11th Nov 2024 11:28
(Alliance News) - Caledonia Mining Corp PLC on Monday maintained its dividend and said it expects flat production levels at its flagship project after a weaker third quarter.
The Zimbabwe-focused gold miner said pretax profit fell 17% to USD7.9 million in the three months that ended September 30 from USD9.5 million a year prior.
Gold production from the Blanket mine declined by 13% to 18,992 ounces from 21,772 ounces due to a lower grade and reduced metallurgical recoveries.
Revenue rose 14% to USD46.9 million from USD41.2 million, as production costs increased 3.1% to USD21.1 million from USD20.5 million.
Caledonia declared a 14 US cents dividend for the third quarter, unchanged from last year.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Learmonth said: "We continue to explore ways to reduce on-mine costs at Blanket - particularly the cost of electricity and labour where several initiatives are being implemented and further measures are under consideration.
"In parallel, we continue to carefully manage our cashflows and working capital, albeit we have made the strategic decision to accelerate investment in inventory levels during the quarter to support preventative maintenance initiatives and reduce potential production delays. This investment would have previously been scheduled for 2025."
Caledonia said the company is on track to achieve full-year 2024 production at its flagship Blanket mine within the range of 74,000 to 78,000, compared with 75,416 ounces produced in 2023. Looking further ahead to 2025, Caledonia expects similar production levels.
Caledonia further published encouraging results from exploration work at the Motapa project in southern Zimbabwe.
"The results from the sampling at Motapa have delivered encouraging results in terms of strike width, length and grade," CEO Learmonth said. "The drill program featured generally wide-spaced holes at several prospects on the Motapa lease area and highlighted the presence of widespread gold mineralization over a combined strike length of more than 9 kilometres."
Caledonia Mining shares were down 3.9% at 1,124.00 pence each in London on Monday morning.
By Elijah Dale, Alliance News reporter
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