Aura Minerals Inc. (ORA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Aura Day 2022. My name is Carla [indiscernible], and it's a pleasure to be here with you. Joining me today are Aura's executives for a very cold chat. To my right, I have Rodrigo Barbosa, CEO and President, Kleber Cardoso, on my other side; and Glauber Luvizotto, our COO; as well as Paula Gerber, Head of People and ESG. So we are speaking directly from our offices in Miami and how great is it to be here in person to give you all clarity about what we have going on. The weather is really nice today. It's a bit cloudy, but we'll be talking about the plans for the company. Strategies, results, new growth projects, financial management and between one presentation and another, we'll be speaking to operations directors leaders from every business unit and also leaders from Brazil and Mexico. They'll be giving you more details about how they've been planning to grow Aura. And lastly, we'll also have a talk by Remy Pier, a specialist from ESG in the industry. He'll be talking about trends in ESG and how Aura is moving forward on that direction. It's very important that you participate throughout the event, you'll be able to send your comments and questions using the e-mail that you see on your screen, [email protected]. And in the end, we'll answer all questions that you sent our way. So now we'll start by watching RS institutional video. Let's role play back. [Presentation]

We can already see that this will be a day of excellent and transformative changes, right? So let's start by talking about the gold market and a little bit about our corporate strategy with Rodrigo Barbosa, our CEO, Rodrigo, over to you.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone watching us. Those of you who are in Brazil and Canada, the United States, who are investors all around the world. with simultaneous interpretation into English. In these first 15 minutes, I would like to talk a little bit about Aura in a general way. Talk a little bit about the gold market and what we see taking place in the world that could drive gold prices up and how important we are in a diversified portfolio for companies investing in general. So I'll start by talking about that, and then we'll move to EPP and then we'll hear it directly from the people from the mine. Now one thing I would like to start my presentation speaking about is, we are at a very apprehensive time where there is a change in government in Brazil, most Brazilians know really well and have studied all of these changes in death, but the transition in government or in addition to that, there's also something going on all around the world. There are developments in geopolitics and on the economic side that are unprecedented in the world at least or at least in the last 60 years since World War 2. And now I would like to show you some of what experts are thinking about metrics and where we can go. First of all, the world is seeing some of the highest indebtedness levels in history. There have been results from the pandemic. It's an excess liquidity of over $7 trillion, which placed developed countries, whether in Europe, whether North America in a place of the highest indebtedness levels in several decades. Their level in the United States has come to 130 with a level where we do not have the demographic bonus that we had that could help to dissolve that debt, but that's no longer true. So high indebtedness. Concurrently, those packets produced an inflationary pressure, which is cyclical, but also structural, cyclical because of the excess liquidity and structural because we are now seeing the world moving toward deglobalization, moving its operations to places that aren't as safe or reliable and also a transition in the energy grid in Europe, especially. And not only in Brazil, but all over the world, we see extremism and populism surging in waves. Now what this populism means, politicians and the most important decision makers in the world focusing in the short term to the detriment of the long term, that in an environment of high debt and high inflation can lead to very grave consequences. Over and above that, we see an escalation in geopolitical tension. We see the tension involving Taiwan. Yesterday, the House of Representatives elected a Republican majority, and there's already work being done by some Republicans who would like to acknowledge the independence of Taiwan, which could lead to geopolitical consequences. Also, we see climate change. The world is going through many changes, and that has several consequences. Storms and effects on the environment. All of that will increase the tension between countries that could lead to some sort of disruption. We don't know whether that will be in the near term or long term, but that is definitely the path we're on. And lastly, the Federal Reserve has very few tools that it can resort to fight inflation, because when that's the case when indebtedness levels are high, when you have the highest deficit in the world when you need to fund the military more so than ever and you have high energy costs that's very difficult. So it's unlikely that the Fed will be able to increase its interest rates by a lot in the near term, and that will affect gold prices definitely. So whether it's Ray Dalio have mentioned that the time of peace that the world experienced in the last 50, 60 years will no longer repeat itself. And considering the events of the last 6 or 5 years, you see the pandemic, you see a climate change. So several developments taking the world in a very different direction than what we saw in the last few decades. Ray Dalio also talks a little bit about the cycles over the world and how much that affects all your investments, whether you're in Brazil or anywhere else in the world. When you see major shocks that has significant consequences to all of us investors and citizens more generally wherever it is that we may be living. Now why do we talk so much about gold. Gold has been a very important defense against these climate and geopolitical changes. The World Gold Council has developed a number of projects to show that portfolios, including gold or gold-focused companies tend to lower their risks without lowering the returns. So that provides a lot of financial health to your portfolio. And diversifying to real-world assets such as gold provides that. So I would like to invite everyone to log into the World Gold Council website. They do great work for several years identifying how those companies that had gold or gold companies in their portfolio are doing. And on the right-hand side of the slide, Ray Dalio owns the greatest hedge fund in the world with a AUM of over 150 billion. And this book that he published, The Changing World Order talks a lot about those global cycles and how strong a defense goal can be against those cycles. And we see that in the world history, the Dutch Empire and the U.K. Empire, how much those currencies lost value as a result of those changes in the world. So how important it is to have gold in your portfolio at a time when the world is heading toward waters that have never been navigated before. Now moving on to the macroeconomic side. And I have a serious challenge here for you. Look around you and study what's going on that will affect investments everyone's making, whether that's in Brazil or anywhere else in the world. So shifting our focus a little bit to Aura, what do we provide our investments? First of all, 25% of our revenue is copper. Of course, there's operational risks involved, but we bring to investors something that's relating to gold and exchange rates. Even in U.S. dollar, gold is also a defense. So it's a double defense for Brazilian investors. At Aura, we have 3 very clear paths as you can already see on the video in terms of where we'll be deriving value to you, our investors. So we have major growth projects. We have increased over twofold since 2017 and we have projects of 200 to 250 GOs that will take us to 450,000 ounces. So a lot of growth in the last 5 years with projects involving a high rate of return and the possibility to lower our costs as well. The second avenue for growth that's very clear for our investors is prospecting. So one thing is to grow your production. Another thing is to increase the amount of gold that we have in our reserves and production. We own over 650 hectares, including areas where we already produce and have yet to produce in areas that have not been explored as much, and we will be showing you some of the opportunities we have in geological terms as well as the amount of gold and copper that we have to mine over the next few years. And so we will grow our production, grow our reserves, the amount of gold that we can resort to you. And third, it's very clear to us that companies that are growing constantly in reaching new levels in terms of size tend to have a higher multiple. Now what's a multiple? It's what we talk about. So what is the fair value of the company's market cap? So we're there between 0.4, 0.5. So companies 50% over value some over 0.9, 90%. So it's very clear to us how we can reach those 450,000 ounces. But we also understand there's a lot of value to deliver to all of you once we exceed those 450,000 ounces. So that's why we have on our agenda to really look into M&A opportunities as we have last year with the acquisition of Borborema. So we will grow both in geological terms and increase our multiple so long as we maintain great cash generation, and we will continue to grow paying dividends and clever, our CFO, will give more details about this financial equation that we're working with later. So we'll grow our production, our operations, grow geologically, increase our multiple with a healthy balance sheet and more importantly, with a great team and strong organizational health within our Aura 360 culture where people give their best. So moving on to the next slide. Here, we have a few details, and Glauber will be giving you more details about these. These are our projects and our growth. Since 2020, we've increased our [indiscernible] capacity by 30%. We've increased by over 350,000 ounces. We've started the construction at Almas. We have already developed and disclosed many of our studies. And so we expect to conclude Matupa and Borborema in the next few years, which will allow us to grow by 82% our production by 2025. So it's very clear because of this new project that we are working on, Borborema could go over 450 ounces in 2025. And geology, Glauber will be giving you more details about this. This is just an example of how much Aura has invested. You have the $7 million, $8 million, $10 million, $12 million for a 260 ounce region. That's not a lot, and that's what's required in the beginning because you're setting the surface. But now it's time to go deeper in our studies, understand how the Aura is located in the ground. So these are studies that give us results in the near medium to long term, but could really increase our reserves in the next few years, bearing in mind that with just this small amount of investment, we could already increase the company's reserves in general, in most of our business operations. In the next slide, I talk about our multiple. Now why do we talk a lot about this rerating, because for this gold and mining industry, which is a global industry really, I mean, we have investors from all over the world. When you're greater, you have more liquidity, you attract more investors, you're on the radar of more investors and that tends to put your price in a level that's closer to the ideal. So we are still in that process of moving from a junior size, moving on to medium-sized to become a large size, which is what we plan to do. So how do we get there by 2025, Glauber will be talking a lot about that with you, but we want to go beyond and we will be talking about moving over 250 ounces and improving our multiple. In closing, and Paula will be talking a little bit more about this. All that we're doing to grow with a strong balance sheet and a very strong workforce as well as an appropriate organizational culture for a company that wants to outperform the market and continue to grow in a healthy way, which is what we call Aura 360. This is closely connected not only to our environmental and governance responsibility, which is what we know as ESG today. This is something we have worked on since 2017, but it's very closely connected to how people at Aura are making their decisions. This is our North Star, and this is driving value for the company at large attracting very great talents across our departments and also on the corporate side, for us to continue to grow in an organized and sustainable way. And Paula will be talking a little bit more about how we are evolving in our chart and also detailing the projects we have for 2025.

It's great to see how well-structured Aura's plan is for growth. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Aura was successful in major greenfield projects that will be developed over the next 4 years. I'd like to know first, whether the strategy remains the same and whether you prefer projects that are ready to build or if you're studying alternatives. And also, what about other metals and minerals do you plan to diversify?

We're focusing on gold and copper. And in our portfolio, 25% of our revenues come from copper and 75% from gold. Our growth projects are extremely linked to gold. And we do like that copper, gold balance, copper will be diluted with the execution of additional gold projects. We would like to further expand copper to maintain that healthy balance. We have 3 projects to execute in the coming 3 years, we will be fully able to do this. And we're now beginning to look at companies that are producing at an earlier stage, something where we could develop the geology to enter construction once we conclude Matupa and Borborema.

Now please send your questions to auraminerals.com, we would like to respond to your possible questions. We're now going to speak live with our unit in Mato Grosso with Frederico, who will share with us the EPP operation.

Welcome to our control room. This is where we fully manage our operation. It's always a pleasure to speak about what we are doing here. Rodrigo mentioned the main points, and I would simply like to explain to you what we are doing this year and what to expect from EPP and OM in coming years. This year, we have focused on structuring our technical team as well as the leadership team. 50% of the team is new, a team with a crate of energy that fully identifies with our 360 Aura culture. We have carried out a great deal of work with the team to ensure that our site can be ever more controlled, so that we can have more initiatives to be able to leverage our productivity. And in the year 2022, EPP will be delivering in terms of production and with a very good cost at the end of 2022. We're structuring our foundation to structure everything and EPP is undergoing a ramp-up in our surveying plan. We continue on with this plan in 2023 because we truly believe in this potential in our regional and other areas. We know that Mato Grosso is still a very new region when we speak about geological studies, geological interpretation. And in the coming years, it will be contributing significantly. But we need to undergo that process of enhancing whatever we do ever more aligned with our 360 structure, a team that strongly identifies to our brand, a team that enjoys being part of the Aura proposal. Basically, it's all about doing their best. I'm extremely satisfied, and I feel responsible for leading this team. We have had significant results during the year that will be commented on further ahead. Some of you have visited the operation. And this is an incentive to continue working, and we're on the right track to continue the evolution of EPP. Now this will enable us to have a better operational level. And what you see behind me are several areas that have been expanded. Doubtlessly EPP in the coming years will expand the life of mine and the different activities that we carry out, generating sustainable operations and the very high cash flow. We're going to use our operation, enhance it, of course, reduce costs and generate profit that we do expect for this very strong asset that we have as part of our operations. We will continue here working arduously with that commitment that we have of respecting people and ensuring that our mission will evermore be oriented to results, of course, caring for the environment and the surroundings of our operation. It is a pleasure to participate. Welcome, everybody, and our doors are open in Mato Grosso.

I was enchanted by your joy and your ease of expression. A very good day for you and greetings to the entire team. Very well, we're going to continue on from our office in Miami. Here, we have Paula Gerber, the People and ESG Manager, and she's going to speak about the cultural transformation that she has been leading.

Well, thank you, Carla. It is a pleasure to be here with you. Aura has undergone a cultural transformation process since Rodrigo became CEO in 2016. This represents a change in our management model that is based on a decentralization independence where while the business units work with autonomy, the decisions are based on our Mandala on our circle and confidence and trust among people are first Mandela, which is the symbol of our culture was built in 2018, already with a focus on ESG. As our culture is under constant evolution, so is Aura 360. This year, we launched the project 360 in action with outside partnership and the focus is, organizational culture. In a structured way, we would like to consolidate our R360. The first stage of the project was to focus on the company's vision of the future. The leadership looked forward and attempted to assess if the values that we had still made sense. Once we set for this new Mandela, we spoke to the business units to understand what was operating well in the organization. And if we had room for changes in evolution, 82% of our collaborators responded to this. A few weeks ago, our executive team, our top management came together to draw up some leadership plans to be able to close some of the gaps that we found. Our operational directors are presently communicating these results to their units at all of the levels of the organization. And we're going to try to assimilate this new Mandela. In January of 2023, we will begin with the execution, the rollout of the action plans. They go all the way from improvement in our internal communication, training and a focus on career advancement. Here, you will see our new Mandela. The reading is much easier and the different axis are all interconnected. Once again, all of the axis are connected, and it's very easy to detect what this Mandela is made up of. It can turn around, and we have brought our collaborators in. And of course, this points to the fact that people are always in the first place. The way of looking at the Mandela begins with our stakeholders, the main audiences that have the impact of our business collaborators, communities, environment and the company itself. The second ring refers to our values. People in the first place, respect and ethical management as well as innovation. And finally, we have the practices. What will guarantee that these practices come to life. And all of this summarizes what we have called Aura 360. It's the way that we do things and the way we are. Here, you can see a significant stride, which is the further materialization of our culture, a definition of clear and universal behaviors that are practiced by everybody in the organization as part of the 3 rings or access people in the first place, for example, what sustains that value is health, security, physical and psychological. And because of that, we have that behavior, take care of yourself, take care of others and allow others to care for you, care for your mental health, your physical health and contribute to a healthy environment. And for each of these rings, we have very clear behaviors that we expect from everybody in the organization. In this slide, I would simply like to remind you of our EESG strategy. We do have an additional referring to collaborators or employees. We have a separate agenda from the social one for our employees, and we're based on 9 topics that you will observe during the coming slides. We continue to move forward in our diverse at the agenda at Aura. Since last year, we became signatories of women in mining in all of the countries where we have a footprint. It's our public commitment of being a more diverse and inclusive company. In 2021, we had a short-term goal of having a greater share of women in our screening processes for administrative positions. That was 40%. Since last year, we have increased our percentage of women at Aura by 3%. Presently, we have 17% women employees as part of our team, in line with the industry average in Brazil. That was 17% and somewhat above the average global, which is 15%. Here, we have some important numbers in terms of women. In Apoena, 50% of women are in administrative positions in the corporate team, 37%. In top management, there are 38% and Operations Director at the Almas unit and the corporate issues, Director and legal issues at the Honduras unit. These are but some examples on the slide of actions that we carried out this year with women conversation rounds, awareness on the prevention of breast cancer. In Mexico, there was incredible recognition as they are above the national average in terms of women's participation in mining. We intend to continue moving further in this agenda. Now to speak about the environment, I would like to underscore 3 topics: the first, decarbonizing. At the beginning of this year, we disseminated a goal of reducing our absolute emissions in the operational units by 5%. The baseline was the year 2020 when we carried out our first greenhouse gas inventory. Our activities today focus on operational efficiency. In Aranzazu, we have compliance of a maintenance program that is greater than 80% to decrease emission losses in equipment in Apoena, we're improving our fleet, ensuring these trucks move based on diesel. In Minosa, we are increasing efficiency to reduce emissions. We are presently concluding our greenhouse gas inventory for 2021 with the help of a platform implemented in Aura. This inventory will be concluded until the end of the year. When it comes to water, our hydric footprint points to the fact that in all of the regions where we operate, the hydrographic basins are in a situation of balance. We reuse water 30% in Minosa, 50% in Aranzazu in Mexico and 70% in Apoena. In Aranzazu, we need new water because this is a region of truck, where we have natural loss of water. And Aura until September of this year, produced 20,000 seedlings, an increase of 10% vis-a-vis 2021. These seedlings are used for our areas of recovery, and they're also donated to the community. 80% of the seedlings have been replanted during the year 2022. Now to speak about the social strategy, our social responsibility depends on creating a very close relationship with all of the audiences that undergo the impact of our activities. We do acknowledge that our activities have an impact. We have a 2-way communication to be able to build this partnership and to leave a positive legacy in our areas of operation. Our social strategy is based on education on the training of labor for our operations and entrepreneurial education, developing local suppliers, for example, with a view towards the economic trends of our community. Now this is something that we do in all of the communities in Minosa, we have a clinic where we hire health professionals offer medication to the community. In Apoena, we have worked with sustainable agri business implementing vertical gardens, supporting family agriculture. This is but some of the initiatives that we have at Aura. Now to go on to the next slide, Aura is a member of the World Gold Council, the most important association internationally. Now this association brings together a group of more than 30 companies that have made the commitment of making gold mining ever more sustainable. And AURA shares these beliefs in 2021, we committed to add here to the principles of the Gold Council, and we're now undergoing certification. This means self-assessing our gaps, the implementation of improvements and finally, the certification foreseen that we can reach in 2024. These are the highlights of our people and ESG agenda for Aura. Thank you very much.

So there are huge challenges in mining on the equity inclusion and diversity agendas. How does Aura plan to develop this agenda? And what are Aura's short, medium and long-term goals in that sense?

Thank you, Carla. Well, we know that diversity is a long-term plan here at Aura, our strategy is to focus on gender diversity from which we can expand to other fronts, ethnicity, race, LGBTQ. But right now, we're focused on gender. When we talk about short-term targets, we talk about setting strategies and practices within the organization. And the diversity topic is cross-sectional. It involves recruitment. It involves the evaluation of our employees, promotions, equitable pay. In addition to that, a very important topic that we are deeply focusing on and discussing about our units is to have the adequate infrastructure for the female employee in our facilities with dressing rooms, uniforms, rooms for lactating women, adequate maternity leave and so on and so forth. So we are developing focus on this discussion. I think in the long term, our agenda is to consolidate those practices so that diversity is a topic that's addressed naturally and so much so that we won't even need targets, right, to consolidate these small steps that we're already taking,.

So thank you for your answers. We will now take another turn around our operations, talking to Honduras and the San Andres mine with Wilton, our Director of Operations.

I'm here in our integrated control room. This is where we have the entire control of our operations for our mines, our plants, mines the works. I'm in Minosa here in Honduras, and it's a great pleasure to speak to all of you. So I'd like to talk a little bit about how in the future we will be doing here in Minosa. We are coming to the end of the year. And looking at the next few years in a very excited way, and we feel very prepared. This is because of all the preparation that we experienced over the course of 2022. This was a year when we faced a few challenges, operational challenges, but we have all of them very much under control right now. And this put us in a better place to face 2023. So essentially, what we faced were 3 operational challenges that I would like to speak a little bit about. First event was we found sulfur ore and what does that mean? During the process of extracting gold, we use an ore that's called oxide, which is a very porous metal end via our process, we can extract gold from it. But we also have an ore that's called sulfur iron, which is within a less porous stone, which because this is a different process from what we used to doing here in Minosa poses a few challenges. Now in 2022, we came to a transition area, which is between the sulfur ore and the oxide ore. Now within this region, we saw a decrease in recovery. That forced us to change our mining project, our operational strategy, which we quickly did seeking to go into a new mine called Esperanza [ Alta ]. And now we need to move forward with the development of this mine. Now this brought a very positive result, which is this combination of this new ore, which is a 100% oxide ore. And that allowed us to solve our recovery issues. So these operations that we have here in Minosa allowed us to make quick decisions to solve the problem. This mine in Esperanza Alta, we expect it to bring it in, in 2023, so we had to go in earlier. We had a rainfall level, 70% over the expected for the period, especially in Q3, and that involved a few infrastructure issues in the country. Now they have been addressed, but that prevented some inputs from coming in. So by seeking alternative routes, we were able to maintain our operations and we're able to weather these adversities, but that had an impact on our operations, especially within the mine, where we saw the combination of this new mine in Esperanza Alta with an excess rainfall, which led to a higher quality of our ore than what our plant is designed to address. And that came with its challenges. But we also overcame those, but that also had an impact on our operations. Now lastly, we needed to change a mine operator that we expected to change later in the future. But because some inefficiencies that we were seeing and the lack of alternatives that ultimately had an impact on our costs. So it was extremely important for us to make the decision to change that contractor. We looked for one that is in line with our values and our work methodology. It's a very open-minded person. So we had a period of ramp-up where our production dipped a little bit, but we have stabilized that 100%. So all of these challenges had one-off impacts to our productivity but made us all the more stronger to face 2023 and the following years as well. We will come into 2023 with the mine fully open with an 100% oxide. So with no negative surprise relating to recovery with a very much suitable contractor. And that, as Rodrigo said, all the impact that we had from inflation because of the pandemic, all of those changes allowed us to have a very adequate, very competitive price, and we are going into 2023. And the following years, very excited about everything that's coming up in Minosa. We are still steady and very excited. Our team is highly motivated and we look forward to the next few years of high production with great respect to people, first and foremost. That's everything that we had to say about Minosa.

So now let us talk a little bit with him, our COO, Glauber Luvizotto, who will talk a little bit about Aura's operations, new projects and also the future of the company, which is in geology. Glauber over to you. Thank you, Carla.

I'd like to start my presentation by talking a little bit of the highlights of our operations last year. Fred mentioned a number of things, as did Wilton and Henrique will also be able to discuss later. And then I'd like to detail the step the building blocks of growth, what we're doing in growth and what we have to say about our exploration and geology work. So we are really focusing on consolidating our techniques introducing and spreading the best practices across the company in a much more mature and stable way, which is something that adds predictability and consistency in how we deliver our results. We understand that that's part of our evolution process where this grassroots work, this consolidation will open very great ways for us to grow in a sustainable way. If we look at this chart on the left-hand side, which is our production in quarterly waste, there's not significant development in our consolidated production compared to previous years. But the way we reach this level is where we see the most significant steps. We have done so in an increasingly consistent way, and our indicators show that, not specifically our production indicators, but other indicators. For example, in Aranzazu, we have constantly seen great results with record-breaking production and tons produced in the plant with over 300 tons over the quarter, which exceeds the plant's nominal capacity, which is 100,000 mines after expansion, record production in the mine, record development of underground tunnels to access the ore. These indicators are key for us to reach the ultimate result, which is our production and ounces. And this is something that we have been able to achieve in a consequent and mature way. And as a consequence, we see a lot of stability, which is what's been going on in Aranzazu over the last 5 years, continuous results in a consistent way. And as was said earlier, we started this in a more intense way late last year. So working not only on the management model, but also the operational model on the business side. We talked about looking at low content modes of this ore that had already been produced by the mine process that in our plan to maximize our cash flow, but we also win over that, revising our model changing a contractor, bringing in one that had more technological performance. All of that has helped us to deliver these results and to pave the way for us to grow further and further as we have been discussing here. Obviously, not everything goes according to plan. Wilton managed to say a little bit about what happened in Minosa this year. We had some recovery issues. And once we redirected our plans to be able to recover and make up for those losses that we faced in recovery. I mean we had an unprecedented rainfall level in the area, 70% over the historical average. And the historical average is already very high for open outdoors operations, and that brought its consequences to production. But this is something that we are addressing. Even so, what we expect is a very strong, very robust operation due to the high content of the ore produced in the mine that's coming in this quarter, but also in the consistent delivery with Aranzazu and this plan to recover Minosa. Now a little bit about our projects and growth. Our flagship this year is Almas, which is where we're focusing fully on. This was the first project that we started from the ground up. So all the attention was turned to that project because -- not only will this be the first project we will deliver, but this is the embryo of all of our other projects, all the best practices in terms of implementation, the very construction team that's doing an amazing work will be the same that we will use to other construction projects, building on all of their knowledge within Aura. The results have already been surprising. In spite of all the adversity, I mean we had inflation, the end of COVID with impacts on how we manage every employee and also the impacts that we see from everything that's going on in the world that Rodrigo really talked a lot about. People still have been creative in seeking alternatives to make up for those losses. Today, we have virtually 80% of the project that's completed. We are now in the final stages to be able to deliver and begin production in the beginning of last year, bearing in mind that Almas has a life of mine that's very robust, and we will deliver about 50,000 ounces a year. Our latest acquisition, which is the Borborema project among all the opportunities we looked into, this was the one that we looked into the most like Aura. It was a perfect fit. The perfect combination of the jurisdiction that we know very well, which is in Brazil, the synergy with our operations in Brazil, there's a very robust and detailed geological study in that area. Today, according to the tour code that regulates the analysis and the values for reserves and resources. We have 1.8 million ounces that has already been identified with great precision, which if we can materialize that in production, we can have over 100,000 ounces for several years. The project is done, ready to build. And what we're doing now is reviewing the study that was conducted by a big weaver. -- the company, we bought the project from trying to optimize production profile, the operational model and also the initial CapEx. We plan to conclude that study or at least to have the first draft at the end of this year, and we want to leave everything ready to begin construction early next year. Now another project that we also communicated within our growth project, that's Matupa the north of the state of Mato Grosso, this is an area with an incredible geological potential that's underexplored. We have gold producers in the area, but these are small operations, and we understand that one of our competitive edges is the intensity of our operations in the area, which is why we are in a hurry. We want to implement the project as early as possible in the region. And as a gateway, we have the X1 deposit. This is a relatively small deposit. We're talking about a 7-year life of mine to introduce the project. But this will bring a 50,000 ounce a year profile, which will help us to reach those 450,000 ounces a year by 2025. And this is a project with a very positive financial operation. And that, combined with the entire potential on the surrounding area, we have great prospects of having a very strong production hub for Aura in that area. Now shifting a little bit to our geology building block. One thing I think is important to mention is how does this development or this maturity of our exploration targets. Unlike other commodities like iron, which I think most of you are more used to monitoring or keeping track of and gold that occurs in a much more dispersed way in nature. So deposits are naturally more complex, whether because of the ratio or the way that it is found in nature. So coming to the level of detail that we can bring to the plant only what's interesting to us, that takes a lot of work. And this exploration pipeline, as we call it, to remove the ore from its initial stage until we have a detailed operational plan could take years. That requires not only time but also incredible amount of funds. We are growing our investments in exploration continuously since 2017. A lot of this investment, actually, most of this investment is made in these early stages where the figures are not yet materializing in our resources and reserves chart. So much of this investment is not showing its results in the official figures, but that's natural. That is part of the development and detailing process in these projects. So there's a lot to come that will be the result of the seeds we've planted in the last 3 or 4 years. Even so, results haven't been poor. If you think that in 2017, we had 130, 135 ounces, and we plan 260 to 270 a year. We have virtually doubled, increased 100% our production. Even so, we were able to increase our resources by 60%. So we are working at the foundation because you set the foundation, that's something that no one will see, but without it, the house won't be able to stand. This is why we are looking at those early-stage targets, but never forgoing the reposition of everything that we have produced and still increasing production, which shows how robust is our capacity to replenish the reserves of the areas where we're mining. Now a few examples. And just going over briefly a few of our geological results. For example, at Aranzazu is where our production flow is most stabilized. So we have a good replenishment rate. The main body, which is football, which accounts for about 60% to 70% of our operation, we have been able to prove this in depth because this main framework that provides the production in Aranzazu is prevailing. And we are still not close to the surroundings that have shown great results in copper in terms of copper content and also in width, which is a very important aspect that determines productivity as well as other targets such as [ la apuesta ], which are in the 15 meter radius around our mine. We always hear the question about, well, there's a 4-year life of mine, but since 2016, we are saying it has a 4-year life of mine and still producing over the course of these 4 years. And this is our youngest reserve. So naturally, this will take longer to mature. And here we have the results. This image on the right-hand side, if you see, it shows the NSD pit and LVR pit, what you see on the top is the one that we're working on currently. And in red, you have the forecast showing that they're all connected. So the plan is to have that as a single pit with a much higher forecast than what we had initially. But they are now being mined separately. In addition to that, we have the Japanese mine that produced about 90,000 ounces in 3 years. This is a mine that's currently not in operation because we have reached our limit for the mineral concession. We have renewed that government concession recently and what we understand is that there is at least another Japanese mine in the area that we have been granted. I'm talking about an area where we could produce about 90,000 more ounces in the next 3 years. Almas, although this is the longest life of mine operations, this is one type of deposit with a very a geological area that's very conducive to production. One of the largest gold deposits are sitting over this type of deposits, which is what we call Greenstone Belt. In Brazil, we see examples of that, for example, in the state of Minas Gerais, where 65 million ounces were produced in Gerais, we also see a similar environment where 11 million ounces have been produced. But with a lot longer exploration time and a lot more information. At Almas, which is another new deposit, we understand there is huge potential to be unlocked via research and deep surveying. So even though the life of mine is extensive, we are still focusing very much on exploration. I mentioned, I think there's a lot of potential on the surrounding areas, not only in our concession areas, but also in other surrounding areas. The main focus has been to extend the life of mine in our [ Cerenia ] operation, and we have communicated a number of good results for that area. We have 60, 80 meter areas with great open pit production prospects. So a lot of potential for great production with low cost because of the low or good ratio of ore to dirt. So this is a little bit of what we have in our operations, moving through the growth projects and giving you a glimpse of what we're doing.

Thank you so much for your presentation. We can see how Aura is focused on growth and working hard for it. Now I'd like to ask you, with the acquisition of the Borborema project that you mentioned, does that change the sequence of the implementation of those projects? And which one is expected to come for Borborema or Matupa?

Well, that's very interesting, and I know that a lot of people have that question. Unlike Matupa, where we are very much advanced in our environmental licensing. We have had the public hearing, but it's not 100% licensed. Borborema, on the other hand, is fully licensed. What we're doing now is reviewing all the studies that were conducted and reviewing potential optimization of the project. If there's no problem, and we expect there not to be, Matupa is expected to come first. So possibly starting construction at the beginning of next year and next also start building in Matupa. So this shifts the order a little bit because we expect it to have Matupa right after Almas, but because of how much we have progressed with the study in Borborema, it makes sense to bring that forward. That's not been confirmed pending a few of these discussions and internal discussions, that's what we will have.

Great. Reminding that Glauber and all other executives will be joining us at the end of the presentation to answer any question you may have. So please, if you haven't yet, please e-mail [email protected] so that we can chat with them later at the end. Thank you so much once again. And let's look at our units once again. Now we will be hearing from Aranzazu. And we will speak to the Director of Operations, Henrique.

[Technical difficulty]

We do apologize everything live made it somewhat difficult to hear what Henrique was saying. Well, back to our office in Miami with our CFO, Kleber Cardoso, who will speak about the financial management for the growth of Aura.

Well, thank you, and a good day to all of you. It is a pleasure to be here at another Aura Day. I would like to focus on 2 topics that refer to questions that we receive frequently from our investors. The first is our capital structure. Rodrigo and Glauber refer to the growth in the future. We have several projects that are under construction. Now how Aura will be able to grow its production by more than 80%, maintaining the payout of dividends and of course, maintaining a healthy balance. This is the first question. The second question, of course, refers to inflation, the impact on our cash costs and mining nowadays. Here, you see somewhat of what Rodrigo and others presented. But here, we are focused more on investments. When we look at the last 3 years, we see that Aura has already undergone expressive growth. Our production grew more than 100% through investments from the company cash. When we began the operations, then we had the acquisition of Gold Road mine, then we increased the capacity of Aranzazu by 30%, which, of course, demanded CapEx. We began the construction of the Almas project last year, intensifying it in 2022. We carried out the acquisition of Big River. And as Rodrigo showed you, we have accelerated investments in exploration and geology to extend the life of mine. And in the future, what we expect is a very similar trajectory to conclude the construction of Almas, which will enter operation in 2023. As Glauber showed you, we have 2 projects under construction that will be ramped up and enter production in 2024. Borborema, and Matupa. And our investments in geology will bear fruit in the coming years to continue on with that positive trend in life of mines. Now the question of how we will be able to grow over and above 80% in a short period of time, 3, 4 years, continue paying out dividends and maintaining a healthy balance. It's rather simple to respond to that question. I showed you that going forward, we are going to base ourselves on our foundation of what we have done so far here more figures and greater detail of how we have used the company cash in the last 2 years. We have carried out relevant investments. We have invested in expansion projects, including an increase of 30% in Aranzazu mine, and $50 million in the acquisition of Big River besides the investments throughout the year 2022. But we have returned to shareholders through dividends as well as through share buyback more than 105 million in the 24 months. That is to say a robust amount of capital being returned to investors and company creditors. Now all of the cash is focused on robust investment projects and payout to shareholders. And a relevant part of the cash, of course, emanates from our operations. The free cash flow generated from operations, of course, eliminating investments, investments in working capital was made at the income tax that we have paid in all of the jurisdictions where we operate. Despite all of those investments, we have $140 million and debt that we contracted under very favorable conditions, enabling us to make all of the investments mentioned and pay back to shareholders. Now which is the financial health of area in those same 24 months. When we look at the company cash. To the right, you see there has been an increase. We began with $86 million went to $122 million at the end of 3Q. And in September, we paid $54 million for the Big River acquisition. In coming quarters, we don't expect to have an intense cash burn as we had in the third quarter this year, and the trend is for an increase in liquidity. Well, when we look at leverage, net debt over EBITDA of the company generated in the last 12 months, well, we see that in the third quarter, our leverage was 0.5 times. For many years, Aura had a negative leverage more than debt and an important investment program in the third quarter where we intensified our investments in Almas and Big River. And once again, you see that our leverage is 0.5 times with a trend to a drop in the coming years. Another doubt of our investors is very well. Aura has a very sound capital structure, low indebtedness level. But the debt profile of the company has been increasing in a world where we see an increase in interest rates, especially in the U.S. economy. Now it began from an interest rate very close to 0, and this has reached 2.5% based on SOFR in the last 30 days, which is the impact on our financial expenses. When we look to the right, you can see that Aura is going in the direction opposite to the market. The nominal cost of debt. This is not the spread. It is the average cost of debt at the end of September 2021 and '22. AURA has reduced the cost of debt from 10% a year to 6% a year through restructuring new credit lines and the issuance of debentures in the Brazilian market. So this increase in interest rates has not had a repercussion in the company. 85% of our growth rate is based on prefixed rates, even though the interest rate continues to increase in following quarters, we do not expect a significant impact on the cost of debt. I would also like to speak about inflation and the impact on the cash cost of the company. Here, we have the consolidated cash cost of the company at '19, 2021 and the expectation for the present year. Between 2019 and 2021, there was a reduction in the cash cost. In 2022, we do expect a slight increase. But we're thinking of a 3-year period compared to 2022, and the increase will not reach 5%. This is a very controlled modest increase. If we see that the inflation in the U.S. market will be over 16% for the period. When we look at other companies in our sector as well as in other sectors, the cost increase is of 2 digits or above 20% in some cases. It has been an achievement to maintain the cost at the present date levels. Now which is the secret underlying this. How have we been able to hold back our cash cost through several initiatives, an increase in scale in Aranzazu, a renegotiation of mine contracts of the 3 business units. The contract is in Brazil, Mexico and in Honduras, we have revised these contracts. And in 2 out of the 3 sites, we have changed suppliers opting for suppliers with more competitive conditions to increase our efficiency. Now each operation has its peculiarity and specific raw material that it requires. In some cases, we operate with suppliers whenever necessary. We have worked with contract bills to have more intelligence with the most important suppliers, implementing strategic sourcing in some cases with gains, both for suppliers and Aura. And presently, we're jointly renegotiating among all of our business units as Almas is about to come into operation. These opportunities increase. And of course, this will aid and abet us, helping us to get more competitive resources in the future. What do we expect from Aura in future years when the projects come into operation. Here, you see the expected cash cost for Almas, Matupa and Borborema. We have already published these results. Now the cost expectation is quite low. These are operations with a very low cost profile. Aura will continue to grow and deliver that growth of over 80%, and we have very competitive expectations when it comes to cost. I would like to share with you a study that Aura has acquired the curve of cash cost in gold mining study among 200 companies in the market carried out by metal focus. We don't have the update for the year 2022, but the message continues to be very important. Aura was a player in the third quarter in terms of cash costs in 2019, a sound company in the second quartile validating our hypothesis that we have been able to hold back on cost despite inflation, and we have remained competitive with the coming into operation of Almas and Matupa, we will move and shift towards the left of this chart.

Well, how is are going to finance the project of Matupa and Almas? This has not been fully defined so far probably through a combination of debt, our own capital in some projects. We're looking at 50% debt at a minimum, and we're going to assess the market conditions for the Almas project. Once again, we were going to obtain 50% debt, but we did obtain more interesting financing. It will be a mixture cash generation that has been robust at the company and a bit of debt. And to speak about the Almas project, let's visit it and speak to Andrea, who is the Director of this incredible project being built in the state of Tocantins. Andrea: It's a pleasure to address you and to present a bit of the Almas project. I'm in Tocantins. And as you can see, the industrial processing plant is in the background as the main scenery for this morning. As you can observe the evolution of the construction, almost 80% of the project has been concluded in the background, the ore piling silo, the milling already installed, the spacer, the water tax, the reactor tanks and the additional tax. So a great deal has been done so far. But I would like to speak to you about the challenges that we have been facing. And speaking about this, if we move backwards almost a year ago in December of 2021, we obtained the license to begin construction at Almas. And we received the license in the rainfall period, although the day is beautiful. Today, it's not normal for this season. We began construction under rainfall, but the very devoted team began the enhancement processes, risks and analysis of each process. And of course, they were successful. I would like to underscore some of these initiatives. We begin with the land filling, which is mandatory to carry out this process. We had to change the management of the land filling, the execution, the type of fleet and how we would hire the fleet. We also had to alter the process per se. It was no longer a conventional process. We had to divide this into stages, and it was highly successful, as you can see. Another example of overcoming and the commitment of the team that I would like to share with you is based on decentralization at Aura of delivering to the teams and those who know how to do things, the challenges, and they will find alternatives. We saw this in civil construction at the beginning of the process. We were delayed in terms of civil construction. The team became mobilized. They consulted the best practices in the market, bringing in a completely new model to be able to realign with our schedule. As you can see, we have the construction of the tanks and the structures that were built through a preassembly carrying out all of this activity in a completely different yard and then bringing in those rings. So they could be assembled on the civil construction. As if this were a Lego game, we were able to return to our schedule, and of course, we're on time. Now this entire process will guarantee that the cash and the disbursement of the project would comply with its deadlines. We consulted processes to optimize our cash use. The pre operation of the mine, the movements in the mine -- we reviewed the geological models and this enabled us to reduce all the movements, guaranteeing cash to mitigate all of the impacts that we faced and inflation as well. Now what is happening at present, 80% of the project has been concluded, and we're getting ready to take on the operation. We have been bringing in very experienced teams. 100% of the leaders are presently in the site. They have vast knowledge in gold, in the start-up of similar projects. And of course, they also have that concept of preparing the teams that we will be hiring locally a great deal of qualification and preparation before we fully take on this operation. I would like to call upon the operation and construction project that are here with me in the live. They have contributed a great deal and this is but the beginning of our journey. Thank you very much, team. Excellent work. [Foreign language]

I think the opportunity that we had here is we to be able to introduce the ESG best practices and trends in the mining sector. And this is very much the result of a year of collaboration that we had with Aura Minerals has invested in our presence, doing some external advising on each one of their sites and providing a comprehensive ESG risk assessment. I'm actually including here a few photos. One of them is on the Almas side, showing that this commitment to bring external experts delivers on the desires of our minerals to be able to fill those ESG best practices and increase their performance in the next few months and years already with the participation into a series of global ESG certification scheme. So maybe to start this presentation on those different ESG best practice is I think the best element will be to focus on the environment elements, which is on the next slide. And here, we're going to be able to outline the importance of commitment to a series of different key environment elements, such as the decrease of carbon emissions, the protection of biodiversity and forest resources, the protection and verification of the quality of tailings and also our waste management on different operations. And finally, elements of protection of water resources and air resources. And I think what's important here to actually highlight is the dedication of our minerals to a series of key elements and trends on those ESG funds. For example, in terms of carbon emissions, the importance of being able to report Scope 3 performance, which have started already here in this company, but also making sure that there's a commitment to net 0 performance throughout the different properties. In the case of wider diversity and forest, the main trends at ESG in the mining sectors are focusing on the elements of the integration of land use planning at different sites, the importance of announcing the assessment of the impact on biodiversity and also impact on forest resources, which is very much at the center of the commitment of Aura Minerals in different properties, whether in Brazil, but also on Honduras and Mexico and especially elements of net trends. Still on the environment when I was mentioning the importance of tailings and protection of tailings, which is very important in Brazil, we've been able to assess and verify the commitment of our minerals to the series of ESG main certification schemes, which have the responsible gold mining principles that includes an element of analysis of talent qualities. And in case of water and air performances, whether it is in very dry areas such as Aranzazu in Mexico with the mine resources or these in more let's say, were plenty areas in Honduras or in Brazil. Definitely, there's been a work done on trying to emphasize on the transparency and disclosure of where use management, also on the imports of assessing this impact on the wire resources. And finally, having this approach on catchment-based base analysis, which actually analyzes the competing demands ongoing resources from all the different stakeholders, ensuring that the development of Aura Minerals properties actually include into an overall territorial gains. Maybe on the second slide, I'll be a little faster on other elements, such as, for example, the social importance of the ESG criteria. Here, there's 2 main areas. First one is employees and diversities. And you've seen already in those different presentations, the presence of a diverse employee base, whether it's gender based or racial based or looking at specific quality on gender ethnicity and others. Also, a key elements, including wage quality principle, the importance of work by balance, the comprehensive health and safety policies. And finally, also a series of different growing and reporting processes that we've been able to assess on the different sides of Aura Minerals. When it comes to committee and supply chains, there's a lot of work that has been already carried out in terms of integrating the mining properties in terms of integrating side an economic development plan in different sites. So whether it's in Almas, in Honduras, in Aranzazu, the integration of those properties working together with communities, either through suppliers programs or support to local entrepreneurship, in particular, female entrepreneurship in different areas, developing training programs, local hiring plans. All these are actually based and built through a series of establishment of foundations that allow us to trickle down the commitment of our minerals to a series of social economic development programs, whether it's health, it's education, but also, as I was mentioning, the imports of support to entrepreneurship and training programs. Finally, on the elements of governance, which is the last pillar of ESG, we're looking here at 3 different main pillars. The first one is looking at working with institutions, whether they're local or regional institution and ensuring that there's a clear, let's say, protocols in terms of anti-bribery, anticorruption policies but also working with institutions in terms of articulating the involvement of Aura Minerals, in terms of responsibility plan of diversified economic development, whether in Brazil, in Honduras or in Mexico. The rule element here is to focus on value-creating initiatives that would actually integrate both local and national stakeholders, diversifying the local economies and ensuring the establishment of a long-term societal sustainability in those 3 jurisdictions where Aura Minerals is present. And that goes through with also a series of international initiatives and making sure that there's an integrated holistic approach to local development around the mining operations in those 3 countries. In terms of communication here, we're focusing much more on the elements of sustainable communication with clear ESG metrics and variables that can be integrating a series of reporting initiatives, and we'll go through this a little bit later in this presentation. Also announced of the use of bidirectional communication platforms is a key trend in terms of ESG in the mining sectors, increasing the transparency and sustainability of committee relations in all different jurisdictions and also looking at developing communication with the series of public hearings where there's the communication socialization of those ESG risk assessment and also the strengthening of a social license to operate on all sites. And finally, which is very important in the elements of governments, the element of accountability and transparency, the dedication to this level of ESG data collection and sustainability reporting, as I was mentioning, through other different sites. The partition to a series of ESG certification in stand schemes such as the responsible gold mining principles, the conflict-free gold standards will develop them and also some work that we're seeing in developing of the trends in the mining industry in terms of broad level accountability account essential schemes in terms of ESG performance on which the company is looking strongly at currently. Maybe on the next slide, to just try to explain a little more how this is integrated inside the entire ESG corporate processes and certification. There's 2 ways to look at this there. First of all, the integration inside the company is on a series of different variables, which are simplified in this Mandala that already Paula presented, but that we were able to assess on all sides of the integration of the placement of the employees and collaborators of the company at the center of the company's strategy, also the management of ethics innovation in terms of our governments. And finally, the integration of communities and environment in terms of making sure that there's a respect toward the resources and integration in terms of long-term sustainability throughout the mine cycle. In terms of external schemes, and we can see it now in the next slide, the elements of participating to a series of certifications, as I was mentioning, the responsible go mining principle, also the conflict-free gold standards. And that's actually a convenient Aura Minerals since March 2021 of integrating the World Gold council and therefore, having to integrate those schemes such as GMPs, CFFGS, of double checking with external assurance, the fact that the sustainability of the process are very much integrating throughout the operation of the different mining sites. Another commitment was, for example, with the dedication participation with a series of initiatives with international win in Mining. Definitely Aura Minerals has signed agreements in Brazil and Mexico and recently in Central America in terms of parts participating to0 more and more initiatives fostering diversity in terms of their workforce, but also analyzing the impact that it has on communities throughout those partnerships. Maybe just to finish on this presentation, a stronger focus specifically on the GMPs and the FGS. So those are 2 essential ESG standards that have been developed by the World Gold council. Aura Minerals being a member of the World Gold council has, therefore, embarked in terms of these 3-year plans of certifying that the mining is done responsibly on those different sites. Those actually includes a series of external assurance, a third-party validation of those costs in performance. And since March 2021, Aura is now embarking in terms of those reporting that are being assessed. The first year will be finished at the end of December and looking at having a clear certification process by March 2024. In terms of free standards, this is also another one, which focuses on the fact that gold production is actually in line with preventing and mitigating potential conflict, making sure that gold is actually well handled by the company, at the company level at the commodity level. And finally, as I was mentioning, the importance of having third-party assessment throughout the mining operation, and we were able to do so in all operations in Aura Minerals.

We now come to the end. The question-and-answer session. Should you wish to speak to us, please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We have received some questions and they have already been addressed to some of our speakers. The first question for Rodrigo, which is the balance between acquisition and the payment of dividends. And how is the market for acquisitions overall.

[Interpreted] Before we respond. We would like to share with you that we wanted to bring everybody live in a very transparent way. So you would get to see our day-to-day in the mine. This, of course, entails some risks, and it's part of having a program like this one. Congratulations to the Aranzazu team because we also had a slight problem, but of course, we did this with discipline without putting anybody in risk, and this is how we normally operate. Back to the question, therefore, how can we grow and still pay dividends? We have worked very diligently through the last few years, setting up a portfolio that would bring together good mines with good cash generation and efficient costs and projects under development that would have short payback periods of less than 2 years, leveraging this 50%. In 1 year, we would have a return on our equity. So these projects have a huge capacity of recycling capital. All of this while we produce capital without overly leveraging the company. This is how we are able to keep this balance. It was truly wonderful to speak to the people at a distance, and it's good to be here together. When we speak about investments, we do have to have this type of transparency. So congratulations to all of you.

The second question to Rodrigo. Does Aura have guidance for 2023?

Now this is a question we have received in the last few weeks. We're in the final discussions of our budgeting for 2023, and this will have to be submitted to the board and approved before we can issue guidance, of course. The meeting with the Board has been set up in December. And ensuing this, we will disclose our guidance for 2023. Wonderful.

Would anybody like to add something? We're here waiting for additional questions a few instances, while we poll for questions. Kleber, this question is for you. The reduction in company cash in the third quarter, is this a reason of concern?

No, Carla, it was expected. We have the Big River acquisition at 54 million, one-time thing, and the acceleration of the Almas project. In truth, we got prepared for this. We ended the second quarter with more than BRL 250 million in cash, and these a one-time investments.

Glauber is ready to implement the 3 projects until 2025, when you have sufficient people for this.

Very good question. As I mentioned, when I was referring to Almas, Almas has been our flagship, our killer case. And what we're designing for future projects is that as we slow down a bit in Almas, we will put this in another project like Borborema and Liga to Matupa, basically taking advantage of the same group of people. And with that government that has been put in place in operations, these new units will already have the Aura culture, the Aura system, of course. We will depend on having new people, but we do have a preparation plan. We also make the most of the local teams. This is something we have used in previous years, people to take on new positions in the new units. We do have a very well-defined management system. And then we will follow through the cadence of this to make the most of each implementation. Yes, we are ready for this. Very good. Let's go there. Yes, we're underway now -- what I would like to share is the quality, the level of quality of the people we have in the company. It's incredible. The senior management, corporate managers, those that operate the mines. And I think this quality permeates the entire organization. And wherever the team is, it will lead us to those 450,000 ounces or beyond that without a doubt.

Paula, a question for you.

The mining commitment with social and environmental responsibility is extremely important for the company's sustainability, which is the long-term plan. Now Aura is already speaking about ESG, perhaps not in that specific framework that the market discusses at present. But we have been putting ESG and practice since Rodrigo took office in 2016. When we created our first Mandela, perhaps intuitively, we included ESG principles in our management, and we have been building the ESG agenda in the last 5 or 6 years. We published our sustainability report in 2021, referring to 2020 and offering greater transparency to all of our stakeholders, showing our strides. We're working on the second report, and we're going to continue on along these lines. In the last 2 years, we have added greater robustness to Aura. When we look at the ESG pillars. And when we think of ESG as EESG, highlighting our employees because we care for employees first before caring for the other aspects. We do have very sound plans in place besides metrics in these pillars. And the trend going forward is to have greater robustness in the area and better governance. Yes. This is part of our plans for coming years. To underscore the issue of ESG is important. Everything goes through people. A company can take care of the environment or the social part, if they don't take proper care of the people that work with them, it is through that relationship with our employees that we hope to reach that respect, transparency and all of our decisions in the social, environmental and environmental part. We truly believe in this and that is why people are in the first place. Thank you very much.

Kleber, which is the ideal leverage for the company? And do you foresee the need of new debt, new funding for new acquisitions or projects?

Now the ideal leverage for the company is not to over-leverage the company at any time. The goal is to stand at 1 times net debt over EBITDA. If we go beyond that, it will be in very timely periods due to an acquisition. But on the other hand, we try not to work with surplus cash. Last year, the company had surplus cash, we paid out dividends in an extraordinary way because this is the best remunerated cash in the pockets of our shareholders. Currently, we work between 0 and 1 times net debt over EBITDA. This is healthy. Now regarding new projects, we don't need additional funding for this. In July of 2021, We raised $17 million, funding 100% of the project. And as the CapEx was $135 million. This is what we expect to spend. We won't need additional CapEx for Almas for new projects, as mentioned previously, we will have to work with additional financing, working with debt and our own capital.

Glauber for you. With the recent events, mining is under scrutiny because of the dams and tailings and how do you manage your tailings?

Yes, we do have dams -- our operation in Mexico has done as well as the operation in Mato Grosso and Almas that is being concluded is building the dam at present. In Honduras, this is the only operation where we don't have dams. The other 2 projects will be dry mining. Now not because you have a dam, where you have a risk. This is because of the construction method. Our method is deemed to be more secure. Of course, there is a part of carbonate, instrumentation, investments in technology that offer us real-time information on the situation of the dam. This enables us to make decisions whenever there is a change. Now linked to this, our internal in-house technical team is highly trained based on the best practices, and we have the support of outside consultancy. We do have a governance committee, where we are all involved in discussions once a month. And of course, this enables us tranquility. We have information and clarity in terms of what happens. And we're doing very well in terms of our management level of this.

Rodrigo -- this question is for you. This is the second year that Aura is awarded as having the best performance in the Toronto stock market. How did you achieve this?

Through a combination of factors the right strategy set up since 2017, we have a well-prepared team and a very good portfolio, while the market was disputing complex, very large projects. We focus on a simple project with low cost and on our team that was called 360. We gave more responsibility to the team to resolve day-to-day problems. Through this combination, we had significant growth in the last few years. But we also have great resiliency in the team. And we're growing, going through a pandemic. We had to bring some operations to a standstill, a critical moment in terms of inflation, the increase in cost and the CEO of Bearing said that their cost per ounce increased 210%, I believe. So it's a combination of having good assets and an extremely well-trained team. And this is recognition of the work we have been doing since 2017. And what can we expect from Aura after 2025? That we will continue growing with responsibility. We know how to get to those 450,000 ounces. We know that multiples will change as we continue to grow. We want to continue to grow but sheltered under significant pillars responsibility, ESG investing in our collaborators and being very careful with the financial environment. We will enter good projects with good resources and with quick paybacks will continue to grow then.

We do have some more questions here. Another question here. Kleber, is the company thinking of share buyback?

Yes. We do assess this. We approved the buyback in a 12-month period that is ending in December. And of course, it is an opportunity when the shares are below the fair value, and it's a way of returning money to the shareholder. There is no decision. It will have to be approved at the Board of Management to continue on with our projects. But we would consider it.

Unfortunately, we do have to end this broadcast. We still have questions arriving. But because of our time constraints, we will have to close. I will give the floor to Rodrigo, the CEO for his closing remarks.

I would like to thank all of you who have attended here. Thank the team that mobilized to come up with this presentation to show you very transparently what we're doing. And we would like to reinforce our commitment to deliver that project that we have discussed with investors. We have a good track record. We have grown since 2017. We carried out the IPO in Brazil in 2020. We began to publish important reports for Almas. We spoke about the Matupa project. We have also referred to the fact that we're looking for M&As to continue to grow. And here, you can see the acquisition of Borborema in our portfolio. We're complying with everything we promised and we're going to deliver that project of more than 450,000 ounces in 2025 in that context of sound financial health by paying out dividends with a top-quality team with responsibility, autonomy to make decisions with a full understanding that any decision we make will generate an impact on people, on communities, and we do want to grow in a very healthy way, perhaps by leading a new movement in mining so that Aura can become one of the most admired companies certainly will become that with this team and with our operation units.

Thank you very much, Rodrigo, Kleber, Paula and everybody else. Thank you for those who participated. Thank you for the employees. Have an excellent day. And I would like to remind you that this slide will be available on our YouTube channel for those who would like to watch it and until we meet again. I am Carla [indiscernible]. It has been a pleasure to be with you until we meet again. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]