Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc

Blanket Mine Q4 and FY 2023 Production and 2024 Guidance

Stable production at Blanket with continued focus on expansion

(NYSE AMERICAN, AIM and VFEX: CMCL)

St Helier, January 12, 2024 – Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc (AIM: CMCL) (“Caledonia” or the “Company”) announces Blanket Mine (“Blanket”) production for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2023.  The Company also provides guidance for the year to December 31, 2024 in respect of production, costs and capital expenditure. All production numbers are expressed on a 100 per cent basis and based on final assays from the refiner.

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Mark Learmonth, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“I am pleased that, after a challenging first half, we successfully met production guidance for the year, producing 75,416 gold ounces.

 

“Our 2024 guidance of 74,000 to 78,000 ounces assumes that Blanket will broadly maintain the production rate achieved in 2023 and reflects the prudent decision to suspend mining in lower margin areas which include lower grades and volumes, and higher costs.

 

“Our significant investment in Blanket over the past seven years and completion of the Central Shaft has nearly doubled production, extended the mine life and allowed the restart of underground exploration in 2023; in July we announced that the Eroica zone persists to depth and grades are significantly higher than previously thought.

 

“We continue to progress with the underground exploration programme and we expect to publish further exploration results in the first quarter of 2024 and a revised resource statement in the following quarter.

 

“Our wider capital expenditure programme continues to focus on unlocking value and delivering our multi-asset growth pipeline in Zimbabwe with Motapa and Bilboes, whilst maintaining a disciplined focus on cost and capital allocation.

 

“We continue to progress our feasibility studies for the Bilboes sulphide project with a view to determining the best option for Caledonia stakeholders, and I look forward to providing an update in due course.”

Production Summary and 2024 Guidance

·    Annual gold production at Blanket of 75,416 oz in 2023, in line with guidance

·    Quarterly gold production at Blanket of 20,172 oz in Q4 2023

·    2024 gold production guidance at Blanket of 74,000 to 78,000oz[1]

·   Budgeted capital expenditure for the group in 2024 is $34.4m, which includes planned exploration at Motapa and further work on the Bilboes feasibility studies

·    On-mine cost guidance at Blanket of between $870 and $970/oz

·    All-in sustaining cost guidance of between $1,370 and $1,470/oz.

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