It was not a great day to be a goldminer as a volatile gold price, which has been falling since peaking in 2011, plunged to a four-year low.
And it was even less fun for Centamin, operator of the Sukari goldmine in Egypt, which was forced to slash its production forecast for the year.
Only a month ago, after a bumper third quarter, in which it produced 93,624 ounces of gold, up 15 per cent on the preceding quarter, Centamin said it was confident of reaching its full-year forecast of 420,000 ounces.
However, yesterday it had to backtrack and said that, even though it was expecting a record final quarter, it now expected its full-year production from its Sukari project to be between 370,000