West African Resources posts A$437m half-year profit on first full run from Kiaka

The Burkina Faso producer declared a 20c special dividend and plans to pay down debt faster

10 September 20263 min read

West African Resources posts A$437m half-year profit on first full run from Kiaka

West African Resources (WAF), the ASX-listed miner whose operations are all in Burkina Faso, reported a record net profit after tax of A$437m for the six months to June 2026, its first half-year with full contributions from both the Sanbrado and Kiaka mines. The result was released on 10 September.

Revenue for the half was A$1.46bn and operating cash flow A$690m. Gold production was 232,905oz at an AISC of $1,823/oz, and the company sold 214,883oz at an average realised price of $4,744/oz. At the end of June it held A$876m in cash plus 42,453oz of unsold bullion, and net cash of A$488.2m.

Special dividend and debt

The board declared an unfranked special dividend of 20c a share, totalling A$228.8m, with a record date of 18 September and payment on 7 October. The company also said it would accelerate repayments to its secured lenders over the next twelve months.

Executive chairman and CEO Richard Hyde said the group had delivered an outstanding first half on the back of combined production from its two processing hubs.

Kiaka and the state stake

Kiaka, in Burkina Faso's Centre-Est region, poured first gold in mid-2025 and has quickly become the company's largest mine. WAF guided Kiaka to 240,000oz to 280,000oz for 2026, within group guidance of 430,000oz to 490,000oz.

The mine's success has drawn the attention of the military-led government in Ouagadougou. In April, a decree authorised state miner SOPAMIB to buy a further 25% of Kiaka SA for about A$175m, lifting the state's holding from 15% to 40%. WAF has said it expects to complete that transaction by the end of 2026 and intends to pass the proceeds to shareholders as a separate special dividend. Sanbrado and the Toega deposit are unaffected.

The half also showed how much of the gold windfall is flowing to the state. WAF paid A$181.5m in royalties to the government in the six months, plus A$67.2m representing the state's 15% share of local profits. Under a royalty regime introduced in April 2025, the rate is 7% at gold prices between $2,000/oz and $3,000/oz and rises by one percentage point for every $500 above $3,000/oz, so WAF's average royalty cost per ounce climbed by A$460 year on year.

What comes next

WAF is advancing pre-production mining at Toega, which will feed the Sanbrado plant, and plans more than 100,000m of exploration drilling this year. Its ten-year outlook targets 5.3Moz of production between 2026 and 2035, an average of about 533,000oz a year, split between roughly 256,000oz a year from Sanbrado and 277,000oz from Kiaka.

The result shows why Sahel governments are pressing for larger shares of their gold mines: at current prices, a single new operation can generate hundreds of millions of dollars of profit in six months. It also shows that WAF, despite ceding part of Kiaka, remains highly cash-generative and able to reward shareholders while it builds its next deposits.