TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation has approved TSX-listed Centerra Gold’s Öksüt project’s environmental-impact assessment (EIA).

“We are very pleased that this milestone has been achieved and the timetable for Öksüt continues to move forward as planned. 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,” new CEO Scott Perry stated on Tuesday.

The former Aurico Gold executive added that the project was on schedule, with first gold output expected in the second quarter of 2017.

The Öksüt project’s estimated mineral reserves as at June 30 were 26.1-million tonnes at an average grade of 1.4 g/t, containing 1.2-million ounces of gold at a cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t, and a gold price of $1 250/oz.

The project was expected to cost $221-million, which included a $25-million contingency.

Öksüt was expected to produce 895 000 oz of gold over the eight-year mine life, generating an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 43%.

Centerra believed the project held significant exploration upside, as supported by recent drilling that had extended the Guneytepe deposit and had identified more oxide material in the Keltepe NW prospect, 1 km from the existing reserve area. Additional drilling was planned once the necessary drill permits were approved.

GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online days before his retirement as Centerra president and CEO Ian Atkinson underlined the importance for the company to expand its geographic exposure, as political uncertainty surrounding the ownership of the company’s flagship asset, the Kumtor gold mine, in Kyrgyzstan, dragged on, and progress at its Gatsuurt project, in Mongolia, was painfully slow.

Meanwhile, Centerra was strategically diversifying its geographic asset base and continued further drilling at the Greenstone Gold property. The company had, in the first quarter, announced a partnership with Premier Gold to develop the project, including the Hardrock project located in the Geraldton-Beardmore Greenstone belt, in north-western Ontario.

Further, TSX-V-listed Medgold Resources, in July, granted Centerra the option to earn a 51% interest in its Lagares gold project, in northern Portugal, by spending $3-million over three years.