Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.

conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the three and 12 months ended December 31st, 2024. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Your host for today is Trish Moran, West Dome's Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Moran, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to point out that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements as defined under Canadian securities law. I ask that you view our slide presentation for cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these statements. Please note that all figures discussed on this call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Our press release, ND&A, and financial statements are available on both CDAR Plus and on our corporate website, westdome.com. With us on today's webcast is Anthea Bass, WestDome's President and CEO, Ibalo, our COO, Fernando Ragon, our Chief Financial Officer, Jonah Lawrence, SVP Exploration, Raj Gill, SVP Corporate Development and Investor Relations, and Kevin Lonergan, SVP Tactical Services. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions. And now over to Anthea.

Thank you, Trish. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin today's call by recognizing the outstanding efforts of the entire Western team throughout the year. The hard work and commitment of everyone in this organization has led to the most robust operating and financial year in the company's history. As shown on slide four, you've seen significant year-over-year reductions in both incident frequency and severity rates. These improvements clearly demonstrate that the safety culture we've been building over the past 18 months is proving effective. Together with this year's safety achievements, we broke all-time company records in terms of production, revenue, EBITDA, net income, free cash flow, and net cash balance. This performance is not just a result of high gold prices. It is due to strong execution by the team, bringing on a second mind just as gold began to save. We have renewed leadership across the organization, and they're doing a brilliant job bringing their teams together and aligning to the overall vision. Our success, of course, depends on our people, and we're taking steps to ensure everyone understands their role and how they contribute to the organization. Compensation is aligned with driving value for shareholders, and this is reflected in the behaviors and the decisions that we are making. It was a year of achievement, and KINA had a standout year. We commenced processing of the high-grade KINA DeepOil in mid-April. We subsequently ramped up production and delivered three solid quarters of production. Rehabilitation of the near-surface 33 level was complete, and we commenced development of the secondary mine egress and ramp, which would give us access to both production from the Preskill deposits and a platform for drilling near other near-surface zones. Like KINA, Eagle River also had an outstanding year. The team exceeded both original and revised guidance and completed the first phase of the global resource model initiative. We kicked off several continuous improvement initiatives at Eagle River last year. And we are excited about what we've seen as this translates into better unit costs and productivity metrics. 2024 marked the first step in our full normal strategy at both Eagle River and Kena. This strategy is anchored by three key initiatives. The global resource model, strategic exploration, and thirdly, optimizing and leveraging our fixed cost base. These initiatives are the foundation of our growth strategy, ensuring we maximize the asset value while driving sustainable production. Walking through these in a little bit more detail. In 2024, we completed the first phase of the global resource model, digitizing critical data from drilling, sampling, and mapping. The next step is to construct an unconstrained resource model, which will be essential for optimizing production at both operations. This work is also enhancing our geological understanding by incorporating decades of historical data into our modeling, We're understanding and updating mine plans with more comprehensive real-time models. We're identifying new opportunities near existing workings. And we're enhancing drill targeting and maximizing each dollar invested in exploration. At Eagle River, applying the global model has already begun to show promise. We have already identified near-surface answers, supporting increased production at lower costs, improving our ability to see opportunities across multiple mining areas. We're really seeing these cross-trends moving in the right direction. Secondly, our long-term success continues to allow consistently growing high-quality reserves and resources. To that end, we increased our exploration budget and focused on delineation and conversion drilling in 2024. We incorporated geological models into a centralized view of the assets, and we deployed grassroots exploration practices, such as geophysics and historical data reinterpretation. Again, these efforts are already paying off. into a high-quality MRMR for the year end. And we saw a 37% increase in resources in the measured category. Relatively, proven reserves grew 34% at Eagle and 462% at Kena, which is really, really important because these answers support more detailed and reliable mine plans on our operations. Despite our success, a significant portion of our land package remains underexplored, presenting future upsides. Jonah will explain a bit further around how we change the geological models, which will explain a little bit around the inferred resource change in grade. The third pillar of our strategy focuses on operational efficiency and cost leverage. Our goal is to fill the malls at both Eagle River and Kena by blending high-grade ore with near-surface, low-cost material without displacing high-grade tons and not sacrificing mine life. At Kena, we are making advancements to support this strategy. We are unlocking multiple mining fronts. We have proven our Keener deeps further. We've extended and drilled to understand Preskill so we can produce in 2025. And we upgraded Dubuisson so we can start planning to mine it further. We're developing new drill platforms to finally test Keener deep down plunge. And we're opening up level 33 in order to open up the mine both laterally and down plunge so we can advance overall geological potential. At Eagle River, we started by strengthening our mine planning capabilities, specifically by building a more robust mine model for real-time understanding of the mine, and kicking off a range of continuous improvement initiatives, which Guy will touch on shortly. Stepping back, these three integrated workflows directly support our goal of maximising more utilisation and margin, all while sustainably extending mine life. To summarize, Western's organic growth strategy remains our highest return opportunity, and we remain completely excited about what we see. Now over to Guy for the quarterly operating highlights.

Thank you, Anthea. Good morning, everyone. It was a solid finish to a record year. Importantly, on top of strong results, we also improved safety at both sites. Starting in mid-2023, there has been a major emphasis on rigorous leading indicators by site leadership. As you can see now on slide nine, our efforts to improve our safety culture started to bear fruit in 2024. This performance is a true testimony of the strong culture of safety we are building. Moving to slide 10, 2024 was a record year for West Dome with 172,000 ounces produced, an increase of 39% compared to 2023. Eagle River represented 55% of full-year 2024 production with 94,500 ounces, 1,000 ounces. Its production for the year, which was driven by a particularly strong fourth quarter, exceeded Eagle River's increased revised guidance and was higher over the prior year by 8%. Delivering another solid production year is even more noteworthy when you consider that Eagle River has been in continuous production since 1996. Average egg grade in 2024 also exceeded revised guidance with an average of 13.7 grams per ton. This outperformance was primarily driven by higher than expected grades as well as improvements in our dilution control practices. We're seeing this trend continue in early 2025. We improved material movement during the back half of the year, and as a result, in Q4, Eagle River processed 652 tons per day, which is more than 60,000 tons. This represents an increase of 10% over the fourth quarter of 2023, driven by improved access to ore and additional high-grade stock 5C, taking advantage of mill availability. The mill at Eagle River continues to run well. For the full year, it processed more than 222,000 tons or 610 tons per day on average at a recovery of 96.8%. We are looking at potential investments that could improve recoveries over the medium term. All in sustaining cost per ounce at Eagle River were US $1,512 for the fourth quarter and $1,540 for the full year. Lowering our cost is a key component of our organic growth strategy. At Eagle Rivers, we have commenced the first significant continuous improvement project in recent history. The focus of this initiative is to improve site cost structure and focus on areas where we are confident in achieving meaningful savings and productivity improvements such as transitioning development to an owner-operated model, a process that is underway, improving equipment reliability and efficiency, consolidating and optimizing our surface infrastructure to improve workforce productivity, and achieving supply chain synergies with KINA to increase company-wide buying power on key consumables and inputs. These initiatives, together with the gradual integration of technology and automation, will help create a more safe, efficient, and productive workforce. We expect to start realizing the benefits of this program starting this year. In 2024, we made investments to improve operational flexibility by increasing drills and developed ore inventory. Additional investment in 2025 will ensure that we also have the infrastructure in place to support our till-the-nil strategy, increase our adherence to our plan, and reduce variability in the coming years. Eagle River has been operating for more than 30 years, and we are focused on ensuring it continues to have a bright and long future. Turning now to KINA on slide 11, the team has shown consistent performance since mining started in the KINA deep zone with excellent production results to date. KINA, which started mining and processing high-grade KINA deep material in April, Delivered three consecutive quarters and ending the year with production of more than 77,000 ounces of gold. This was within its revised guidance range. Due to the high-grade nature at Quina, grade fluctuates from quarter to quarter, depending on the stoking sequence. We ended the year with an average process grade of 11.2 grams per ton. While process grades for the full year were on the low end of revised guidance, it should be noted that once we started producing from Quina D, Process grades during Q2, Q3, and Q4 were in the midpoint of the original guidance range. Oil mills in the fourth quarter exceeded 62,000 times, at first since the restart of operations at KINA in 2021. For the full year, oil mills increased by 13% year-over-year to nearly 217,000 times. is ongoing. We continue to refine our mining methods for optimal performance and have recently introduced a hybrid cut-and-till approach targeting reduced dilution and increased mining recovery. Last year, we completed a level 109 exploration drift. The newest one, level 134, is expected to be ready in Q2. The ramp is currently heading to level 136 where we anticipate first stoping will take place in the fourth quarter. This new mining front will add flexibility to our mining operations in the coming years. The goal is to have three mining fronts by the end of 2026, two high-grade and one low-grade. Beyond Kinadi, there is a lot of work ongoing to unlock the upper portion of our mine. Last year, we completed the augmentation of level 33 drift and commands development of a more than two kilometer exploration ramp from Preskill that will intersect level 33 and provide additional material movement and ventilation. The ramp at Preskill is progressing and expected to be completed at the end of 2025. This ramp marks an important component of our field and mill strategy as it provides access to the first source of supplemental ore outside of Kina Deep KINAS production guidance for 2025 includes up to 10,000 ounces from pre-scale late in the year. We are currently set up to progress our mining in three different mining horizons in 2026. I want to thank each of our site teams for your tremendous work in 2024, and I look forward to working with you all to achieve another year of record performance in 2025. And now, over to Jono for his first quarterly exploration update at West Doe.

Thank you, Guy. First, I would like to say that, whilst I've only been in this seat for a couple of months, it's been a pleasure to be part of the West Doe team. I'm extremely excited about the potential of our two mines and their large land packages. At Eagle River, more than 105,000 metres were drilled as part of the 2024 exploration program, which focused on the surface, and underground drilling, delineation expansion of key zones close to existing infrastructure, as well as identifying new targets and advancing geological understanding. Some highlights of the 2024 drill program include successful extension of the resource envelope at 6 Central down plunge by 70% or some 250 metres, whilst also identifying a parallel structure to the north, known now as the 6 Central Parallel Zone. The sixth central story is significant as the global model work highlighted this area as a potential target for investigation. It now has a reserve grade that's second only to the 300 zone and it remains open at depth. Intersection of high-grade mineralization approximately 50 meters west of existing drilling at Falcon 311. The result highlighted the potential for continuation of mineralisation outside of the diorite. It demonstrated the continuity of high-grade mineralisation in the 300 zone, reinforcing the zone's continued exploration and resource conversion potential. On the 300 zone, drilling from the 1201 level achieved several objectives. First, it improved our understanding of the lithostructural mines. Second, it tested the strike length and down-plunge extension of the structure below the 1400 level. And finally, it targeted the high-grade plunge of the deposit. The result of the drilling across approximately 500 metres of strike length is a combination of higher and lower-grade drill intercepts, indicating some pinch and swell structures that have developed within the host shear. Whilst these results have a short-term impact on the overall inferred resource grades of Eagle River It has helped us to hone in on the high-grade portion of the 300 zone. The delineation of the high-grade portion and its continuation is the next part of the work process. In 2025, we've expanded the exploration program at Eagle River in terms of meters, dollars, and scope. While historically Eagle River has focused primarily on infill and conversion drilling, Greenfield and brownfield drilling will be front and center to drive expansion and discovery 2025 and going forward. New for 2025 will be reinterpretation of the shear zone between the historic two and six zones to develop drill targets. Regional drilling at the birch and fork veins and completion of drill testing including induced polarization anomalies that were generated in 2024. We plan to complete an additional, much larger IP survey this year, testing the area further to the west of the mine diorite. The addition of surface geochemical work, soil and barge sampling will provide a multi-pronged approach to regional target generation. Finally, the addition of oriented core programs at Michi and Magnecon will support our global resource model initiative by helping to validate geologic models and structural information that we used in previous resource modeling. Improving our interpretation of the Michy-Magnikon Corridor forms a key part of our regional strategy. Moving on to Kena on slide 14, during 2024, more than 80,000 meters of drilling was focused on converting Dubuisson and Kena deeps inferred resources to the integrated category and subsequently into the reserve. Some highlights of the 2024 drill program include the continued interception of high grades over mineable widths at Kina Deep, including the foot wall and hanging wall zones. Results of data encouraging and the understanding of the geologic complexity of the Kina Deep deposit of depth continues to improve with geologic interpretations based on the drilling adjusted accordingly. Completion of the exploration drift on the 109 level will allow us drilling to test down plunge extensions of the VC zone. This zone is significant, it's geologically analogous to Keenan Deep and therefore testing of the zones are top priority for 2025. At Dubuisson, the continuity of the deposit was confirmed and drilling provided better geological context for interpretation and planning. The deposit remains open laterally and down plunge and is a high priority for drilling from level 33 and surface this year. At Presqu'ile, drilling confirmed not only the continuity of gold mineralisation and the validity of the geologic model, but also the potential for down plunge extensions towards the east. Further drilling targeting lateral and depth extensions from the surface is planned for the coming year. Until now, drilling at Kena has been difficult due to the limited number of drill platforms underground. Steeply dipping ore bodies really are a challenge for drilling. Drilling angles and intercept angles for Kena Deep in particular have been challenging. With the completion of 33 level rehabilitation and the new exploration drifts on levels 109 and 134, we look forward to more optimal drilling this year and are excited to start testing the targets Slide 15, our 2024 mineral reserve and resource update exceeded depletion and delivered a 5% increase in total contained reserve ounces. Our mineral reserves now total 3.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 10.2. Critically, we are pleased with the increased confidence levels in our resource and reserves. The focus now drilling the 2024 program was primarily on converting material for mining and the results demonstrate Our proven reserves have increased by 79% and our indicated resources, good for planning purposes, increased by 37% year on year. These increases will help us to optimise our mine plans and reduce variability over the short term, allowing us to increase our focus on medium to long term exploration. Our resource and reserve update demonstrates our new integrated approach, including 3D modelling. We have adopted a holistic methodology to better align with industry best practices and support an improved understanding of the structural architecture of our deposits and the controls on mineralization. At EGLE, this 3D modeling and resource work is a journey. And this mineral resource, mineral reserve update is a point in time. Ongoing work reviews and domaining optimization, including sensitivity analysis on a two-stage high-grade, low-grade domaining approach are expected to lead to improved grades. The results of this work will be fed into an updated mineral resource, mineral reserve models for the Eagle Drive PFS. We'll update the market accordingly in quarter two. Completion. Looking ahead, we plan to increase the proportion of expansion drilling testing down plunge of existing structures, and unlocking near-surface potential, particularly at Dubuisson and Pressfield. With the addition of new greenfield exploration team, we are turning our focus outwards from our operations and into the substantial land packages that we have to explore. We are convinced that the prospectivity of our ground are determined to showcase this prospectivity in 2025 and beyond. between the geologic resource models at both Eagle River and Kina, upcoming technical reports, and a renewed focus on regional exploration, 2025 is shaping up to an exciting year for Westo. We'll be starting to discuss initial results of these programs in the coming quarters. And now, over to Fernando, who will take us through the quarter's financial results.

Thank you, Jono, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 17, in the fourth quarter, we achieved a strong oil production of nearly 50,000 ounces, a 37% increase over Q4 2023. This in turn dropped record annual production of 172,000 ounces. The year-over-year increase was driven maybe by two key areas, accessing a greater proportion of oil from high-grade zones in Eagle River and three-quarters of processing high-grade oil from Kina Deep. On a per ounce basis, we have seen a sequential decline in quarterly all-in sustaining costs to US$1,373 per ounce in the fourth quarter. For the full year, all-in sustaining costs was US$1,459 per ounce. I would like to highlight that in 2024, 17% of that all-in sustaining cost was attributable to sustaining exploration and development ramping up significantly over the last two years. Moving now to slide 18, financially, we delivered strong results in the fourth quarter. Revenue for the quarter has increased 79% year-over-year to $183 million, driven by both higher production and a 34% increase in average realized whole price per ounce in U.S. dollars. During the quarter, the company recorded a net income of $57 million. or $0.38 per share, an increase over the prior year due to the increased production and the high realized core prices. In addition, when we compared to Q4 2023, cash margin of $125 million was up by 16%, a bid that more than tripled to $150 million. Net cash from operating activity doubled to $76 million, and free cash flow increased by about five times to $40 million. We have a clean liquid balance sheet with zero debt. We ended 2023 with $41 million of cash. Fast forward just one year, and our cash balance tripled to $123 million at the end of 2024. And this is after paying off $39 million owing under the revolving credit facility in the first half of this year. Together with our fully undrawn revolver facilities with over $273 million in liquidity. Our balance sheet has continued to strengthen, with working capital increasing to $131 million at the end of December, from a negative $19 million at the start of the year. Essentially, we improved our net position by $150 million in 2024, all supported by increasing free cash flow. Next, let's look at our guidance for the year on slide 19. Consolidated production is expected to be between 190,000 and 210,000 ounces, which based on the midpoint represents a 16% increase compared to 2024. Production is anticipated to strengthen in the second half of 2025, with the first and fourth quarters accounting for approximately 20% and 30% of total gold production, respectively. We're guiding to all in sustaining costs in the range of $1,325 and $1,475 U.S. dollar per ounce and self-funding capex of $160 million. This includes $40 million for exploration and $40 million in growth capital related to the rampart KINA, which is foundational for the middle strategy and long-term growth. With the gold price over $3,000, we are setting up for another good year in terms of free cash flow. At export prices, our expected free cash flow is almost 70% higher than our current budget expectation. This would imply that we are currently trading a double-digit free cash flow yield. This underscore Y wisdom is a higher return, lower risk proposition. With that, operator, you can now open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1-1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. We'll pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question comes from Wayne Lamb with TD. You may proceed.

Yeah, thanks, guys. Morning, everyone. Just wondering if you could provide a bit more detail on the change in reserve grade, particularly at Eagle River and the new lithostructural model. Just wondering exactly what changed with this new model and just wondering how the reserve haircut is being, I guess, informed by the greater drill density.

Okay, I'm going to pass to Jonah to start, and then I'll add back. But hello, Wayne. Go ahead, Joe.

Wayne, hi. It's Jonah speaking. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. Okay. So one of the changes, the reserve grade is due to variance in the cutoff grade. By lowering a cutoff grade, we are already looking at larger tons and an overall drop in the grade. So that's one aspect. That's a function of our review and part of our growth as a company. The second part on the resources side that feed into the reserve, the drill tendency. We did drill a lot of holes last year. The results of those holes did feed into a modeling process. The implicit modeling on the wire framing has been quite robust. We're using LeapFrog to help drive us through. LeapFrog has Some components where if it's not controlled will lead to higher volumes and bubbles. The person that we engaged to do that work as part of our global model work and resources work is excellent. It's been well controlled. We've been reviewing that work and the wireframe, the lithostructural work has incorporated information from underground mapping, facts by the geologists, faces, plus lithology mapping, shear zones, quartz veins to build the 3D architecture on the lithology first, shear zone locations, and then that fed into the continuation of the building of the mineralized wireframes. Hole density became part of the interpolation process in how the grades from those two holes fed into the allocation of the grade into the block models. but the wireframing process was very, very sound.

Okay, so I'm going to try and summarise a little bit differently, right? So what we've done is we've changed our modelling to be more real-time to apply best practices to allow us to see the mine in a different way. We are unlocking many new mining areas and there are many, many more. The measured grade is consistent in 300 zones. Remember, we reduced the cut-off grade, like Jonah said, by 20%, but you see the grade remains quite consistent, which is great to see. the probable reserve ounces have increased by 22% at Eagle River. The reserve has increased by 80,000 ounces in Eagle River. And I think, Wayne, what's important to understand is that these ounces are close to mine infrastructure or higher up in the mines, unlocking these new areas as well. The cost per tonne is down. So when you look at this, you need to see this as part of a journey, a growth journey, where Stone is on. We start to look at this mine in a very different way. It's part of the global resource initiative work we're doing. Whilst we might upgrade the answers or grade of the inferred answers as they are, the fact is what we see now is a big picture story to drive the strategy we're actually walking on. The cost reduction work we're doing is starting to play into good effect here. We're starting to see the answers coming through, and we're going to keep building this up to assure that actually we deliver more value for our shareholders.

Okay, great. Thanks for the explanation. So, yeah, I mean, I guess a bit of an increase in tension, still some high margin ounces there. Just wondering on the grade optimizations and the domain name used, can you give us a better idea of some of the refinements that you guys are looking at? And what might we expect with the new technical reports coming up next year?

So some of the refinements, Wayne, we were looking at ways of the capping strategy, the influence that they have on the overall grades, the search ellipsoids, the selection, how far they can look, the influence of structures. We've got oriented core and teleview work looking at how the structures and the grades and drill holes are linked together in 3D space, which comes back to the search ellipsoids. We're looking at different domaining approaches now, whether we... applying a lower grade and then a higher grade domain so there's less of an influence from the lower grade and reducing drill holes with the higher grade values. It's an iterative process going backwards and forwards. It's happening now and we'll see the benefits of those in the coming weeks for the next model update.

I think just to add on the global model work, I think it's also important to say that You know, when you look at the global model, you're adding in many, many more tons and ounces that are lying in currently what we call Cat 3 and Cat 4 data, or Cat 4, Cat 3, Cat 4 ounces. And these ounces, you know, the information needs to be qualified from a QAQC as well as a confirmation drilling perspective. So none of this is currently in these models right now. So it's really important to say that to everybody on this call, that we're still doing this work. See, if you can imagine this, it can be a far bigger, piece of information to review and to understand as time goes by and I think what we're going to be doing over the next while with this is making sure we get the QAQC confirmation drilling in and we're going to understand and that obviously will lead into the technical report towards next year and that's why I'm not going to be, it should happen in Q1 when we deliver this but that information needs to draw properly into those reports to ensure we can get the picture coming out in the right kind of way. But my gut feeling tells me that What you will see is the high grade is going to be strongly there, like we think, and we're going to keep adding in good ounces at different levels in the mine. It's going to allow us to fill this mill at a lower cost per tonne, which is what we've always been saying to the market. Western's current fixed cost is highly levered on Eagle specifically, and both mines, but Eagle specifically. So this allows us to take advantage of this mine and take advantage of the current asset that is there.

Okay, great. Thank you. And then, yeah, maybe just last one for me. Yeah, just wondering on the global resource initiative, has the digitization of Eagle River already been incorporated into informing that new reserve? And just wondering how that's expected to improve operations moving forward. And then, similarly, Akina, just wondering how long that might take Akina.

I'm going to let Kevin answer this one. He's leading this from outside.

Wayne, at Eagle River, firstly, the global model, as stated, it's evolving. To your point, has it been included in this reserve? A very small portion of it, but what we're actually seeing as it evolves into the model is far greater potential. And over the next six, nine months, what we see is a QAQC system and targeting and conversion of that global model. into our reserves over the next six to nine months, and possibly to 12 months. At Keene, it's at a much, I suppose, a less mature stage, so it is probably 12 months of work at Keene to define it a bit better.

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Don DeMarco at National Bank, you may proceed.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. So, first, I guess just continuing with questions on the resource to Jono. So, Jono, at Endeavor, they would set targets for reserve or resource accretion over, say, a five-year period. Is there any plans to do the same at West Dome? And if so, what kind of target level of reserves might you expect over a certain period of time?

Don, That's part of the secret sauce, unfortunately, but yes, yes. The aim, when I looked at the data initially in arriving, there is a wealth of information and targets. It's a process that we've started with the surface exploration and the underground exploration teams. It's too soon to comment on how far that can go and how far it can lead into resource and reserve updates, but that's certainly a focus for me for the coming quarter. to set up. West Ham has been very supportive. They see the challenge for the growth and they see opportunities. And I agree 100% and we want to showcase those in the coming quarters with the information and some press releases.

Okay, thank you. Just briefly on the technical reports pending next year. So that's going to be, can you confirm that's for both mines and it'll include mine plans with costs?

Yes, it's for both mines.

Well, you've got that coming to you. Okay, thank you. Now, Kina, costs are attractive in Q4, but how should we be thinking about Presqu'ile? How much tonnage is expected from Presqu'ile this year, next year, and how should we think about the implications on grades and costs at Kina after Presqu'ile's ramped up?

So Kina is the first introduction of Presqu'ile tonnage this year, and 37,000 tons. And it obviously ramps up. This is the first year of developing the ore body. It's in development, and our first slope is planned for Q4 this year. And we'll ramp up production thereafter. Cost-wise, as you know, it's a near-surface deposit. No constraints as far as transportation. So that's why the cut-off grade for Brazil is much lower than Kennedy. Just pure logistics and cost after production.

And then that ramps up, Kevin, I think for 2026, you start seeing four quarters of that, right? Exactly. It can come back in. That's right.

Okay. So I guess we'll look at, we would expect maybe the grades to edge higher and cost a little bit too, as we might expect given the grades. Okay, great. Then just final question. So the balance sheet's strong, trending higher. What are your plans for capital allocation? Do you have a target cash balance you'd like to achieve before considering maybe a dividend or special dividend? And do you want to build up some dry powder to provide flexibility under potential M&A scenarios?

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. And obviously, it's really deep in conversation here at Westone. I think the first thing to note on this is, you know, the exploration. You can hear how important exploration is. We want to keep pushing exploration and driving the organic side on a basic cash flow. Minimum cash balance, I would argue that about $120 million, $130 million is the right number for a workflow, I would believe. Okay. That's the conservative side of where we are. So you can imagine that we're obviously already considering what those options may be for our shareholders. We've got some feedback from our shareholders, too. And we'll have a look at how this progresses over the year, what we're going to do with that.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you for that. And thanks, Athena. Good luck with Q1. Thank you. All the best.

Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Our next question comes from John Tomazos. With John Tomazos' very independent research, you may proceed.

Thank you for taking my question. Looking ahead a year, if the current gold prices were to hold, the SEC... three-year moving average gold price would be in the 2400s neighborhood. From where we sit now, do you think you'll do your reserves next year at US 1500, or how much might you raise it?

We check these every year, John. Thank you for the question. We do check them every year. We'll review it at that particular time. What we typically do is check what market is telling us at the time, and we do a review relative to peers as well. You know, we'd like to be quite conservative specifically on reserves, you know, to allow that margin to remain in the organization. So I think our reserve currently is sitting at about $1,500 if I'm not mistaken. So we'll review at that stage, Sean.

So let me try another one. Do you think your reserve replacement next year will solely be from lowering the cutoff grade, or how much of it do you think will be from new discoveries?

I mean, I think if we look at the aggressive exploration program we have in place, I would argue that this is going to be replaced from exploration, correct, Jonah? Which you would think. I mean, there would obviously be a cut of grade reaction, a relationship as well, as well as the global model addition that you're going to see too. But Jonah, I would argue that your exploration program is driving preserve replacement.

That's correct. That's correct, John. We're gearing it and optimizing targets with various filters, Grade, of course, but also structure, host, dilation, potential for continuity along strike and down plunge, putting those proof of concept holes in, and we have the flexibility and the mandate that if positive results come through, then be aggressive in following it up. So, yes, growth for reserve.

I think it's important, John, to say that we're not trying to squeeze margin and drive tonnes up low-grade and low-value tonnes into the mill. We've said to our shareholders from the outset that we're going to be driving value for our shareholders. It's a value tonne that we're putting through that mill. So when we look at this, we really consider, you know, does that particular tonne do what it needs to do in terms of that strategy? And I think it's really important to say to everybody here that we will remain like that, very conscious of that as we push the strategy forward.

Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes this morning's call. If you have any further questions, please contact Trish Moran at investatwisdom.com. Thank you for participating today.