Centerra Gold announced it has received the final approval of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Öksüt project from the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. “We are very pleased that this milestone has been achieved and the timetable for Öksüt continues to move forward as planned,” said Scott Perry, Centerra’s newly appointed CEO. “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 were 26.1 million metric tons (mt) at an average grade of 1.4 g/mt of gold containing 1.2 million oz of gold using a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/mt and a gold price of $1,250/oz. 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 oz.
