K92 Mining Inc. (KNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the K92 Mining First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to David Medilek, Vice President, Business Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for attending K92 Mining's First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. We hope you and your families are doing well. In addition to myself, we have on the line John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director; and Justin Blanchet, Chief Financial Officer. I would also like to remind everyone that after the remarks from management, the call will be followed by a Q&A session. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosure in our MD&A and Slide 2 of the webcast presentation. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in United States dollars unless otherwise noted. Now I'll turn it over to John to provide you with an overview.

Thank you, David, and welcome, everyone. In the first quarter, we delivered strong operational performance and continued to significantly strengthen our financial position with a record cash balance, record revenue and also low all-in sustaining and cash costs. The mining process plant performed well, achieving second consecutive quarter of stage 2 run rate, and we've certainly seen a compression of our unit cost as a result. In the latter part of the quarter, we also benefited from the progressive easing of our COVID-19 restrictions, and that's continued into this quarter. Lastly, we continued to progress with our organic growth, delivering excellent Kora resource update and also maiden resource at Judd. In addition, we reported some very exciting drilling results in Kora South and Judd South showing that the known system still has an enormous potential. On the safety front, we recorded 1 loss time injury during the quarter. And on a year-to-year basis, loss time injury frequency rate continues to trend down, and we're very proud to operate with one of the best safety records in the Australasian region, and we continue to have that strong focus on occupational health and safety and work to continuously improve our safety systems. On ESG, I'm pleased to report that earlier this year we approved a significant increase year-on-year of approximately 100% on our community development budget. It covers a wide range of initiatives, which includes, but not limited to investment in transport, infrastructure, health care, education, agriculture, regional commerce and supporting infrastructure. I just returned from Papua New Guinea and I'm really pleased to see how we are progressing with those various programs. Also, while I was in PNG, it's pleasing to see K92 receive recognition in the national newspaper highlighting the positive impact that K92's growth is having on local landowner joint ventures, and we're pleased to really have received that recognition, but also the stage 2A and stage 3 expansions, we're going to see even more benefits to the community. I also like to highlight that K92 has placed a major focus on the greenhouse gas emissions for instant ESG reporting, the 2021 emission inventory and TCF analysis is well underway and a greenhouse gas emission forecast for the stage 3 and stage 3A expansion is also being completed alongside our studies. Kainantu is very green line. The carbon intensity is a fraction of the global average per ounce. And from these projects, we'll look to improve our disclosure, reduce our carbon footprint and develop our carbon targets going forward. For further information on our ESG activities, I'd recommend reviewing our latest ESG report, which is found on our website. And we're certainly very proud of the positive impact that K92 has had, we believe, in PNG. So moving on to operational performance. During the quarter, we produced 28,188 ounces of gold equivalent, and we processed just under 100,000 tons at a head grade of 9.7 grams per ton gold equivalent. Compared to Q1 2021, mill throughput and production increased 36% and 49% respectively, having a major positive continues to be a strong performance of the mill. In March, record average mill throughput was achieved of 1,219 tons per day on average, it's about 10% above our stage 2 run rate. And importantly, 45% of the days in the quarter were about 1,300 tons per day. What makes the performance even more impressive is that we've not yet installed the additional secondary crushing flotation cells for the stage 2A expansion. In terms of the key operation in quarterly physicals, near record mill throughput and total material mined was achieved and development was comparable to the prior quarter. I think it's important to highlight the strong performance was achieved during the COVID-19 Omicron wave, which came through PNG during the quarter, and that did result in some short staffing and absenteeism. COVID has been a factor now for 2 years for the whole industry since really the first quarter in 2021. And I'm really proud of how our team on-site has continued to push ahead and deliver the strong results and reporting again today. I'm also pleased to report that our control measures once again held up during that wave. And in the later part of the quarter, as I mentioned, we've been able to start easing our COVID-19 restrictions. So we no longer require quarantine of any our incoming personnel and that obviously results in a significant cost saving and improvement in the productivity of our personnel. Our mitigation systems continued and we remain vigilant through testing, screening procedures, additional medical personnel on-site and multi-temperature checkpoints around the site and camp and obviously a focus on hygiene. We currently have no confirmed COVID-19 cases on-site. I think in terms of 2022, it's important to remind investors that our guidance is based on the second half of the year being stronger than the first half, driven primarily by higher throughput rates through the commissioning of various components of stage 2 [ expansion ] and some of the [ stope ] sequencing. I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Justin Blanchet, to discuss the financial results for the first quarter.

Thank you, John, and hello, everyone. During the first quarter, we had revenue of $52.4 million, a 78% increase from prior year. We sold 26,471 gold ounces at an average price of $1,769, compared to 21,879 ounces at an average price of $1,735 in the prior year. As of March 31, 2022, there are 4,848 gold ounces in inventory, including both concentrate and ore, a decrease of 2,299 gold ounces when compared to December 31 due to timing of sales. Cost of sales was $22.5 million compared to $20.9 million in the prior year or $17.7 million compared to $17.1 million when you exclude noncash items. The increase can be attributed to an increase in operational activity as we mined 100,124 tons as compared to 55,883 tons in Q1 2021, meaning on a per ton basis, costs are lower than prior year. Q1 2022 cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was $22.7 million compared to $7.7 million in the prior year. As of March 31, 2022, we had $79.9 million in cash and cash equivalents while spending $9 million in expansion capital for the quarter and having our strongest working capital balance to date of $92.1 million. The company has no debt on the balance sheet. As John mentioned, during the first quarter, the Kainantu Gold operations produced 24,152 ounces of gold, 1,524,827 pounds of copper and 28,142 ounces of silver or 28,188 ounces of gold equivalent. We sold 26,471 ounces of gold, 1,247,967 pounds of copper and 24,899 ounces of silver or 29,798 ounces gold equivalent. We incurred a cash cost of $536 and an all-in sustaining cost of $788 per gold ounce, which was significantly below our selling price of $1,769 per ounce. Our Q1 2022 cash cost per ounce decreased to $536 from $745 in the prior year. The decrease in cash cost was primarily due to the successful ramp-up of the $400,000 expansion, allowing the company to achieve better economies of scale and a 21% increase in gold ounces sold. It's important to note that after commissioning the stage 2 plant expansion in late third quarter 2021, we have seen a significant compression in our total unit cost per ton processed. We continue to see downward pressure on costs via economies of scale as operations ramp up. I will now turn the call back to John to continue with the rest of the presentation.

Well, thanks, Justin. For the exploration growth section of the call, we'll begin with Kainantu's production growth strategy. Stage 2 expansion of 400,000 tons per annum achieved third quarter of 2021 and our stage 2A expansion, which takes us up to 500,000 tons per annum, so a 25% increase is well underway. We're also advancing that stage 3 expansion, which will increase our throughput to 1.2 million tons per annum through a separate stand-alone plant with a feasibility study on that plant for later this quarter, early next quarter. That feasibility study will also look at a PEA case, where we have quite different project scenario with both the stage 3 and the stage 2A plants operating in parallel. Stage 2 capital costs, as we previously said, is low, $2.5 million, and that's really fully some additional ancillary items around the plant. The increased underground mining rates are achieved through accelerating some of our stage 3 sustaining capital. So at the plant, filter press operational, the additional TC1000 is on-site. Flotation tanks are planned to be installed and commissioned in the second half of this year. But I'd say based on the strong performance that we've seen from the plant today, we will actually be looking to gradually increase our mining rates and our processing rates throughout the balance of the year, so actually ahead of when we actually commissioned those flotation plants. Now from Stage 2A, we obviously expect to get a meaningful boost in terms of our free cash flow generation, which further strengthens our ability to self-fund the growth. So lastly, while I was on site, I had the opportunity to tour multiple areas of the operation. And I'm pleased to be able to share some of those with you on the call today. While on the ground, I got to see the immediate positive impact that we're having from the latest equipment that we've had delivered, which includes a new jumbo, loader and truck and jumbo arriving late in Q1 and the truck and loader arriving in Q2. A significant amount of additional equipment is also scheduled to arrive in the near term as we ramp up towards that 2A, and that includes another jumbo, another loader, truck, [indiscernible] machine and [indiscernible] as I think we previously noted in this presentation. Second half of the year is expected to be the strongest in terms of production as we ramp up additional equipment and also with the scheduling of the scopes that we have. But since commencing production, we've also had to have a considerable focus on training. And I'm pleased at Kainantu, one of the things that we've been able to do is set up state-of-the-art training simulators. Now these simulators have exactly the same controls and display as you would see in practice underground. And you can see that from the 2 photos here, with the photo on the left showing our training superintendent operating the simulator on the surface, while the photo on the right is actually one of our miners operating [indiscernible] loader underground. Our investment in training is also an investment in our communities. And through that, we generate a long-term, highly-skilled workforce, which is obviously key for us as well in our expansions going forward. So this is very, very much a win-win-type situation. Expansion of the mining fleet, we're also upgrading our maintenance capabilities and infrastructure at the mining portal. The large structure with that green blue roof, that is a new workshop under construction. We expect to be commissioning it in the next quarter and that will obviously increase our capability and our productivity on the maintenance front. Site-wise one of the other developments, as you can see here, is that we are producing Gold Dore on site. We have approval now to export our gold from Bank of PNG, so that means that the Dore that we produced last quarter and this quarter will now be sold in Q2, and the video here obviously shows one of the ports that was able to attend last week. With that export license granted, we'll be ramping up our gravity circuit, and we expect to see an improvement in overall payability and recoveries. Besides, the mining team achieved another record, which this time was the largest single stone blast, 7,740 tons. That blast utilized electronic precision designated that we've recently introduced into our drill and blast practices, performed extremely well, excellent fragmentation and coming out to design, as you can see there. Executing these large blasts will also provide a considerable boost to the mining site efficiencies. Also, while underground, I went into the [indiscernible] system, and we continue to make solid progress there. I visited our new third sublevel, which is a 1285 level, and this particular phase delivered significant grade and thickness 5.2 meters, 13.8 grams per ton gold, 2.3% copper and silver and 17.5 grams per ton gold equivalent. As some would probably note, the mineralization actually continued into the wall. So that particular area was actually slightly wider than that. Now the twin incline, furthest incline is now 1,112 meters at end of April. Performance of development crew has actually been strong over the last 3 quarters to an incline advance exceeding budget by around 10%. The incline as you may recall, being a 6x6.5 and a 5x5.5 have been designed well beyond our requirements for stage 3, looking at a stage 4, stage 5 and those beyond that capability of around 5 million tons per annum if we install conveyors. On exploration during the quarter, drilling was underway at Kora, Kora South, Judd, Judd South also the Blue Lake porphyry. Blue Lake porphyry drilling program has now been completed, just putting in the last results and compiling all that into a report, which will be had shortly. Now Kora and Kora South, as you can see the long sections here, there are 3 key areas like our focus. Two of those are short term, one is a sort of a medium term. So short-term drilling Kora South from the surface. You can see from this long section been absolutely no drilling in that area. Previously, one hole reported so far, which was the hole we reported last quarter. And that hole reported one of the most significant exploration results we've seen since that discovery hole in Kora North in 2017. Second area of focus is drilling Kora South from underground. Now that will obviously tie in with what we're doing from the surface and help improve our overall knowledge and understanding of Kora South and obviously look to expand our resource to the site as we go with that. We've got a drill [ cabby ] set up right now at the very end of a 1205 level. And we expect in the second half of the year start again pushing further to the size of that 1205 level and actually enabling us to continue to drill further to the site from underground as well. Third area of focus is what we would call Kora Deeps and the northern strike extension, which will be drilled from the twin incline as we get in closer to the core results. So that's really looking towards the end of this year. If you look at the Judd side vein system, exploration program very much following along similar lines to what we have at Kora with I guess the distinction that Judd is really about 3 years behind Kora. When we think about it Kora North discovery May 2017, Judd's first high-grade results reported Q4 2020. So drilling Judd South from the surface currently underway, as is drilling Judd from underground. And then within the mining lease, the majority of our underground rigs are actually focused on drilling chart in the mining lease and expanding that resource in the mining lease. While I was on-site, I had the opportunity to get on the ground and above the ground, obviously, as you can see from this chopper video to our exploration that is underway in Kora and Judd South. Starting here with the drill rig, which is furthest south that's about 530 meters beyond the mining lease. So the rig is one of our contractor rigs, and this is the first hole that's been drilled from a drill pad. And coming back second rig 270 meters along strike from the mining lease that this rig is owned and operated by K92. This is 1 of our 2 surface rigs. And as I think some of you are aware, over the years, we've invested significantly in drill rigs. All of the underground rigs are owned by K92 and 2 of the 3 surface rigs. And then lastly, we're coming up to the third rig working on surface, 133 meters from the mining lease also owned and operated by K92. So we have expanded this program from 1 rig to 2 rigs and now to 3 rigs. We've done that in a relatively short period, and that has been an excellent hike from our exploration team on the ground. So we're going to be continuing to drill this area all of this year and well into next year. So lastly, we conclude with our regional advanced mobile MT deep penetrating airborne geophysics result from late in Q4 2021. And these results really have been extremely significant in terms of recognizing the exploration upside of our project. The high connectivity zone that you can see delineated extends from Kora and Judd along Kora, Judd South into what we call the A1 porphyry, interpreted A1 porphyry. But importantly, it extends beyond that to the south with the strike length of something like 5 meters. So that whole area to the south is being integrated into our exploration plans for next year. I think the geophysics also identified a prospective porphyry belt, and that correlates well with non-targets in A1 and also Blue Lake. And as I noted earlier, phase 2 drill program at Blue Lake is completed with processing [indiscernible]. As you can see there, showed a very strong response to A1, even stronger than that we've seen in Blue Lake and that makes it a high priority target for us in the near term. And we plan to commence surface sampling program A1 later this year, ahead of the drilling program. So with that, operator, I'd like to commence the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Chris Thompson of PI Financial.

Congratulations on a really, really strong quarter. Just a quick question. John, could you give us a sense of timing when you guys are going to be delivering the TA and the feasibility study? Are we looking at later this quarter or maybe early next quarter?

Thanks, Chris. Yes, in terms of the DFS and the PEA, it's either late this quarter or very early next quarter. We're going to put them both out at the same time. So originally, the plan was to get the DFS out first and then the PEA, but bringing them both together, this gives us a little bit more work that we need to get finished. So yes, it will be very late this quarter, early next quarter.

Great. And I guess the next question, just the final and I'll just slip it in. What about the mining lease renewal. Can you give us a little update on that?

Mining lease renewal. Okay. So the mining lease, as I think you're aware, is actually runs through until late 2024. We actually submitted an application for renewal earlier this year that has gone through the process with the MRA. And we've had the wardens hearings last month, late last month, which is timing-wise, is actually one of the quickest we've seen and actually get organized with that. We now have, as I think many people would be aware, we now have elections in PNG, the rigs have been issued, which means we've got a government that's on caretaker mode. So we won't -- we don't believe that we can get a renewal until the elections are finished and the new government is established, although I did meet with the MD of the MRA last week, and it will still go through their process, still go through the MAC, which is the Mineral Advisory Council. And, yes, his advice was seasonal issues with our renewals. So certainly, our expectation is that we should get it later this year.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Michael Fairbairn of Canaccord.

Congrats on a really strong quarter. Just one question for me around your cash cost in AISC. Very, very strong cash cost in AISC this quarter falling well below guidance. Wondering if full year guidance is starting to look a little bit conservative on those fronts or if we might expect to see a little bit higher costs as we progress through the year?

Thanks, Michael. I guess a couple of things. One, in looking at our capital expenditure, we certainly expect that the quarters going forward will increase in relation to sustaining capital. Especially things like development and what have you. So certainly, our expectation is that in terms of AISC, our guidance is fairly reasonable, recognizing it is quite a wide number as well. In terms of cash costs, I think we were very pleased with the numbers that we got in Q1 as we were with the sustaining. But likewise, we are increasing the number of people that we're employing and a few other things like that, which will obviously have some impact on cash costs. So I think we're still fairly comfortable with the numbers that we've given out to the market.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Don DeMarco of National Bank Financial.

Congratulations on a strong start of the year. So my first question just has to do with the Gold Dore export license. What is your Dore inventory at the end of Q1? Should we expect potential lift to Q1 -- Q2 sales with this export license now in hand?

Thanks, Don. I think we had a couple of thousand ounces, Gold Dore. We have not been pushing the gravity circuit to operate full time until such time as we actually had the gold export, well, actually gold export license per se, it's just a modification of the existing gold export license to allow us to do Dore as well. So there'll be some impact, but it won't be a huge impact on Q2. And of course, going forward, we expect to get around 10% to 20% of our gold coming out in Dore. And so it will have some impact obviously, in relation to payabilities and also in relation to recovery as well, we think with a slight improvement in recovery from one in the gravity circuit as well. So had we been running the gravity circuit to full time it would have produced more ounces, but we didn't actually want too high stock sitting on-site while we're waiting to get our approvals.

Okay. That's encouraging. Now just moving on elections in June. So it says getting closer. Not expecting this to really move the needle, but is there any recent developments that might have any read through or implications on K92?

The election process in PNG is actually quite drawn out. The rigs have now been issued and nominations have actually been extended by a week, and that was a result of last week, there was a quite serious motor accident in which the Deputy Prime Minister was actually fatally injured. So that was reasonably impactful and as a result, they've extended nominations by a week. It doesn't change the timing of the elections actions and PNG are actually very strict in terms of the time frames. And they run 5 years, you don't generally get early elections or anything like that. We haven't seen anything in what's happening with the election process that really says it's going to have any impact on K92 or really on the mining industry full stop. The turnaround that you get in the PNG is actually quite high. You get about 54% of siting members get returned. So you actually get a quite high turnover, a lot of new MPs every time you have an election, but we don't expect to see much difference in terms of the strength of the relevant parties. And as I think you're aware, PNG politics is a little bit different to most places in the world, it's a coalition of partners that get into government. And -- yes, there may or may not be a change of peer, quite frankly. And even if the parties stay the same in terms of the numbers, you could still see a change in PM. So yes, we can see.

Okay. Sounds good. And then just finally, on Stage 3 expansion CapEx, of course, we have an estimate from the PEA and then there's another estimate that will be pending with the DFS. We're in this inflationary environment. Can you provide any color on inflation? Or is there any items in this -- in the spend that might be subject to inflation or of concern?

Look, as you've said, we are seeing CapEx inflation across the board, especially in things like steel and what have you. Certainly, from our perspective, I think one of the things that we are seeing is not so much in the inflation side of things, but in the lead time where things like mills, crushers, float cells are the longest they've been for at least a decade. So there is some lead time issues that we're aware of, especially for those particular items. And of course, as you know, a lot of that equipment is actually manufactured primarily in China. In terms of cost inflation itself, the numbers that we're aware of, and I've made the point that we don't have the CapEx numbers yet for the DFS. But in just general discussions with our various suppliers and contractors and consultants. We're seeing CapEx inflation of 10% to 20%. I know that there have been several projects that have come out with quite significant increases in CapEx. When you break those numbers down, the actual inflation is sitting more around the sort of 20%. There are various other things that have driven many of the increases in CapEx and scope and all the rest of it. So -- and I guess the other point we make is, from our perspective, yes, look, we have increased the size of the project, so it is 20% bigger. It is over 2 years since you put the PEA. So we do expect to see fairly significant inflation on the numbers, but they're coming from a low base. I think if you look at PEA, we had about $125 million CapEx, another $115 million in sustaining costs. So overall CapEx, $240 million. That's obviously going to go north of 300, there's no 2 ways about that, but I don't have absolute color on it yet.

Our next question comes from Alex Terentiew of Stifel GMP.

Great to see solid quarter. A couple of questions for you. On the cost, I just wanted to circle back to that. Can you just remind me there, just give me some clarity then on the capital spending growth and sustaining for the rest of the year, like in one of the earlier callers asked and noted how costs were quite good, and I understand costs are going to go up. But can you just remind me then CapEx and sustaining and growth CapEx, what your plans are for the rest of the year?

Okay. So we've -- I think we've budgeted CapEx sustaining cost is around $60 million for the year, a bit more than that. And of course, that includes our twinning client, additional capital equipment that's coming in for underground. We've got a tailing sand lift that we're busy with right now and camp expansion, new maintenance workshop at the 800 portal. So we have a lot of projects on the go right now. And then, of course, the other one would be that we've got a DFS that's being completed. We expect to very quickly after that, completion put in orders for long lead items. And that is in this year's budget simply because the numbers were unknown and obviously requires approval of the Board to go ahead with the DFS.

I think you had $46 million in growth CapEx. Is that -- so that's not related to the expansion at all. That's just development and other projects, I guess.

Yes. Well, when you're running an operation and you're also going to expand it, you do get into the situation of saying, well, is this expansion capital? Or is it sustaining capital? In some cases because the expenditure that you're incurring, you would not incur at that given time, but you would have to incur at some point. So another CapEx item for late this year is we've got a raise bore bench half going in with 600 to 700 meters. I think it's a [indiscernible]. So it's a pretty substantial development. Now we were sitting at 400 or 500 tons per annum, we wouldn't do that right now. We do it a bit later, but we're doing it now. So yes, you've got to have those discussions with your CFO and all the rest of it as to whether that should be sustaining or expansion. And that's one of the reasons that when I talk about the PEA, I talk about not just the expansion CapEx, but the sustaining CapEx in that period as well.

All right. Next question. Maybe just on the gold recovery circuit. I know this is a bit dated, but in the PEA, I think I believe you guys were targeting kind of 95% recoveries once it's all optimized. Is that still a reasonable target? And then also related to that with the copper, do you expect any improvement in the copper recovery and perhaps payabilities as well?

Look, I think 95% is a reasonable target for the operation going forward. We -- one of the things that we've seen from the test work that we've done is increasing our residence time in the flotation will help us with recovery of some of the slow floating material. And hence, when expanding to this 500,000 ton per annum, we're actually pretty much doubling our rougher capacity, even though it's only a 25% increase in throughput. And that's as a result of some of the tests that we did as part of the DFS. With the gravity circuit running, we expect to see our copper grades in the corn go up. And because right now you obviously optimize your float for recovery of gold, not recovery of copper. It's currently 85%, 90% of our value going forward, the float value will increase in terms of copper contribution. And you've already pulled out some of your gold. So you're going to be pushing those copper grades up a bit. And that, in turn, will have some impact on payability. So we do expect to get a little bit better payability with the higher copper grades. Overall, I think we still expect to see the same sort of coverage but a bit higher grade on the [indiscernible].

[Operator Instructions] This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Lewins for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you, operator. Thanks, everyone, for attending this morning. And I can actually say this morning because I'm also in North America currently. I think it's the first time I've had a quarterly call where I'm actually in the same time frame. I think it's been a very solid quarter for us. We're coming off a record quarter in Q4 to be able to sustain the production rates in terms of throughput from both the mining and the plant were really important. In terms of throughput, we certainly anticipate we'll see similar numbers this quarter. In terms of, I think, our metal production and whatever else, we think also this quarter will be similar to the last quarter. Second half of the year, I think we expect to see higher or increasing throughput, increasing mining rates impact of the equipment that we've got coming in, increasing our labor, so labor recruitment as well. And so we can continue to expect that production for the year will be back-end loaded and also the scheduling of some of the stopes. So this has set us up, we believe, for a good year. On the exploration front, now with 3 rigs in Kora, Judd South, we're pretty excited by the potential there. And obviously, we'll have results coming out on an ongoing basis throughout the year. So there's a lot of things happening with DFS coming up as well, a lot of things happening for the company. And we were looking, really looking forward to the balance of 2022 as being a very exciting year for K92. So again, thanks for your attendance this morning. Look forward to catching up with many of you over the next few weeks or around PDAC. Stay well. All the best to you and your families and thank you.

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