Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX:CG) -
This news release contains forward-looking information that is
subject to the risk factors and assumptions set out on page 4 under
the heading, "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking
Information". (All figures are in United States dollars.)
To view the complete drill results, graphics, and maps/drill
sections discussed in this news release, please visit the following
link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CENTTABLEMAP.pdf or visit
the Company's web site at: www.centerragold.com.
Centerra Gold Inc. is pleased to announce that it has entered
into a binding Share Purchase Agreement with Stratex International
Plc. to acquire Stratex's 30% interest in the Oksut Gold Project
located in the Kayseri region of central Turkey. Upon completion of
the transaction, Centerra will own 100% of the Oksut Gold Project.
Consideration for Stratex's interest in the project consists of a
$20 million cash payment at closing and a 1% Net Smelter Return
royalty on the project, subject to a $20 million cap. The closing
of the transaction is conditional on the conversion of six
exploration licences to two operation licences, which are currently
under application and are expected to be issued before the end of
the first quarter of 2013, and other customary conditions.
Centerra and Stratex are parties to a joint venture arrangement,
formed in 2009, to explore the Oksut Gold Project. Centerra earned
an initial indirect 50% interest in the project by advancing $3
million to the joint venture through October 2011 and acquired an
additional 20% interest in the project with an additional
contribution of $3 million, which it completed in October of this
year. Through November, Centerra has advanced $6.8 million for
exploration work on the Oksut Gold Project.
Commentary:
Ian Atkinson, President and CEO of Centerra, stated "This
transaction consolidates our interest in the Oksut Gold Project as
we expect to transition the project from exploration to
development. Our immediate objective is to define the limits of the
Ortacam North deposit and complete enough drilling to calculate a
resource estimate by the end of the year as we continue
metallurgical and environmental baseline work."
Highlights:
-- The transaction consolidates Centerra's ownership of the Oksut Gold
Project to 100%.
-- Total drilling on the project consists of 91 drill holes which have been
completed through November 2012 for a total of 26,034 metres of diamond
core drilling. Some of the better results from recent infill and step-
out drilling since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2012 include:
-- ODD74 (step-out): 0.97 g/t Au over 35.8 metres
-- ODD80 (infill): 3.33 g/t Au over 196.3 metres
-- ODD81 (infill): 1.36 g/t Au over 73.4 metres
-- ODD84 (step-out): 1.05 g/t Au over 33.9 metres
-- ODD85 (infill): 1.35 g/t Au over 209.5 metres
-- ODD86 (infill): 2.16 g/t Au over 269.2 metres
-- ODD87 (infill): 2.46 g/t Au over 248.0 metres
-- ODD88 (infill): 1.03 g/t Au over 238.8 metres
-- Five diamond drill rigs are currently on site drilling infill and step-
out exploration holes on the Ortacam North deposit.
-- Preliminary metallurgical test work consisting of bottle roll tests on
core samples of oxidized and partially-oxidized material from the
Ortacam North deposit yielded recoveries from 60% to 87% on material
with a crush size of 100% passing 3.35 millimetres.
-- Environmental baseline studies have commenced.
-- Centerra's initial resource estimate is expected to be released in early
2013.
Oksut Gold Project
The Oksut Gold Project is located in Kayseri Province, Turkey,
approximately 50 kilometres south of the city of Kayseri
(population 1.1 million) and 10 kilometres south of the town of
Develi (population 35,000). The area is well serviced with key
infrastructure, including sealed road networks, electricity and
modern telecommunications services.
The Oksut Gold Project was discovered by Stratex International
in early 2007. Reconnaissance rock chip sampling returned up to
0.113 g/t Au from silica ledges within altered andesitic volcanic
rocks at what is now the Ortacam deposit. In late 2007, Stratex
made applications for tenements to cover the property and obtained
a total of nine contiguous exploration licences covering 111.6
square kilometres.
In 2008 and 2009, Stratex carried out reconnaissance and
detailed geological mapping, rock and chip-channel sampling, soil
sampling, geophysical surveys (ground magnetic and induced
polarisation), trenching, and diamond drilling at the Ortacam
Prospect for a total of 3,352 metres in 16 holes. This work
outlined six prospects within the project area; Ortacam, Ortacam
North, Kizilagil, Buyukmese, Kucukmese and Devetasi.
Exploration activities in 2010 and 2011 included detailed
geological mapping, rock and chip-channel sampling, grid-controlled
soil sampling, stream sediment sampling, geophysical surveys
(ground magnetic and induced polarisation), remote sensing
investigations, metallurgical test work, baseline environmental
studies, and diamond drilling at the six previously identified
prospects.
The Ortacam North deposit was discovered in July 2011 and has
been the focus of the joint venture drilling, which to date, totals
22,480 metres in 75 holes.
The Oksut Gold Project is contained within an oxidized,
high-sulphidation epithermal system. The property lies within the
central, eroded portion of an andesitic stratovolcano of Miocene
age, which is overlain by Pliocene-aged, flow-banded, andesitic
lava flows. The host rocks are andesitic lava flows, pyroclastic
rocks and sub-volcanic domes. At the Ortacam North deposit, the
gold mineralization is hosted within a large diatreme breccia body
with several phases of phreatic brecciation. Alteration types
include vuggy to locally massive quartz, sugary-textured
quartz-alunite, quartz-kaolinite and argillically altered rocks.
Higher gold grades are mainly associated with massive silica and
quartz-alunite alteration, phreatic breccia and fault zones. Gold
values tend to decrease outwards from a core of massive/brecciated
silica to quartz-alunite alteration to quartz-kaolinite
alteration.
Drilling to date at Ortacam North has outlined a zone of oxide
gold mineralization over an area up to 600 metres in length, 300
metres in width, and is approximately 200 metres thick. The
mineralized zone remains open to the east and south and at depth.
Oxidation extends to approximately 420 metres below surface with
gold mineralization extending to approximately 250 metres below
surface. Beneath the oxidized zone, gold-bearing sulphide
mineralization, comprising chalcocite, covellite and pyrite, has
been intersected in a number of the deeper drill holes.
Preliminary metallurgical test work, comprising bottle roll
tests on core samples of oxidized and partially oxidized material
from the Ortacam North deposit, has returned encouraging results.
Gold recoveries at the coarsest crush size of 100% passing 3.35
millimetres ranged from approximately 87% for oxidized material to
approximately 60% for partially oxidized material. These results
indicate the ore is potentially amenable to cyanide heap leaching.
Further metallurgical test work, consisting of column heap-leach
testing, is currently underway.
A second deposit, Ortacam, is located approximately 500 metres
southeast of the Ortacam North deposit. The gold mineralization at
Ortacam is structurally-controlled and occurs within discrete
silica ledges with quartz-alunite halos. Thirty-six drill holes
currently define the extent of the Ortacam deposit, which measures
approximately 250 by 200 metres in plan. The depth of oxidation at
the Ortacam deposit is variable but generally less than 100
metres.
Currently, five diamond drill rigs are on-site with four rigs
carrying out 50 metre spaced infill drilling at the Ortacam North
deposit and one rig carrying out 100 metre spaced step-out drilling
at Ortacam North. The majority of the diamond drill holes are PQ
and HQ diameter and are oriented to the southwest with a
declination of -50 to -60 degrees. Hole depths generally average
around 300 metres with some deeper holes being drilled to 500 to
600 metres.
Procedures for sampling of drill core for analysis conform to
industry best practices with chain-of-custody being observed for
all samples. Core samples are sawed in half using electric-powered
diamond core saws at the project's core cutting and storage
facilities in Develi. Drill core samples are collected at nominal
one to two metre intervals using half of the cut drill core. The
remaining half core is stored for future reference. Samples are
analysed for gold by 50 gram fire assay with AAS finish and for a
multi-element suite by a multi-acid digest with ICP-OES finish.
Quality control is monitored by the insertion of blind certified
standard reference materials, duplicates and blanks into each
sample batch. Holes ODD1 to ODD69 were analyzed by ALS Chemex at
its analytical laboratory in Rosia Montana, Romania. Subsequent
holes have been analysed by SGS at its laboratory in Ankara,
Turkey. The quality system for both companies complies with the
requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000.
Centerra has provided quarterly updates of drilling results from
the Oksut Gold Project since February of this year (see
www.centerragold.com for previously released results). A complete
listing of drill results and supporting maps/sections for the Oksut
Gold Project have been filed on the System for Electronic Document
Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com and are available
at the Company's web site at: www.centerragold.com.
To view the graphics, maps/drill sections and complete drill
results discussed in this news release, please visit the following
link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CENTTABLEMAP.pdf.
Qualified Person
The new drilling results for the Oksut Gold Project in this news
release and on Centerra's website and the other scientific and
technical information in this news release were prepared in
accordance with the standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining,
Metallurgy and Petroleum and National Instrument 43-101 - Standards
of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and were prepared,
reviewed, verified and compiled by Centerra's geological and mining
staff under the supervision of David Groves, Certified Professional
Geologist, Centerra's Vice President, Global Exploration, who is
the qualified person for the purpose of NI 43-101.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information
This news release and the documents referred to herein contain
statements which are not statements of current or historical facts
and are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of
applicable Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking
information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause actual results, performance, prospects and
opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied
by such forward-looking information. Wherever possible, words such
as "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "target",
"plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "forecast", "projections",
"estimate", "may", "will", "schedule", "potential", "strategy" and
other similar expressions have been used to identify
forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements
relate to, among other things, Centerra's expectations regarding
the satisfaction of the conditions to closing of the transaction,
exploration objectives on the Oksut Gold Project, including the
calculation of an updated resource estimate by early 2013, business
prospects (including the timing and development of new deposits and
the success of exploration activities), and opportunities,
including exploration expenditures and exploration plans.
Although the forward-looking information in this news release
reflects Centerra's current beliefs as of the date of this news
release based on information currently available to management and
based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions,
Centerra cannot be certain that actual results, performance,
achievements, prospects and opportunities, either expressed or
implied will be consistent with such forward-looking information.
Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of
estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by
Centerra, are inherently subject to significant political,
business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies.
Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking
information.
Other factors that could cause actual results or events to
differ materially from current expectations include, among other
things: the sensitivity of the Company's business to the volatility
of gold and base metal prices; political risks in the jurisdictions
where the Company operates; the success of the Company's future
exploration and development activities, including financial and
political risks inherent in carrying out exploration activities;
competition for mineral acquisition opportunities; the adequacy of
the Company's insurance; environmental, health and safety risks;
defects in title in connection with the Company's properties; the
impact of restrictive covenants in the Company's revolving credit
facility; the Company's ability to enforce its legal rights; the
effect of recent market conditions on the Company's short-term
investments; the Company's ability to attract and retain qualified
personnel; the Company's ability to make payments including
payments of principal and interest on the Company's debt
facilities; litigation; the impact of global financial conditions;
the impact of currency fluctuations; and risks associated with
having a significant shareholder. There may be other factors that
cause results, assumptions, performance, achievements, prospects or
opportunities in future periods not to be as anticipated, estimated
or intended. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recently
filed Annual Information Form available on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com.
There can be no assurances that forward-looking information and
statements will prove to be accurate, as many factors and future
events, both known and unknown could cause actual results,
performance or achievements to vary or differ materially from the
results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed
or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this
news release. Accordingly, all such factors should be considered
carefully when making decisions with respect to Centerra, and
prospective investors should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is as of
December 12, 2012. Centerra assumes no obligation to update or
revise forward-looking information to reflect changes in
assumptions, changes in circumstances or any other events affecting
such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable
law.
About Centerra
Centerra is a gold mining company focused on operating,
developing, exploring and acquiring gold properties primarily in
Asia, the former Soviet Union and other emerging markets worldwide.
Centerra is a leading North American-based gold producer and is the
largest Western-based gold producer in Central Asia. Centerra's
shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol
CG. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Additional information on Centerra is available on the Company's
web site at www.centerragold.com and at SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Contacts: Centerra Gold Inc. John W. Pearson Vice President,
Investor Relations (416) 204-1241john.pearson@centerragold.com
www.centerragold.com
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