UK 16:31 Sunday, 27 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Zimbabwe gold producer Caledonia Mining (CMCL) says it expects to hoist output this year from its Blanket mine in the south-west of the central African state from an expected 42,000 oz. in 2015 to 50,000 oz. Currently based in Toronto but seeking shareholders' approval to move its domicile to Jersey, the AIM-quoted company sees all-in cash costs at Blanket falling over the coming 12 months to around $900 (672) an ounce, against a current gold price of $1,075.60c, at an expected grade of 3.2 to 3.3 grammes of gold per tonne of ore.
Mark Learmonth, finance chief at Southern Africa-focused Caledonia Mining Corporation (CMCL), says the company intends to lift gold production from its Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe 90% between 2015 and 2020 to 80,000 oz. a year, with all-in costs driven down from $984 (£647) an ounce to a target $750 by 2018, against a present gold price of $1,166.92c an ounce. The AIM-quoted company, whose chief executive officer Steve Curtis has adopted a different approach since taking over from Stefan Hayden last November, has a 49% interest in Blanket, which boasts a measured, indicated and inferred gold resource of one million oz., and has been striving to improve production, grades and profitability there.
Caledonia Mining (CMCL) is a strange beast as far as the daily chart, something which is said on the basis of the rather spiky and aggressive share price action served up by the shares since the September – October island top reversal from this time last year.
Followers of Caledonia Mining Corporation (CMCL), unusually a gold-producing and dividend-paying company focused on Zimbabwe, expect chief executive officer Steve Curtis and his team to reverse recent production declines as they seek to double annual output to 80,000 oz. of gold in six years from its Blanket gold mine in the southern province of Matabeleland. Headquartered in Toronto and listed in Canada and on AIM and the US Over The Counter market, Caledonia has begun to sink a central shaft at Blanket costing C$23 million (£11.6 million) down to 1,000 metres underground and intends next month both to complete its ‘No. 6 winze’ link between the mine’s different levels and also to finish installing a ‘tramming loop’ to assist haulage there and cut costs.
Undaunted by missing its targets for gold production in Zimbabwe during 2014, AIM-quoted Caledonia Mining Corporation (CMCL) is hoping a US$70 million (£46 million) six-year investment programme will hoist output from the central African country’s Blanket mine from a flat anticipated 42,000 oz. this year to between 60,000 and 65,000 oz. in 2017, with a 75,000 oz. aspiration for 2020. Many regard Zimbabwe under its current regime as still a pariah state, but Toronto-based Caledonia insists it now offers rich pickings and suggests it looks more stable than South Africa.
