Caledonia Mining 'confident' of reaching full-year gold target

AIM-listed gold explorer Caledonia Mining reported another quarterly dividend as it said it was “confident” of achieving the full year production target.

Caledonia declared a quarterly dividend of $0.01375 per share, the equivalent to $0.05 per share on an annualised basis, the equivalent to 3.2% yield, which was an increase from $0.01125 per share in July.

The share price was lower at the time and the current dividends would have represented a 5.5% yield, which was expected by analysts.

Yuen Low, an analyst at Shore Capital, said it was “no surprise then, in our view, that the shares have continued their upward trend since, particularly in light of the company’s good operating performance and production profile”.

The company said it was “confident” of achieving its full year production target of 50,000 ounces of gold and Shore Capital expects production to rise to 65,000 ounces in 2017 and 80,000 ounces by 2021 while unit costs should fall as volume increases.

Chief executive Steve Curtis, said the company’s flagship Blanket mine in Zimbabwe continued to improve with investment, which resulted in “robust cash generation for Caledonia Mining and Blanket's indigenous partners”.

He added: "The investment that all stakeholders have made in the Blanket mine over the past 20 months continues to bear fruit with increased operational flexibility and production volumes. I am now confident that our production guidance of 50,000 ounces in 2016 will be achieved.”

The dividend is to be paid on the 28 October to shareholders registered in Canada and the UK.

At the end of June the company, which is also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the OTC market in the US, had net cash of $10.6m.

Shares in Caledonia Mining were up 2.62% to 137p at 0813 BST.