PERSEUS Mining capped a strong, high activity performance for its 2024 financial year by announcing a A$100m share buy-back programme.
Jeff Quartermaine, MD and CEO of the Australian miner said the programme would start on September 24 and be completed within 12 months.
Perseus announced a final dividend of 3.75 Australian cents per share on Wednesday taking the total dividend for the 2024 financial year to five Australian cents a share. The payout and share buy-back programme comes on the back of a 14% year-on-year improvement in taxed profit of US$364.8m for the period. Basic share earnings of 23.62 US cents/share were 12% higher year-on-year.
“Our capital management strategy should meet the expectations of most, if not all, of our reasonable shareholders,” said Quartermaine in a presentation today. The company was “firmly established” as a leading gold producer in Australian and globally, he added.
Shares in the company were 5.9% higher on the Australian Securities Exchange taking year-to-date gains to just above 44%. The company is currently capitalised at A$3.7bn.
In May, the company announced the resumption of exploration work at the Meyas Sands gold deposit in Sudan following a one year hiatus amid civil war in the country. Meyas Sands is in Perseus’ portfolio after it bought Orca Mining for A$230m – a transaction that continued the firm’s merger and acquisitions aspirations.
It followed the deal up with the A$258m purchase of an 80% stake in Tanzania’s Nyanzaga project which Quartermaine said today was up for investment decision by December. If approved, commissioning was expected at the tail-end of 2026 with production ramp up in the first quarter of 2027. The Tanzanian government owns the balance of the project which has reported probable ore reserves of some 40.08 million tons grading at 2.02 grams per tons for 2.60 million ounces of gold.
An investment decision was also pending on the underground expansion of Yaouré, Perseus’ Côte d’Ivoire mine. Underground mining contactors were being vetted ahead of a positive decision by October at latest, said Quartermaine.
“The results of our work will become evident in the years to come,” said Quartermaine of the firm’s organic and inorganic expansion and resource replacement progamme.
In terms of the year under review, Perseus produced 509,977 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,053 per oz, $94/oz higher than the previous financial year.
The gold market is flying presently amid record gold prices. Perseus received an average price of $2,014/oz, some $211/oz higher year-on-year. This contributed towards positive cash flow of $490m for the period.
