JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Egypt-focused gold miner Centamin has increased production at its Sukari gold mine by 77% for the quarter ended March 31, producing a record 87 016 oz, the LSE- and TSX-listed miner said on Wednesday.

This brought formal guidance for the current year to 320 000 oz of gold at a cash operating cost of $700/oz.

Openpit total material movement of 10.55-million tons increased by 56% and ore production of 2.1-million tons was up 11% on the fourth quarter of 2012.

The underground mine delivered 119 000 t of ore – up 6% on the fourth quarter, while the run-of-mine ore stockpile balance increased by 38 000 t to 759 000 t at the end of the quarter.

Similarly, quarterly throughput at the Sukari process plant increased by 37% on the prior year period to 1.4-million tons, exceeding the nameplate annualised rate of five-million tons. 

This performance was largely driven by continued high levels of productivity coupled with a reduced impact from stoppages compared with the previous quarter.

Centamin chairperson Josef El-Raghy said the mine’s delivery of a second successive quarter of record gold production was the result of improvements across all areas of the operation. 

“This marks a solid start to the year and output remains on target to achieve the 2013 guidance of 320 000 oz. 

With the plant running at consistently high levels of productivity, the processing function is well placed to deliver the next step-change in throughput from the Stage 4 expansion, which remains on course to complete commissioning by the end of the year," he commented.

London-based equity analysts SP Angel in a note to clients said these numbers were in line with market expectations, but added little credit was being given to operational improvements at the mine, while there remained uncertainty on the political front.

Centamin was appealing a court ruling last year which questioned its right to operate its sole producing mine that whiped out nearly half the value of its shares.

The group at the end of March said it remained confident that its appeal would be successful, but warned the process was taking longer than it initially thought.

The company's TSX-listed shares had lost 30% of its value in the last year, and on Tuesday morning traded down 1.41% at 70 Canadian cents apiece.