Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining webinar for its full year financial results. All attendees are in a listen-only mode. If you would like to ask a question, please enter it into the Q and A panel within Zoom. I will now hand over to Perseus Mining's Managing Director and Chief Executive, Jeff Quartermaine. Thanks, Jeff.
Thanks very much, Nathan. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this webinar. I'm joined here today by Lee-Anne de Bruin, our Chief Financial Officer, and Lee-Anne is going to work with me to provide a little more detail on the results that we have announced today. However, before I pass to Lee-Anne, let me just put a bit of context around the results we have published. I think it's fairly clear from the results, if you've had an opportunity to glance through them at this stage, that what we've published today really does present further compelling evidence of the transition of Perseus into a high-quality, mid-tier international gold company. FY 2021 has been quite a transformational year for us. We successfully brought our third operating mine, Yaouré, on the stream. I think as importantly, we've managed to convert our group's strong gold production into improved earnings and cash flow.
Looking to the future, we do expect this trend of improved earnings and cash flow to continue as we close in on the objective of producing around the 500,000 oz per year mark. This year, for the first time, we've also been able to implement a program of returning capital to our shareholders. We made an announcement today of an initial capital return of AUD 0.015 a share and a dividend policy to go with that, and I'll speak more of that in just a moment. Just to put the financial results into context, I'll just remind you that in terms of production, it has been a strong year for us. We produced around 328,600 oz for the full financial year, which was slightly above the top end of the market guidance range.
At the same time, our costs were well and truly contained during the COVID-19 year, so we averaged an all-in site cost of AUD 1,016 an ounce, which was slightly below the midpoint of the guidance range. We were assisted by the gold price. Our weighted average sales price during the year was AUD 1,642 an ounce. Between strong production, contained costs, and strong gold price, we've been able to generate very healthy financial results. I'll now pass to Lee-Anne to take you through those in more detail. When she's finished that, she'll return back to me, and we'll talk a little more about the dividend policy that we've implemented today. Lee-Anne?
Thanks, Jeff. Hello, everybody. It's with great pleasure that I am able to present Perseus financial results for the 12 months ended June 2021. As you would have seen, Perseus has had an exceptional year despite the challenges of COVID-19, delivering improvements across most of its financial metrics. Revenue is obviously up 15%, up to AUD 678 million. Profit after tax is up 47.6% to AUD 139 million. These indeed generated AUD 302 million of operating cash flow and our net tangible assets are up 10%. As Jeff mentioned, we've got the exciting news about our dividend policy, which he'll talk to later today.
To go in a little bit more and focus on our growth and earnings, revenue, as Jeff said, is up, and that has largely been aided by the average gold price, but definitely the contribution of the Sissingué Gold Mine, the great success of bringing on the Yaouré Gold Mine on schedule and on budget, and obviously slightly offset by the expected lower production at Edikan this year. That high revenue delivered an 11% increase year-over-year in the EBITDA. This was obviously just with an associated increase in cost of sales, which is linked to the increased production and the inclusion of the Yaouré Gold Mine costs from the commercial production commencing on the 1st of April 2021. Gross profit from operations is up 42% due to the impact on the EBITDA and a 22% decrease in depreciation and amortization.
This is as a result of less ore mined in both Edikan and Sissingué and resulting in the decreasing of the amortization charge when compared to the previous year. If we focus on the profit after tax, this delivered an exceptional 47.6% increase and included a reduction in taxation at Edikan due to slightly reduced taxable profits there. It was also offset by a write-down in impairment expense of AUD 6.8 million, which was largely in relation to exploration expenditure written off on near-mine targets at Sissingué and Edikan, and a foreign exchange loss of about AUD 4.4 million versus a gain of AUD 13.7 million in the previous year, which is just largely on our intercompany loan structures.
That growth in earnings has culminated in a basic earnings per share increase of 18.4% on the previous year, giving us AUD 0.0957 per share, despite a 4% increase in the weighted average number of shares. Likewise, our earnings per ounce continued its upward trajectory, increasing by 25% to AUD 458, with Yaouré only contributing for the last quarter post commercial production of 1 April. If I move on to the cash flow, the operating cash flow from operations increased by 42% to AUD 302 million on the back of the increased production, increased average sale price, and our continued focus on maintaining low costs. The cash flow generation was invested in the finalisation of the Yaouré Gold Project, continued exploration of key targets, and aligned with our capital allocation focus, we made two accelerated repayments of debt totaling $50 million during the year.
We also saw an increase in the operating cash flow from operations, which resulted in a 36.5% in our operating cash flow per share of AUD 0.2487, and a 20% increase in the operating cash flow per ounce of AUD 994. This continued focus remains to deliver on our 500,000 oz of gold at a cash margin of not less than $400 an ounce. Our growth in net tangible assets and the overall balance sheet of Perseus is strong, with cash and bullion balance of AUD 208 million and interest-bearing liabilities of AUD 133 million, moving the group into a net cash position of AUD 75 million at financial year-end. With the Yaouré Development Project completed, the required capital expenditure is significantly reduced and we are focused on strategic capital allocation with future reduction of interest-bearing debt and strategic organic growth opportunities.
Our net tangible assets increased by 10%, with key contributions being the reduction in the interest-bearing liabilities due to the repayment of our $50 million of US dollar debt and the investment in the ramp-up and commissioning of the Yaouré Gold Mine and obviously acquisition of the Exore, which was finalized September 2020. Overall, you can see that we've delivered a solid set of financial results and we're really looking forward to an exciting 2022. On that, I'll hand over to Jeff Quartermaine to talk us through the guidance.
Okay. Thanks, Lee-Anne. Yes, absolutely, the financial results we've reported are very strong and as I said earlier on, we do expect that to continue into the next reporting periods. We have provided market guidance with our quarterly report and certainly for this December half year, we're expecting to be producing in the range of 225,000 oz- 255,000 oz . That's an increase certainly on where we've been in the past, and the cost will range in the order of AUD 925-AUD 1,025. Given all that for the year, for the calendar year, something in the order of 416,000 oz- 446,000 oz at a range of costs in the AUD 975-AUD 1,035 mark.
Certainly this upward trajectory that we have spoken of is well and truly in train. Our target of achieving the 500,000 oz per year level is well within our grasp. Now, in terms of the dividend policy that we have spoken of already, and also the capital allocation policy, as Lee-Anne mentioned, we will be generating a lot of cash coming forward in future years if we can maintain our production forecasts and costs, which we expect to do. Principally, there are three areas where we will be deploying capital.
One is in managing our balance sheet, two is managing our future growth, but the third is that we're very keen to return capital to our shareholders by way of a dividend. Now, in this particular year, due to some restructuring considerations of the company, we have declared this return via a capital return, a shareholder approved capital return, in fact. Shareholders will be asked to approve this reduction at the annual general meeting that will be held later in November this year. We will be publishing fairly shortly a full timetable for this. We do hope to have a neutral ruling from the Australian Taxation Office around any tax implications that apply to the return.
This will all come out to shareholders in the next month or so as material comes to hand. In terms of the policy itself, what we have decided to do is the return is that we've announced today represents approximately 1% annual yield this year. We will continue to have this level in future years, making semi-annual dividend payments along the way, but ultimately amounting to 1% during the course of the year. Those announcements will be made to coincide with half year and full year financial results of course. What we do is that we do reserve the right at various times to increase that amount return to shareholders either through a special dividend or potentially through share buybacks.
If we feel that we do have cash that's surplus to our requirements and we'll certainly share that with shareholders. We have started the policy or started the distribution at a relatively low level. What this should be seen to represent is a very strong level of confidence by the company in our future cash flows and our ability to maintain, at the very least, this level of return to shareholders. We would certainly be expecting, given the projected cash flows, to be able to increase this over time. Where we sit today and what our cash balances are today, we think that an allocation representing a 1% yield is a fair and sensible distribution to be made to shareholders.
You know, it's an exciting time for Perseus. You know, it's been quite a journey, and a number of our shareholders have been with us all the way. I think that they will be pleased to finally receive a return from the company. I think that this is the beginning of a run that we believe will certainly benefit our shareholders quite significantly. With that, I think I'll bring our commentary to a close and open the floor to any particular questions. As I say, I'm very pleased to be joined by Lee-Anne, who will answer all the really hard questions, and all the easy ones she'll leave for me, I hope. Anyway, thank you very much for attending and happy to take questions.
Thanks, Jeff. If you would like to ask a question, please enter it into the Q and A panel within Zoom. Your first question comes from Reg Spencer at Canaccord. He's congratulated you on the financial result, and then he's asked, "When might we expect results from the Bagoé DFS?
Okay. That was not one in the financial results, Reg Spencer, just to address your question, we have actually completed the feasibility study. What we're doing at the present time is, we're not developing Bagoé as a standalone operation. We're developing it as part of the overall Sissingué complex. What we need to do is to work out how to optimally process ore from Sissingué, from Bagoé, from Fimbiasso, and Bagoé. We're well advanced on that exercise, later this quarter, we'll come out with an updated life of mine plan for the Sissingué complex per se, which incorporates all three of those properties.
I think that the astute readers of our updated reserve resource statement earlier this week would have noted a fairly material increase in the resource reserve around associated with Sissingué, and you can work back from that and see that when we do publish the updated life of mine plan later this quarter, there will be a fairly material increase in the life of that operation. We're very pleased about that. Anyway, the details will come out fairly shortly as we put the final touches on that work.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Patrick Collier at Credit Suisse. He says, "Are you able to comment on the decision to link the dividend policy to the share price? Were other measures considered?
Yes. We looked at the full spectrum of processes that people use. We decided that this was the most sensible for us at this particular time. Lee-Anne?
Yeah. I think we did do a detailed analysis. Obviously, our cash flows are very dictated by gold price and production profile. Obviously, that has an impact on our share price. Our view was generally if our share price is doing well, we're going to be doing well, which would mean that we're in a position to pay dividends.
I think the other thing I'd just like to add on this is that what Perseus aims to do is to tell its shareholders that they can rely on receiving the dividend from us. What we did not want to do was to declare a dividend one year based on a high gold price, and in the following year, if the gold price fell, have to reduce that dividend. Some people are quite happy doing that, but that's not what we want to do. What we want to do is to be able to represent to our shareholders that they can rely on us paying a consistent dividend over a period of time. It's just a matter of choice. This is what we think works best for us right now. We're obviously open to reassessing the situation if it becomes compelling to do something different.
We think that this suits Perseus very well.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker at Global Mining Research. He's asked if you could outline details on the tax holiday at Sissingué and Yaouré.
Yeah. Well, we have a mining convention with the state covering both of those operations. In each instance, we are actually, in the mining convention, what it does is it locks in the fiscal terms that applied at the time of writing for the duration of the project. It also allows or provides for a tax holiday on corporate tax for a period of five years from commencement of commercial production.
Yeah.
In the case of Sissingué, we've been producing there since, what was that? January 2018, I think it was. I think it was the end of the first quarter 2018 that kicked in. Five years from then. Out to 2023, we will not be paying tax there. With Yaouré, we declared commercial production in, God, where did I go? In March this year.
March.
March this year as well. It's from there, five years taken me up. It doesn't mean to say that we pay zero tax because there are some taxes that we pay, indirect taxes and things of that nature. It certainly covers corporate taxes.
Thank you. Just one more from Adam as well. He's asked, "Are you able to provide FY 2022 D&A guidance?
G&A, did you say? Yeah.
D&A.
Yeah, no. Well, if you're talking about our corporate office, we run at around, it's about $12 million a year U.S. a year, something of that order. It's not very far from that. In terms of, I think in the accounts, it picks up corporate costs associated with our regional offices as well. If you look at the amount that's in the financial statements, I can assure you that is not what is spent on our Perth office. What we spend here is a fraction of that. Going forward, I'm not exactly sure about the budget for the two regional offices, but we wouldn't be anticipating any kind of material increase over and above where we currently are, to be frank. If anything, we'd be looking to bring it down.
Thank you. Your last question comes from Peter at Reuters. He wants to know, is this a record profit for the company?
I think it must be very close to it. Going back in time, we did actually. I think it was in 2015, we had a fairly strong profit that was fairly well influenced by foreign exchange, if I remember correctly. In terms of substance, it certainly is a record. This is by far and away the best year of production and costs. In terms of real meaning, this is the one that I think marks us, the transition of us from now becoming a successful mid-tier gold producer.
Great. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand back to you, Jeff, for closing remarks.
Okay. Thanks very much, Nathan. Once again, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today. Clearly, we're pleased by the result and we certainly hope that you as interested parties are also impressed by it. As I said, this is the start of a new era in a sense. With the three mines now running very, very well, we do expect to be able to announce similar results in future periods, subject to gold price, et cetera. Certainly in terms of fundamentals, I think the company is in excellent condition, and we look forward to bringing you further news of that in coming reporting periods. Thank you very much.