Centerra pours first gold at ?-ks? 1/4 t mine, stock jumps

The ?-ks? 1/4 t mine is located in the south-central Kayseri province. Credit: ?-ks? 1/4 t Madencilik

Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) announced Friday that the ?-ks? 1/4 t mine in Turkey has achieved its first gold pour on schedule and ahead of budget. The gold pour occurred in the same week that the mine celebrated a safety milestone of two million work hours lost time injury free (LTIF).

?-ks? 1/4 t now becomes the company's third operating mine and its third source of gold production going forward, Centerra CEO Scott Perry stated in a media release.

The ?-ks? 1/4 t project is a conventional truck and shovel open-pit heap leach mining operation. About 28.2 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 1.3 g/t gold containing a total of 1.2 million ounces of gold are expected to be mined and stacked over a mine life of eight years.

In addition to ?-ks? 1/4 t, Centerra also owns the Mount Milligan mine in British Columbia, Canada, and the Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan, which was recently approved for restart.

Shares of Centerra Gold were up 6.3% at market open close Friday. The Canadian-based gold producer has a market capitalization of approximately C$3.11 billion.