Centerra Gold Inc. announced today that it has received the final approval of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Öksüt Project from the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.
Scott Perry, Centerra's Chief Executive Officer stated, "We are very pleased that this milestone has been achieved and the timetable for Öksüt continues to move forward as planned. The Company will now focus on obtaining all the necessary land use and other operational permits to allow us to start construction and development of the project late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2016. We are on our schedule so far, with first gold production anticipated in the second quarter of 2017."
The Öksüt Project's estimated mineral reserves as at June 30, 2015 were 26.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.4 grams of gold per tonne containing 1.2 million ounces of gold using a cut-off grade of 0.3 grams per tonne and a gold price of $1,250 per ounce. Pre-production and construction capital is expected to be a modest $221 million, which includes a $25 million contingency. Life-of-mine gold production is expected to be 895,000 ounces which generates an after tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 43%. The Öksüt Technical Report is available on SEDAR and on the Company's website.
The Company believes there is exploration upside on the property as evidenced by recent drilling which extended the Guneytepe deposit and has identified additional oxide material in the Keltepe NW prospect a kilometre away from the existing reserve area. Additional drilling is planned once the necessary drill permits are approved.
Qualified Person
The reserves and resource information and related scientific and technical information in this news release, including the production estimates were prepared in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and National Instrument 43-101 and were prepared, reviewed, verified and compiled by Centerra's geological and mining staff under the supervision of Gordon Reid, Professional Engineer and Centerra's Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, who is the qualified person for the purpose of NI 43-101.