Jeff Quartermaine

MD & CEO: Perseus Mining

Jeff Quartermaine and his Perseus Mining have their ticket to ride in Yaouré, a $265m project in Côte d’Ivoire that will take annual gold production to 500,000 ounces - one of those psychologically important milestones in scale. Perseus is a company that delivers up very few bad surprises: Yaouré’s first production, in December or January, will be delivered with very little fuss, including little to no disturbance from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to adding growth ounces, resource and reserve renewal at the firm’s Edikan and Sissingué mines in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire has also been a feature of the past 12 months. In June, Quartermaine & Co agreed to pay A$60m in shares - equal to 4% of issued share capital - for junior Exore which owns 2,000 square kilometre Bagoe and Liberty properties 70km from Sissingué. Similarly, the company locked in 212,000 oz/year in production from Edikan over the 6.2 years with the development of the $31m Esuajah South underground mine which also lowers by 5% the mine’s all-in sustaining costs. Quartermaine says dividends are on the cards, especially if the gold price can hold, and the firm’s works through hedging worth about 22% of total production which totalled 257,639 oz in the 2020 financial year (ended June 30) - a period in which the firm also turned net cash.

Côte d’Ivore and Ghana were protected against the risk of jihadists creep subsuming other parts of West Africa, said Quartermaine in a recent interview in which he gave a firm defence of views when he said a lack of facts prevented the West from understanding Africa.

"PEOPLE IN THE WEST TEND TO FEAR THE WORST OF AFRICA BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ALL THE FACTS."

LIFE OF JEFF

Quartermaine has an unusual mix of skills possessing qualifications in both engineering and accounting which he has been performing for some 25 years at various Toronto- and Australian-listed resource companies. Prior to the merger with Amara, he was CFO of Perseus from 2010 to 2013 where after he was appointed MD.

• Web Address: www.perseusmining.com