Sinking gold values have spelled much trouble for the Caledonia Mining Corporation (LSE: CMCL) share price. The AIM-quoted miner has fallen 25% during the past 12 months, trekking gold’s descent from August’s record peaks above $2,000 per ounce. The yellow metal was last trading around the $1,800 level.
But Caledonia Mining’s share price has jumped 7% to 965p on Tuesday, following the release of terrific production numbers. Gold output at the UK mining share announced record quarterly production of 16,710 ounces between April and June, it said. This was up around 24% from the same 2020 quarter.
Second-quarter production received a huge bump after Caledonia’s Central Shaft mine in Zimbabwe became fully operational in early April. It’s the country’s deepest gold mine and cost $67m over six years to come to fruition.
First half output up at Caledonia Mining
Those blowout quarterly numbers meant first-half production at Caledonia Mining rose a shade under 8% year-on-year to 29,907 ounces. The business affirmed its full-year target of between 61,000 and 67,000 gold ounces too. And it said it remains on track to produce 80,000 ounces a year from 2022.
In other news, Caledonia hiked its latest quarterly dividend to 13 cents from 12 cents, previously. Chief executive Steve Curtis said: “With the Central Shaft now in operation, the anticipated combination of rising production and declining capital investment gives us confidence to further increase the dividend payment in addition to providing funding for investment in new projects.”
Totally sinks following FY announcement
The Totally (LSE: TLY) share price hasn’t fared nearly as well as Caledonia Mining’s on Tuesday. The UK healthcare share is up 125% over the past 12 months. But it’s down 6% today at 40p following the release of full-year financials. I’d suggest this reflects the impact of healthy profit-taking following the company’s stratospheric rise during the Covid-19 crisis.
Totally — which provides a range of healthcare services across the UK and Ireland — said revenues rose 7.4% in the 12 months to March, to £113.7m. At its core Urgent Care division, sales improved 9.2% year-on-year to £105.4m, while turnover at Insourcing rose more than 200% to £3.1m. These increases offset a 37.6% decline at the company’s Planned Care unit. Sales here dropped to £5.2m.
Meanwhile, gross margins at group level improved to 18.3% from 18.1% in financial 2020. This all meant the AIM-listed business was able to swing back into profit. It recorded pre-tax earnings of £100,000 in fiscal 2021, versus the £3.4m loss it recorded a year earlier.
On top of this, Totally saw the amount of cash on its balance sheet improve to £14.8m last year from £8.9m, previously. It therefore kept the full-year dividend stable at 0.5p per share.
“The year was impacted throughout by the Covid-19 pandemic and as a trusted partner of the NHS the teams at Totally were part of the frontline resource providing care,” chairman Bob Holt commented.
He added that demand for the company’s services — which includes providing healthcare assistance on the NHS 111 service – increased “on an almost daily basis.”
