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spk01: My name is Cherie, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the B2 Gold fourth quarter and full year conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Clive Johnson, president, CEO, and director. You may begin your conference, sir.
spk02: Thanks, Sherry. Well, welcome, everyone. As the operator said, we're here to discuss the year-end financial results for 2022. We had a very good year again and achieved our production and consolidated cost guidance, ended in a very strong financial position for the year, and also did a We also declared another dividend of $0.04 a share for the quarter. I'm going to pass it over to Mike Sinema now, the CFO, who's going to walk you through the highlights of the financial results. I think our news release is quite extensive and other disclosure material. Mike, we'll get the highlights, and then we can answer your questions. You know, we've done a lot of marketing in the last couple of weeks since the announcement of the Sabina deal, and we can answer your expectations a little bit on that, and that's So with that, over to you, Mike.
spk05: Thanks, Claude. So I'll start with the quarter and then comment a little bit on the full year results. So for the quarter, I think the story for Q4 is that our operations came through and delivered on the sort of forecast that we were going to have a big Q4. I think if you may recall, by the end of Q3, we were close to budget, but there were some delays in production at both Focola because of water in the pit that was dewatered and then resolved at the start of the fourth quarter, and then some delays in Ochicoto just with accessing the Wolfshake Underground. So that led to a big forecast Q4 to catch up on some of the high grade that we weren't able to mine, and Q3 is originally scheduled. So good news is we delivered on it. In terms of results, that delivered gold revenues for $592 million, so that was based on the sale of 339,000 ounces, which is a bit higher than we budgeted to sell, and that's really a function of how high the production was. So if you look at production for the queue, from our three operating mines, 353,000 ounces. 35,000 ounces higher than budget, and it's a quarterly record for our operations. And if you include our share of caliber results, we had 368,000 ounces, which is almost 40,000 ounces higher than budget. The leader in that outperformance was Focola, 244,000 ounces in the quarter. 37,000 ounces higher than budget quarterly record. And like I said, it came mainly from processing that higher grade material out of Phase 6 of the Focola pit, some of which we can't process in Q3. But Focola basically continued to outperform all around. The processing facilities are still putting more material through them than, I guess, the nameplate. And the mill feet grade was higher. So positive on all aspects of Focola production. Ms. Batty was 49,000 ounces. It's pretty much right on budget. There were slightly lower gold recoveries during the quarter due to the nature of the higher ratio of sulfide and transitional ore versus budget, but that was offset by higher than expected feed grade, so it came in right on budget. Orge Dakota was 60,000 ounces, a little below budget, and that's really just a function of the timing to get into the Woolshag Underground. We got into the Woolshag Underground, started producing ore there and gold there. little later in Q4, so that's running well now, but we're slightly under budget in the Q. How does that factor into the operating results? Well, for the consolidated cash costs from all operations, including our share of Caliber, $468 per ounce, very close to budget overall. The COLA was pretty much in line with budget. It had slightly higher costs, but also record production, so it came in on budget. Ms. Batty was a bit higher. Ms. Batty, cash costs for the Q were $872 versus a budget of $752. And production was online, so it's really just a factor of inflation-driven higher costs, not almost exclusively, but mainly driven by fuel costs, which were higher for Ms. Batty in the period. And Ojikota was $465, and that's just $46 below budget. And that's really just a function of the timing of getting into the underground. There were lower underground mining costs because we were a little later getting into that than originally forecast. Put that all together, we pretty much came in in line with budget for the Q on the cash cost side. On the oil and sustaining cost side, the total oil and sustained cost per ounce, including our share of caliber, is $892 an ounce. That's about $130 an ounce higher than budget. And that's a function of broadly in line cash costs, as I described, but impacted by higher royalties due to higher gold price and also the main factor influencing it was the catch-up of budgeted sustaining capex so as we reported to the end of q3 uh some of the capex since it was originally scheduled for earlier in the year was was forecast to be caught up in q4 and overall we did catch up in the queue so that's why uh for the quarter we get higher than than uh budgeted all on sustaining costs when you put everything together on the cost side well firstly on the production side to comment, including our share of Caliber, we came in at 1,028,000 ounces, slightly above the upper half, or slightly above the midpoint of our guidance range, consolidated of 990 to 1050,000 ounces. So, good news, right in the range or in the upper half of it. Individually, FACOLA came in 599,000 ounces. Couldn't quite get it to that 600,000. We'll have to talk to Bill about that later. That was right at the top end of 70 to 600,000 ounces. Ms. Batty came in 213,000 ounces, slightly below the revised guidance range we had of 215 to 225. But remember, it was at the upper end of our original guidance range of 205 to 215,000 ounces. And note your code, 162,000 ounces, slightly below our revised guidance range of 165 to 175. And that, again, was just a function of the timing of getting into the wool shape, underground material, and the wrap-up of operations there. But overall, very pleased that we came in above the midpoint of our guidance range for the year. On the cash cost and sustaining cost side, as guided, I think we came in for the cash costs consolidated from all ops, including Caliber, $660 per ounce. So right at the top end of our original guidance range of $620 to $660. So I'd stress that that was the original guidance range. We didn't re-guide on the cash costs overall consolidated basis. So we're pleased. that even in a period of higher inflation, higher costs, definitely higher fuel costs, as all mining companies have seen, we still managed to come in at the upper end of our original range. And similar story for the oil and sustaining cost side. There we came in, consolidated all operations, including Caliber, $1,033 an ounce, so pretty much within a range of $1,010 to $1,050 per ounce. And what we saw there was cash costs at the higher end of the range. good solid production, and then the benefit of some offsets and fuel derivatives that let us come in overall within the all unsustaining cost range. So the operating results, we're pleased to be able to report that we had our guidance basically on all measures, so that was good. A few comments on the operations overall. First of all, I'd like to just throw out there how we're going to be describing and reporting the results from our Malian operations. Uh, so there'll be the focola mine, so we'll report that separately. That'll be focola mine, which is everything from the mid and anti permit, which includes focola pit right now in Cardinal. And then we're going to separately focola regional and that focola regional will be the production from all other licenses. So Bantaco, Mancoto, Bacalobi and Dendoco. And collectively we're calling the focola line and focola regional the focola complex. If you get confused about the different pieces, that's the way it's going to go. So I just wanted to throw that out there for you. At FACOLA, you've seen our budget. We put our budget out earlier in January, and you can see that we're already in phase one of FACOLA regional development, which is developing the infrastructure and the roads and some of the facilities so that we can start trucking material from the first of those FACOLA regional licenses, in this case, Montaco, later in 2023. So that's ongoing. Then you'll see in our recently announced Sabina acquisition. So what we're going to do is, in addition to Focola Regional Phase 1, there will be Focola Regional Phase 2. Focola Regional Phase 2 will be a report that we think will be out by mid-year where we're doing a study to see if it makes sense, which we think it does, to build a second mill somewhere in those other licenses, probably in the Manicota license. And that mill would process saprolyte oxide material, of which we have an abundance in those other licenses. So our goal with FACOLA Phase 1 to continue as we have now in the budget, then to be able to absorb the continued construction of the Goose project with the Sabina acquisition, with a goal of bringing that online by the first quarter of 2025. And then once we have this FACOLA Phase 2 study, the regional study for that second mill, and if we decide it's a go decision, then to schedule that around, making sure that we get the GUS project completed and up and running by the first quarter of 25. So you'll see us move into that second phase two FACOLA construction a bit later in the process. And Bill, I think, can talk a bit more about the overall scheduling and timing. A couple other comments. Gramalati project, as we announced before, we decided jointly with our partners, AG8, to begin a sales process on Gramalati. And so that's provide updates on that in due course. Then really just comment on a couple other things in the results. So net income for the period, attributable to shareholders of the company, $157 million, or 15 cents per share, EPS. Adjusted EPS was 11 cents a share based on adjusted net income of $121 million. And for the full year, Earnings for charitable shareholders of the company, $253 million, or $0.24 per share. EPS and adjusted EPS, $0.25 per share, based on adjusted net income of $264 million. Let me just comment on the cash flows. For the three months, you can see it was a big cash flow generator for us because of the weighting of that higher grade and the production that we had. So cash flow from operations, $270 million for the Q, was $0.25 per share. And then for the year, cash flow from operations, just under $600 million, $596 million, or $0.56 per share. So we're pleased with that result. On the financing side, if you look for the year, $170 million outflow for dividends. So we're maintaining that dividend of $0.04 per share U.S. per quarter or $0.16 per share annualized. And what I would comment on at this point on the dividend, it's our intention – Even as we absorb the CAPEX requirements for FACOLA Regional Phase 1, completing GUS with the Sabine acquisition, the construction there, and then FACOLA Phase 2, it's our intent to keep paying dividend at the current rate if gold prices stay where we are, to maintain our current dividend rate and work our way around those CAPEX needs. Looking at investing activities for the year, $389 million, pretty close to budget overall. On the operating and sustaining side, we found that although there was a big catch-up of sustaining capex in Q4, overall for the year, we came pretty close to budget. We finished the year $651 million in the bank. We're pretty much debt-free. We have some outstanding project equipment loans and leases and some office leases, but we're pretty much debt-free overall. So we've got $600 million undrawn on our line of credit. We've got another $200 million available in the recording feature. That's $800 million available in that line. And so if you combine that with the $651 million cash we finished the year with, we've got total liquidity at the balance sheet date of somewhere between $1.4 and $1.5 billion. So it's that kind of liquidity. We've got great syndicated banks that we deal with. We've got a great partner with Caterpillar, who's been involved in all of our projects in the last few years. and lots of tools in our toolbox to be able to see our way through funding those major CapEx items that I mentioned. FACOLA regional phase one, Sabina acquisition, getting that completed and getting the Goose project built on time as scheduled by the first quarter of 25 and then moving. Also funding FACOLA regional phase two. So I think we're in great shape overall, cash flow wise, and like I said, to also maintain that dividend at the current rates.
spk10: So thank you.
spk05: Those were the main items I was going to focus on or comment on as part of the overall results. So with that, I'll hand it back to Clive. Great. Thanks, Mike.
spk02: Obviously, we're very pleased with those results. A little bit popular about the Sabina acquisition. I think everyone's aware of it now. This was just a friendly all-share offer to Sabina, which represented the time of signing the deal was a 45% premium. to the Sabina share price at the time. And we're very pleased with the market response, I would say, so far. Both sets of shareholders, the B2 Gold and also the Sabina shareholders, responded very well to this deal. And we do think it's a win-win deal, which is what we've done and accomplished in many of our transactions in the past, where we can bring our strength to bear to an excellent project. Sabina represents, with Goose, a very high-grade, fully-permitted project, very attractive economics, very attractive exploration upside We continue to be very impressed with the work that was done by Sabina and their close relationship and the work they've been doing with our Inuit partner and the land owner in the Back River region. We look forward very much to working with both Sabina and our Inuit partners in terms of what they've already built on, which is a great platform to launch this project. It's in the construction already. We've talked about that a lot in our conference calls before, and some of the research has picked up on that, but we're comfortable with the schedule. We're comfortable with the projected capital cost, and this is going to be a team effort working to work with our well-regarded, very successful construction, exploration, development, production teams, working with this very strong team at Sabina that Bruce has done a very good job of getting the project in construction at this point. The deal itself to us was a very accretive deal. We had the opportunity and we were trading at 0.1 times now and they were trading at 0.4 times that asset value. So we were able to pay a significant premium yet stay within our parameters of an accretive deal. And I want to just talk a little bit about that because I think that there's been a lot of criticism for what are considered to be large premiums in the deals such as this. At the end of the day, we don't get too perturbed or obsessed with premiums where that we were prepared to offer to the senior shareholders of $1.1 billion Canadian of our shares. As I said, that represented a significant premium to the deal. But the fact of the matter is the premium was significant because of the fact that we're the stock in the trading, and obviously very difficult of a gold market, generally correct what he says, and great right now, but it's also particularly difficult for single asset development companies or exploration companies. So we were able to offer what we think was a fair value, a good deal for the shareholders of Sabina, and also stay within our parameters of what is an accreted deal to us. So the market response so far suggests that the market seems to understand that, and as I said, there's good widespread approval for the deal. I'm going to pass it over to Randall Chapman right now just to talk a little bit about the timing of the deal from that perspective.
spk10: Thanks, Clive. As you know, we signed the deal last week. The parties are working hard towards a schedule, and it currently looks like we were going to a subpoena shareholder meeting middle of April. The interim court hearing would be just prior to that time. Working backwards from there, that would mean a circular going out probably around the middle of March. And that would get us to a completion date about the third week of April. So I expect, you know, on the ordinary course of a BC plan arrangement, we would be done by the end of April, for sure.
spk02: And in the meantime, we've had lots of conversations with Bruce, and then we have, we're very much on the same page. We need to go to Sabina, which is maintaining the schedule that they're on now. A lot of important things are coming up now with the winter road and all those initiatives. So the idea from both sides is to maintain the schedule and do the work required as we move to close this deal to make sure that Bruce and his team are continuing on with the development they've been doing and wherever we can do the support and help. This is also a great exploration opportunity, I think we would say, as well, as this project has a tremendous potential in the Black River District, very large property, and some excellent geology and excellent drill results, suggesting that not only is Goose open down plunge, but there's another nearby zone called George, which is a significant resource so far. I think about 700,000 ounces and very much open. But also, our geologist eyes really light up, as I know, Bruce's team feels the same way when you think about the potential of this whole district. There's been some very good drill intercepts quite a long distance away from Goose and various sites that have not had extensive drilling. So one of the things that we do bring to the party is our approach to exploration and our ability to fund exploration. So as part of our plan here, we would be able to crank up exploration starting as soon as we can to test not only the down pledge potential of Goose and George. How big does that get? but also all these other targets. So understandably, we've been where Bruce and Sabina were before in our careers. You're trying to get a mine financed and built in a difficult circumstance, so your focus is obviously on everything you can do to continue to advance the project, and they've done a great job of that. Exploration is on a high priority list to spend at that stage, so I think that's a real advantage. Of course, as Sabina shows, as the deal closes, getting our shares will a great line, the expiration upside. Also, of course, this industry-leading dividend that we're paying would also be the shareholder system become B2 Gold shareholders. So strategically, this is a very good fit, we believe, a very good fit for B2 Gold going forward. second mill to the north, and that could be somewhere in $250-300 million of capital investment for that. But the potential there between those two phases would be to add up to 200,000 ounces of bulk production to Coca-Cola, which would take us 800,000 ounces a year level, at what we continue to expect to be low-cost production. So that's a great asset, and it's far from over in terms of the amount of exploration we're continuing to do now, not only in some places, but in the from Amazon to the north. So that fits in very well strategically, and the Goose River, the Goose Lake mine, rather, is the potential, as we've seen in disclosure, to produce 300,000 ounces of gold a year, starting in the current schedule for the first quarter of 2025. So if you put those two together, there's half a million ounces of annual production growth in the not-too-distant future here, with existing assets as the deal closes for B2 Gold. That's a great growth profile. all the exploration and other things that we're doing. We're very focused on that, as we've always been when we acquire a project. And in this case, you won't see us doing any significant mergers and acquisitions for the foreseeable future. We really like the growth profile. Obviously, this is some geographic diversification for us as well, which we were keyed on, and I know our shareholders were as well. So this is part of the strategy that's been going on for 12, 13 years now, accretive acquisitions with good exploration upside, building the mines in Very good construction work to be done, in this case, in conjunction with the Sabina team. And it fits right in our wheelhouse with our northern experience as well, of course, with two projects from the Bima days. In the north of Russia, a lot of the construction teams, some of the key members there are available to assist going forward. So strategically, it's a very good fit, and our strategy going forward will be to maintain our extraordinary financial strength, which allows us to do this deal, frankly, and continue to grow the company. but be very focused on the assets we have in-house. And as I said, the growth profile to us looks very exciting. We're very pleased with this new opportunity. And with that, I think we'll open up to questions.
spk01: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. One moment while we wait, while we compile the Q&A roster. Today's first question will come from the line of Ovias Habib with Scotiabank. Your line is open.
spk07: Thanks, operator. Congrats, Clive and B2 team, on ending 2022 on a strong note. Clive, just a couple of questions from me. starting off with the FECOLA complex. In the press release, and I think Mike Sullivan has also talked about the companies expecting the construction timeline for FECOLA regional stand-alone oxide mills will be scheduled to allow for completion of the project in, I guess, Q1 of 2025. So am I thinking of this correctly, that Anaconda stand-alone mill construction then would commence in early 2025? and does Pecola Complex production still achieve 800,000 ounces in 2026?
spk02: Yeah, I think I'll pass it over to Bill to respond to that, but before I do, that was in my notes, but I missed one of the things I want to really emphasize, because I think it's been, some people have missed it. We're not going to try and build two significant mills at the same time. We never have in our history. We're not going to start now. That's part of the focus that we talked about. So the way the schedule looks now, and Bill can respond, the whole idea is to schedule this in so we can do both and we can be very focused on both phases of expansion of Pecola, but in between those phases, the construction at Goose.
spk06: Thanks, Clyde. I think it's important really to understand where we're at in the permitting schedule for all this stuff. So if you think about the Anaconda Phase 1, that's been permitted, that's in construction. We see that coming online really in Q3 of this year. So Let's assume that that one happens. We just took the executive out there and everyone was quite impressed with where we're at. So that one's done. We think that one's a given. Now you've got the back river project, which is fully permitted. All of their equipment is coming to site. And basically, a lot of the foundational work, the groundwork has already been done. So when the ice road opens up here, they'll start dragging material down the road. and they're going to start doing rebar, concrete work, all the stuff, try and get the mill weathered in this year. So basically, they're quite a bit ahead of where Anaconda's at. So you can imagine a scenario where we stand up the mills or stand up the buildings with all the concrete and rebar and steel. That's what happens in 23. Now in 24, they'll be building... They'll be installing the mills and everything into the buildings for Q1 2025 commissioning. So you can imagine at the phase two anaconda stuff, what we're proposing is there will be a study completed at the end of Q2, which is on schedule. That will allow us really to kind of sequence what happens after in 2024. So you can see that the rebar people, the concrete people, they're going to be available in 2024. So I don't say... that we're going to move away from it and that it won't happen at 26. You could see a path where those guys could get into the Anaconda regional mill in 2024 and 2025, a two-year build, and hit the schedule right at 2026. So you'd see 23, phase one coming on, 25Q1, back river coming on, 26, sometime between 26 and 27, still yet to be defined because the study's not out yet, but the phase two Anaconda mill coming on. That's how we see it.
spk07: Got it, Bill. Thanks for that clarification. And just my second question just relates to that Pecola Complex study that you just talked about that's expected in Q2. Will the study specifically look at the standalone mill at Anaconda only, or this includes Pecola Underground as well, and then kind of general optimization of the Pecola Complex?
spk06: Right. So, we were just talking about it this morning. The Anaconda, the Phase 2 study really looks at the Anaconda Mill as part of the overall complex. It doesn't include the underground stuff, for sure, because that's within the Focola complex. But we are looking at additional sources of saprolite, right? Do you bring in Dendoco? What happens with Bacalovia? All that stuff, we're starting to figure out where it all goes. So it really is a regional look. And, of course, there is the zero alternative where you wouldn't do it. We don't see that as real, but that is part of the study.
spk07: Got it. Thanks for that, Bill. And just my last question, just switching gears to Musbate. Now, Musbate is expected to produce about 180,000 ounces this year. Bill, how should we be looking at Musbate kind of near and long-term? Should we be expecting, you know, production to remain at current levels over the next three to five years? And maybe if you can just give us a little bit of color on the exploration opportunity there, kind of to improve, increase the current mine life.
spk06: Yeah, so I'll do the first part, and then I guess, Vic, you probably do the second part. So what we did is we took a look at really the capital costs of replacing the fleet, and that's how we went from that. We had kind of a real short high output mine life, and then instead we went, as you just said, it's three to five years at kind of that 175, 185, and that's what we're going to see for sure. We've kind of normalized it by bringing back or reducing some of the capital costs for the fleet, which brought it down from 200,000 ounces but, of course, extended it that period, and then you see I think it's six or seven years on the low-grade stockpile after that, kind of in the 100,000 ounces. So as far as what we see as far as exploration, Vic, I don't know.
spk04: Yeah. The bulk of the exploration drilling at Masbati is essentially beneath the existing pits. It's an island. And the regional potential around Masbaki itself, it's not that we don't have any targets, but they're not as prolific as we have, say, at Pakola or Back River. It's a fairly advanced mine site. What we are doing in the Philippines is this year we are setting up a 100% owned Philippine exploration entity. And we're looking at other opportunities within the Philippines, leveraging off our position and our presence in the country. So that's something that is seeing a lot more attention in the Philippines.
spk02: We've seen a really positive response from the – we were making progress before with the previous government and showing them that gold mining or open-pit mining could be a much keen on foreign investment and very, very keen on more investment in mining, mining exploration, mining development. So we're very pleased with that and have been encouraged by the government to look at more But also that combined with the government that's really encouraging successful foreign investors like ours to increase our investment, which we're open to initially starting through the next version.
spk07: Okay. So that's it for me, guys, and thanks for taking my questions.
spk02: Thanks, Luis.
spk01: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Carrie McRury with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.
spk09: Hi, good morning, guys. Just a couple of follow-ups on Anaconda. Can you just remind me what's required from a permitting standpoint for the Anaconda Phase 2 and sort of what timeline is around that?
spk06: Yeah, so I'll certainly answer it from the operational side. I don't know if you want to talk about it from the financial stability side, but So on the permitting side, we're currently working through a feasibility document, which would be submitted. That's what is coming out at the end of Q2. Based on that, of course, and the ESIA, we assume that we'll get a construction permit. And I just want to reiterate the desire of the government to make this project go. We were just down there where we met with the Minister of Mines, and that was really one of the first questions out of his mouth was, how quickly can you guys put this in place? to operation, we will support it and go as fast as the law allows. So we don't see any issues with getting the permit for that, and certainly the government is interested in us doing this as quickly as possible.
spk05: Yeah, I guess on the various agreements side, so each of the licenses, we've got four other licenses there. Each of them needs to have the mining license granted, and then we put in place the mining convention and the shareholder's agreement with the state. So the same as we did for FACOLA. We're working on that right now. The first one will be in Bantaco so that we can bring some of that Bantaco material into the plan this year. So I think we'll use that as a template. They're all going to be under the 2019 mining code, we believe. And once we get Bantaco in them, we'll kind of have the template for the others. And the one thing that's different for these licenses than when we did FACOLA, we're also going to have tolling agreements because we're going to have potentially five licenses and up to two mills to process material from those licenses. So we'll have to have a little bit of interaction between the licenses as well. But same as usual, under the 2019 code, we'll get a mining convention that'll stabilize the taxes, the tax regime, and I guess the overall operating regime that those will be built and operated under. And You know, it's business as usual. We learned a lot from doing it for FACOLA, so I think we'll find out a quicker process this time around.
spk09: So at FACOLA Maine, the government owns 20%, I think at Anaconda they own 10% currently with the option for 10%. Are those discussions going to happen as well this year as part of this feasibility process?
spk05: Yeah, they'll happen. In conjunction with feasibility, the mining code lays out that each party will have an evaluation done and then they'll negotiate what they think. And the valuation they can agree between themselves is, which is exactly what we did for FACOLA. And then the state, we expect the state will take the second 10% as before, so we think it'll be 20%. So all licenses will end up being 80-20, FACOLA and the others, that's what we expect to see. But that happens as each feasibility is filed and the valuation's agreed.
spk09: Okay, great. And then maybe just one more on Sabina. And I know this is probably a moving target, but can you talk about how much Sabina has funded of the CapEx to date and sort of high level, what sort of CapEx numbers should we be thinking about for B2 at Sabina for the rest of this year?
spk06: Well, I can't say how much they've funded. We haven't seen their latest numbers. Remember, right now the road's opening up, so that number is changing on almost a daily basis. What I will tell you is that When we did the due diligence and we looked at this thing, we looked at what they were doing and we looked at the potential to move the underground forward, which they obviously had looked at as well. I think they had 640 Canadian in their study. We think the number is 800 is what we threw in ours. So we think the number is somewhere between 750 and 850, but in our study we put 800 in Canadian.
spk02: Yeah, there's a lot of updates that they'll come out with in terms of updating from that original feasibility study numbers. So a lot of some things that weren't in that. And that goes back to the feasibility study. Don't forget that initial capital estimate. So we've done a lot of work on due diligence. We're working with them to come up with a number that we both feel comfortable with.
spk08: Yeah. I'll bet 800 roughly. 35% has been spent, kind of estimate as of the end of the year. And then 65% funded and committed. So that's kind of where we sit based on what we've seen from Sabina so far.
spk02: And advancing the underground, there's about $65 million that is in the $800 estimate that was not in the $640 estimate. That's right.
spk08: The difference there, it's not just inflation. There's also some optimizations and improvements that included the $65 million front-end mining.
spk09: All right, great. Thanks, guys.
spk01: Thank you. As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 1-1. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Harman Puri with Bank of America. Your line is open.
spk03: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Some of my questions have actually already been asked and answered, but maybe just one final one from me. On Grandma Latte, can you provide us with some sense for how advanced the sales process is right now, or any sort of color you can provide on maybe the interest you're seeing?
spk05: Well, I think just a high-level summary, we've appointed an advisor, and we're about to commence the actual phase one of the process. We're just prepping everything, so that's where we're at. And it's hard to say for sure, but we expect it'll be somewhere within a six-month timeline, I think, for a process to be actioned and completed, hopefully.
spk02: Okay, fair enough. There's nothing in our current fashion for a cash forecast to keep forward that includes a sale of Bambalotti. There's nothing in there for that at this point. That's correct.
spk03: Great. And just on your stake in Caliber, do you still view that as something, you know, maybe non-core and something that can also be divested over the next year or two?
spk02: Yeah, we have no plans for that. We think they're doing a good job, and that's been a A good transaction for all included for our Nicaragua employees as they move from B2Goal to Caliber. That's been a big success and they've kept up with a lot of the environmental and social programs and things that we've done. We're happy showers there and we have no reason or need to sell a block. Since you brought that up, let's talk a little bit about our considering selling other assets? The answer is no. We just got back from a great Africa tour. We had a great trip to Pakola and good meetings in Mali and then went on down to the Libyan. Similarly, a great tour of the Mayan and a couple of meetings. We're very happy with those jurisdictions. We just mentioned the Philippines. We're very happy with what we're doing in the Philippines. In fact, in all jurisdictions, we're committed, of course, to potential significant further investment in Mali with the second mill and ongoing exploration work. So Unfortunately, we tried hard. Unfortunately, we weren't able to upgrade financially to be in the point of investment opportunity for us that fit with us. Now it's 4 million ounces in a good part of Columbia to be in. And that's okay with a permit, et cetera. And then we're confident that someone is going to take that on and then we will have some returns to our shareholders.
spk03: Perfect. Thank you for that color. That's very helpful. And that's it for me.
spk01: Thank you. And speakers, I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Clive Johnson for any closing remarks.
spk02: Thanks, operator. Yeah, I guess in summary and closing, very pleased with the year and results. It's a real tribute, once again, I think, to our teams, you know, coming off of the Africa tour recently here and being in the Philippines not that long ago. It really struck me just how extraordinarily talented our group of people are, the 5,000 employees that we have at We're very proud of our ESG track record. There's a lot of great information on our website and our responsible mining board about our commitment to that. I think that's well known and established. But we sit at a great position in the company today. We're very strong in operations, extraordinarily strong in health and safety. Every element of our business, low-cost producer, debt-free, now has the opportunity for dramatic growth. We like where we sit and are looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and working with Bruce's team at Sabino on what is a great project. We're happy to announce that deal and looking forward to closing it. So I think that's all we have for now.
spk00: Thank you.
spk02: We'll be updating you shortly, and I'm sure we'll talk to some of the people on the line at the email conference next week. So thank you for your time.
spk01: Thank you all for participating. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect.
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