the quarter was
Cash costs of production were
Total all-in sustaining costs ('AISC') were
Despite the continuing inflationary pressures, we remain firmly focussed on stringent cost control and improving productivity at Sukari. We continue to make good progress with our
Cost guidance for 2023 reflects prudent assumptions on input costs and our focus remains on the ongoing cost-savings programme. Cash cost guidance range of
CAPITAL EXPENDITURE
As part of the reinvestment programme at Sukari, key capital projects progressed as scheduled during Q4, including the underground paste-fill plant, underground infrastructure and equipment upgrades, plant optimisation and the accelerated waste-stripping programme.
From 2021, the Company implemented a more granular methodology to the accounting and classification of waste-stripping costs, in line with IFRS accounting standards. As such, there is an accounting reclassification of open pit waste mining costs, resulting in a reduction in total cash costs with a corresponding equal increase in the sustaining expenditure and therefore AISC, with no impact on net cash flow.
The table below illustrates the impact of the waste stripping which is capitalised as sustaining and non-sustaining capital and therefore reclassified out of operating expenditure ('opex'). The gross capex in Q4 was
Sukari capex guidance for 2023 is
ABOUT
Through its large portfolio of exploration assets in
Contact:
Head of Corporate Communications
E: investor@centaminplc.com
Buchanan
T: 44 (0) 20 7466 5000
E: centamin@buchanan.uk.com
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