Q1 2023 B2Gold Corp Earnings Call
Speaker 1: since NEW Jude was born and was pregnant.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's 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.
Speaker 2: is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Clive Johnson, President, CEO , and Director. Please go ahead.
Speaker 3: Good morning, afternoon, whoever you are everyone and thanks for joining us. We're here today, of course, to talk about the Beech and Gold Q1 2023.
Speaker 3: operational and financial results. We had another strong quarter of operating performance which led to some very positive financial results.
Speaker 3: Mike Cinnamon, our CFO , is going to walk you through that. And then Bill Lidle, our CEO , is going to...
Speaker 3: Update is on the back river project, the status of that. Talk a bit about the.
Speaker 3: for cooler complex expansion projects looking on them that can or seem to be due expiration. We'll talk to a little bit about expiration plans.
Speaker 3: the large exploration budget and he'll also update the progress in terms of exploration in the Ficola complex. And then we'll open up for questions after that, so with that I'll hand it over to Mike Schianaddr.
Speaker 4: Thanks Clive.
Speaker 4: On the revenue side, we sold 4,000 ounces more than we'd budgeted, so a total of 249,000 ounces from our operating mines. Good news is we had an average price of just over $1,900 for the queue.
Speaker 4: Obviously, gold prices continue to increase as you know to today. On a production site, from all the operations including our share of caliber, 267,000 ounces.
Speaker 4: and from our three operating mines, 251,000 ounces, both of which were 5,000 ounces, over a head of budget.
Speaker 4: 5,000 ounces spread pretty evenly across the three operations.
So for coal, it had 166,000 ounces.
Production was higher, we expected it to be higher because we had that favorable higher grade material coming from phase 6 of the Focola Pit.
The grade was 2.47 grams per tonne.
grade was 2.47 grams per ton which is
Dan Miss Batti. Miss Batti was pretty much as planned. The grade this year is lower than it was in the comparable quarter last year as we know at the two greatest .95 grams per 10.
Then Ojikodo 38,000 ounces slightly ahead of budget.
Again, we expected, we were in some of the higher grade portions of Wolfshag Underground Mine. But a reminder too for Ojikodos, we look through to the balance of the year. It's more weighted to the second half of the year as we get into more higher grade material and phase four of the Ojikodo pit.
Plus, continued high-grade ore from Wolfshank.
But overall, a good result of production pretty much on target, slightly ahead of budget.
So, on a consolidated basis from all operations, total cash costs were $600 an ounce.
which is $85 ahead of budget, and if we take our three operating mines...
$576 an ounce, which was $88 lower than budget.
And it—
So looking at the individual operations for COLA, there were two main reasons why it was significantly, it was $60 lower than budget.
One was that we mined less material in the period due to some of the tighter working conditions in Phase VI.
including only having one ramp available for haulage, which has now been resolved in April of this year. And then we also had lower fuel costs.
The mining tonnage shortfall is expected to be caught up over the balance of 2023.
On Ms. Maddie, again we were $176 an ounce below budgets. That was a function of slightly higher than budget goal production and quite significantly lower than budget diesel and heavy fuel oil.
Again, we were $176 an ounce below budgets. That was a function of slightly higher than budget gold production and quite significantly lower than budget diesel and heavy fuel oil costs.
We haven't we visited any of the lower fuel costs for the bounce of the year. We've just some of that it'll it'll
State where we budgeted it at, but certainly current indicators are definitely the prices have dropped a bit and.
While the forward curve is the forward curve and the inback rotation anymore for fuel, it's pretty flat. So we may see some benefit as we roll through the valves in the year in the cost site.
For the all-out sustaining costs, total and including our share of calibre, $1060, which was $146 lower than budget and same story from...
our three standalone operating mines. And it's really a function of the lower cash operating costs as I mentioned, and then timing of capex.
We've seen capex for Q1 was below budgets. Sustaining capex was about 10 million below what we'd budgeted just for the timing of things like the completion of the TSF raised at Focola. And then some of the other fleet equipment rebuilds. And that's just timing. We expect to see all of that reverse as we go through the balance of the year.
A few comments maybe on the operations of Zill. I think Bill's going to talk to the Fokola complex generally, but we are continuing with the Fokola regional development.
was released. We're now, because we've done so much drilling on that for cooler regional area since we did the original anaconda area, we're resource that we wanted to.
to take those results and put them into a new resource for anticonja. So that resource can take a bit longer to produce with the result of that FACOLA regional phase 2 mill. Studies now expected in the fourth quarter of 2023.
both Shag Underground will continue to explore there. Yojikoto Pet itself is scheduled to ramp down on 24 and wind up in 2025 based on recurrent plans.
and we've disclosed that. On the Grand Malati project, that as announced, we are undertaking a joint sales process with our partner, AGA. That process is moving along. It seems to be good interest on phase one. We're still on phase one of the process.
We expect to wrap that part up within probably the next two months, month to two months, with a goal that will wrap up this whole process before year-end.
And on Sabine, I think Bill's going to give an update, but we have some disclosures in there about the acquisition of Sabine. We haven't put in the purchase price allocation yet. We'll do that in Q2 when we publish our results. Bill's going to talk about currently what we're doing there. But one thing I will mention is that subsequent to the completion of the transaction, we did revisit a fair amount of the...
financing obligations that the financing plan has been put in place. We bought out the off-take agreement.
Well, all of it 100% of it, so that's gone. We've also canceled the depth facility that they had and the goal prepaid that they set up and in addition as we were prevented through under the terms of the agreement We bought out one third of the streaming arrangement that was there with wheat and precious models, so
That's total cost 111 million.
cash, which you'll see come through in Q2, but it does let us really focus on financing with the facilities and the financing capacity that we have available through our own cash loads under our debt facilities.
from future upside, which...
as we've mentioned many times when we discuss back river, we see a lot of upside there.
On the earnings side, when you translate all those offering results, the trivial earnings to shareholders just under a $6 million per share, adjusted earnings to trivial share or was $106 million or 10 cents per share.
in a couple of comments on the cash load.
So, cash flow, not cash flow from operating activities, $203 million or 19 cents per share, or as we've also disclosed in the news release, cash flow before working capital, $223 million or $21 per share. So, very solid cash flow quarter, of course, the gold price help, as well as some of those lower costs that I mentioned. On the finance side, we continue to pay a dividend at the same rate for cents US per share.
was lower sustaining capital as I mentioned already. And N32 million was just lower non-sustaining capital, which was all related just to the timing of the underground development development for polar regional. Again, these are all timing, I think, we think they're all going to reverse in the queue.
Also what I are in full year and the other thing I'd highlight there is that as we disclosed
We're excited to get going on the expiration site at back river. So we've just approved an extra $20 million. That wasn't in the original expiration budget. That budget in total is now $84 million for the year with $20 million really focused on a digital drilling that we plan to do at back river. And I think the king can give you an update on that in a second.
Overall, we finished the period 600-73 million in the bank and not been drawn in the revolver and really minimal debt on the balance sheet, although in a few leases. And I think anything, probably anything else we'll be touched on there. Really good. Fogel highlights.
how we're doing it.. dilced, it won't get much Dear???ar smash the ants off
once it's difficult.
Yes, so thanks, Clyde. Mike covered the operational stuff quite in depth, so I'm not going to talk about any of that, but just quickly talking on the...
The Anaconda Phase I study, so I think everyone is aware originally we talked about potentially putting out a BAQ2 that's been moved to Q4 and it is the based on some of the exploration success we've been seeing, but I would like to expand upon that a little bit. I don't think it's just the exploration success.
As you know, the Anaconda Phase 1 or Phase 2 study is really about the oxides, but they're also having success on the sulfides. So what we're talking about doing now is more of an integrated kind of regional complex where we look at everything and we give you an update not only for what would be happening at the oxide plant, but also...
will be happening as far as sulfides and where they would go. So all that has to come into play and we're talking about putting that out in Q4 this year. Related to what's currently going on there, the Phase 1. The Phase 1 is a trucking study or a trucking program which basically takes us between 80 and 100,000 hours a year.
down to Fakola while we're finishing the study and building phase two of that's what we stood so chose to do. That project remains on track. So basically all of the roads are in now. We're just finishing up the final culverts, the infrastructure's being built.
We have received our ESIA for the Phase I study. We're currently waiting for them to finalize their feasibility review and issue the exploitation license. So what I can say is that really I'm going to say right at the end of Q3 beginning of Q4, you're going to start seeing how it's just come out of there and what I will tell you is that
I always remember what we said is just because that's what the study says that's not necessarily what we're going to do. We're going to take the ounces, the highest grade ounces, the highest NPV ounces in process those firsts. So what I can say is that right now there's about 18,000 ounces we're talking about in 2023, which would come out of the Anaconda Phase 1.
Anything else on it? That's good. Okay, so Sabina, everyone's aware of the Sabina closed kind of in the third week of April .
Since then we've been extremely busy. Some of the questions that we got early on when people were asking about the deal was, did we think that we could bring the V2 gold construction team back together to build this one I'll say with Planner that almost to a person.
Everybody jumped at the opportunity to come back. So we do have all of the necessary people in place to include Karen Lachgren and Tom Carter, who've been with us really for the last 20 years, building all of our projects in Far East Russia and Africa and Nicaragua.
They're busy assembling the rest of the team and I will say that we've had very few people turn us down. They want to come back. But on top of that, I think it's really important to highlight that the people that were at Sabina, the people that were running the site and kind of managing these contractors on site have also agreed to come across.
and work with our team together. So now what we've got is we've got a very good historical knowledge of the site. Certainly the people that were in charge of logistics have been critical in both last year and this year they're with us. And we've got our build team to add onto that. So I feel very strongly that we have the right team.
that can certainly execute this project, and we're still calling for it to be on time. So we're still talking about a Q1 2025 commission. As far as the logistics, I think everyone's aware this is a logistics project even more than the mining project.
The winter road this year wasn't success, while they were saying that they needed, that they had 1200 containers, they had 600 which were around the critical path. They brought in more than 800 containers this year. So we have all of the necessary equipment and supplies to do all the key.
the things that need to be done in order to keep us on the schedule. So, really the intent of this year is to get the camp up, which they're already doing, I can say with confidence. This morning I talked to them, the kitchen is already up and they're getting ready to run power into the kitchen, so then the wings would come up next.
And so we're seeing kind of a July one day for the opening up of the kitchen or of the first phase of the camp. And then over the next couple weeks after that they'll finish it up into August . We have to pour concrete this year. That's concrete for the warehouse, the mill building and potentially the powerhouse.
All of that concrete is on site, all of the steel for those facilities are on site, and we're currently scheduling in which order we want to do them.
a very good job of integrating the former Sabina team with the B2Gull construction team. They were in the office last week, finalizing orders. Everything has to be on the sea lift and heading up towards the Marine Laydown area in kind of August , September . So by July , everything has to be at the point where they consolidate.
All of that remains on schedule at this point, and then we're actually shooting for an earlier opening date of the winter road next year. We have as many as 2,000 containers we want to drag up the road next year, so we're talking about an early February date. And we worked with the Sabina team, the former Sabina team, to make that happen. What we've done is we've brought in more trucks.
actually three directions from the middle and from both ends and we're hoping that that it'll get open as I said earlier like the first week of February .
Um.
What else can I say on that? As far as.
The, as far as additional logistics, we have extended the air strips so we're able to bring stuff on directly on the site with something as big as a 727. And overall that project remains on schedule. I will tell you that before the end of June .
is our intent to update the budget based on what we have put forth and come up with what our final cost is going to be.
So we continue, as far as things that are happening off site, we continue to maintain very good relationships with the INUIT community, the community that can tick me at association in none of it. We just attended a conference up there. I don't know if Clyde wants to talk about it a little bit more, but in general, I'm
Because we've maintained all of the Sabina key personnel to include Mathets Picard and Andrew Moore, those people have really...
continue the bridge of that relationship and we can and we maintain very strong relationships within you at community.
Sure. Yeah, I'll just touch on the heat. We went to the symposium. Even in the Minerate's symposium, the tunnel was really good because we just closed the Semina deal. So we were able to introduce everyone there to be too gold and talk about the fact that some of our experiences, the rushes of building and construction for some of us.
go back to that in terms of knowledge about knowledge about the physical challenge in the North. So that was very well received. And I also talked to them a bit of a personal home coming from me having...
47 years ago, but I like it on a clear suit or next presenter in the UConn. So I'm sitting back to the North as well. But I think the most important message that we brought to them was carcassionuity, as Bill mentioned, for some of the great work that we've been doing with the Adam's Kittikmiot group. Continue on with some...
very good CSR projects that we'll be able to increase the budget on that means it's beachable so financial strength but the main message to us that we were as those that maintain the schedule that's to be in for Ford.
That was a great relief to many people because unfortunately I've never eagle to take over team like that.
run the mine for a while. Hope Bay and then decided to shut it down and go back to Jolene. So I think they're very concerned whether or not our big company might come in bigger company might come in and do the same thing. When we did the acquisition we started looking at Savina. I made it very clear to build.
that it was up to him and his team to decide the schedule that we could live with and I did say to Bill that if we thought we needed more time I thought our shovels would understand that to get it right but the good news is with a quality work done by Sabina a very good work and Chris McLeod and his entire team we were able to after lots of scrutiny and tremendous amount of total justice Conclude that we could in fact maintain the schedule
as Bill has said. So great symposium that we went to and frankly it's nice to be investing in Canada. We're not a foreign investor on this one and I think as long as we can do what we've done for a long time to live on the promises we made in the north I think we'll have a great success.
relationships with the local communities. So it was very positive. Triple also talking potentially with the legal army, something we can combine this as two companies. I do a bit to do some projects together, maybe some CSR, terms, etc. So I think it's a real positive view of our from our perspective going north and also.
of the community and the industry. We felt very welcome, the key is to deliver, as always, on the promises that we made.
industry we felt very welcome the key is to deliver as always on the promises that we made.
I think with that I'll get to have a king to talk a bit about this new budget and maybe you can talk a little bit about VIX about the team. I think it's not only inherited.
Some great people and whether it be the Indigenous relationships, but also in terms of construction, etc. But obviously you can tell me what you think of the...
of us joining forces with the existing team from sub-intervalent the exploration design.
Yes, absolutely. The quality of the work that's been done by the...
I certainly ...
It's top class.
And I'm very happy to say that we've virtually retained almost the entire team. So we'll be hitting the ground running for sure and supplemented by people from our existing.
be to Gold Team as well. The budget has increased by, oh, our global budget as Mike mentioned has increased by 20 million US. That is to put it into context I think.
So, Vienna had in the order of around 5 million Canadian, I think, on average.
as an exploration budget. So this is this 20 million 27th Canadian is a fivefold increase to be spent in six months.
It's a 10 times increase. So we intend to hit the ground really hard.
So, you know, bringing in additional drinks, we plan to complete at least 25,000 metres.
It's diamond drilling. The allocation of that drilling will be on the Goose project.
which comprises a number of deposits.
but a lot of that will be on the umoiled deposit, which is the highest grade and also the biggest contributor to the resource.
Some of that drilling will be in full to improve the...
density of drilling to optimize the underground planning, underground mining planning, but also to extend...
What is clearly open-ended mineralisation on each of the
What is clearly open-ended mineralisation on each of the four deposits on the Goose project itself.
That's going to be about $15 million of the budget. There's another $5 million that we intend to spend on what are clearly tough-class projects.
gold opportunities in this bad-addying formation hosted anthologies. George, which is about 50 kilometers to the northwest of Goose, is where there is a resource there already and over 40 targets on that license.
on those claim box. Sabina had been drilling there this year, completed drilling I think two weeks ago, the current program, we'll get back in there and drill it George. And just to highlight, I've just mentioned two projects there.
Within this 80 kilometer belt, this cold district, we also have another three project areas, Boulder, Dell and Boot, that have had economic intersections of mineralization, which was
80 kilometer belt, this cold district, we also have another three project areas, Boulder, Dell and Boot, that have had economic intersections of mineralization, which will certainly be following up on as well, over time.
That covers a pack river. Just to get back to Mali, Mali had the line share of the budget this year of a city four and a half million dollars and that really...
It is a record of March, Mali, for sure. We have more rigs turning there, more people busy in expression than we've ever had. We've already completed over 100,000 meters of drilling in Mali.
A lot of that, as Bill mentioned earlier, has been focused on
Infold drilling in the saprolites, so moving more material into the indicated category to support the studies that are going into the phase two moles options that we're looking at in the area. That's that infold drilling is complete and we're back.
Currently updating the resource has to complete that certainly before the end of this quarter and it will feed into the timeline that both Bill and Mike mentioned earlier.
We haven't only been doing info. As you would have seen in the press release, I think earlier this month.
We've had some significant success in cell files on the anoconda properties.
We've had some significant success in cell files on the anticonular properties.
And remember, we hit actually our highest, the biggest intersection we've ever had across in West Marley. 8.6, the grabs over 46 meters.
This supports another hit in the same zone, Mubber Main Zone of over 8 grams of nearly 16 meters. So the sulfide potentially area certainly not over yet for sure. And there plenty of more.
intersections that would tend to support the potential for underground and certainly extension of the sulphide a lot of the pets into the sulphides.
at the Anaconda project. Additionally, you'll recall that we acquired the Baccalaubi license, which is essentially the piece of the jacksaw sitting between the Anaconda properties and Med90, where our Focola line is located. We've extended the drilling onto...
on to the baccalaubi license, particularly one of the snakes, Cobra, has shown to be significant for over two and a half kilometers of additional strike on the baccalaubi side of the fence. Thanks for being...
within the oxides. So that'll certainly contribute as well. In the last press release, we also named a or indicated a new zone which is further to the south but still on back of the RV which we call Time Pan and we've had some some pretty good intersections there as well.
Yeah, for instance, 28 meters is 1.8, 23 at over 4 grams and that's really just getting started. I think a lot more work planned for Mali, keeping those rigs and those people busy.
I guess those are the highlights. I forgot something. Can I jump back in? One of the things that we've been asked to do as we've taken on this project is, you know, V2 does things a little bit different than the schedule of day or the way they were going to do it. So we've been asked to generate.
kind of a new capital schedule and a new operating cost profile. It is our intent to have those done in Q2. So internally by the end of this month, but I think by the end of Q2 we're ready to talk about. That also includes, as Sabina was talking about, they were talking about bringing some ounces forward from the underground. We are currently revisiting.
the underground, both the methodology and the schedule, and we will include that in our next update on how far we think we can push this thing as it comes up out of the ground.
Okay, great one of the one of the studies that will be subvenes the start will pick up is the study on Potential for wind power obviously were a leader in the industry and solar power of what we've done But we're having a hard luck. There's no assumptions for anything currently waiting for a study to be done But there is precedent for it in the North
Canada that could be an interesting opportunity in terms of reducing emissions but also could have a positive.
effect on the cost of their mass well. In terms of strategy going forward, we are very happy with the growth profile we have right now, in terms of looking at.
be two stages of expansion, for code of complex and also of course
exciting project that's this. And a lot of that is because of what other reasons we did the acquisition and our coupling of our abilities to accomplish these things subject to a study on this, on the second note, and I'm calling this of course an extraordinarily strong financial position. If you look back in our history, the strategy really if you put it quite simply is that our strong operational and therefore financial performance for years has fueled growth.
by our ability to do creative acquisitions, build minds ourselves, and also do a lot of expression work. So I think that's one of the keys to our success. But we're also very focused groups. So we've heard us talking about the sequencing of the expansion of the Coca-Cola, the GoFourth and the Second Bill, how that works within...
doing the first expansion, which is exactly what happened happening now for coal and then goose construction and then potentially building the second milk. So we're not going to build two mines and mills at the same time we've always said that. But also we're not going to be looking now as hard at M&A development project M&A for that same reason. We're going to stay very focused on the growth profile we have now in the company we will.
continue to look at expiration opportunities, something that we've been very good at, and that will include not only.
I'm referring to Diels with landowners or also smaller companies, we started to invest us in junior companies with exciting projects like Sino Line up in the UConn.
And B ador.
and Eastern Canada. So that's a pretty exciting strategy. We think also offering to these groups that have good exploration teams offering gives us any assistance we can provide in terms of booking at their plan, exploration plans, etc. So a lot of junior special companies unfortunately they're struggling these days even with go-kering higher.
So for a lot of these companies, I think it's quite attractive to have a friendly shareholder, not sure to bear egg anybody, but a friendly shareholder like beach or gold. So we're going to be exploring those kind of alternatives as well as we go for it. But the thing we're going to continue to do as we've done for many years.
is be very focused on what was now on the acquisition to be done on the opportunity we have to to grow the company. Michael, do any of the units we should add to another of the current questions? Okay, well I think with that we'll open up for questions. Thank you. As a reminder to ask the question please press star 111.
Thanks operator. Hi, Clive in B2 team again, congrats on the beat in the strong start of the year. And really great to see the development of backriver progressing well. Just a couple of questions for me. Just starting off with Anakonda phase two study.
Now, it looks like based on exploration success, especially on the sulfides, you know, you pushed out the study to 2-4. Now maybe this is a question for Bill as well. Would you look to change the scope of the project with larger processing facility or?
Any color you can provide as to the size and scope of the project kind of looking going forward.
Yeah, surely, once again, it's never enough to put a second mill on. Now it needs to be bigger, harder, faster, stronger. But what I would say is that we're definitely not changing the scope of the second mill. We're looking at a 4 million ton per atom.
oxide mill, but as you know, as B2 often does, we did put in capacity to expand and or eventually add a sulfide circuit if necessary. That's all being looked at. But really what we're talking about is, remember, you're going to have this very interesting situation if you build the mill there. Because it only takes oxides, the sulfides have to come south to Ficola. So instead of kind of cheating you and saying, okay, I've got this great oxide mill.
I want to be to mention that as B2 is want to do from time to time, they get all of the decision makers in a room, where the technical people, they beat these things about the head, the clap calls them swirls, where we just had one yesterday, and it was an interesting swirl in the sense that
All the options put on the table seem very good. It's just a question of which way you want to go inside of a larger corporate strategy. Right, thanks, Lou. And just any sort of color you can provide right now, how things are moving along with the underground at the cola or underground component of the cola.
Yeah, I can talk about it a little bit and then I'll turn it over to Dennis Stanberry, who was just there working with the regulators to get the permits. But I'll tell you, remember, the exploration project, or sorry, the underground project is an exploration project at this time, right, with the concept of to develop it and get down to the face so you can drill it off and put the resource into reserves.
So, we're basically, we've done it stepwise, where all the surface infrastructure had been approved already, and now we're up to really putting in the portal and all the supporting infrastructure for that. So Dennis, maybe you want to say a few words, so you were just over there.
Yeah we met with regulators last week had a good session with them they've come back with a very very short list of questions we're putting that together right now this week to submit and with the tone of their letter it sounds like we will have the permit to go full speed on that on that underground property next week.
With any luck, that's what we hope. They're ready in the pit. They're getting down to the final level. They prepared the face for the first blast. Access is quite good. It looks like Burn Cut is doing an excellent job there. The work looks very, very first class. Hopefully, we'll be kicking off the first rounds and heading underground very, very shortly. Thanks guys.
Perfect. Thanks for the color, I don't know. And then maybe moving a little bit to which go to, I believe open pit mining is ending in 2024. Underground kind of ending around in 2026. Do you right now see potential to increase extent that underground mine live at old photo or, or pretty much. You know, we're kind of.
wrapping up Ojikoro around in the next couple of years? So the answer is yes. I think we've always said that there's a resource down plunge that has to be drilled off from underground, which we're getting down to that, where we'll start to do that now. We've always cautioned that we're not going to extend the life, the overall life of mine. Of course, you'll extend the underground, but it's unlikely that we'll find enough resource at that spot.
to extend the life of mine. We are onto something which has potential, which I think is a bit preliminary to talk about. But at the end of the day, the existing underground will not extend the life of mine. It might extend the ounce profile, but we're certainly digging around, and we're onto something we think could do that somewhere else. Mopek's an expert, so he can talk about it. Yeah, OK, yeah.
About three kilometers south of the Ochicoto pit on what we call hopefully the Ochicoto feeder structure. We've hit might be ten kilometers of our Spanish word please.
some interesting intersections. These are, definitely, we'll have to be in mind underground. The question here is whether we can actually...
These are at, definitely will have to be mined underground. The question here is whether we can actually get these to hang together over sufficient amount.
to actually build up a resource that would warrant basically developing down to those levels. It is early stage as Bill said. It's still very encouraging. Thanks, thanks for the color and Bill as well. And maybe I'll stop there and jump back in the queue, but thanks for taking my questions. Absolutely. Perfect. Thank you. One moment for our next question.
material, critical material between the ice road and the sea lift. Just wondering if that's being taken advantage of in order to sort of stay ahead of schedule. And then sort of a follow on question from that, if you're talking about an early opening in February , can you put that in context for me how the sort of the 2022 season figured out in terms of the timing and just sort of what's behind that.
15,000 tons or 18,000 tons onto a vessel. They bring it up normally on the eastern route up past Ontario and then Quebec and then down into that area. That happens, everything has to be in by September or October .
There we have the marine lay down area where we do prioritize things to come up the winter road. So that's what actually happened in 2022. They listed things which were critical for the 2023 construction season and operational season. And those came up the road first. That's why, as I said, they only got 800 out of 1200.
but that still was enough surely to make sure that we were able to maintain the schedule. Related to the extension of the hauling season or the increased number of containers we want to bring down, the answer is yes, they did kind of a deep dive after this year.
and they looked at a couple things. One, last year they only had, or in 2022, they only had 28 trucks. We currently have, we've increased that to 40 trucks. They'll come up the road and each truck can basically do a load a day. So up and back in a day. And then we've tried to increase the season. The season started out in March this year for a couple of reasons. One, they changed the contracting group that did the ice road.
So this was the first time that they'd construct this particular ice road, and they struggled a little bit. My understanding was with the sea ice. The sea ice has to be actually done last because it has to freeze up a little harder. So what they should have done is they should have what we're actually doing is they should have scheduled equipment kind of in the middle and worked out towards.
the sea ice and towards the site and from the site where the sea ice is the last to go. So that is on plan for this year. And then additionally, there's always talk about kind of this bedding material, not creating a permanent road, but actually being able to build a kind of a gravel sub base up which will allow you to
get the freeze in early and get rhodin. They can actually, this year, even before the road opens up, because it's within our licensary, within our operational area, they can put another six or seven kilometers of kind of permanent rhodin. That would actually fit very well, I think, with some of the exploration activities.
that are happening up at that end which we're looking at. So we see opportunities really to get these incremental gains. And of course, it's one of these things that each year you learn more and you get more experience. I would say that I think two years ago I heard that they brought up, not two years ago, they didn't do anything two years ago, but the last time before this last one they brought up 80 containers. So they didn't have this experience of this.
this full on ice road. 2022 they have full on experience, and I think they've done a pretty good job looking at the lay down area unto itself. It is a very adequate facility complete with currently, what is it? 10 million leaders of fuel capacity were putting up an additional 15 this year, and then we'll put up more capacity on site. So we're gonna have 50 million leaders of fuel capacity at the end of this year.
Overall, I think we're in really good shape for 2020-2024. Yeah, maybe just a reminder.
back in the day and the mean of days when we built Tupel, we actually had to build 470 kilometers of Isaroes every year to get everything in where the road disappeared. So the individuals involved in that, a lot of the individuals involved in that are involved here.
and there's always logistical challenges, but I can't think of a group more qualified to handle these types of things and working with the existing CVIDA team. So we're feeling pretty good about that. Bill mentioned by looking at the end of the second quarter to have more information on the capital costs as we see it and also the operating costs, etc. So we're targeting to have that available.
for the HL. So on our end of the general meeting June 23rd, we'll have a lot more information to tell you about our view and why we're feeling so positive about Tuckers.
So in our annual general meeting, June 23rd, we'll have a lot more information to tell you about our view and why we're feeling so positive about this. Great context, very helpful.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Justin Stevens from PI Financial. Hey, Clive and team. Yeah, congrats on a good quarter. Definitely beat what I was looking for. And a few more questions just in terms of the modeling for the rest of the year here.
Obviously, if the coal phase 6 was a nice boost for the quarter, but should we expect a bit of a tail off in grade in the coming quarters as that sort of works its way through the mine quality?
Was that ethical? Yes. Yeah, the answer is yes. We are in Q3, Q4 producing slightly fewer ounces, so the grade will be lower. The lower grades. Of course, I'm good. And remember, as we mentioned, the OJCotto production is the other way to the other way so they can offset to large degrees. Yes.
Yeah, the answer goal is Sx. Yes, we are in Q3, Q4 producing slightly fewer ounces, so the grade will be lower. The lower grades. Of course, I'm good. And remember, as we mentioned, the OJCODO production is the other way to the other way, so they can't offset to large degrees. Makes sense.
And then just staying with the cola, obviously the phase 7 strip is underway. Should that be modeled pretty evenly throughout the year, or is there going to be a bit of a bump in a particular quarter? Well, we're already stripping in phase 7, so I'd say it would continue to be throughout the rest of the year.
with the call that I love it with the phase 7 strip is underway. Should that be modeled pretty evenly throughout the year? Is there going to be a bit of a bump in a particular quarter? Well, we're already stripping in phase seven, so I'd say it would continue to be throughout the rest of the year. Got it.
Just in terms of the modeling for the FACOLA regional phase one trucking, how should we be looking at the attributable production? Obviously, there's the million 10% free carry. Does the truck's sacrilyke going to be 90% attributable to B2? Or is that essentially so in flux? Well, you want to go like? Well, I'm sorry. I think you're asking what percent is where. I think you must assume a state is going to end up with 20%. 80-20. The same as we have for FACOLA.
maybe under different mining depending on how they settle out on the final code. Right, 2019 versus 2012, right now it's kind of in flux, but either way you can expect they're going to have 20 percent, I think. Got it, and that would be subject to the same sort of independent valuation procedure that happened with the initial plan, that to your right? That's correct.
how they settle out on the final code, right, 2019 versus 2012, but right now it's a code of influx, but either way you can expect they're going to have 20% I think. Got it, and that would be subject to the same sort of independent valuation procedure that happened with the initial plan, the two rates. That's correct. Got it.
Perfect. And the last one for me, for Goose, given the bulk of the required supplies to meet the time limit, I'm assuming we're going to be coming in on the 2023 sea lift to make the 2024 ice road season. So we expect the spike in terms of the capital spending to the middle of this year.
I think we're kind of even this year, aren't we? I think we spread it out pretty evenly over the three quarters from Q3, Q3, Q4. Yeah, so if you remember what's happening, so we've already ordered the stuff, which is already... We've already paid for all the stuff that is getting on a boat right now to go up to the marine lay down area. And so that's already paid for. What you'll see is the labor's kind of...
I think I heard something like more than 90% of all the material that we need for site has already been purchased or is under PO for sure. Got it. So yeah, if you've got the PO's already, then it should be fairly even. It'll just be transportation then. It's now just labour and how we schedule that. But that should be, yeah. Q2 we can give you a better idea of timing.
Right now we've scheduled it out pretty evenly through the three quarters.
Perfect. Sounds great. All right. That's it for me. Thanks. Cheers. Thanks.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Dawn DiMarco from Nation Bank Financial.
Thank you, operator. Good morning. Congratulations, colliding team. So, hey guys, the...
Continuing with the question on CAPEX, it's going to be evenly distributed, but what should we model for the magnitude of the CAPEX in 2023? I know that Bill has mentioned there's going to be more color in Q2, but can you give us any kind of order of magnitude right now for what to put in our model for this year on GOOSE? Well, I think what's out there is…
um for total capital.
between 100 and 200, so why did you take 150 and assume that the balance is left for us? Yeah, and remember that includes supercharging the underground, which we're currently placing POs on as well. And we will, I think we'll expect that it'll, again, we haven't guided this yet, so it's coming in Q2.
but you can expect they're pretty evenly balanced between 23 and 24 with a goal that we get at least physical construction completed in Q125.
Okay. And you mentioned that you extended the airstrip. Can you now fly directly to the project site from Vancouver or Edmonton?
From Edmonton, for sure. They're bringing in, I guess, dash 8s right now with the rotations. So the answer is yes. Okay. Yeah, just to supplement that too as well. We're going to be planning a site visit for the analysts up to Back River in September . So obviously a good time of year to see the progress that we've made.
I look forward to seeing your strip first-hand. Great, I look forward to that. I noticed in the financials that you incurred a $16M write-off of some mineral property interest. They are non-core greenfield targets. Not a big magnitude, but can you just give us a little more color on where this might have been?
I can comment on the majority of that. So this is Pakistan. We had three projects that properties we were working on. And so we evaluated those and decided that we weren't going to pursue those. But we are still interested. There are other things of interest there for us. So we're currently in discussions with the state. I don't know if I can add anything to that.
The three projects that we had in the Kuzilkum Gold Fields, which is near Murantau, really didn't measure up. We've identified another area closer to Samarkand, closer to the capital, that we're in discussions.
Okay, so just in conclusion then, for some of these greenfield targets, I know you're kind of across the world over the last few years, so Uzbekistan is still, there's still some interest there. Any interest involved in these projects concern?
What about Japan and Finland and is there any others where there might be some early stage green field interest still ongoing? Well Finland is definitely up there as an area that we're spending quite a bit of money and putting a lot of effort in and it's ongoing.
Japan is through our interest in B-metals. They're running that project. Elsewhere, we've upped our budget in Cote d'Ivoire, and we're obviously leveraging of West African...
experience. The geology is the same. It's a francophone country. It is less volatile, I guess you could say, in terms of the francophones in West Africa, and it has huge potential. So we picked up two licenses there in our own right, on our own right, worked them up from basic absolute green fields from...
from concept through soil sampling and we're basically doing orbit drilling next on 15 kilometers of strike of anomolism. So that's going well.
to soil sampling and we're basically doing orbit drilling next on 15 kilometers of strike of anomolism. So that's going well.
I think those are the the main ones at this point in time. We've shared a few as well, other areas that we're consolidating and obviously have intent now in Canada as Clive said through through placements and hopefully
building those relationships with junior companies or picking up our own ground in Canada.
Okay, well thanks for that added colour and that's all for me, so congratulations again on a strong start to the year.
Thanks for that added colour. That's all from me. Congratulations again on a strong start of the year. Thanks, thanks Tom.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Steven Green from T.D. Cowan.
the next question. Thanks, guys. Just a couple of quick follow ups. Bill you talked about about developing a plan for Ficola and kind of giving us some guidance on that plan and Q2 . Would that include kind of your road map to the 800,000 ounces or will we have a local plan for that?
Yeah, what I said was that the original plan for Q2 was going to be in Q4, so you're not going to see anything at the end of Q2. What you're going to see is a comprehensive plan in Q4 for the whole complex.
With a new resource, that's right. Okay, and would that include a new reserve as well? A New reserve for Fricola regional complex Q4? Depends on the outcome of the study. That's why we're doing the study.
There would be certainly portions of it that would be eligible to be reserves and we would evaluate all of those. As far as which specific pieces would come in, I think it's too early to comment on that. But in really kind of direct answer to your question, that is one of the reasons we're doing this whole comprehensive study is to kind of show where all the pieces fit together for this.
800,000 that we've been putting out there. Right, okay fair enough and just a clarification on Ojikodo. I know you have some lower grade stockpiles there and there's been discussion in some of your literature on that taking you out to 2030 and beyond.
Is that still the case or is it dependent on keeping some of the grade up with the underground through those years? It is absolutely the case. As a matter of fact, some of the things that we're doing with power and locking in these things, we're getting some off-take agreements on some solar power.
That absolutely is giving us a hedge against any potential increases in fuel price, that type of stuff, to make it abundantly clear that this project is economic out to 2031 with the low-grade stockpiles. Okay, so that remains the base case. Okay. Yes.
Thanks, guys. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question, Consumer Liner, will homage be from CIBC World Market's Inc. Hi, Clive. Welcome back.
to delay the economic decision on the project for some time later. I'm basically thinking about the timeline of the 800,000-ounce pool as early as 2026. Is that still there? Yes, so I would say that, obviously, we've got to wait till the study comes out to get the results.
But as of right now, we see no reason that our current kind of projections don't hold. I mean, obviously, what we're doing is we're doing the studies to prove it. But at the end of the day, as far as how the phase two gets scheduled, if we go, we're going to have to look at the phase
we see holding the schedule on that. You know, kind of if we do phase two, it'll be a 2026 kind of into production. That's perfect. Thanks for that, caller. And then just final question on me, I think more on the modeling front really. Thinking about the mathematic unfold county, should we expect these to flow to in Q2 or maybe it will be sometime later during the year?
I heard something about MOSBOT in Q2 I thought. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, just a question on the MOSBOT unsold ounces. The unsold ounces from Q1, should we expect that to be sold in Q2 or would it be later during the year? Yeah, it's just a timing issue of getting them through customs.
So you can't because it's on a 9. It doesn't always work perfectly with a quarter end. So yeah, absolutely. Okay, perfect. Thank you. That's everything on my end. Thanks. Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone.
and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our next question comes from the line of Harmon Puri from Bank of America Securities. Hi, I'm Brainerd. Thank you and thank you for the update today. Most of my questions have actually been answered. I just have another sort of modeling question.
guided number for 2023? Yeah, I don't think overall for the annual amount we were regarding. We say it's at least to.
that number so whatever was 2.2 or 2.3 that is our annual number. Yeah I mean we were right on budget in Q1 for grades like we're right on budget. Okay okay thank you. Thank you at this time I would now like to turn the conference back over to Clive Johnson for closing remarks.
Okay, well thanks everyone for taking the time to present the Q1 results and talk about our plans going forward. Thank you all very much. Have a good day. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.