Welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. All attendees are in a listen-only mode. If you'd like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and CEO, Jeff Quartermaine. Thank you, Jeff.
Thanks very much, Nathan. And yes, welcome to Perseus Mining's webinar to discuss our December 2024 Interim Financial Report. This document, along with a range of related documents, was released to the market earlier this morning. I'm joined today by my colleague, Lee-Anne de Bruin, who, as you know, is Perseus' Chief Financial Officer. Lee-Anne and her team have been working tirelessly to produce this financial report, and full thanks go to her and all of her team members for their excellent work. I'll ask Lee-Anne to take you through the details of the report in just a moment. When she's done, I will share a few thoughts with you on the way forward for Perseus. And then, as Nathan has already indicated, we'll continue to conclude today's webinar with a Q&A session.
If you're listening to this webinar through your computer, you should be able to follow the presentation on your screen. If not, it has been released to the market, and you could take a look at it later on. Now, over to you, Lee-Anne. Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff. And hello, everybody on the call. Thanks so much for joining us. As you can see from the summary and fund review, we've had a market-leading performance again in this December 2024 half-year. Thanks very much to our operational team, who have worked continuously and consistently to deliver these easy-to-present set of financials when you've got your operational team supporting you in this way. Gold produced for the half year was at about 253,709 ounces in the upper half of the guided production. Our all-In Site cost was $1,162 per ounce, well below the guided cost range. Our average gold sales price was up 13% at $2,350 per ounce, delivering a notional cash flow of up 27% of $300 million.
We ended the financial or the calendar year with a net cash and bullion on the balance sheet of $704 million. This was an increase of $117 million in the six months. As you can see, this has helped us deliver a very strong financial performance, which is translated into these very strong performance metrics. The revenue for the year was up at $582 million, or an equivalent AUD 880 million - sorry, Aussie dollars - for the six months. This was largely aided by the 13% increase in gold price achieved for the six-month period. Profit after tax is up at 22%, delivering $201 million, or Aussie dollar of AUD 304 million. Our three operating sites delivered $248 million in operating cash flow, or AUD 375 million. Net tangible assets ended the calendar year at $1.3 billion, or AUD 2.1 billion.
This was largely attributable to an increase in amortization and depreciation for the year, which was then offset by our increase in cash and bullion on hand. Importantly, the board also resolved to declare an interim dividend of AUD 0.025, which is up 100% on the interim dividend in 2024. Once again, Perseus has then delivered a strong growth in earnings, as you can see from the chart on the right-hand side. EBITDA is up at AUD 353 million, or AUD 533 million Australian due to the increased average sales price I mentioned earlier, offset incrementally by an increase in cost of sales for the period. Our gross profit from operations is up 26%, despite the 27% increase in depreciation and amortization, which was attributable largely to an increase in mining of ore reserve tons at Yaouré during the six months.
Basic earnings per share is up 22% at AUD 12.96, or AUD 19.6. And the earnings per ounce, importantly, a key focus for us, is up 25% at $819, or AUD 1,239 per ounce. So cash flow, as you can see, continues to grow. You've seen that there's consistent growth from us since way back in 2021. And as I mentioned, we've delivered AUD 248 million in cash flow from operations for the period. And this gave us $0.18 per share in operating cash flow, up 17%. Operating cash flow per ounce is AUD 976 per ounce, as I mentioned previously. So a strong operational cash delivery from Perseus. Shifting our focus to the balance sheet, we ended, as I mentioned, with cash and bullion of AUD 704 million, or AUD 1.1 billion Australian dollars, with no drawn debt at the end of December.
Our net tangible asset per share is sitting at AUD 0.97 per share, or AUD 1.56. This is our favorite graph, which shows how we've delivered increasing margins over the last couple of years. All three mines have performed consistently, following temporary setbacks early in H1 2025. This elevated gold price and falling unit costs contributed to our $700 million cash and bullion on hand at the end of the period, with strong operating cash flows. As communicated in our most recent quarterly, guidance is maintained for the FY 2024 at between 470,000-504,000 ounces at an All-In Site Cost of $1,250-$1,280 for the period ended June 2025. As I referred to up at the front, off the back of the strong cash flow performance, the Perseus board has resolved to declare AUD 0.025 per share dividend.
This will equate to an interim dividend payout of about AUD 21.3 million, or about AUD 32 million. You'll recall we announced our share buyback in August 2024, and the intention was to invest up to AUD 100 million in an on-market share performance buyback. As of the 10th of February, we have purchased back AUD 4.7 million shares at an average price of AUD 2.59. To date, we're about 12% of our target, having spent AUD 12.2 million. We point out that we do have interruptions to this program through the buyback period, through blackout periods related to market announcements. With that, I'll hand over to Jeff to talk about the way forward.
Okay, thanks very much, Lee-Anne. I think people would agree that they are a pretty decent set of financial results. Of course, what that then does is it throws the spotlight onto the future and what can shareholders expect from the company going forward. Now, as Lee-Anne has already pointed out, our market guidance remains unchanged. It's around 470,000-505,000 for the financial year, that's $1,250-$1,280. The results for December are obviously certain. We're now one or nearly two months through the next six-month period. I can say at this particular point that if we remain on the current path that we're on, we're going to finish our period towards the top end of the production guidance range.
As far as costs are concerned, it does appear from one month, and I stress this is only one month, not six months, but certainly from the first month of the period, we have been a little conservative in our cost estimation, and our costs are running below the bottom end of the range. There is time for that to change before we finalize those results. The bottom line is that our production and financial performance going forward looks as strong as it has been in the past. In terms of sustainability, as people know, that Perseus places a very high emphasis on the maintenance of our social license to operate in all of its forms.
That is something that we are continuing to focus on, to continue to look for ways of generating maximum benefits for all of our stakeholders, including, of course, shareholders, but also including, very importantly, our host governments, host communities, employees, and suppliers of goods and services. Now, speaking of shareholder returns, capital management is something that takes a lot of our attention, that and growth of the company. And quite clearly here, what we're seeking to do is to maintain a balanced capital structure so that we can provide benefits to our shareholders, but at the same time, retain capacity to continue to fund our future growth. Now, as Lee-Anne has mentioned, we have embarked on our first share buyback program.
The first six months of that program have been a little slower than one might have anticipated as we've come to become familiar with how to use the buyback process in order to benefit shareholders. I think that we've learned a lot from that. And when we get beyond the current blackout period, we will be a little bit more aggressive in the way we use that function. Now, speaking of growth, this is something that does tend to dominate discussion when we meet with shareholders. What are you going to do with all of that cash that you've accumulated is the question. Now, what we're doing is we're working on at several levels. We're working very hard at the present time to determine whether, in fact, our existing mine lives are able to be extended.
To put this in perspective, when we originally designed our mines at Edikan and Sissingué, we used very low gold prices compared to today's spot prices. And so we're going back and taking a look to see whether an elevated gold price in the design is going to generate further ounces and life extensions at costs that are acceptable to the company. At the end of the day, we will need to study the results of this work and work out, is Perseus better off extending mine lives, producing more ounces, even if it comes at higher costs, or should we retain our focus on absolutely minimizing cash costs by all measures. The difference between the two really is one's outlook on the gold price going forward. Are we in a stronger for longer environment or not? But that's a body of work that's going on at the present time.
Results of that will be released to the market in due course later in the June quarter. And people will be able to see precisely what the life expectancy of our properties are going forward. And I'm sure that you won't be dissatisfied with what comes out of that. The other activity that we're busily involved in is preparing for the commencement of the underground mine at our Yaouré project in Côte d'Ivoire. Now, this is the first underground mine for Côte d'Ivoire. We appointed the contractor some time ago, and they will be appearing on the site very, very shortly. And in the interim period, operational readiness is the focus. And we look like we're very keen to hit the ground running when the contractor assembles on site and starts bringing in the first equipment.
The other piece of work that's keeping us very busy at the moment is working towards the commencement of the Nyanzaga Gold Project development in Tanzania. Physically, we are ready to go. There are a few issues that we want to finally resolve with the government of Tanzania before we press the go button. We've actually reached reasonable agreement on the specific issues. What we're looking at now is the best method of implementing change such that these altered positions have the full force of law going forward. As we've said to our host government, we're going to be partners for a very long time, so it makes a lot of sense to get this right before we start, so that's something that's coming along very quickly.
We'll be very, very, very keen to get into work there shortly and be in a position to deliver first gold from that project in January 2027. Now, the other area of work that we're busily engaged upon, of course, is on looking for new opportunities for growth. These opportunities will come from one of four areas. They'll either be near mine resources that we can acquire and put through our existing processing facilities. We're looking at pre-development projects that we can put through our engineering pipeline and deliver value for shareholders by engineering, building, and operating these properties. We're also looking at existing production or bolt-on opportunities where perhaps existing operations may be able to be improved through our stewardship. We're looking at possible transformational transactions.
Now, all of these opportunities that we're looking at are things that are based on the African continent, as we are, and of course, it's fair to say that the number of opportunities available is reasonably limited. However, we are working on several of these, and we will push forward if and when they merit further work. Now, it'd be remiss of me not to mention our shareholding in Predictive. This is something that's been a topic of conversation among a lot of shareholders in recent weeks. The situation with Predictive is we do have a shareholding, I think it's about AUD 0.178-AUD 0.179 following the issue of some shares about a week ago. Where we stand at the moment is that we need to evaluate that opportunity thoroughly, and if it makes sense for Perseus, then we would move forward.
However, I stress the point, if it does not make sense, then we will not be moving forward, and we'll look to liquidate the position. The thing is that that company, in our view, is very expensive right now, not particularly helped by the share placement last week, but nevertheless, it's an expensive proposition, particularly when you look at the acquisition price of the company, the cost to develop the project, and any taxes related to the transaction. And so given that Perseus's role is to be a good steward of you, of you, the shareholders' money, we need to be entirely certain that we can generate a very satisfactory return on your money before we move forward. So yes, we are looking at Predictive, but I have to say we are quite some distance away from activating that situation. So that about brings it to an end.
As we've said earlier, we're very happy with the operating and financial performance from the December half year. And we're looking forward very much to the next six months and being able to continue bringing you results of this type as we go forward. So thank you very much, and very happy now to take any questions that you may have.
Thank you, Jeff. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. Your first question comes from Andrew Bowler at Macquarie. Please go ahead, Andrew.
Jeff and Lee-Anne. First one for me is probably for Lee-Anne, just looking at the restructuring costs of AUD 18.2 million at Edikan. Just wondering if there's any carryover into the second half or whether that was all completed within the half, and what was the reason behind those changes to the staffing contracts?
Yeah, sure, Andrew. No problem. No, that was a completion of a program that we've been running, and there'll be no runover into next financial year, and generally, what it's related to is moving a number of our staff at Edikan onto fixed-term contracts, which is very common practice in Ghana at the moment, but that required a trigger of a number of their redundancy and retrenchment payments, so that's what that related to, but there's no hangover in next for next year. That's the end of it.
No worries. Thanks. And last one from me, Jeff. I was wondering if you could just elaborate on your comments earlier about the first month you're running under guidance for costs. Just if you could just elaborate on why that is. Is it significant and material? Is it lower movement costs, lower diesel prices, or just everything seems to be heading in the right direction at the moment through productivities?
Yeah, no, that was, I think there were a couple of specific issues that gave rise to that, and one was a slower rate of expenditure on sustaining capital. We've got a number of projects earmarked around the Yaouré site that have just taken a little bit longer than we might otherwise have liked to get fully mobilized on. There's that, and also too, in the mining at Yaouré, the haul distances during the month were shorter than what we had originally budgeted, so we've been able to cut down on mining costs. That's why I say that over time, it may even out a little, but I do think we've perhaps been, we have been fairly consistently conservative in our cost estimation over time. Because I guess we look at the market and we see that a lot of our peers are experiencing pretty heavy cost inflationary forces.
We anticipate that we won't be isolated from that forever. Notwithstanding the business improvement initiatives that we're constantly seeking to accommodate those inflationary forces. We're moving along. I think it's a little bit early to be conclusive about anything, but we're on the right track, at least anyway.
No worries. That's all from me. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry at UBS. Please go ahead, Levi.
Yeah, Thanks, Nathan. Thanks, Jeff and Lee-Anne. Maybe, Jeff, could you please just expand where you can on Nyanzaga? What are the elements that you're waiting for? What are the updates that we're going to see here before you can commence FID?
The only things that you'll see is that we've signed the agreements with the government. I mean, what we're looking at, there's a couple of elements in an existing framework agreement that are unclear as written. Just to put this in perspective, there was a change to mining regulations in Tanzania in 2020. The framework agreement was signed in 2021, and then there were further amendments made in 2022. Now, what we're very keen to ensure is that there is no ambiguity as to what the prevailing law is that governs some of the clauses in the framework agreement. And they're not things of massive, well, they are things of importance. They're all important. But they're things that we need to have certainty on going forward. I mean, for instance, repayment of VAT during construction is a critical item. We are looking for that refund to occur.
The corporate structure of the holding in Nyanzaga is a little clumsy and needs to be refined, and we need to do that in a fairly simplistic way. So there are things like that. There's also another one that's a little bit silly in a sense that we will be funding the project through intercompany loans that don't carry any debt, i.e., no interest rate, and the way things are written, the tax department might feel inclined to deem an interest rate and then charge withholding tax on a deemed interest rate. Now, clearly, that makes no sense. If they want to do things like that, then we will charge interest, which is not in their best interest in any event. So none of these things are tremendously earth-shattering. However, if we are going to have an enduring relationship, we need to remove any ambiguity upfront, even if it takes a month or two to put these in and give them the full force of law, so that's what we're talking about there.
Okay. Thank you. And just your comments around higher prices and looking at mine life extensions. And I'm actually particularly thinking about Nyanzaga, how it could be optimized in a higher price environment. But can you just and I assume that can't happen until...
Nyanzaga is not actually one that's on the table for this. I mean, what we actually are doing with Nyanzaga is we did a confirmatory drill out since we acquired the property and have confirmed that the resource and reserve as it stands is very solid based on the numbers that we're using. What we will be doing there in the next 12 months, however, is doing a further drill out program. We believe that with that further drill out program, we'll be able to convert a lot of inferred material into measured or indicated, which will then go to the reserve. That's the exercise. That'll substantially increase the reserve. That's the exercise at Nyanzaga. On Sissingué and Edikan, for instance, I mean, we've used different numbers for designing pit shells, typically around $1,500 an ounce.
Now, one can question whether that's the right number when you're receiving $2,900 an ounce for your gold. As I say, what it means is that if you use a higher gold price for your pit designs, the incremental ounce will come out at a higher cost. Then we need to consider is that what Perseus wants to do. Do we want to lift our weighted average all-in site cost? Or do we want to keep our costs down and focus on maximizing that cash flow? As I said earlier on, the decision really does come down to your view on gold prices, whether they're going to be stronger for longer. What we wouldn't like to do is to embark on a cutback of a pit at a higher price, have the gold price fall, and then find out that we've actually wasted capital doing the stripping because we can't make money off the incremental ounces. So it's quite an exercise to do. And whatever decision we reach will be founded in hardcore facts.
Yep. Okay. Thank you, and just the timing around that piece of work, is it a six-month job, twelve-month job?
We've been working on it for a while, so we're looking forward to releasing that early in the June quarter, actually.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your time.
Thank you, Levi. Your next question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey. Please go ahead, Richard. Just unmute, Richard.
There we go. Hi, Jeff and Lee-Anne. Just a quick one from me, just following up on Nyanzaga. Just keen to understand at what point we sort of get into hit critical path in terms of delivering a January 27 commissioning on that project.
Yep. Good question. I mean, if we were to extend the startup date well into the June quarter, I think that date would be under pressure. But we're hopeful of getting away much sooner than that.
Okay. Thanks. That was it from me.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Jeff for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, thanks very much, Nathan, and thanks, everybody, for attending today's call. As I said, we're fairly comfortable with these results, and we're looking forward to continuing to be able to bring such results to you in future periods. Thank you very much.