Operator
Welcome to the Caledonia Mining Q1 2026 Results Presentation. I would like to now hand over to Mark Learmonth, who’s the CEO, to begin the results presentation. Mark, over to you.
Mark Learmonth
CEO & Non-Independent Director
Thank you, and welcome to this results presentation for the first quarter of 2026. Can we just move through to the presenting team? I actually can’t see the slides there. just move through to the presenting team. So as you hear, I’m Mark Learmonth Mark, Caledonia’s CEO. I’m joined by Ross Jerrard, the CFO; Victor Gapare, Executive Director. We’re not altogether certain if Craig Harvey will be able to join us. We’re having some connectivity issues to Johannesburg, which is where he is. So Craig may or may not join us. And then there’s Maurice Mason, Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. So that’s the team. Should we move on?
Okay. Just by summary, as we’ve previously announced, gold production in the first quarter was somewhat challenged. There’s about 14,700 ounces of production from Blanket mine. And that was entirely due to, as you’ll see in a moment, the lower grades mined during the quarter. Notwithstanding the lower production, financial performance was still robust, supported by the higher gold price environment. So revenue was up 18% to just over $66 million. Profit was also higher. Profit after tax was up nearly 70% to nearly $19 million, but also very strong cash generation, in particular, free cash flow more or less tripled from $4 million to $12 million in the quarter.
