Centamin, Egypt’s largest gold producer, late on Wednesday said its Sukari mine had posted a 13 percent plunge in production in the second quarter of this year.

Overall gold production at Sukari, which is situated in the troubled country’s eastern arid region, posted 81,281 ounces during the period under review, less than the previous comparable period.

But production surged nine percent in the first quarter of this year.

Sukari’s production projection for the remainder of this year stays unaffected, Centamin said.

Centamin, which has headquarters in Australia, has projected 420,000 ounces at a cash cost production of $700 an ounce for this year. Sukari made a total of 356,943 ounces of gold last year.

The gold producer said there is a likelihood that the fourth phase of its Sukari development to balance the production reduction as the commissioning stages gets in progress.

“Commissioning activities delivered the first material contribution from the Stage 4 plant expansion during the quarter, and the processing operation goes in the second half of the year at target productivity levels and on track to hit the expanded 10 million tonne per annum nameplate capacity,” Josef El-Raghy, Centamin chairman, said in the production report.

Centamin expects Sukari mine to produce 450,000 to 500,000 ounces of gold a year, starting next year.