West African Resources Ltd (ASX: WAF) shares are having a strong session on Wednesday.
In morning trade, the ASX 200 gold stock is 5.5% to a record high of $3.38.
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Why is this ASX 200 gold stock racing higher?
Investors have been buying this gold miner's shares for a couple of reasons.
One is another rise in the gold price overnight. The other is the release of another strong quarterly update before the market open.
According to the release, fourth quarter gold production came in at 112,019 ounces, which underpinned gold sales of 105,995 ounces at an average price of US$4,058 per ounce.
This means that full year gold production was 300,383 ounces, which was in line with its guidance for 2025.
In addition, full year gold sales were strong at 280,065 ounces with an average price of US$3,525 per ounce.
This was despite a soft finish to the year from the Sanbrado operation in Burkina Faso. Its gold production decreased 17% quarter on quarter, mainly due to 14% lower mill throughput and a planned shutdown.
Sanbrado produced 49,732 ounces of gold during the quarter from 745,000 tonnes of ore milled at a head grade of 2.2g/t and recovery of 93.2%. This brought full year 2025 gold production to 205,228 ounces for Sanbrado.
Over at the Kiaka operation, it reported a 208% increase in gold production quarter on quarter. This was driven primarily by a 25% increase in mill throughput and a 44% higher head grade.
During the quarter, Kiaka produced 62,287 ounces of gold from 2,174,000 tonnes of ore processed at an average head grade of 1.0 g/t and metallurgical recovery of 92.9%. This performance brought total 2025 production to 95,155 ounces.
Record year
Commenting on the ASX 200 gold stock's performance during the quarter, its executive chair and CEO, Richard Hyde, commented:
I would like to commend both our Sanbrado and Kiaka operational teams for achieving WAF's gold production guidance for a fifth consecutive year. Combined group gold production of 300,383 ounces from our Sanbrado and Kiaka gold mining centres for the full year 2025 was well within WAF's annual guidance of 290,000 to 360,000 ounces, and was a record year of production for WAF. We look forward to providing our full quarterly activities report in the coming weeks.
Following today's move, the West African Resources share price is now up approximately 125% since this time last year.
