With the gold price reaching record highs, Blyvoor Gold says it is aiming to capitalise on the windfall through an accelerated rollout of its growth and expansion plans.

Executive director Richard Floyd says the mine’s low all-in sustaining costs (AISC) and growing operational efficiency are supported by gold’s increasing appeal as a safe store of value.

“The high gold prices allow us to raise additional funds for investment into the mine’s operations to fund efficiency projects and accelerate our growth,” he highlights.

Gold reached a record-high price in 2020 in the midst of the economic instability created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The price has remained consistently high throughout this year and reached record rand gold prices in May, the company outlines.

“Declining global production levels have also contributed to higher gold prices. After global gold production peaked in 2018, production has continued to decline every year since and is currently at the same level as ten years ago. This, coupled with global cost inflation, should be expected to further drive up the price,” says COO Izak Marais.

Floyd believes gold is currently “an island of calm in the global maelstrom of wars, inflation, recession and the ongoing aftershocks of the pandemic”.

“Gold is often seen as a currency, but its demand side acts more like an insurance policy. In the face of global economic headwinds and political volatility, gold provides investors with a tool to buy into relative stability.

“This makes it an attractive investment that will continue to perform well despite broader macroeconomic uncertainty. In fact, between 2000 and 2020, gold delivered returns in real dollar terms of over 10%, exceeding the returns from US equities and similar Tier 1 investments,” he says.

Topping Blyvoor’s growth agenda is the continued restoration of the Blyvoor mine, with Floyd and the Blyvoor management team building on the $100-million that has been invested in the mine so far.

The mine was bought by Blyvoor Gold in 2015 after standing idle for a number of years.

“Our capital investment into Blyvoor has seen the restoration of large parts of our underground and surface operations, which will continue over the coming years. We are currently also expanding our underground operations, increasing the capacity at our processing plant and implementing further measures to improve our efficiency to ultimately drive down our AISC even further,” Floyd informs.

He is confident Blyvoor’s current AISC of under $1 000/oz will improve as the mine grows and achieves economies of scale.

“Working in close partnership with the Blyvoor employees and the Blyvoor community, we will continue to build a high-quality, profitable mining asset with a positive long-term outlook,” Floyd highlights.