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“We are fully committed to understanding the circumstances that led to the troubling safety incidents at Kumtor in December 2019 and February 2020, so that we can take all necessary steps to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. We remain steadfast in our resolve to ensure that everyone who works at our r operations can do so safely and will return home safely, each and every day. There is nothing more important.”
Scott Perry
President and Chief Executive Officer
Centerra Gold Inc.
Centerra Gold Inc. in March released its 2019 full year financial results. Amongst the key highlights were the sustained operational losses the company experienced and is experiencing at the moment with the fourth quarter of 2019 receiving a net loss of a staggering $12.2 million. Gold and copper production were 194,507 ounces (oz) and 18.1 million pounds for the quarter and 783,00 oz and 71.1 million pounds for the year respectively. Its all-in sustaining costs for the quarter were $799/oz for the quarter and $708/oz for the year below its annual guidance of $713/oz and $743/oz respectively.
“In 2019, due to the strong operating performance at both operations, the Company exceeded its
consolidated gold production and cost guidance, delivering more than 783,300 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost on a by-product basis of $708 per ounce sold, which was lower than the low-end of our all-in sustaining cost guidance. Kumtor had another strong year exceeding its revised production guidance in delivering 600,201 ounces of gold production at an all-in-sustaining cost on a by-product basis of $598 per ounce sold, which was lower than the low-end of its all-in-sustaining cost guidance. In 2019, Mount Milligan exceeded the upper end of its gold production guidance and achieved the mid-point of its copper production guidance, producing 183,107 ounces of gold and 71.1 million pounds of copper. All-insustaining cost on a by-product basis was above guidance at $828 per ounce sold.”
“Financially, the Company generated a meaningful $334.1 million of cash from operations for the year, Mount Milligan generated $62.2 million and Kumtor generated $376.2 million. In 2019, Kumtor generated $240 million of free cash flowNG and Mount Milligan generated $27 million which enabled the Company to aggressively pay down its debt over the year by approximately $111 million ending the year with debt net of cash of $34.8 million (excluding restricted cash).”
“Based on the Company’s financial position, recent strong operating results and cash flows, the Board approved on March 25, 2020 a dividend of Cdn$0.04 per share.”
“For 2020, we are estimating consolidated gold production to be in the range of 740,000 to 820,000 ounces combined with 80 million to 90 million pounds of payable copper production from Mount Milligan. Centerra’s consolidated all-in sustaining cost on a by-product basis per ounce sold for 2020 is expected to be in the range of $820 to $870 per ounce.”
“Our projected capital expenditures for 2020, excluding capitalized stripping, is estimated to be $169 million which includes $109 million of sustaining capital and $60 million of growth capital spending.
Growth capital spending includes $29 million at the Öksüt Project in Turkey as we complete the construction of the site, $13 million at the Kemess Underground Project and $18 million at the Kumtor Mine. Total capitalized stripping for 2020 is estimated to be $236 million, including $215 million at the Kumtor Mine and $21 million at the Öksüt Project, with a total cash component of $193 million, including $173 million at the Kumtor Mine and $20 million at the Öksüt Project.”
“At Kumtor over the past 18 months we have invested significantly in exploration drilling and at year-end we can see the results as Kumtor’s open pit measured and indicated gold mineral resources increased by 3.3 million contained ounces to 6.3 million contained ounces and open pit inferred gold mineral resources increased by 1.2 million contained ounces to 1.4 million contained ounces. We are now in the process of updating Kumtor’s life-of-mine plan and an updated technical report which we plan to release in the second half of 2020.”
About Centerra
Centerra Gold Inc. is a Canadian-based gold mining company focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring gold properties in North America, Asia and other markets worldwide and is the largest Western-based gold producer in Central Asia. Centerra operates two flagship assets, the Kumtor Mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Mount Milligan Mine in British Columbia, Canada and now has a third operating gold mine, the 100%-owned Öksüt Mine in Turkey, which began production in January 2020. Centerra’s shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company is based in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.