JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A 2% drop in the average realised gold price and lower gold sales volumes led to a 30% quarter-on-quarter decrease in dual-listed Centamin’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to $37.3-million in the three months to June 30.

Ebitda was, however, 14%  higher than that reported for the comparative period in 2014, owing to the company’s expanded Sukari operation, in Egypt, continuing to deliver competitive returns in a weak gold price environment and partially offset by an $11/oz decrease in the cash cost of production to $706/oz, mainly as a result of a reduction in the fuel price offset by a slight increase in openpit mining and processing costs.

Gold production in the quarter was comparable with that of the first quarter of the year.

Owing to the planned scheduling of certain sustaining capital cost items to later in the year and the reduction in the fuel price, the miner also noted that its all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $853/oz were below full-year guidance.

However, cash generation further strengthened the company’s balance sheet, which ended the period with $212.6-million in cash and bullion on hand, gold sales receivable and available-for-sale financial assets. This reflected a $16.8-million quarter-on-quarter increase, net of a $22.7-million payment in relation to the final dividend for 2014. 

The company’s interim dividend payment for the current financial year was $0.097 apiece.

Centamin further highlighted that the second quarter delivered stronger-than-anticipated production, with processing rates 7% above the ten-million-ton-a-year nameplate capacity, as finer material was fed to the milling circuit as a result of improved blasting and greater availability of the secondary crushers.

The company also saw a 90.3% improvement in metallurgical recoveries, above the forecast level of 88%, driven by greater efficiencies in the fine-grinding circuit, in addition to a reconfiguration of the final leaching stages and improved performance of the new carbon regeneration kiln.
 
“We continue to expect higher quarterly production rates of 450 000 oz/y to 500 000 oz/y in the second half of the year, driven by further improvements in plant throughput and progressive increases in openpit grades towards the reserve average of 1.05 g/t,” the company said.