THE improvement in the gold price and higher gold sales will help Pan African Resources to a 25% to 35% earnings improvement for the full year ended June, the group said in a trading statement on Thursday.
The gold miner is scheduled to report its final numbers for the 2024 financial year on September 11. Shares in the company nudged up less than a per cent today, but they are 75% stronger year-to-date.
Sales from the firm’s mines in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province during the year were 4.9% higher resulting in a 16.8% positive bump in revenue. This was a result of the improvement in the gold price which was 16.8% higher over the period.
The outcome is estimated to be basic share earnings coming in between 4.30 US cents to 3.19 cents per share representing an increase of between 25% to 35%. Headline share earnings, which account for exceptional, one-off items, are expected to be 3.99 to 4.31 US cents per share higher, an increase of between 27% and 37%.
Pan African said on July 29 it produced 186,039 ounces of gold in its 2024 financial year ended June – 6.2% more than in 2023 owing to an much-improved performance at the Barberton Mines complex.
A delay in commissioning a ventilation shaft at Evander Gold Mines “adversely impact production” in the last two months of the financial year. Otherwise, Pan African stood a chance of making 180,000 to 190,000 oz production guidance as per a previous production update.
Pan African has forecast a major improvement in gold production to as much as 225,000 oz in the current (2025) financial year owing to Mintails (MTR), a R2bn tailings project located west of Johannesburg which is due to commission.
“The MTR project is progressing ahead of schedule with commissioning and first gold expected in October 2024 and steady state production in December 2024,” said BMO Capital Markets in a report.
A focus of the results presentation next week will be Pan African’s balance sheet following the cost of building Mintails. Net debt rose to $106m, about $80m more than a year ago.
Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African said he was cautious of that scale of debt, but that Mintails’ capital – raised without using equity – would be repaid in two-and-a-half years.
