Centerra Gold highlights B.C. mine in Q4 results
Centerra Gold Inc. [CG-TSX, CAGDF-OTC] has highlighted the performance of its Mt. Milligan mine in British Columbia in fourth quarter and full-year 2022 results that were released after markets closed on February 23, 2023.
The company reported a 2022 net loss of $77.2 million ($0.29 per share) and an adjusted loss of $9.4 million ($0.04).
“Despite all other challenges in 2022, I want to highlight Mount Milligan Mine’s record annual throughput in 2022 of 21.3 million tonnes,’’ said Paul Wright, interim CEO at Centerra. “The company continues to optimize the life of mine plan for Mount Milligan and anticipates increases in both gold and copper production for 2024 and 2025 when compared to annual figures included in the most recent Technical Report for the mine,’’ he said.
It is worth noting that for the fourth quarter of 2022, gold production came in at 53,222 ounces, solely from Mount Milligan at a production cost of US$790 an ounce and an all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) of US$987 an ounce. Copper production for the quarter came in at 16.9 million pounds at a cost of US$2.00 a pound.
Centerra is a Canadian gold mining company with a focus on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring gold properties in North America, Turkey and other markets worldwide.
Wright said the company is making steady progress a the Oskut Mine in Turkey towards a restart of operations. Back in March 2022, Centerra suspended gold dore bar production at Oksut after detecting the presence of mercury contamination in the final stages of processing (in the gold room at the ADR plant).
“The retrofit of the ADR plant at he Oskut Mine was completed in early 2023, and we continue to work with the Turkish officials on the restart of the gold room operations at the ADR plant as well as an updated EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for the mine,’’ said Wright.
“We have received a 10-year operating license extension for the Oksut Mine as well as the approval of an enlarged grazing and land permit.’’
From the date of suspension of the gold room operations through to August, 2022, the company continued to process ore into gold-in-carbon and had approximately 100,000 recoverable ounces of stored gold in carbon as of December 31, 2022.
The company said it has completed the construction of a mercury abatement system to allow for processing of mercury-bearing ores with carbon costs below the original $5 million. Once operations resume, the company said the ADR plan is expected to have sufficient production capacity to process up to approximately 35,000 ounces of gold per month.
On Friday, Centerra shares were virtually unchanged, easing 0.72% or $0.06 to $8.24. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $13.52 and $5.18.