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

August 10, 2023

Toronto Stock Exchange CA Materials Metals and Mining earnings 52 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the 2023 second quarter financial results conference call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to David Medilek, President. Please go ahead.

David Medilek

executive
#2

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for attending K92 Mining's Second Quarter 2023 Results 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.

John Lewins

executive
#3

Thank you, David, and welcome, everyone. In the second quarter, K92 delivered a strong operating performance, increasing gold equivalent production by 43% from the first quarter, 18% from Q2 2018 cash costs, all-in sustaining costs for the quarter were significantly lower than our annual guidance range. Our cash balance notably strengthened during the quarter, even after near-record capital spend and exploration spend. We also made considerable progress on multiple growth initiatives, including the completion of the Stage 2A plant expansion, the discovery of a high-grade zone at the J2 vein, potentially outlining yet another productive vein within the core Southaven systems. And subsequent to quarter end, the Board of Directors approved the award of Stage 3 expansion process plant, lump-sum EPCM contract. We've significantly derisked the majority of our growth capital for the expansion. We look forward to discussing all of this in more further detail in the course of the presentation. So we're very proud of the company's performance highlighted in the 2022 sustainability report, which was released in late July. The report details our key sustainability initiatives, demonstrating our commitment to socially responsible mining. K92 has a workforce of approximately 1,500 people, with a major focus on local hiring. Approximately 94% of our workforce is from Papua New Guinea and the majority from our local communities with a large focus, obviously, on training development. K92 has a low environmental footprint with a traditional tailings empowerment, no cyanide, and low greenhouse gas emissions profile. We're currently focused on multiple long-term social and economic development initiatives in Papua New Guinea through joint ventures, education, infrastructure, service programs, agricultural programs, and investing in female impairment programs among many others. K92 has been recognized by ISS as having peer-leading corporate governance, and we are the second-largest corporate taxpayer in Papua New Guinea mining industry. We encourage you to read the report, which is available on our website. While the report covers the 2022 fiscal year, we are deeply sad to report 2 transit incidents, which resulted in multiple fatalities during the quarter, as previously disclosed in the press release. The health and safety of our workforce has been and always will be our highest priority, and we are committed to providing further disclosures on these incidents and the steps we've taken to reinforce our safety culture in our 2023 sustainability report. In June, K92 was very pleased to announce our 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25% in business as usual basis. K2 is already one of the lower-emission gold mines globally, and we're committed to further improving our energy and GHG maintenance voting. We believe that we are well positioned with a clear path to achieve this target through enhancing access to hydropower from a local grid combined with other reduction initiatives. I'd like to make the point that we've already taken action to improve our greenhouse gas emissions this year with a dedicated power line completed from the [ Ramu ] substation to the site. The power line was installed to increase the reliability of hydroelectric power from the distribution group so that we can reduce the usage of standby diesel gen sets. Through our partnership with P&G, we're assessing further opportunities to maximize the utilization of hydropower. Moving on to operational performance. During the quarter, the K92 mine produced 3,794 ounces of gold equivalent, 12,471 tonnes processed with a head grade of 9.2 grams per tonne gold equivalent. Compared with Q1 2023 and Q2 2022, production increased by 43% and 18%, respectively, and long-haul solving during the quarter performed in design. Cash costs of $597 an ounce and all-in sustaining cost of $975 an ounce, notably lower than the annual guidance range of $620 million to $680 million for cash costs and 180 to 1,300 for all-in sustaining costs. In terms of our key operational quarterly physicals, K92 delivered within 5% to 10% of our record all-time process, total material mined and developed. And that despite the impacts of the safety incidents in the case of processing tons, work involved in the Stage 2 Bank Commission. As noted in previous conference calls, increasing our development rates continues to remain a major focus as we catch up on development that was impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And I'm pleased to report that a new jumbo arrived on site during July. A major positive in the second quarter has been the performance of the process plant, with recoveries having considerably increased after completing the commissioning of the new Rouge flotation cells, which have doubled our rouge flotation capacity, and that was the final part of the Stage 2A plant expansion that was completed in May. In the second quarter, we achieved the highest recoveries for both gold and copper since Q4 2021. And in June, gold recoveries achieved the integrated development and parameters of manufacturers. Now that initial commissioning is complete, optimization work to further boost throughput and recovery is underway. I'll now turn our call over to Chief Financial Officer, Justin Blanchet, to discuss our financial results for the second quarter. Thank you, Justin.

Justin Blanchet

executive
#4

Thank you, John, and hello, everyone. During quarter 2, 2023, we had revenue of $51.8 million, a 39% increase from prior year. We sold 28,141 gold ounces at an average selling price of 1,883 compared to 23,674 gold ounces at an average selling price of 1,783 in the prior year. As at June 30, 2023, there was 2,398 gold ounces in inventory, including both concentrate and Dore, a decrease of 895 gold ounces when compared to March 31 due to timing of sales. In Q2 2023, cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was $16.2 million compared to $10.5 million in the same period prior year. As at June 30, 2023, we had $95.6 million in cash and cash equivalents. As at June 30, K92 had one of its strongest reported working capital balances of $112.5 million, even after expenditure of $22 million for property, plant, and equipment during the quarter. The company has no debt on the balance sheet. The increase in cash and cash equivalents when compared to March 31, is primarily due to increased production and total metals sold while still spending $15.9 million on expansion capital. In Q2 2023, cost of sales was $29.2 million compared to $23.2 million in the prior year or $21.8 million compared to $18.5 million when excluding noncash items. Despite an overall increase in cost of sales, the company achieved better economies of scale and lower unit costs when measured for each ton of ore produced attributable to the successful ramp-up of the Stage 2 expansion with ore and waste tonnes mined increasing 17% to 266,613 from 227,673 in Q2 2022. As John mentioned, during the second quarter, the K92 gold operations produced 27,405 ounces of gold, 1,526,547 pounds of copper, and 3401 silver ounces or 30,794 ounces of gold equivalent. We sold 28,141 ounces of gold, 1,657,115 pounds of copper, and 36,253 ounces of silver. We incurred a cash cost of $597 and an all-in-sustaining cost of $975 per ounce of gold, which was significantly below our realized gold selling price of $1,883 per ounce. Our Q2 2023 cash cost per ounce of gold decreased to $597 from $617 in Q2 2022. The decrease in cash cost was primarily due to the increase in production as compared to prior year. Our Q2 all-in sustaining cost per ounce of gold increased to $975 from $893 in Q2 2022. The increase in cost per ounce can be attributed to spending $8.3 million on sustaining capital as compared to $4.9 million in the same period prior year. The increase in sustaining capital is primarily due to replacing some equipment during the quarter. I will now turn the call back to John to continue with the rest of the presentation.

John Lewins

executive
#5

Well, thank you, Justin. So forth Exploration and growth section, we begin with a short video of the now completed Stage 2a plant expansion starting from crushers, flying awards and mill flotation circuits, gravity circuits, and built-to-rebuilding. As previously noted, the final item, which was the doubling of the rapid flotation capacity was commissioned in May 2023. Post-commissioning the plant performance in terms of recovery and throughput has been strong, and we're continuing to optimize the plant toward realizing its ultimate recovery and potential, whatever that may actually be. I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge the team who delivered both Stage 2 and Stage 2A plant expansions. This team has more than tripled the throughput rate from the end of 2019 to today, and much of that expansion work was completed during the pandemic. In terms of the K92 Mine strategy, growth pipeline. Stage 2A, as noted earlier, is now completed. On Stage 3, we've now made considerable progress in multiple areas of expansion. On July 24, the Board of Directors authorized the award of the engineering procurement construction lump sum contract for Stage 3 expansion process plant to GR Engineering Services. The contract award amount is USD 81 million and is a lump sum fixed price arrangement. We also announced at the same time that the main process plant long-lead items have now been ordered. For the Stage 3A expansion process plant, approximately 94% of the total capital cost has been fixed. This represents over half of the total growth capital cost of Stage 3 expansion based on the integrated development plan and significantly derisk potential growth capital cost increases for the expansion. And as previously announced, the commissioning of the process plant is targeting the end of Q1 2025. Forecast cost is within 10% of the K92 integrated development and DFS and PA case. And as noted earlier, growth capital cost increases have been significantly good. We are extremely pleased with this outcome. Stage 3A expansion also made novel progress in multiple other areas. As shown in the picture on the right, the tailing stand lift 1C is well underway and approximately 60% complete, with completion targeting the end of 2023. Our accommodation facilities continue to expand with capacity due to exceed 1,500 by the end of 2023, which is the capacity required for Stage 3 operations. Phase 2 plant front-end engineering design is proceeding, and we expect to award the final contract in Q4, and the process continues to advance through various underground surface infrastructure packages, including vertical development, power, and transportation. On the Twinkie, the further same client has now advanced 2,539 meters as of the end of July and is over 80% complete. In Q4, we plan to commence mining the lower portion of the core resource from the twin incline ahead of schedule, progressively providing a significant boost to our operational flexibility in 2024 as we establish the new mining front at depth. The Twinkie clients also provide a very useful drilling platform for exploration. As I think many are aware, the Twinkie client is sized for up to 5 million tonnes per annum with conveyors, which is multiples larger than the Stage 3 and Stage 4 expansion group. We did this simply because we don't know how big the system is and will be and how many stages of expansion are potentially in front of us. Based on what we've seen from exploration, be fair to say we're pleased that we have oversized the 20 clients. In terms of near-mine drilling, we're currently drilling Kora, Kora Deep, Kora South, Judd South, targets from either underground or surface. Targets such as many Maniape, Arakompa and Karempe, a very high potential, and we expect to commence drilling in due course. Looking at the long section of the Kora-Kora South vein system. There are 3 key points that I'd like to make. Firstly, there's been a significant amount of drilling outside of the resource since the last estimate shown with various per points annotated, and which now covers a non-drill strike length of up to 2.65 kilometers. Secondly, drilling to the south, as discovered by latent ones with 2 zones interpreted today as annotated in the blue lines, the doted lines you see there, delivering record intersections, including 27.9 meters at 10 grams per tonne gold equivalent and 50 meters at 5.2 grams is continuing to advance as we execute our drill program in this area. Third point, we see drilling from underground entering an exciting phase with both Kora-Judd and Kora South now underway at depth, as highlighted with the 2 blue elites that you can see to the south and at depth. In addition to drilling oocytes from the surface as well with the third ore, these are all high potential areas. Now looking at the long section of Judd, Judd South vein system. There are 4 key points I think I'd like to make here. Firstly, we've significantly expanded the coverage of drilling of the Judd resource, delivering a very strong hit rate and some very high-grade results. Secondly, just like Kora has a dilated zone with 2 zones interpreted to date, again, looking at the final. Thirdly, we announced in the third quarter discovery of a high-grade zone to the south in the second vein at J2, recording 2.4 meters at 345 grams per tonne, which I'll discuss in the next slide. And then lastly, by Kora, we see an exciting period for underground drilling at both Judd Deeps and Judd South. On May 25, we announced 62 drill holes from Kora, Kora South and Judd South. The results were highlighted by the discovery of the high-grade zone at the J2 vein as outlined with the Elite. And that included, as I mentioned before, 2.4 meters at 345.36 grams per tonne gold equivalent, proximal to other high-grade intersections, including Ku-GD0045, which recorded 11.2 meters at 12.69 grams per tonne gold equivalent and Ku-DD0043, which recorded 3.8 and 10.19 grams per tonne of oil equivalent. Importantly, the J2 vein is not included in the current resource estimate, is open in multiple directions, and has recorded a hit rate to date of 46% of intersections exceeding 5 grams per tonne gold equivalent. Now for J1 vein, the results are highlighted by surface step-out drilling KLDD0036, recording 5 meters at 161 grams per tonne gold equivalent, targeting a substantial under drilled target area between the chat resource estimate and surface within ML150 and KuDD0040 intersecting with a latent, so recording 22 meters at 5 grams per tonne gold equivalent with a substantial 57.8 meters at 2.73 the broader intersection. As shown on the long section 1 is open in multiple directions and has delivered a strong hit rate to date. Drilling expanded multiple areas of non-hybrid mineralization at Kora-Kora South with highlights at the K1 vein, including KMDD0485, recording 5.94 meters at 15.96 grams per tonne gold cola and KNDD0545, recording 7.98 meters and 12.14 grams per tonne gold equivalent. Highlights from the K2 vein included KNDD0535, 10.3 meters of 12 grams per tonne gold equivalent, and KND0525, recording 5.65 meters 9.0 grams per tonne gold equivalent. On porphyry exploration, we continue to progress at A1 porphyry, recording multiple porphyry vectors from drilling, and look forward to providing an update to the market in due course. With that, operator, we'd like to commence the Q&A question session. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#6

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank.

Ovais Habib

analyst
#7

Just a couple of questions from me to start off. Number one, sustaining capital was about just calculating about 26% less than Q1. And I believe you're looking to accelerate development going into the second half. Do you have all the equipment and people needed to spend the development budget allocated for this year? Or do you see a kind of spillover into 2024?

John Lewins

executive
#8

Okay. Thanks, Ovais. Look [ in terms of capital ], it does as you know, it goes up and down a little moderately. In terms of equipment, yes, we do have the equipment that we need to have by this point in time in the year. And in fact, I think subsequent to the quarter, we had another [ Tranbuma ] arrive on site. So we've had a couple of trucks arrive. We've had long-haul drill additional jumbo, additional loader charge-out machines, and a whole lot of other equipment arrive on site. We're definitely ramping up a number of people. And in fact, by the end of the year, the can, for instance, will actually be at the capacity that's required for Stage 3. So we're actually ahead in some of our capital that we're actually spending and some of the expansion that we're doing. But at this point in time, we have the people on the equipment that we need to achieve the numbers in terms of sustaining capital.

Ovais Habib

analyst
#9

Perfect. And then just in regards to in Q4, you're looking to -- I believe this is just a Kora zone that you're looking to mine in Q4 that's not in budget. Any kind of color that you can provide in terms of how many tonnes or what kind of grade can we expect on that front and going into 2024 as what...

Justin Blanchet

executive
#10

Honestly, I have to say not at this point in time. We don't expect it to be a lot of tonnes because we're only going to be doing a bit of development on ore. So we don't expect to get a lot of tonnes out of there, but it is obviously the -- we're not stopping down on the 900 level at decent development along strike on Kora.

Operator

operator
#11

The next question comes from Alex Terentiew with Stifel.

Alexander Terentiew

analyst
#12

A couple of questions. The first one, just kind of related to what Ovais was asking there. But with Barrick and the group at [ Porba ] making some progress basically looking to restart that. Has that changed the labor or cost situation at all in the country or for your project in any way over the past, I guess, couple of months?

Justin Blanchet

executive
#13

Thanks, Alex. That's a fair question. Actually, we obviously benefited from the only other underground mine is on maintenance. I think fair to say that we have -- we do have some people that we have -- skilled people. I'm talking about unskilled underground people that have come in from [ Porba ]. And we certainly expect to move those people back to over simply because they're coming down from that we see the busily them down from now. We don't see it as a major issue for us simply because we did operate with both them and ourselves previously. And we've actually put a fair bit of focus on developing skills of our local people. And that's intent of the local people from here in our communities. Then they will tend to stay with the mine. They will not be looking to go up to [ Porba ]. And I think from an operating in [ Porba ]. We offer the, what I would say, is a better operating environment than you have at the curve. So we won't have 1 or 2 shortages if people leave with little notice. But I mean, overall, we're ramping up our numbers and looking to get ahead of the curve in terms of numbers. And not in terms of experts in key things like Jumbo operators and what have you. We haven't found any significant issues in being able to recruit those people.

Alexander Terentiew

analyst
#14

Okay. Great. And I guess, obviously, you guys are well underway and on this Phase 3. So you've got probably, I would imagine, a bit of the upper hand and keeping those people. But great. So my second question, great to see the exploration budget jump up this quarter. I know you spoke about a lot of targets. And I guess my question is, have you, I guess, officially released your exploration budget this year? I mean your past guidance was $13 million to $16 million, and you have a lot of targets, obviously, that you can put your money to advance it, but what areas are you, I guess, most really focusing on? And when could we -- when do you expect the next resource update to come out?

Justin Blanchet

executive
#15

Okay. Well, the focus from the underground perspective has been on within the mining lease and then just from -- primarily from surface also a bit from underground. And then Kora closing out a couple of the areas to the north, in a couple of areas within the mining lease, and then Kora to the south, both from surface and underground. Sorry, and Judd, also from surface, you made that point within the mining lease. And those are the ones that are primarily focused on the expansion of the resource. And we're looking at October to get a new mine result estimate released. Other areas right now that we're drilling is the A1 Porphyry, we've got one rig operating. And depending on the closeout of some of the drilling at Judd-Kora from the surface, we would be looking to perhaps get a rig over to out of Arakompa, Maniape. And Alex, you may recall that there are 2 historical resources that are campaigned 800,000 ounces, any app you have been under 50,000 ounces 60, I think it was. And they haven't been drilled for 20-odd years. They're just a couple of kilometers away from Kora, they're actually closer to the plant than Kora is. And certainly, there is something that we're pretty excited to get in and start doing some drilling. We consider, say, Arakompa almost 800,000 ounces, 9 grams per tonne on 300 meters, and hasn't been drilled for 20-odd years. That's the sort of opportunity at P&G and, more particularly, the canteen opportunities. And I guess why we've always been excited by the exploration potential of just Kora and Judd, the areas around that.

Alexander Terentiew

analyst
#16

Okay. Great. I guess having so many targets is a good problem to have, and deciding where to pick to drill next...

Justin Blanchet

executive
#17

Yes, it means you have to have more exploration strategy meeting than you one would.

Operator

operator
#18

And the next question comes from Ralph Profiti with Eight Capital.

Ralph Profiti

analyst
#19

So I want to come back to the first ore at Kora-Judd coming into play in Q4. And just wondering if we think about sort of Q4 and into the early parts of 2024. Just wondering how the veining works in terms of what's going to be initially targeting targeted. And then maybe secondly, just sort of on the mining method and how you're thinking about the deeper area sort of AVOCA eventually transferring into long haul.

Justin Blanchet

executive
#20

Okay. Well, we're busy with the detailed mine plan and budget for 2024 right now. So I can't give you a lot of detail on that simply because we're busy with it. Current operating level, which is 1,200, which is actually going from about $130 up to 1280 actually, will be the primary focus balance of this year and next year. And that is a combination of Judd K1 and K2. As we mentioned, we'll be looking to get into that area in, primarily Kora, and it will just be development we will not get stopping until, I would think, Q2 next year at the earliest. And the results of the potential of pullout some Judd from that as well relatively early. In fact, we've gone through Judd in some of our development for the first ore waste pass that we're putting in, which we develop out to the west. So going out some from charts at 900 is also a potential. In terms of our mining method, it will continue with the Volcker until 2025 when we commission the peaceful.

Ralph Profiti

analyst
#21

Got you. As a second question, when you think about sort of the mining areas that are planned into the second half and considering how that flows to ore throughput, are you confident that you're not seeing any sort of localized geotechnical challenges that those have been addressed and that sort of development that is planned is ahead of levels of mining that kind of where you're sort of happy and confident.

Justin Blanchet

executive
#22

Look, I'd say we're pretty happy with where we're sitting right now in terms of access to mining areas in terms of localized geotechnical issues underground mine. You're always going to find some localized geotechnical issues. We think we have a good handle on what we're looking at in terms of areas and an ability to manage any interaction with those areas. But underground mine worked in any underground mine yet, but you don't get localized to your technical areas and issues. And it's an ongoing management thereof in a narrow case, we'll use a lot of shotcrete in our support system as well as fairly comprehensive bolting and meshing, but those are things that we continue to look at and evaluate. And certainly, one of the projects we've got going, for instance, is evaluation of how we can mine the guides on and realize additional ounces currently in the FS of the PEA.

Operator

operator
#23

The next question comes from Arun Lamba with TD Securities.

Arun Lamba

analyst
#24

John, just quickly, like normally ask just kind of accounting questions, but can you just remind me how we should think about kind of the revenue coming in, like just looking at the loss on receivables at fair value? So revenue came in a little bit less based on your reporting. Can you just remind how to think -- how we should think about that going forward? [Technical Difficulty]

John Lewins

executive
#25

Can you hear me? Sorry about that. Did David answer the question?

Arun Lamba

analyst
#26

I didn’t hear anything, but I’ll just quickly again ask it just in case you didn’t hear. Just how to think about kind of the revenues coming in came in a bit like sales and productions pre-released and came in a little bit less based on, I guess, some of the agreements you have. Can you just mention how to think about it? I've seen this happening in the quarter before.

John Lewins

executive
#27

Yes. Well, I think we saw in terms of our gold revenue, I think from start to end, gold revenue was down $50, $67 I think from start to end. So there's obviously an adjustment coming in there. We also have an adjustment coming in from 31st of March to June, which was also down around 5%, I think. So we have adjustments coming in from both of those. And then we also had from our provisional invoice into our final invoicing in terms of moister content and arts. I think we had a couple of decent points adjustment there that tends to be around about where we get, obviously, gold varies from quarter-to-quarter and copper vary from quarter to quarter.

Arun Lamba

analyst
#28

No, that's perfect. And then just one quick one for me. Just thinking on the bull case of this expansion on the PEA, the mill, both mills, we do probably 1.7 million tonnes per annum. Assuming the mill can do a little bit above design, will you guys have the infrastructure in place, lamp, et cetera? And will the mine be able to support potentially if the mill can do 1.8, 1.9 million tonnes per annum in kind of a boiler case scenario?

John Lewins

executive
#29

That's a good question. I mean, obviously, we've liked from the early days that the twining climb has been specifically designed to handle Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, and potentially Stage 6. So certainly, infrastructure in that context, yes, in the infrastructure in terms of ventilation, power, et cetera, et cetera, are all positive on that. In terms of the connection being able to get tonnes per vertical meter, et cetera, et cetera. We would certainly look at going forward, seeing, we think, a significant addition to the resource coming in, in October would certainly indicate that we'll be able to support being able to get 10%, 20% more on an annualized basis in terms of tonnage. And yes, as you really see, I mean, right now, we already see that the existing plant can comfortably do 5% to 10% more than perhaps the nameplate we have for $500,000. And when you look at standard seller design for plants, mills are obviously normally your bottleneck, and generally, with the new plants such as ARIS, you're designing on 85% bond index. In other words, you're lowing to be able to get your nominal early throughput where effectively your hardness is significantly above the average for the ore body. And so that generally means that your capacity of the plant is put in overall tends to be higher than the non-capacity that nameplate capacity to where metal are just making themselves look good.

Operator

operator
#30

The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Don DeMarco

analyst
#31

A few questions. First of all, great to see the strong rebound lower in all-in-sustaining costs. Clearly, the higher grades helped. But now I'm looking at year-to-date AISC is around $11.80 versus the guidance range, that puts you right at the bottom of the guidance range. And we're heading into sort of a potentially a stronger back half of the year. Can you just comment on where you see ASC headed in the last couple of quarters? Sustaining CapEx year-to-date, $20 million. Are you expecting sustaining CapEx to increase? I think Ovais touched on this a little bit. Maybe if you could just expand on the outlook for sustaining CapEx and AISC at year-end next couple of quarters.

John Lewins

executive
#32

I think, in general, we'd be saying that, yes, we expect to see the sustaining capital higher in the second half of the year. With that additional rig that's coming, we're looking for more development meters. So that's obviously one of the drivers for all-in-sustaining costs, but there are a number of other drivers that will come in and be part of that. So yes, we are expecting to see higher expenditure all in sustaining as the second half of the year, and we still very much expect it to come in as per guidance within that guidance range.

Don DeMarco

analyst
#33

Okay. Maybe looking at the mine development meters. We saw the pace is increasing quarter-over-quarter last year. It's moderated a little bit this year. How many meters per quarter should we expect in the next few quarters?

John Lewins

executive
#34

Okay. Well, we dropped some meters this last quarter at the end of last quarter, beginning of this quarter, obviously, with our safety incident. And so we're a little bit time on where we wanted to be for the quarter. Generally speaking, we're looking for 22, 2,400 per quarter and certainly north of 2,400 for the final quarter.

Don DeMarco

analyst
#35

Okay. So encouraged to see the deposit-free cash flow during Q2. Congratulations on the cash balance edge higher. With this, maybe the RCF just continues to be kind of a lower priority item, but if you could just give us an update on the timing of the RCF or any discussions that are underway at the moment?

John Lewins

executive
#36

We expect to have that completed in this quarter.

Operator

operator
#37

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions, this concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Lewins for any closing remarks.

John Lewins

executive
#38

Thanks, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. Apologies for the slight take issues coming to you from K92. I think it would be fair to say that when we look at the numbers in the second quarter, we're pretty happy with the final numbers in terms of production, in terms of costs and whatever else. As a company, however, we've gone through what would be the toughest quarter, I think we've ever faced with our safety incident. And that's something that, as a company, we're going to be working very hard to make sure that we never have anything quite like this. Again, this for the entire team at K92 has really been something exceptional in, unfortunately, the one sort of way as a company. However, we refocused both on safety and on our operations. And so we'll certainly be focused on that going forward. So I would just like to recognize the passing of our teammates. And secondly, the efforts of all of our people here in K92 in the success that the company has achieved over the last few years and the last few quarters and the ongoing commitment to the company. So thank you for that. And I look forward to seeing some of the people on the call here on-site next week. Thank you very much.

Operator

operator
#39

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

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