(Adds details on forecast, background)
Oct 5 (Reuters) - Gold miner Centamin Plc cut itsannual production target for the second time this year andreported a 25 percent drop in quarterly output, hit by delays inplanned operational improvements.
The Egypt-focused company said on Friday that it cut its2018 production target to about 480,000 ounces from an earliertarget of 505,000-515,000 ounces. In May, it cut the productiontarget from 580,000 ounces, due to lower grade ore at its Sukarimine in the country.
Centamin also said on Friday its third-quarter productionfell to 117,720 ounces from 156,533 ounces in the year-agoquarter. The company said gold production rose month on month fromoperational improvements in the open pit and underground mines,but improvements had taken longer than planned to materialise.
The 2018 output forecast revision comes just a couple ofmonths after the Egypt-focused company stuck to the target andposted quarterly core earnings that topped market expectations.
However, the second-quarter beat was driven bylower-than-estimated mine site costs and inventory-driven salesvolumes rather than production, which dropped 26 percent.
(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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