Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL, VFEX:CMCL) CEO Mark Learmonth talked with Proactive about the company’s financial and operational highlights for the third quarter of 2025.
Caledonia Mining reported a strong financial performance, with profit after tax rising to just under $19.00 million, up significantly from approximately $3.00 million in the same quarter last year. Learmonth said this solid result was driven by strong production and a favourable gold price. The company produced just over 19,000 ounces of gold and sold around 20,000 ounces, with revenue exceeding $70.00 million, a more than 50% increase.
EBITDA rose to approximately $33.00 million for the quarter, and for the nine months of 2025, the company has now generated just under $100.00 million in EBITDA. “So profit after tax was just under $19 million... a solid financial quarter,” said Learmonth.
On cost management, Learmonth discussed the changes in Blanket mine’s structure since the commissioning of the central shaft, noting the increased depth and tonnage being hoisted. He outlined several cost-control measures, including reducing diesel use, better electricity monitoring, and improving worker efficiency through new clocking systems.
The interview also covered updates on Bilboes, where an announcement is expected imminently, and on exploration progress at Motapa. Learmonth also highlighted the appointment of July Ndlovu as a non-executive director, citing his valuable project experience.
Proactive: Mark, very good morning to you. Could you start by walking us through the key highlights of Caledonia Mining's third quarter financials?
Mark Learmonth: Yeah. Thank you. I think I’d characterise it as a solid quarter underpinned by solid production. Blanket produced just over 19,000 ounces. The quarter sold about 20,000 ounces. That was clearly good. We had a couple of production headwinds, but we overcame them — clearly helped by the gold price, which meant that revenue was up by over 50% to just over $70 million for the quarter.
That flowed through into a strong performance in terms of EBITDA. EBITDA for the quarter was about $33 million, compared to just under $13 million in the comparable quarter. For the nine months of the year, EBITDA is now just short of $100 million. So that fed down to the bottom line.
Profit after tax was just under $19 million, compared to about $3 million in the third quarter of 2025. So a solid financial quarter.
Proactive: Mark, what measures has the company implemented to manage costs?
Mark Learmonth: We need to recognise that Blanket is a very different operation now compared to five years ago before the central shaft was commissioned. In 2021, we were hoisting about 600,000 tonnes from 750 meters below surface — about 450 million tonne-meters. Now we're hoisting about 830,000 tonnes this year, most of that from 1,200 meters. So we’ve almost doubled our tonne-meters.
Even though we’re using electricity more efficiently, this results in higher costs. However, when benchmarked against similar older deep-level underground operations, Blanket isn’t out of line.
That said, we’re not complacent. We’ve installed measuring equipment to better monitor electricity use and aim to reduce our overall consumption. We're also trying to reduce the share of diesel in our energy mix. Diesel power costs about $0.45 to $0.50 per kilowatt-hour, while grid electricity is $0.12 to $0.13. Although diesel accounts for only 2% of our usage, reducing it would still help cut costs.
In terms of consumables, we’re seeing ongoing price increases — especially in the rocks used in road mills, which have gone up 10% annually for the past five years. We’re also reviewing costs in our trackless equipment segment.
We’ve installed clocking systems to improve workforce management, aiming to reduce overtime and fatigue.
However, we are not going back to on-mine costs of $850 per ounce, as we had in 2019–2020.
Proactive: Can you update us on the progress of the Bilboes and other projects?
Mark Learmonth: We're making great progress on Bilboes. In today’s press release, we used the word “imminent.” So we do expect to provide an update imminently. I’ll leave that there for now.
At Motapa, exploration is going well. We expect to declare a modest maiden resource sometime next year. That won’t be the end of the story, but it should reassure people that, having spent just over $8 million to acquire a large land package, there is definitely gold in those hills.
Proactive: Last week, you announced that July Ndlovu had become a director of the company. How do you believe his experience will strengthen the board?
Mark Learmonth: We’re very excited. July has had a long career in mining — initially at Anglo Platinum, and more recently at Thungela, a South African and Australian coal producer. He’s overseen project construction worth more than $120 billion.
As we prepare to implement Bilboes, his experience as a non-executive director will be invaluable. He’s not part of the executive team, but we’re very pleased to have him on board.
Proactive: What should we be looking out for from Caledonia as we approach the end of 2025?
Mark Learmonth: The most critical thing will be the imminent update on Bilboes. That’s going to be the most important development.
Proactive: Okay. Well, Mark, I'm sure we'll be chatting to you again soon. Thank you very much for the update today.