WEST African Resources (WAF) expects full-year profit to come in at more than twice its first-half figure, with the gold miner set to pay its maiden dividend.
Speaking at the Mining Forum Americas in Colorado in the US, CEO Richard Hyde said WAF would aim to pay another dividend before the end of June next year.
The company reported a A$437m profit for the six months to June and declared a A$0.20-a-share dividend, worth about A$240m.
Hyde stopped short of setting a formal dividend policy. “I am reluctant to set an official policy, but I think it would be as much as we can whenever we can,” he said.
Asked whether shareholders could expect at least half of profits to be paid in dividends, he replied: “That’s a reasonable assumption”.
Hyde added WAF was on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions, but warned: “I think we should just bed down what we’ve got; make sure we can squeeze the assets as best as we can.”
WAF operates the Sanbrado and Kiaka gold mines in Burkina Faso which has been contending with guerilla and jihadist warfare for years.
“Let’s just see how things play out in the rest of West Africa over the next year or two, because it’s been challenging for us in Burkina. But I think the challenges are yet to come for the rest of the region.”
“[If] you have been following Burkina’s history in the last few years, it has had its trouble in the north and the east of the country,” he said.
‘Relatively safe’
Burkina Faso has been under military rule since 2022, when Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a coup. His government has delayed a return to civilian rule and tightened state control over parts of the economy, including mining, while the country continues to battle an Islamist insurgency concentrated mainly in the north and east.
“Thankfully, to date, we haven’t had any security issues around either of our projects at Sanbrado and Kiaka,” Hyde said. Both mines are in the south-central part of the country, which he described as “relatively safe to date”.
WAF has also faced higher government and regulatory costs. It paid A$181.5m in royalties to the Burkina Faso government in the first half, set aside A$21m for unsettled regulatory assessments and reported a A$7m increase in value-added tax owed by the state. A new royalty regime introduced in April 2025 raises the rate as the gold price rises.
The government has also sought a larger stake in Kiaka. Miningmx previously reported that state-owned SOPAMIB had been authorised to acquire a further 25% of the mine for A$175m, taking the state’s total interest to 40%. WAF’s stake will fall from 85% to 60%.
“After we commissioned it and poured first gold, the government approached us because we’d done such a magnificent job and [said] they’d like to buy another 25% of it.”
Hyde said WAF had finalised the negotiation and was documenting the transaction, which he expected to be “all wrapped up by the end of the year”.
“It’s a very good deal for Burkina. We’re just pleased we can move on and operate this asset as best we can for all stakeholders involved, including West African shareholders who put a lot of money to work to build the asset,” Hyde said.
Kiaka is running at about 11 million tons of mined ore a year. WAF plans to add power by the middle of next year after an unreliable grid affected the mine’s potential performance.
Hyde said the extra power could lift throughput to between 12 million and 14 million tons a year, taking annual production into the “mid-300,000 ounces”.
WAF has meanwhile kept all of its gold production unhedged. Hyde said the company had financed its projects without “hedging away the upside”.
“Too many times you see junior companies listen to the banks who say, ‘Well, if you put a hedge in here, it’s going to help you later.’ But as we’ve seen in the last four or five years it’s been the worst thing most junior companies can do,” he said.
“So, timing around that is also very important.”
