Acacia Mining Plc (ACA), spun off from Barrick Gold Corp. in 2010, produced 181,084 ounces in the fourth quarter of 2014 from a year earlier, bringing full-year output to 718,651 ounces.
The output which was higher and more than its forecast was mainly due to its North Mara mine and gaining gold from waste material at Bulyanhulu, both operations in Tanzania, the company said.
That performance will give the company access to debt and equity markets to fund its expansion, Gordon said. Aware that gold investors have been burned in the past as the biggest miners racked up $30bn of debt in a 12-year bull run for gold to 2011, Gordon said any acquisition won’t affect the company’s dividend, a statement issued by the London-based company said on Friday.
Brad Gordon, who took over as Chief Executive Officer from Greg Hawkins in 2013 after the company’s shares slumped 73 percent following its 2010 listing in London and has since raised production and lowered costs even as the gold price slid. The stock is up 58 percent since the beginning of 2014, while bullion rose 4.8 percent.
The firm now is targeting in-production gold mines in West Africa as it seeks to expand beyond its existing base in Tanzania, Gordon said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Acacia, formerly known as African Barrick Gold, has reduced its all-in sustaining costs to $1,088 an ounce in the three months to Dec. 31, its ninth successive quarter of reductions, from $1,700 an ounce in 2011. That’s allowed the company “to earn the right to grow,” Gordon said today in an interview.
Acacia is looking at “assets that are in production and of a scale that are likely to be transformative for the company,” Gordon said.
Its exploration in West Africa should be seen as a “lead” on where it may acquire, he said. “We’re already looking for good exploration ground in Senegal, Mali and Ghana as well” as Burkina Faso, he said. “That immediately tells you which countries we’re prepared to do business in.”
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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