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Oil Minister Tarek El Molla wants to increase mining’s contribution to Egypts GDP tenfold by 2026
Snapshot of milestones and ongoing projects:
- Egypt has recorded $550 million profits from Sukari Gold Mine located in the Eastern Desert over the past 10 years.
- This comes as a result of a collab- oration that dates back to 1994 between Australian gold mining

company Centamin and the Mineral Wealth Authority.
- Under the terms of the agree- ment, the Australian company finances the project, paying the authority 55 percent of profits and 3 percent of revenues respectively in the process.

- 75 percent of the country’s mining minerals are attributed to a metallic and nonmetallic mineral
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2001191/business-economy

Egypt awards eight exploration blocks through a digital bid round to global companies. (Credit: Anita starzycka from Pixabay)

The Egyptian government has awarded eight oil and gas exploration blocks in the country to Eni, BP, Apex International, Energean Egypt, United Energy, Sipetrol, and INA.

The blocks are part of the first international digital bid round held by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

According to the Ministry, the eight blocks are spread over a total area of nearly 12,300km2.
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/egypt-eight-oil-and-gas-exploration-blocks-2021/#
Jan 24, 2022 • 14 hours ago • < 1 minute read •
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CAIRO — Egypt targets $7 billion in direct foreign investment (FDI) for its oil and gas sector in the fiscal year 2022-2023 that starts in July, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday.

The petroleum ministry said earlier in the month that it planned to increase investments in the state-owned oil companies to 30 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.92 billion) in 2022-2023, which is the highest ever.
https://leaderpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/egypt-targets-7-bln-in-fdi-for-oil-and-gas-in-2022-2023

Old news, but interesting considering present oil prices are now and the still outstanding Centamin claim for removed diesel price subsidy .
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Egypt spends USD 1.5 bn a month to cover local market demand for petroleum products

Egypt spends over USD 1.5 bn a month on petroleum products it supplies to the local market, Reuters quotes Oil Minister Tarek El Molla as having said yesterday. The amount covers imports, as well as foreign oil companies shares’ of locally-refined products from JVs with the government, which add up to c. USD 700-800 mn a month, El Molla added. Earlier this year, former finance minister Amr El Garhy had said that tightening consumption of petroleum products in Egypt will help mitigate the impact of rising oil prices that have recently been straining the state budget. The government has reportedly spent an additional EGP 10 bn on fuel subsidies in 1QFY2018-19 as oil prices surged beyond a projected USD 67/bbl in the budget to cross the USD 80/bbl mark. Sources had told us that the fuel subsidy bill for the fiscal year could jump to EGP 100 bn, from EGP 89 bn, if Brent crude remains north of USD 75 / bbl.

Yes still here Drunkinfti, unfortunately along with many others I was foolish enough to believe the Centamin management at the time instead of heeding the concerns flagged up by Kees Dekker in the 2015 & 2018 reports.
We retail share holders have been taken for saps by Pardey, Josef & Youssef the carpetbagging crew of the Sukari Pyramid Scheme.
Also it seems that many millions of dollars may well have been chucked down bottomless pits on exploration and supposedly developing mines in what turn out to be unstable zones of insurrection and corruption, although it is hoped that some of these projects may be disposed off for some sort of return if buyers can be found.
That said some of the remaining WA projects may be developed and it is hoped, or envisaged the returns may be good, although they aren't guaranteed by any means, and may not be that good when the initial outlays and other factors are taken into account.
At Sukari It seems that over a decade has been spent on building a hole that is far too narrow and so unsafe and inoperable in some ways that it is now going to take possibly half a decade to put things right, so basically 15 years to create a mine that should have been created in far less time were it not for the deception and greed for short term gain by the previous management!
At least now we have a competent Sukari management who is now doing the job properly and hopefully the new concessions in Eygpt may prove to be as good or better than we hoped for!

Sorry the comment below was to Spoon.

January 24, 202210:55 PM GMTLast Updated an hour ago
Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said Kabore's government had shown itself unable to tackle a range of problems.
"The coup, and apparent support for it, lays bare the inadequacies of Kabore's government to address deep-seated problems with corruption, governance and civilian protection, which were all made exponentially worse by the armed Islamist threat," she said.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/burkina-faso-president-kabore-detained-military-camp-sources-tell-reuters-2022-01-24/
If you don‘t like pickpockets, crime or watching your back at every turn, perhaps Burkina Faso isn't the best destination for you.
https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/western-africa/burkina-faso/burkina-faso-crime?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=RjUVKGzRVXfYi9VNZx5XqEOI9kikD1hZII4V34mF4fY-1643070313-0-gaNycGzNCBE
For security reasons, the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to:
the capital Ouagadougou, up to the toll booths on all roads out of the city
The FCDO advises against all travel to: the rest of Burkina Faso
https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=CEY&share=Centamin-PLC&thread=0DCE92ED-BFC8-43B7-A342-165EF15ACBCA&reply=true

Quite honestly is this really a good choice of countries to invest orr build gold mines in?
Sounds like a basket case country that Centamin should have never got involved in, far better to sell up if anyone will buy and cut its losses to invest more in a safer and more stable political environment.

Tibbs

I said Martin Horgan had integrity, quite different from what you are trying to imply.

Hi Dasut
Fair and relevant comments, Martin Horgan has integrity and certainly does not shy away from doing what needs to be done and indeed has already made a considerable number of decisions and followed through with the necessary actions, something that that others of the old club were reluctant to do, you may recall that some months ago I also commented on the fact that Youssef had been given another job title "Country manager".
Youssefs selling of his shares for a property deal did not go down well with the BOD which caused embarrassment and possibly was the final straw!

The present situation at Sukari with loss of market is a direct result of bad or unsound mining practice and it's pretty obvious who is too blame, its no good trying to sugar sweet the facts now.
Kees Dekker's reports of 2015 & 2018 were warnings of the reality and offered opportunities to the management of the day to put things right, but instead Pardey denied the findings and although initially entering into dialogue with Kees then failed to supply his supposed correct data, instead Pardey then contacted the Seeking Alpha editor and tried to get Kees Dekker silenced.
When questioned on the 2018 Webinar after yet another RNS guidance cut in 2018 despite three weeks previously predicting output of over 600,000ozs Pardey denied any knowledge of the 2016-2018 Kees Dekker reports warning of impending dire consequences through previous years high grading to pump up output, this was deliberate deceit and misrepresentation of the facts to the share holders, further more this deceit was condoned by Josef & Youssef El Reagy.
Why did hedge funds like Worldquaint take short positions on Centamin over so many years, pretty obvious now they must have had an pretty strong inkling that all wasn't as well as being claimed.
After the revelations about the true situation at Sukari then it would not be unreasonable for share holders and the market to question if the claims made about West African reserves are accurate or even to be relied upon.
Matin Horgan has already proved his integrity, credibility and indeed professional abilities by what he achieved with his previous company.
I had many misunderstandings or misconceptions about large scale gold mining techniques but I am grateful to Dasut for since teaching me taught me a a tremendous amount about Sukari and gold mining in general.
That said whilst I admit my misunderstanding of the gold mining industry I do have a greater understanding of integrity and whilst I am always willing to accept that no one is perfect, mistakes can happen and that in most instances the benefit of the doubt should be given with an opportunity to put things right, there comes a time when the continued deliberate bad practice and deceit can be tolerated no longer, as with Sukari!
I implore everyone to read and digest the last paragraph of Dasut's post it is VERY relevant, I would say more, but it would be inappropriate in an open forum for several reasons at this time!
Best
Tibbs

Bristow is a narcissist who from his past record cares little about environmental issues and I certainly wouldn't want to invest in any company he was involve with irrelevant of how much profit it made
https://www.ft.com/content/11058120-72a4-3ae3-9cf6-d5c310c05200
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/10/01/randgold-boss-criticised-african-big-game-hunting/
Mark Bristow, CEO of Randgold (GOLD) and soon-to-be head honcho of Randick (ABX), and his penchant for shooting large African animals until they are dead. Then proudly posing for the cameras with the dead animal afterwards (normally behind the carcass,
https://iknnews.com/on-how-the-real-media-picks-up-on-mark-bristows-dirty-hunting-habits/
The problems that Sukari is now suffering is entirely the fault of the failure to adopt sound mining practice by the previous management CEO Andrew Pardey also complicit in spoofing the market about high grading which appears to have been condoned by Josef El Raghy , Youseff El Raghy who were also active in spoofing the market that Sukari was capable of 560,000 -6000,000 ozs per annum.
Spoonington you clearly don't understand Martin Horgan and his attitude towards takeovers the task in hand in turning around the company, or what is going taking place at Sukari which will become apparent as time progresses

Hi Cowichan,
As a share holder you are entitled to question the company and entitled to an appropriate response and I certainly agree that Mr Bristow has certainly not got to be where he is by playing fair with the share holders of any companies his parasitic Barrik decides to asset strip and suck the goodness out of.
I appreciate that any lack of response or brush off is frustrating, but never the less even if questions are being asked via social media and Linkedin it is still important to always use the official IR channels in communications to get everything officially acknowledged and recorded.
Its almost certain certain that some other share holders will have already made Alex and Buchanan aware of your Lnkedin posts
Tibbs

Mr Bond,
Fair comments!
Before anyone casts any superstitions or doubts as to your integrity or intentions you have been a long time valued and respected forum contributor for many years whom certainly to the best of my knowledge and indeed from those relevant contacts that I have without doubt has no relationship with Centamin other than being a share holder.
So I do hope that this clarifies to any doubters that you are indeed just a decent chap!
Best
Mr Tibbs

Hi Cowichan,
Why not write att Martin Horgan and the board via Investor Relation's and ask for some clarification, denial or at least the company view on this iand if a agreed staff exchange policy is operational n order to reassure investors?
If merger/disposal or whatever talks are in progress than of course financial regulations may well prohibit disclosure in the public domain but never the less your enquiry will have to be acknowledged and on record, also you may at least get some answers to part of your query?

There is no denying that inflation is becoming a bigger problem by the day. Just yesterday, the UK’s latest inflation print showed a 5.4% increase in prices on a year-on-year basis in December 2021. To put this in context, the Bank of England’s target rate is 2%. This means that inflation is 3.3 percentage points above than the central bank’s comfort level. This of course could have negative implications for my stock market investments, as price rises could dampen consumer spending. But where there are problems, there are solutions. Like this FTSE 250 penny stock, which could be a good hedge to inflation.
https://www.fool.co.uk/2022/01/20/id-buy-this-ftse-250-penny-stock-to-beat-inflation-heres-why/

Hi Dasut,
You know the business and indeed the logistics and operational side involved far better then most, as we are all aware Martin Horgan has already expressed his preferences for and explained the advantages of in-house, rather than contracting out of critical production operations.
That said and from a personal point of view may I say my that I agree entirely with your interpretation of reading between the lines which all things considered may well be a case of "Less said is more".
It seems apparent that Centamin now has a CEO who is real stickler for meticulous forward planning and the implementation of production controls and methods that provides maximised efficiencies with the flexility to easily cope in any event with spare capacity in reserve!
Once again Dasut thank you for giving us all the advantage of your professionally gained experience.

CEY's commitment to hold the FY21 divi at least flat YoY ($0.09/sh) supports a 7.4% yield at the current share price. CEY will report 2H21 financial results in mid-March.”

Slow and Steady
19 January 2022
Key Takeaway
Following the 4Q20 pit wall instability and subsequent operational overhaul in the
open pit, CEY has delivered four consecutive quarters of steady and slowly growing
gold production. Each quarter brings incremental evidence that additional flexibility
has been built into the mine plan. Reiterate Buy and 160p PT.
Underground Headwinds Alleviating. The 145kt of ore from the underground in 4Q21
(86kt from stoping / 59kt from development) was the lowest total since 3Q20. During
the quarter, CEY faced headwinds from COVID-19 travel restrictions which led to
lower availability of contractors. On the call it was clarified that these headwinds
have since reduced and CEY is seeing a return to normalised levels in January thus
far. CEY continues to assess the underground operating model including several
contractor proposals in an analysis of contractor-mining vs owner-operator mining.
Looking Ahead to 2H21 Results. We cut 2H21 EBITDA by -12% to $158m, leaving
us -9% below current cons. Beyond the higher-than-expected cash costs in 4Q21
which we noted (here) were driven by the weaker underground contribution and
larger drawdown of low-grade stockpiles, c$20m of unsold gold bullion was on hand
as of 31 Dec which will be recognised in 1Q22. CEY's commitment to hold the FY21
divi at least flat YoY ($0.09/sh) supports a 7.4% yield at the current share price. CEY
will report 2H21 financial results in mid-March.
Increasing 2022 Estimates. Considering the timing of gold sales mentioned above
and the confirmation that the cash cost guidance for 2022 is $900-1,000/oz,
underpinning the $1,275-1,425/oz AISC guidance provided in December, we increase
our 2022 EBITDA estimate by 13% to $448m ($2,000/oz gold). We now forecast 2022
gold production of 454koz (guidance 430-460koz) and cash costs of $959/oz (prev
JefE: $1,040/oz).
RATING BUY
PRICE 91.36p^
MARKET CAP £1.1B / $1.4B
PRICE TARGET (PT) 160.00p
UPSIDE SCENARIO PT 260.00p
DOWNSIDE SCENARIO PT 40.00p
^Prior trading day's closing price unless
otherwise noted.

Hi Dasut,
Re the stripping and the ore : waste ratio – that the higher the proportion of ore, the more ounces are produced.
So then that considered longer haulage distances are most likely negligible considering that the upside currently remains in the existing open-pit shell and the deeper prospects in the underground.
As to what happens post the stripping campaign with Capital’s fleet it must be impossible to know at the present time, although of course Centamin may want to buy these back off Capital as Centamin do a lot of their own stripping and haulage and as you point out having a younger fleet would reduce maintenance costs etc.
Also If there are discoveries within proximity to the Sukari plant (either in the Sukari license or in their new licenses) they will surely need to have a bigger mining fleet to cope?
But it would seem sensible to assume as things stand that any decision on this fleet is some way off considering is the possibility of 3-4 years of high stripping to do?

From a personal perspective I have every faith in Martin Horgans integrity, commitment, professional competence and indeed dogged determination to rise to and overcome the considerable challenges placed before him in order to turn Sukari into the mine that was envisaged at the outset outset and Centamin into the company that shines out from all the others!

Kees Dekker commented on today's update
"Good to see that things are slowly turning around as per guidance!"
"At an historical dividend yield of 10% this looks now very attractive.if they maintain the level."

As Kees pointed out, Centamin is “getting there”, and that is shown by the confidence in guidance for this year being 430-460,000oz, though with higher costs because of inflation and the need for more investment (solar plant, paste plant, underground development, etc etc).
That said Centamin has already reduced significantly the volatility of production levels in the last 18 months in particular, whilst investing in Sukari’s ability to produce sustainable and low cost ounces for the next decade or so!

As we know there was no mention of dividend today, although that's normal as production updates do not disclose such matters anyway.
That said the question was asked on the Q&A call, and there is no change in dividend policy!
What the payout will look like will be decided nearer the time when Centamin announce the FY financials on 10 March.


We can as usual take Dasut's summing up of the present situation as spot on !

So lot's to feel very positive about after today's update!

Hi Dasut,
What more could we expect really, as much as some might like to imagine miracles, as you rightly point out the burying of the heads in the Sukari sand couldn't go on forever, although it was curtailed rather abruptly by the unexpected crack in the pit wall, although in many respects that was preferable to the alternative of a catastrophic open pit wall collapse which had the potential to bring about a far greater collapse of the share price and possibly even the ruination of the company.
It seems that the pit wall crack was in many ways fortuitous and indeed a preferable occurrence because it hastened the unavoidable admission of the several years worth of neglect to instigate sound mining practice at Sukari !
At least now the new management have a credible program in operation to put things right and restore safe and sustainable future output at Sukari.
From what you and other former and indeed current mining professionals have explained the present Sukari operational strategy is really the only sensible and viable option.
I am as disappointed as any other long term holder about the now apparent sharp practice, corner cutting, even deliberate spoofing to share holders by the previous bunch of carpet baggers, there is little doubt they had our legs up and its always hard to swallow when one has been conned!
So I see no quick fix, but a steady and sustainable one, which I understand in some area's is already ahead of schedule regarding waste clearance which should provide much improved operational flexibility and accessibility potentially higher grade ore.
It's hardly surprising that AISC are where they are , although at least we know these will reduce with the benefits accrued from cost saving efficiencies already being instigated.
Today's report wasn't full of baloney, but seems honest and illustrates there is lot's gong on and all being well lot's more good news to come!