Centamin’s stock recovers as gold export resumes

Shares in London and Toronto-listed Centamin (LON:CEY, TSX:CEE) surged 26% to 43.95p on Monday after the miner announced it had resumed exports from its flagship Sukari gold mine in Egypt.

The miner added that it expected normal operations to begin again “in the coming days” after the company clashed with the government over fuel supplies and visas.

Last week the gold producer had to suspend operations at Sukari because of problems with Egyptian authorities, causing the group’s shares to collapse.

Centamin is locked in dispute with the Egyptian state oil company over a $65 million payment demand for diesel fuel supplied from December 2009 until January 2012.  Fuel levels at Sukari are at “critical levels,” the company said in a statement last week.

The Alexandria-based company first fell foul of Egyptian bureaucracy when a lower court annulled its licence to operate the mine in October.

Since the fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, foreign investor uncertainty has increased greatly and many fear that contracts signed before the transition to democracy would not always be honoured.

In August, the company reported record output up 40% over last year at Sukari and the company said it was on track to produce 250,000 ounces this year at a cost of $565 an ounce.

(Image courtesy of  San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)

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