Gold miner Perseus Mining has delivered "record" financial results for the financial year ended June 30, which reflect not only the strong gold price environment in which it is operating, but also the company's "strong, consistent and safe operating performance", CEO Jeff Quartermaine has said.

The ASX-listed company, which owns and operates mines in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, achieved a 12% year-on-year increase in basic earnings a share to $0.02 for the financial year, a 13% year-on-year increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to $625.2-million and a 14% year-on-year increase in profit after tax to 364.8-million.

Revenue increased by 7% year-on-year to $1.02-billion.

The group held net tangible assets of $1.2-billion of $0.89 a share at year-end and had $587-million of cash and bullion and no debt.

"Since our maiden dividend distribution in August 2021, Perseus has returned A$168-million to its shareholders via dividends. Given the strong financial performance recorded this year, our board has decided to increase the amount of dividends paid to shareholders by declaring a final dividend of A$0.0375 a share, bringing the [total] full-year 2024 dividend to A$0.05 a share. 

"Perseus’ board has also decided to return a further sum of up to A$100-million to shareholders, by way of an on-market share buyback over the next 12 months," says Quartermaine.

He points out that, to determine these capital returns, the company has taken into account the very significant capital investment programme that potentially lies ahead for Perseus as it works to improve the quality of its asset portfolio by developing the newly acquired Nyanzaga project, in Tanzania; the CMA underground project, in Côte d’Ivoire; and potentially the Meyas Sand gold project, in Sudan.

"We are also mindful that, in addition to investing material sums of money underwriting the future growth of our company, we need to continue to invest significant sums of money into our ‘social licence to operate’ by continuing to contribute significantly to the economies of our host countries and host communities and paying salaries and bonuses for good performance to our local and expatriate employees who have delivered these outstanding results.

"In other words, Perseus is very focused on delivering on our corporate mission of generating material benefits for all of our stakeholders in fair and equitable proportions. We believe we have achieved this goal in full-year 2024 and have done this in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner. We look forward to continuing to do this for many years to come,” he said.