PAN African Resources increased forecast production for its 2024 financial year to between 180,000 to 190,000 ounces following a strong showing in the first six months.
Providing an update for the period July to December, the group said gold production will come in at between 94,000 and 98,000 oz.
This was due to the implementation of continuous operations at the firm’s Barberton Mines in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. But there were also stronger performances in the six months at the firm’s Evander and Elikhulu assets – the former an underground mine, the latter a tailings retreatment operation.
Previous full year guidance was put at 178,000 to 190,000 oz. Gold production in Pan African’s 2023 financial year (ended June 30) was 175,209 oz.
“The expected production performance for the half year to December 2023 positions the Group to deliver excellent results for the full financial year,” said Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African in a statement to the JSE today.
Shares in the company gained 2.7% in the first few hours of trade in Johannesburg. Shares in the company have gained 11% year-to-date.
Production is due to get a further boost towards the end of the 2024 calendar year (the first half of Pan African’s 2025 financial year) when it commissions the Mogale Tailings Retreatment Plant (MTR) – a tailings project that is forecast to add 50,000 oz to production, an increase of 25%.
Said Loots: “The continued momentum with the construction of the MTR plant at the Group’s Mintails Project is again testament to our track record of bringing world class tailings retreatment projects to account”.
MTR represents a R2.5bn investment for Pan African, its largest capital programme to date. In order to complete the financing, however, it agreed to sell 30% of gold production to a lender at fixed price of 1.025m per kilogram over two years.
Including the R400m premium Pan African received for the gold, the effective per kilogram price of gold sold forward is R1.114m. The rand gold price is currently trading at R1.199m/kg.
