By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – London listed gold producer Centamin (LON:CEY) has announced results from its review of its West African exploration portfolio, commenced in H2 2020. The review was to evaluate three potential prospects: two in Côte d'Ivoire and one in Burkina Faso.
The Doropo Project in Côte d'Ivoire has been given the highest priority as it has shown “strong development potential” following the completion of a positive preliminary economic assessment.
The review found that the Doropo Project would be expected to produce 207,800 ounces of gold annually over the first five years, averaging around 151,000 ounces over the 13 year life of the mine.
The board has approved $14mln to advance the project further.
The second project is the ABC Project, also in Côte d'Ivoire. This project is at the exploration phase and the board has approved a further $3mln exploration programme for permits for the period to June 2022.
The review into the final project in Burkina Faso was not as successful. Average annual gold production would by around 140,000 ounces over the 8.5 year life of the mine. The project would not meet Centamin’s investment criteria and so the company is assessing third party development options.
“Today's announcement of a positive preliminary economic study at Doropo and the exploration potential at the earlier stage ABC, demonstrate the quality and potential of our portfolio,” said Centamin CEO Martin Horgan. “The Batie West Project has potential to deliver a profitable mine, but not one that would currently meet our strict investment criteria. We are now initiating a review of development options for this asset.”
At 09:16BST, shares in Centamin were trading lower by 3.6% at 116.90 pence per share.