Berenberg remains bullish on Pan African Resources, pointing to operational improvements and continuous operations at the company’s Barberton underground mines.

The bank maintains a ’Buy’ rating on the Rosebank-hadquartered gold producer and keeps its price target at 25 pence.

In London, shares in Pan African were down 0.7% at 13.84p on Friday but they gained 2.2% to R 3.28 in Johannesburg.

Pan African will release its financial results for the year that ended June 30 on Wednesday next week.

Early last month, Pan African said its annual output was 175,209 ounces for the financial year that ended June 30, down 15% from 205,459 ounces a year earlier.

Berenberg estimates the company’s full-year revenue at $318 million, from $376.4 million for the year that ended June 30, 2022.

The bank said Pan African has noted that operational improvements and continuous operations at Barberton underground have started to positively impact production. It said: ‘we look for further details to back this up and build confidence that operations have stabilised following challenges, including electricity supply disruptions, in the March quarter’.

‘Following the announcement on 1 August of secured project funding and environmental authorisation for Mintails, we expect an update on initial project progress and scheduling, including procurement of long-lead items,’ it added.

Pan African said on August production at its new Mintails plant will start in the second half of next year.

It said the construction of the Mintails tailings retreatment plant will start after raising R 2.5 billion in debt funding for the project.

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