Good omen for goldies as Evolution Mining smashes profit record in results curtain raiser

WA’s bevy of gold miners are set to reveal they have been printing cash hand over fist — more so than some may have expected — after Evolution Mining released its full-year financial results. Evolution — the second-largest Australian-headquartered gold miner — on Wednesday tabled its financials for the 12 months to June 30, unveiling a profit increase from $163.5 million to $422.3m. This is a record annual bottom line for the company. Citi analyst Kate McCutcheon said the figure was 15 per cent higher than consensus estimates. The cash generated from Evolution’s mining operations went up a staggering 1533 per cent from $35.7m in the 2023 financial year to $583.1m for FY2024. Evolution will now more than double its final dividend to 5¢ a share — up from last year’s 2¢ a share. The company’s shares soared more than 7 per cent in early trade on the back of the results. “The record financial performance and excellent progress we have made on deleveraging the balance sheet and the more than doubling of the final dividend, while continuing to invest in our various project opportunities are testament to our strategy and capital allocation discipline,” managing director Lawrie Conway said. “We are ideally positioned for FY2025, which will see us continue our high cash generation through planned higher production, at a sector leading cost position.” Evolution’s profit growth stemmed from gold production rising 10 per cent to 716,700 ounces — despite heavy rain impacting output on from its east coast mines — combined with the gold price shattering records over FY2024 by increasing more than 20 per cent. Evolution is the first gold producer to release its full-year financial results, providing a good barometer of what’s in store for the shareholders of its industry peers. On Monday the company revealed it was the target of a cyberattack, but said the threat had been quashed and there would not be a material impact on operations. Evolution has two mines in NSW, two in Queensland, and one in WA — the Mungari gold project, about 20km west of Kalgoorlie. It also owns the Red Lake mine in Canadian province of Ontario.