Shareholders in the world’s largest gold mining company stand to benefit from a substantial dividend increase this year, with US-based major Newmont on Monday announcing a planned quarterly dividend hike of 79%.

The dividend increase to $0.25 a share, or $1 a year, would become effective upon approval and declaration of the first-quarter dividend in April, the miner, which enters its centenary year in May 2020, said in a statement.

Newmont added that it planned to continue to execute on its recently announced stock repurchase programme for up to $1-billion of common equity. For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the company used the repurchase programme to retire 12.4-million shares totalling $506-million.

Altogether, Newmont returned about $1.4-billion to shareholders in 2019, the Tom Palmer-led firm reported.

“Our first-quarter dividend will offer investors a highly competitive dividend yield and enhanced returns from owning shares of the world’s leading gold company,” Palmer commented.

Meanwhile, Newmont also refreshed its brand, name and logo by dropping ‘Goldcorp’ from its name. The 2019 merger with the Canadian company created Newmont Goldcorp and the mining major used the longer name for nearly a year.

“We successfully completed two historic transactions in 2019, which have transformed Newmont into a truly international organisation with an unmatched portfolio of assets and prospects in top-tier jurisdictions around the world,” said Palmer.

“As this company has done many times in the past, Newmont has demonstrated its ability to adapt to change, which is truly a hallmark of our success over the last 100 years. Updating our brand represents a natural step as we approach the next 100 years in Newmont’s long and proud legacy of operating discipline, profitable growth, environmental stewardship, and developing the industry’s best talent.”

The major explained that the ‘Newmont’ name was well recognised and had been an iconic brand among the S&P 500 and various indexes.

The updated Newmont logo leverages the gold triangle from the previous logo – which represents the apex of the industry and the pinnacle of leadership – to anchor the strength and stability conveyed by the new logo.

“While our proven strategy and core values remain key to our ongoing success, we’ve updated and adapted our brand to reflect our position as a transformed business and the world’s leading gold company,” Palmer added.

Newmont’s portfolio has 12 assets, located on four continents. The company on January 3 completed the sale of its 50% of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, the owner of the Super Pit mine in Western Australia, to Australian miner Northern Star Resources, receiving $800-million. It also has in place agreements to sell the Red Lake mine, in Canada, to Australia’s Evolution Mining for $375-million and its 19.9% stake in Colombia-focused Continental Gold for $260-million.

The major expects to receive more than $1.4-billion in cash proceeds in the first quarter of this year, thereby meeting its divestment goal of $1-billion to $1.5-billion announced following last year’s tie-up with Goldcorp.