Pan African Resources beats production guidance and pays record final dividend

Gold miner Pan African Resources has paid a record final dividend for its year to end-June, saying it had managed to beat its gold production guidance after ramping up operations at its surface operations.

The group produced 179,457oz of gold in the year to end-June, having given revised guidance of 176,000oz in May.

Covid-19 shuttered the group’s mines, however, the group said it had increased output from its surface toll treatment and low-grade surface stockpile processing initiative. That substituted production was at a lower margin than underground production.

This “demonstrated the benefit of multiple producing operations”, the group said on Wednesday, adding it had also quickly ramped up production as lockdown conditions eased.

The board has proposed a record final dividend of R312m, or 14c per share. This is up from R50m in the final comparative period, or 2.2c per share.

Headline earnings rose 93% to $44.2m (R730m) while the average gold price received rose 37% to R793,121/kg.

In morning trade, the share of Pan African Resources was up 0.95% to R5.29, having surged 144% so far in 2020.