Iamgold Corporation Ordinary Shares

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAMGOLD first quarter 2024 operating and financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Graeme Jennings, VP Investor Relations for IAM Gold. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings.

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to our first quarter of 2024 Operating and Financial Results conference call. Joining me today on the call are Renaud Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Venuson, Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer, and Tim Bradburn, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary. We are joining today from I Am Gold's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 13 territory, on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. At I Am Gold, we believe respecting and upholding Indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks in this call will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on the non-IFRS measures, including the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent MD&A, each under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I'll now turn the call over to our present CEO, Renaud Adams.

Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. It is an exciting time at IM Gold. As a company, we're gaining momentum towards our goal of becoming a leading mid-tier and modern gold producer. The highlights of the quarter was, of course, the first fall at Cote d'Ivoire. With this achievement, we've brought online a key cornerstone producing asset in our third producing mine alongside of operations at Isakani and Westwood. At steady run rate, Cote Gold will be among the largest gold mines in Canada and is critical for the repositioning of Feingold. As Cote provides a higher production base, lower cost profile, and a longer life of cash flow generations and growth opportunity in Canada. We believe that Cote will be a model of modern mining done right here in Canada and for many decades to go. To the whole Cody Gold team and partner, I really want to express my congratulations and appreciations for a job well done, but a special thought to our resilient project and commissioning teams. This extends as well to operating teams in Quebec and Birkenau-Fasso, as Ryan Gold started this year with strong performance at both Isakane and Westwood, positioning the company well on the path towards our guidance targets for the year. Looking ahead, our primary target is on the safe and steady ramp-up of COTE. As we will discuss in a moment, the ramp-up has been progressing well, with all key equipment proving itself to be able to operate near NEM plate, and this compared to our targets of exiting the year at 90% plus of NEM plate. We remain very confident to achieve commercial production in the third quarter of this year. On the finance side, we will continue to prioritize the options to return to our 70% interest in Cote, as we believe that the value of this project is well above the current market sentiment and repurchase price. Longer term, we have a clear roadmap for NIAM Gold with strong free cash flow generation, and which will be essential to ultimately improve our balance sheet and deliver value to our shareholders. With that, we will now dive into the operating and financial results and highlights for the quarter. Starting with health and safety, IAM Gold is committed to our guiding principle of zero harm in every aspect of our business, putting the health and safety of the company's employee, contractor, and consultant first. IMGO started the year with a good performance on safety with the days away restricted transfer duty rate of 0.53 and the total recordable injury rate of 0.61, tracking below where we were last year. I want to take a moment to congratulate Issa Khan, which once again achieved a remarkable performance in health and safety with the total recordable injury days away, restricted transfer duty rate of 0.06. This is among the best health and safety performance in our industry and is a testament to the professionalism and commitment to a culture of safety of our people in Burkina Faso. On production, IMGOL started the year with strong attributable productions of 151,000 ounces, including a solid production of 150,000 ounces from Isakani and Westwood, which positioned us well for our annual guidance of 430 to 490,000 ounces on an attributable basis and excluding quality production. As we will get into a moment, the first quarter production results were driven by Sakani being able to operate without disruptions and benefiting from positive rate reconciliations, coupled with a continuing ramp up at Westwood as the mine benefits from the rehabilitation of the underground and opening of new mining areas. The strong productions and sales volume translated to a decline in our cash costs and all-in sustaining costs in the first quarter, excluding COTE, to $1,053 an ounce and $1,493 an ounce respectively, providing a major benefit to operating cash flow. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financial results and positions.

Martin? Thank you, Renaud, and good morning. In terms of our financial position, IAMGOLD ended the quarter with cash-in-cash equivalents of $291.2 million, and our credit facility remains undrawn, equating to total liquidity of approximately $603.8 million. We note that within cash-in-cash equivalents, $76.4 million was held by Kotec Gold, and $99.7 million was held by SACAN. The Kota Gold Unincorporated Joint Venture Agreement requires its joint venture partners to fund in advance two months of future expenditures and cash calls are made at the beginning of each month, resulting in the month-end cash balance approximating the following month's expenditure. SACAN normally pays the dividend in the second half of the year, and the size of the dividend is dependent on the cash held by SACAN in Burkina Faso and its working capital requirements, which is impacted by the ability of the company to receive value at a tax. or VAT, reimbursements from the government of Burkina Faso or to sell the VAT receivable to local banks. We are seeing an emerging risk with the ability to recoup these receivables is declining and the company has not received VAT reimbursement in Q2023, Q4 2023 or Q1 2024. The company still expects the remaining bamboo transactions related to the sales of assets in Guinean Marley to close this year for gross proceeds of approximately 84.4 million. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced another amendment to our gold prepaid commitments that included a new forward sale arrangement and a partial amendment to one of our existing gold prepaid arrangements. The arrangements will effectively increase cash flow by more than 73.6 million during the second quarter of 2024 at current gold prices. The forward sale arrangement is for 31,250 ounces and includes a gold collar where the company will also participate in the gold price from 2100 up to 2925 per ounce at the time of delivery. Therefore, ensuring gold price participation in the second quarter of 2025 should the gold price remain above 2100 per ounce. These arrangements are similar to the amendments we made previously to transfer the cash impact of the gold delivery obligations out of the first quarter this year into the first quarter of next year. These gold forward arrangements allowed for improved financial flexibility for the company at a reasonable cost, while also benefiting from favourable forward gold prices, particularly in the first half of the year while we are commissioning and ramping up co-tax. Looking at our Q1 financials, revenue from continuing operations totaled $338.9 million from sales of 163,000 ounces on a 100% basis and a record average realized price of $2,077 per ounce. The realized price includes the impact of the gold prepay arrangement that was delivered into during Q1 2024. The strong operating results coupled with the high gold price translated to an adjusted EBITDA of 152.5 million compared to 110.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 83 million in the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted earnings per share was 11 cents for the quarter compared to 6 cents in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 5 cents in the first quarter of 2023. Looking at mine site free cash flow, which is calculated as cash flow from mine site operating activities, less capital expenditures from the operating mine sites, Westridge returns its first quarter of positive mine site free cash flow since the restart of operations of 10.5 million. At ISACAN, we note mine site free cash flow in the first quarter of 35.7 million, compared to 18.4 million during the first quarter of 2023. The Q1 2024 mine site free cash is net of working capital payments of 58.9 million, including the impact of the increase in the VAT receivables referred to earlier of 11.1 million. It also includes 13.4 million in tax payments, which are normally paid in the first quarter. And with that, I pass back But the call to a note. Thank you, Renaud.

Thank you, Martin. We will now walk through our operating performance at Esakan in Westwood before we dive into coating. At Esakan, the mine reported a tributary gold production of 118,000 ounces in the first quarter, which was the highest quarter of productions on record, a high watermark in nearly 14 years of operations. This was made possible by our mining operation being able to perform to plan in the quarter without disruptions in fuel supplies to the site, compound by higher than expected grades. Mining activities total 11.3 million tons in a quarter with 3.5 million tons of ore, the rates which are generally in line with our updated mine plan. Head grades increased from the prior quarter to 1.52 grams a ton due to the continued positive reconciliation upgrade from the reserve model as we mine deeper into phase five. This positive grade reconciliation in the deeper portions of Isakani was seen previously in phase four of the pit, and the influence has continued in the early weeks of this quarter. However, we are seeing head grades decline in line with the life of mine as volumes from phase 6 and 7 increase and from increased proportion of stockpile. On a cost basis, as a kind of report, a first quarter cash cost of $1,002 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,312 per ounce, an improvement from the prior quarter on the higher productions and sales volume. While on a unit basis, costs came down, our total cost spending in the quarter was in line with plans and reflects the increase in the seconded cost profile over the last 12 to 18 months due to the updated royalty rates implemented at the end of the last year, coupled with sustained higher realized prices for inputs such as landed fuel prices, transportations, and camp costs as a result of the security situation in-country. With a strong start of the year, SACAN is positioned well to achieve our guidance target of 330,000 to 370,000 ounces of attributable production at a cash cost of between $1,300 and $1,400 an ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,675 to $1,800 an ounce. We are continuing to examine opportunities to extend and the mine life of Isakane, which is currently defined out to the end of 2028, with drill campaigns ongoing within the FEMS to ensure the safety of our teams. Turning to Westwood, the first quarter was a major milestone for the operation, as the mine not only returned the highest water upload production since the mine restarted in 2021, but also produced, as Martin noted, positive mine-free cash flow of $10.5 million. On operations, Westwood produced 32,000 ounces as the ramp-up of underground operations provided increased volumes of higher-grade underground material for the mill, supplemented with material from the satellite open pits of Grand Jig and Fayelle. Our mine from underground totals 83,000 tons in the first quarter, contributing to an average head grade from underground or of 8.8 grams a ton, which is the highest grade from underground in over five years as rehabilitation efforts have allowed access to previously closed higher grade underground stoves. The mill throughput in the first quarter was 249,000 tons at an average blended head grade of 4.27 grams a ton 94% recoveries. The mill availability averaged 85% in a quarter, which is roughly about 5% below where we would like to be as the plan team managed unplanned maintenance requirement on the sag mill liners. Though the plans are in place to further improve availability through an ongoing maintenance program. The cost profile for Westwood continues to see improvement with the increase in production. Cash costs average $1,236 an ounce, and the all-in sustaining costs average $1,836 an ounce in the first quarter, which was also a record since the restart of operations and down nearly 30% from the high water mark from last year. Looking ahead, there is no change to our guidance for the year with Westwood expected to produce between 100 and 120,000 ounces, at a cash cost of $250 to $1,375 an ounce, and an ASIC between $1,800 and $2,000 an ounce. Work has begun on the plan updated technical report and the mine plan for Westwood, which will be announced later this year and will provide details of the results of the last 2.5 years of mine optimization efforts and strategic assessment of the Westwood complex. So congratulations to the Westwood team for a very special and successful turnaround story, an example of resilience in team effort, and I'm sure more to come. Turning to Cote d'Ivoire, and with a big smile on everyone's face, this is the slide and images we have all been long waiting for. We pour the first goal at the end of the first quarter, but the image refers to a subsequent four. Mining activity totaled 7.6 million tons in the first quarter, including 1.9 million tons of ore. Combined with the 4.9 million tons of previously stockpiled to start the year, 6.7 million tons of material was available at the end of the quarter for the ramp up of the processing plant. As we mine through the early benches in the PET, we are seeing that the grade control model supports our current reserve model. Additionally, as mines raise ramp up, we are getting visibility on our actual mining costs, which were $3 and $32 per ton in the first quarter, with further cost improvement expected through the year. An exceptional performance at this very early stage of mining operation. The mining team continues to improve efficiencies of the mining operation with new daily records achieved in April in excess of 160,000 tons haul per day. The mining rates improvements include the commissioning of two additional autonomous haul trucks, the deployment of the second hydraulic electric shovel, and the commencement of double-side loading in the pit. On processing, the first quarter was primarily focused on commissioning and buildup of the in-circuit inventory. which allowed the company to complete its first four. Subsequent to this, the ramp up of the plant has been progressing well. Throughout March and April, the crushing and milling circuits utilization rates progressively increased and the mill throughput capacity is in line with our expectations at this stage of the ramp up. The primary and secondary crushers have been operated up to 1900 tons per hour and our HPGR and ball mill operated up to 1,600 tons per hour during April. In other words, together representing over 95% of nameplate's capacity, meaning the primary components of the processing plant have demonstrated their ability to operate near nameplate capacity. This means it is all about increasing mill availability and stability in order to ramp up the processing circuits utilization rates towards the goal of achieving commercial production in the third quarter of this year. Recoveries in the plant has been steadily improving, and I will note this is prior to startup of the gravity circuit, which will be commissioned later this quarter. I will now hand the call back to Martin for quick discussions on project expenditure.

Thank you, Renaud. Before we get into the capital numbers, I want to remind everyone that under the latest IFRS guidelines, revenue and cost of sales are to be recognized from the first sale. We shipped and sold our first gold bars in April, and so we will be recognizing revenue and cost in the second quarter. Further, it is worth reinforcing that IAMGOLD will continue to fund operating and capital expenditures through cash calls at its 60.3% interest and will receive 60.3% of the gold production. Now with that said, as we discuss project expenditures, please note that all the costs being quoted are on a 100% basis. Project and capital expenditures in the first quarter totaled 196.3 million and includes the incurred project expenditures up to first gold of 151.7 million. which also includes the cost of consumables and supplies inventory purchased during the first quarter 2024. This brings the total project expenditures incurred for Karte Gold since the commencement of construction to First Gold to 2.935 billion of the planned 2.965 billion. In addition to the project expenditures, approximately 27 million of operating expenditures were capitalized related to milling, surface costs, administration, and indirect costs that will be incurred during commissioning, ramp-up, and up to commercial production. Further, there were capital expenditures related to ongoing operations of 17.6 million, including 8.1 million of capitalized stripping, 8 million for trainings and earthworks, and other projects of 1.5 million. The total and timing of these expenditures are in line with our forecasts and guidance for the year. If we look at the bottom of the COTA 2024 outlook slide, we can see the construction to capital of first goal is finalized at 151.7 million. Accordingly, we have revised our project constructed related capital outlook post first goal upwards to 67 million and the total construction capital for the year therefore remains guided at 219 million. The construction post-First Gold is for the additional ancillary infrastructure and earthworks projects that were outlined in the project scope but not required for First Gold. The other guidance estimates for Kote capital expenditures related to operations and capitalized waste stripping are also unchanged. I would also like to note that the Kote Gold capital expenditures related to operations this year are expected to be higher than the life of mine average. as the mine extends to the full tailings dam footprint to support the life of mine. The classification of capital expenditures as either sustaining or expansion prior to commercial production will be dependent on the timing of achieving production and the nature of expenditure. Back to you, Renaud.

Thank you, Martin. So our goal this year is very clear. We need to ramp up the plant availability and utilization to reach commercial productions in the third quarter of this year, which will position us very well to achieve our goals of exceeding the year at a throughput rate of approximately 90% of namely. Based on this timeline, our production guidance for this year at Cote d'Ivoire on a 100% basis is unchanged at between 220,000 and 290,000 in-hours for the year. We continue to estimate that as COTE achieves 90% throughput exiting the year, cash costs at that time are expected to be in the range of approximately $700 to $800 per ounce sold, and all-in sustaining costs of $1,100 to $1,200 per ounce sold. This brings us to the slide we always like to finish on, and this is what the future is for COTE. As a reminder, the CODI deposit has estimated mineral reserve on a 100% basis of 7.6 million ounces. These reserves are constrained by permitted tailings capacity and form the basis of the current economics of the project. But on a measured and indicated resource basis, the CODI PIP is currently estimated at a total of 12.1 million ounces. The adjacent Gosselin pit has an additional 4.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resources and nearly 3 million ounces of inferred. So bringing the project to a total of 16.5 million ounces of measured and indicated and an additional 4 million ounces of inferred. The size of Cote and Gosselin together puts the project in a very exclusive category among the large scales producing Canadian assets. We are continuing to advance our understanding of the impact of Gosselin and potential of the project. At year end 2023, we updated the Gosselin Mineral Reserve and Resources Estimate with an additional 35,000 meters of drilling, which was drilled over the two years prior. This year itself, we are conducting a 35,000 meters of drill program. targeting the central zone between the pit shells, where we see indication of continuations of mineralizations and hydrothermal breaches, as well as some deeper holes to understand the continuity of mineralizations below the current pit shells. We expect to have the result of this program later in the year, which will greatly inform our understanding of how to incorporate Gosselin into a potential future mine. As I said before, COTIGOL today is a project, but we believe strongly that this is the start of the mining camp and will provide a strong foundation for IMGO for many years to come. So thank you all, and I look forward to an exciting year ahead. With that, I would like to pass the call back to the operator for the Q&A. Operator?

Thank you. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. First question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Firstly, you mentioned that the grades are declining to life of mine. How does that decline look over the course of the year?

Thanks, Anita, for your questions. If you look at the 43-1-1, which reflects the first year, 2024, of the plan, So we originally estimated the grade at about 1.1. Of course, in the Q1, we massively heated, you know, on the phase five. The reason why we're saying that we see a potentially decreasing, remember as well, back in 2023, as we entered the phase five, so we also had like some negative reconciliation at the start, eventually we're like par and now. So same behavior as phase four. So we will be entering phase six and seven as we advance in the year. So there was no reason at this time to believe that we will not return to the morgue, but we will obviously benefit the Q1 ahead. And as we said, so far in Q2, we've seen the same behavior from the phase five, but eventually we'll have to transition to six and seven.

And then also a good turnaround at Westwood after some challenges over the last decade. Moving to Cote, I was wondering, what is your mill utilization rate? What are they right now? And obviously, you're trying to get to 60% of throughput for the commercial production in Q3. But I just wanted to get an idea of... How many days on, days off, or is the plant operating daily, consistently, and then it's just a matter of small starts and stops, or are there big shutdowns still at this stage?

Yeah, Dee, thanks for your questions, and we're not discussing on a week-by-week basis, but we definitely remain, but as we said, it's not about the throughput. I think we're already extremely well-positioned. We just came out of a five-day shutdown where we had the opportunity to improve some aspects that we've seen. We know that DR is abrasive, so we needed some adjustment around shoes, elbows, and lining and stuff. So this is done. So we feel now that from, let's call where we are now, to the Q3, we'll move this up over the 60%. average of throughput. So it's tough to say where we are now because we've been systematic and disciplined, you know, to correct as we go. So when we see some bottlenecks, we remove and we go. So we don't really judge, but we're very comfortable that from now to as we execute to enter Q3, that we'll be achieving objectives.

Okay. And both, like 100% of the flotation tanks are working now, right? I remember, like, I think it was about six, nine months ago there was... Yeah, correct. Okay, yeah, okay.

All right, and then... But the first goal was achieved with the first half of the circuit, and post for the first goal, we started the second half.

Okay, all right. And then these questions are for Martin. The CapEx number, I'm a little confused on. I think if you look in the financial statements, it says around $153 million, and you just mentioned that Cote alone was about $151 million. So is this still the sumo-tomo financing coming through, or what's the differential there?

Yeah. Anita, we, of course, really like our partnership deal with Sumitomo, but it does make the accounting a little bit complicated. So for IFRS, we have to recognize everything on our balance sheet at 70%. So that means the additions that you see in the financial statement is stated at 70% as well. So what we've tried to do to help with that is if you look at our segmented notes, we then provide a breakdown of the capital in there that excludes the right of use assets, as well as the borrowing cost. And then, so we show a total for the company of 188 million. And then in our non-GAAP reconciliation at the back of the MD&A, we take that 188 million converted to 60% for COTA and show the COTA number there. So hopefully that's helpful, but we are, of course, more than happy to jump on a call with you to go through the details.

I will take you up on that. You might need to clear an hour. And then secondly, that's also on all the callers and the hedges or the prepay and how that's working. So I'm going to take more than this call to answer the question. I guess I was looking at it, like is all of it coming through in, like where does some of it come through in the interest and non-financial, like the interest and derivative instruments and some of it comes through in the revenue line, is that how it works?

So for revenue on the gold prepays, we still have to deliver 75,000 ounces this year into the collar structure. Those ounces, the revenue will basically be recognized at 2100 if the gold price remains above 2100 because we hit the top of that collar. And then for the ounces this year that we have to deliver on the fixed rate, which would be about 12,500 ounces, that could be recognized at a price of 1,753. Then for next year, in Q1, we deliver another 75,000 ounces over Q1 and Q2. There's 31,000 ounces that we will get revenue of 2,135. That's for the fixed portion in Q1. And then in Q2, the same 31,000 ounces we will participate between 2100 and 2925. If the gold price is in between those ranges, we will effectively recognize revenue at spot. So, you know, maybe this is also another one for us to go through in details, but it comes down to for the ones on the collars, revenue is recognized at spot. And for the fixed term or the forward ones, we would be recognizing revenue at the forward rates.

Okay, thanks, and I definitely would want to talk to you offline on that. Thanks. That's it for my questions.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Mike Parkin with National Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Congrats on a strong quarter. Nice to hear everything at Cote is going well. Just following up on your earlier comments around getting money out of Bertina Faso. Can you give us a sense of the cash reported, how much of that is in-country versus in your accounts in, I assume, Canada?

Thanks. And first of all, Mike, nice to have you back. So, Martin, can you answer this?

So in our disclosures, if we break up our cash balance between ISACAN, COTA, and corporate, the cash balance for ISACAN, which was $99 million or around $100 million for Q1, that is all in Rukina Faso.

Okay. And thanks for now. It's good to be back. That's it for me. Thanks.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Tanya Jakuskinek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for taking my questions and congrats on a good operating quarter and that SOTE is on track. A couple of questions I have. I'm going to start with just understanding, I mean, that realized gold price, Martin, was amazing. given the fact that it includes the prepaid in there. Looks like you realized 2,091 without the prepaid was just, I mean, I have to believe it was just like, you know, 20 bucks an ounce higher than the quarterly average, just the way you sold your gold through the quarter. Was there anything else I should be aware of?

There's nothing else that you need to be aware of. We try to, to sell our gold equally over the month, every month. It doesn't get delivered and shipped equally, but we've got some sales strategies just to try to hit the peaks, but no instruments or anything, just trying to meet the market. And sometimes we're lucky and we hit the peaks, but that's all that it was.

Yeah. It's just the first company I saw that I cover that had such a delta to the gold price given your prepaid. Second question I have is just following up on Anita's questions on the profile for this year. So just wanted to confirm that looks like Westwood is evenly distributed during the year and at the can would be Q1, Q2 stronger and then lower with the grades in Q3, Q4. Would that be a safe assumption to model?

Definitely for the Westwood and because we phase five has been behaving the way it is and it's kind of continuing to do, I would also agree with your assessment. Originally, of course, it was more some sort of a flat type of same H1, H2 as I can, but we're very pleased with the positive reconciliation. So you could assume a higher, stronger H1 over H2, as you said.

Okay, so that's very helpful. Thank you. And then if I can move over to Kote, and just to finish off some of Anita's questions on that, just, you know, can you give us an idea how April and May have gone, like in some of the stats, like, you know, so much more in the processing side. You mentioned that the, you know, recovery is 81%. We have the gravity circuit coming in in Q2. So that should, you know, move your recoveries up. So can you just walk me through how April, May is and sort of where you see this recovery moving at once we get the gravity circuit in?

I guess what I can say and that I really like the approach of the team is to kind of understanding the next milestones ahead of time. So when we entered the pre-commissioning, we obviously – positioning ourself you know to be able to do this like in a relatively short so all the prep behind so about the same thing in uh in april and may so yes it was about stabilization but it was also to understand at the very early stage if the capacity wasn't you know installed was there and so i think april may was really about understanding a few bottlenecks which We've done a lot of corrections in the last shutdown, but it was really at the very early stage to understand that the next milestones of the 90% nameplate was achievable. So that was largely the focus of April and May. So now we know that it's about now to ramp up the availability and stability until we reach the commercial. But that's what I could say has been the focus in April and May. At the same time of ramping up and improving the mining operation, which is now basically very close to the plans, you know, of sustaining a full capacity mill.

Okay. And so the mining is now, you know, ramping up with the mill for sustainability there. What about this recovery once we get this circuit in the gravity? 81% is, I think, what you have right now.

Yeah, Renaud? Yes.

Hello, Tania. So far, we're seeing very good results in terms of recovery, despite that the cavity circuit is not fully commissioned yet. It's right away at target, if not above. But again, be careful because we're still ramping up, so the residence times in our tank is greater than when we're going to be processing at full capacity. But so far, we're pretty pleased with what we're seeing.

Okay, so what should I be thinking about when you go commercial this recovery?

Still at 21.

Sorry, about 81? Oh, 91, sorry. Okay, thank you. And then maybe over to Martin again, my final question is just, A reminder, when I look at the prices for gold today and I look at your ability, let's assume everything goes positively, and in terms of buying back your option back from Sumitomo, would it be fair to assume that looking at current spot prices, assuming everything goes well, that that would be achievable in the first half of 25? Is that what you have in your model?

So, Tonya, there's a lot of different factors that, of course, come into that. To say that we can generate enough free cash flow to buy it back in the first half of 2025, going through all the inputs and outputs and risks, it's hard to say with 100% confidence. But for us, we continue to see that the value of what we're paying and for the underlying asset to make sense for us to buy it back. And we continue to look at all the options that's available to us to realize that value.

Okay. Well, all right. I mean, you know, I assume you have a model that would show some, if you assume, you know, everything goes well, there's a timeline. And I understand things, you know, come and go and this Burkina Faso money in country. But assuming you can't access it, would it be fair to have it in first half? Or should I be thinking later in the year?

You're talking about later in the year? 2025. Yeah, I mean, there's two ways to look at it. Of course, I mean, it depends on the gold price you're using and so forth. We will see this summer how we go. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. I guess if you assume that, yes. You know, at some point in time, the cash flow of the company will be sufficient, of course, to prepaid. It's just a matter of timing.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Graham Jennings for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. As always, if you have any further questions, please reach out to Renaud and myself. Thank you all, be safe, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your line. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.