Production from Egypt's Sukari Gold Mine rose 27 percent during the third quarter of 2018, recording 117,720 ounces, compared to 92,803 ounces in the second quarter of the same year. Centamin previously announced its quarterly results, stating that it lowered its targeted production during the current year to 480,000 ounces, compared to the previous target levels of 505,000 and 580,000 ounces. General Manager of Centamin Egypt and Managing Director of Sukari Gold Mining Company Youssef el-Raghy said earlier that production from Egypt's Sukari Gold Mine has reached 108.8 tons of gold since the mine started production in 2010 and until June 2018. Raghy clarified that the production recorded 1.1 tons of gold in June 2018. At the beginning of July, Centamin announced that production at Egypt's Sukari Gold Mine declined 25 percent during the second quarter of 2018, recording 92,800 ounces, compared to 124,600 ounces during the same period of 2017. The company attributed this decrease to the low quality of the gold-bearing material, expecting the production to increase during the second half of 2018. Despite the decreased production, Centamin announced that it has cracked nearly 18.415 million tons of rocks, compared to 17.793 million tons in the second quarter of 2017. On another note, Raghy said that the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority (EMRA) received $4.5 million on profit from the Sukari Gold Mine in September 2018. The Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority (EMRA) took a total of $196.6 million on profit from the Sukari Gold Mine since profits were first divided between Centamin Egypt Company and the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority (EMRA) in October 2016 and until May 2018, he clarified. EMRA received $1.1 million on profit from the Sukari Gold Mine in May 2018, according to a previous statement by Raghy. According to the agreement between the company and EMRA, the Egyptian authority receives a 3 percenttribute of the total production of the mine. Established in 2005, Sukari Gold Mining Company is a joint venture between the Australian Centamin Company and the Mineral Resources Authority, based on an agreement between the company and the government in 1994. According to schedule, Centamin Egypt, which operates the Sukari Gold Mine, is targeting to pay $137 million to the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority (EMRA) in 2018. Exports of Sukari Gold Mine represent 2 percent of Egypt's exports balance, according to Centamin official reports. Two companies are currently operating in Egypt to produce gold, which are Australian Pharaonic Company operating in the Sukari mine and the Cyprus-based Mats Holdings, which operates in the Hamsh mine. For exploration and drilling of gold, another two gold companies are operating in Egypt: Canada's Aton Mining and the UAE's Thani Dubai. In accordance with the terms of the Concession Agreement, EMRA is entitled to share 50 percentof the Sukari mine's net production surplus. The government had previously stated that it aims to increase the mining sector's contribution to the GDP to more than 5 percent from the current rate of 0.5 percent. Source: Reuters
