Mandate re financing

Centamin Egypt Limited
15 January 2003

Centamin Egypt Limited

Signing of Mandate with Standard Bank London Limited re. financing


Centamin Egypt Limited ('Centamin') is pleased to announce the signing of a
mandate letter with Standard Bank London Limited, appointing Standard Bank as
Arranger for a limited recourse project finance loan facility for the
development of the Sukari Gold Project in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Centamin has been in discussions with several project financiers with the view
to establishing a strong banking relationship well prior to the company
commencing development at Sukari.  Standard Bank was appointed after a highly
competitive bidding and selection process, which clearly indicated the
willingness of the project finance banking community to be involved in the debt
financing of Sukari.

Standard Bank and its independent technical advisers will be actively involved
with Centamin in the expansion of the current 2 million tonne per annum
feasibility study to the proposed larger processing facility of up to 5 million
tonne per annum.  The upgraded study, legal due diligence and documentation are
scheduled to be completed by mid year with draw down available during July.

We are very pleased to have Standard Bank responsible for the financing of
Sukari, as it is a committed long term lender and investor with a mandate to
foster development of projects in Africa.  We view their participation as a
strong vote of confidence in the project.

The Standard Bank Group has total assets of US$33 billion and employs in excess
of 35,000 people worldwide.  It is one of Africa's leading banking and financial
services organisations and is a leading participant in trade finance, precious
and base metals trading and project finance with a strong mining capability
based in London.

The Banker magazine awarded 'Bank of the Year 2002 - Africa' to the Standard
Bank Group.

We look forward to working with Standard Bank in bring the Sukari project into
production and also into the future as Centamin pursues the development of its
numerous other project opportunities contained within the 4,500 km2 Eastern
Desert Concession.

Enquiries:

Josef El Raghy                              Leesa Peters
Centamin Egypt Ltd                          Capital PR
Tel: + 61 (0) 8 9316 2640/ 0418 333 444     Tel: [phone]

[e-mail]                       [e-mail]

Louis Castro
Williams de Broe Plc

Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7588 7511

[e-mail]


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