Caledonia Mining has reported adjusted EPS of US4.4c for Q3 16, a 59% increase on Q3 15, taking EPS for the year to date to US13.0c, from US7.2c in 2015.
The improved performance comes on the back of a 23% increase year-on-year in gold production at the Blanket mine to 13.4koz, taking the total for the first nine months to 36.8koz, up 15%. The company’s gold production guidance for 2016 is 60koz, with an ultimate target of 80koz by 2021.
The company received a gold price of US$1,312/oz in Q3 an increase on Q3 15 when the gold price received was US$1,106/oz.
The company reduced AISC to US$969/oz for Q3 from US$1,005/oz in Q3 15. Year to date AISC were US$952/oz, a 5% reduction. The company expects AISC to fall to the US$810-850/oz range in 2017.
Mining operations generated US$7.1m in Q3 (Q3 15: US$1.4m), taking the nine-month total to US$16.1m (9m 2015: US$4.6m). Cash held at the end of the quarter amounted to US$12.4m.
Caledonia has maintained its quarterly dividend at US1.375c per share.
On the development side, the Central Shaft project down to a depth of 1,080m continues to progress well (currently 330m in depth) and is on schedule for completion in mid-2018 with 330m.
Meanwhile, exploration success has led to 343kt of ore at a grade of 5.19g/t being upgraded from inferred resources to indicated resources and the discovery of 1.2Mt of new inferred resources at a grade of 5.00g/t.
Caledonia Mining’s quarterly EPS up 59%: CMCL