PAN African Resources said on Wednesday it will pay shareholders a maiden interim dividend of 12 South African cents per share, equal to a gross payout of R280m ($17.4m or 0.74488c/share).
Publishing its results for the six months ended December, in which a record gold price received of $3,368/oz propelled interim earnings 192% to 7.30 US cents/share, the group said it would be degeared from this month. Net debt fell 69.3% to $46.2m. As of December 31, cash and undrawn facilities totalled $158.9m (2025: $32.3m).
Pan African was also seeking to grow production further, especially as a yet higher gold price is due to come through in the current six months, and analysts think bullion is poised for a prolonged period of elevating prices.
It guided to full year gold output of 275,000 to 292,000 ounces, a major improvement on 187,000 oz it achieved just two years ago. The increase in output has been through organic growth or acquisition of previously mined gold resources.
Pan African bought Tennant Mines, which owns the Nobles mine in Australia, which is reopened and is now seeking to double production from this year’s expected output to 100,000 oz/year. It also bought tailings near Soweto which formed the basis of its Mogale Tailings Project, also up for expansion of between 30,000 to 35,000 oz/year compared to projected 2026 production of 48,000 to 52,000 oz.
The plan now is to dust off other long-held expansion projects, including Poplar – a satellite deposit about 6km north of its Evander Gold Mines in Mpumalanga. Poplar last received serious attention in the Nineties when it was part of Gengold.
Pan African also said it planned to start mining at Royal Sheba, an open pit and underground prospect in its Barberton Gold complex, also in Mpumalanga. Mining near the deposit dates back to 1885.
Since first targeting Royal Sheba in 2018, Pan African has more tightly delineated the mineral resources of some 6.9 million tons grading at 3.24 grams per ton, equal to 700,000 oz of gold. It would spend $11m developing a mine while at Poplar Pan African was updating a prefeasibility study for a 100,000 oz/year shallow underground mine.
“Pan African has the ability to continue to deliver very attractive production growth over the next years, specifically internal expansions in Australia and around our MTR operation, which will not only add mine life but also significant additional production ounces,” said Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African in a statement.
A concern for the period under review was the increase in all-in sustaining costs which came in at $1,874/oz compared to full guidance of $1,525/oz to $1,575/oz. Some $195/oz of higher AISC cost related to employee incentive payouts, and a strengthening in the rand/dollar exchange, raising input costs. Pan African has subsequently increased full year AISC guidance to $1,820/oz to $1,870/oz.
