Gold miner Centamin's earnings a share for the year ended December 31, 2019, increased by 17% year-on-year to $0.76.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation also increased by 10% year-on-year to $172.9-million, while operational cash flow improved by 11% to $249-million.

Gross revenue was up by 7% year-on-year to $658.1-million, with all-in sustaining costs (AISC) also 7% higher year-on-year at $943/oz.

“To give shareholders greater certainty” and to expedite the dividend timetable, Centamin indicated that the previously proposed 2019 final dividend of $0.06 a share was replaced with a 2020 first interim dividend of the same amount, equating to about $69.4-million. This was paid on May 15.

Meanwhile, payments to governments for the 12-month period included $108-million to the Egyptian government; over $1.1-million to the government of Burkina Faso and $582 718 to the government of Côte d'Ivoire.

In total, payments to governments were almost $110-million, and comprised profit share, corporate taxes, royalties, exploration licence fees as well as mining and other licence fees and infrastructure improvements.

Looking toward the rest of this year, Centamin’s Sukari mine, in Egypt, continues to be uninterrupted by Covid-19-related restrictions, with sufficient staffing resources and critical supplies to be available into the third quarter, at which time the company expects global travel restrictions may begin to ease.

However, should restrictions be extended well into the second half of the year, Centamin says its operations may be affected.

As a precautionary move to protect the health and wellbeing of its workforce, non-essential capital expenditure (capex) has been temporarily deferred, including the Sukari solar plant.

The miner explains that this is in order to minimise additional contractors and other non-operating traffic on and off site, while restrictions related to Covid-19 remain in place. As a result, capex for this year is expected to be in the range of between $150-million and $170-million.

Additionally, the Sukari life-of-asset review is ongoing, with a series of independent optimisation studies across each section of the mine currently under way. Results are expected in the second half of the year and will identify areas of improvement.

Centamin maintains its 2020 full-year guidance, targeting production of between 510 000 oz and 540 000 oz of gold, at cash costs of between $630/oz and $680/oz and AISC of between $870/oz and $920/oz.

Openpit material is expected to contribute 80% of the full-year production. driven by higher-grade Stage 4 ore. The balance is scheduled to come from underground, specifically Ptah, as infrastructure upgrades are being implemented at Amun.