Centamin (LON:CEY)
Centamin (LON:CEY) has announced soft Q1 2017 production data which was down 20% QoQ and 13% YoY to 109koz. The company has, however, maintained its full year guidance of 540koz. The weakness was primarily due to weak grades at the open pit which were below the reserve grade and the company’s forecast. In 2016 open pit grades averaged 0.95g/t Au whilst in Q1 2017 they averaged 0.58g/t. In addition underground ore grades were also weaker; down from an average of 9.04g/t in 2016 to 7.44g/t in Q1 2017, however, these were ahead of the company’s forecasts for the full year of 7.26g/t.
The weakness in grades is likely to result in higher unit costs for the period although CEY has maintained its full year guidance of US$580/oz and US$790/oz for AISC.