STEVE CURTIS Caledonia remains committed to distributing cash to shareholders, while simultaneously retaining a robust balance sheet
Caledonia Mining Corporation, in line with its dividend policy, has declared a dividend of $0.01375 on each of the company’s common shares.
Caledonia CEO Steve Curtis points out that notwithstanding a record level of capital investment in 2016 and the continued volatility in the gold price, the company has maintained the quarterly dividend at the higher level of 1.375 US cents a share, which was announced in July 2016.
He notes that Caledonia remains committed to distributing cash to shareholders, while simultaneously retaining a robust balance sheet to enable the company to “take advantage of further opportunities”.
“We are targeting 60 000 oz of production from our Blanket gold mine, in Zimbabwe, during this year, as we progress our aim towards a yearly production of 80 000 oz by 2021,” he highlights.
Curtis states that he is confident that, as gold production continues to increase at Blanket, the cost per ounce of gold produced will continue to fall, owing to the company’s investment plan, adding that there will also be a commensurate improvement in cash generation.
In March, Mining Weekly reported that Caledonia aimed to drive down the mine’s all-in sustaining cost (AISC) to about $750/oz from its current AISC of $850/oz through the “benefits of greater economies of scale”.
The gold miner has ringfenced about $43-million to upgrade infrastructure at the mine to increase production and lower operating costs. Caledonia has, to date, spent about $22-million on these upgrades, which include the sinking of a new 1 000-m-deep shaft.
On April 20, the company announced that production for the first quarter of 2017 showed a “pleasing” year-on-year improvement of 18% to 12 794 oz, compared with the 10 822 oz produced during the first quarter of 2016. Curtis says that this is a trend which Caledonia anticipates maintaining, in line with its guidance for 2017. He notes that production continues to be supported by access to resources below the 750 m level through the development of a second decline into the AR Main orebody as well as through the current decline at AR South and through the 6 Winze shaft.
“Production in the first quarter of 2017 was 6% lower than the previous record quarter, but remains within planned production for the full year. “This trend is in line with the historical quarterly production profile at Blanket, which typically experiences slightly lower production rates in the first quarter of each year, owing to holidays and mine scheduling.
“We continue to be pleased with the production increases from Blanket following the implementation of the ongoing investment plan and I look forward to updating the market in due course,” Curtis concludes.