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FINALIST: MINER

Perseus comes of

age in West Africa

Jeff Quartermaine on site at Yaoure
by Dominic Piper

t may have narrowly missed out on retaining its GMJ Miner of At the company’s November AGM, managing director Jeff
Ithe Year title but there is little doubt Perseus Mining Ltd took Quartermaine said Perseus was aiming to pay dividends
another giant step towards mature gold miner status in 2021. consistently, yielding a return of at least 1% each year.
In the eyes of last year’s judges, Perseus’ location in West Africa “We want to send a signal to shareholders that we are absolutely
meant it had gone largely unrecognised by ASX investors, having confident in cashflow going forward, above and beyond capital
failed to spark much market interest in 2020 despite outperforming growth,” Quartermaine told GMJ recently. “A 1% yield we can do
most peers on the operational front. standing on our head, and we don’t want to be turning dividends
“It was largely underappreciated by the market, by virtue of being on and off again. We could also distribute a special dividend or
in Africa, which I think is being realised in the share price at the undertake a share buyback. It may be that buying Perseus shares
moment,” Canaccord Genuity Inc mining analyst Tim McCormack is the best opportunity in front of us.”
said 12 months ago. “I think with African projects there is a natural That Perseus still performed to the top of expectations came
scepticism that is built into any potential investor’s psyche and it’s despite problems at its foundational asset. The Edikan mine in
almost after the fact that you get rewarded for it.” Ghana has seen a strong turnaround in the last 18 months but
Perseus’ market performance in 2021 may fall under the “after the failed to fully deliver in the September quarter. Production was
fact” category. Having successfully built its Yaoure mine, extended down 10,000oz quarter-on-quarter to 32,161oz but that downturn
the mine life of Sissingue and turned around performance at was offset by the strong performance of the Yaoure mine in Cote
Edikan in 2020, the company went into harvest mode in 2021, d’Ivoire where gold output increased more than 75% quarter-on-
producing 330,000oz in FY21 and 304,032oz for the nine months quarter to 64,558oz.
to September 30 at AISC of $US1,003/oz. For Quartermaine, Perseus’ ability to maintain momentum despite
setbacks on individual assets is a sign of a maturing company.
“That demonstrates the advantages of a diversified portfolio.
Not every asset goes well all the time, but we were still able to
be consistent overall,” he told GMJ sister publication Paydirt in
December.
With a growing cash balance and a swirl of corporate activity
around West Africa’s gold sector, Perseus is likely to find itself
placed near the centre of the M&A rumour mill but Quartermaine
is likely to keep his sober approach to speculation.
“For us it is all about organic growth,” he said, dismissing any
ideas of headline-making takeovers. “We want to make the most
of what we’ve got, particularly because we have already invested
in the infrastructure. We are drilling out the deposits we acquired
The Sissingue gold mine in Cote d’Ivoire has continued to
surprise on the upside for Perseus in the Exore deal and looking at how we may incorporate them
into Sissingue. We are also making discoveries at Edikan and
Yaoure that will keep us there for a long time.”
The market may slowly be waking up to the strength of Perseus’
performance. While the “African discount” appears to still prevail, To read more about Perseus and other African success
the share price climbed 35% from January 1 to the time of print, stories over the past 12 months, look out for the December-
a stark contrast to domestic miners who retracted during the year January issue of Australia’s Paydirt
amid a falling gold price and tightening margins.
The surfeit of free cash flowing from the three West African
operations has allowed Perseus to deliver on the key indicator of
mature, successful gold miners – capital return.

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