CAIRO: Centamin Egypt, the country's top gold producer said its Sukari mine dispute had been resolved and that operations had begun again. However, the union of workers in Egypt said that the situation was still tenuous and that while the workers had gone back to work, there were still major concerns. “We are watching closely to ensure that Centamin makes good on its promises,” said a union worker spokesman on Monday. The difficulties with the mine had left many worrying over the future of the company and investors' role in maintaining the budget necessary to continue to extract gold from the area. The company said that it believes “the situation is under control and we have been able to deal with the workers' issues and our investors are pleased.” A break-down in on-going discussions involving general salary increases and other benefits with some members of the Sukari workforce had sparked a walk-out, Centamin said, but with help from Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority, Ministry of Petroleum and Industry Committee of Parliament, all outstanding issues had been effectively resolved and work has recommenced. Centamin said first quarter production and cash costs will be affected by this stoppage but full year production and cash cost guidance remains unchanged. Production at the Sukari mine stopped on March 6 because of the dispute. Sukari saw a record quarter in the last three months of 2011, with gold production at 59,000 ounces, a 16 per cent increase on the previous three months and underpinned by record quarterly throughput in the Sukari process plant of 1,066kt. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/np896 Tags: Centamin, Gold, Mining, Workers Section: Egypt, Latest News
