Mandalay Resources Corporation (MND) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
May 11, 2023
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorGood morning. My name is Marcela, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Mandalay Resources Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call [Operator Instructions] This call contains forward-looking statements which reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results of the company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the current expectations are disclosed under the heading Risk Factors and elsewhere in the company's annual information form dated March 31, 2023, available on SEDAR and the company's website. Mr. Bourchier, you may begin your conference.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank, Marcela. And hello, everyone, morning, afternoon or evening, depending on where you are. Look, I'm very pleased that everyone could join us this morning, and I'm also thrilled to be able to speak for the first time in my capacity as Mandalay's new President and CEO. And over the remainder of this year in sharing my vision and strategy for our growth ambitions with you all, as appropriate. In that [ chart ] and prior to discussing our first quarter 2023 results, most of you would be aware that the former CEO, Dominic Duffy, moved on just after Q1 2023 closed, in his executive capacity, but he will remain on our Board as one of our directors in a nonexecutive capacity, of which I'm grateful. I wanted to express my appreciation to Dominic for his contribution to Mandalay over his 12 years in various capacities and roles with the company, including as President and CEO. During his tenure as CEO, Mandalay made significant strides with a reset in 2019, followed by 3 successful years underpinned by operational improvements. and most notably, a strengthening of the balance sheet. Dominic's leadership was crucial to reestablishing the company's solid foundation and positioning it for our next growth phase. So thank you, Dom. Look, as we transition to our next phase, I'm delighted to be leading Mandalay, and I'm committed to identifying opportunities to drive this company forward to the benefit of all our stakeholders. There are huge opportunities in front of us, and I look forward to working closely with the Board on strategy and execution. This includes a focus on further strengthening our 2 current operations, with the introduction of additional operational excellence, best practices and controls; as well as adding mine lives with an accelerated near-mine exploration program at both operations; and finally, identifying and assessing best-fit assets for potential inorganic growth. On the call today is Nick Dwyer, Mandalay's Chief Financial Officer; Ryan Austerberry, our Chief Operating Officer; and Chris Davis, our Vice President of Exploration and Operational Geology. Mandalay released its Q1 2023 financial results at market close yesterday, and you can find our consolidated financial statements and MD&A on the Mandalay Resources website or under our profile on SEDAR. Look, to be direct, this was not one of Mandalay's best quarters. A number of mainly one-off issues, coupled with a few recurring systemic issues, led to an operational stumble to start 2023. At Costerfield, performance was hindered by the lower mined ore for a variety of reasons and lower processed grade in both gold and antimony as compared to previous quarters. At Björkdal, we faced supply chain challenges which delayed the delivery of some critical underground equipment. Our COO, Ryan, will discuss these in further detail later in the call and outline the key actions we have taken to address and to rectify these issues in the coming quarters. However, despite these challenges, Mandalay did turn a profit during the quarter, making it our 11th consecutive quarter of profitability. Moreover, at the end of the first quarter of 2023, we maintained a healthy balance sheet, supported by $42 million in revenue, $32 million cash on hand and an EBITDA of nearly $13 million with a net cash position of nearly $11 million; all while still encumbered by our current gold hedges, of which we paid $3 million in the past quarter. But those hedges are finally set to expire by the end of quarter 2. I will now have Nick, Ryan and Chris give an update on their respective areas, the financials, operations and exploration. Over to you, Nick.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveThank you, Frazer. So to build upon Frazer's earlier remarks, Mandalay ended the quarter with $34 million in cash on hand and $23 million in total interest-bearing debt. This $11 million net cash position is Mandalay's second-highest figure since coming into a net cash position this time last year. For the first quarter of 2023, Mandalay generated $42 million in revenue and $13 million in adjusted EBITDA. Due to the lower production rate which Frazer touched on, we generated a smaller inflow from our operating activities as compared with previous quarters, which ultimately led to a negative free cash flow of $1 million during Q1. Of those quarterly consolidated amounts just mentioned, Costerfield contributed $23 million towards revenue and $11 million to adjusted EBITDA, with Björkdal making up the remaining $19 million and $4 million in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, respectively. As compared to Q1 last year, our realized gold price remained broadly in line at $1,943 per ounce, while the antimony price declined slightly to $12,800 per tonne. Cash and all-in sustaining costs per gold salable equivalent ounces were -- during Q1 were $1,222 and $1,596 respectively, which were approximately 34% and 28% higher as compared to Q4 2022. These higher unit costs were a direct result from the lower production rate. So with the operational results, in which Ryan will walk through shortly, we expect to get production back on track and anticipate that these unit costs will decrease in the coming quarters at both sites. I'm looking ahead towards the coming quarters in connection with the prior credit facility, the metal hedging obligations of just over 4,000 ounces per month, which again Frazer just mentioned, will be fulfilled in June 2023, thus removing an encumbrance on our cash flows in the second half of the year. So we anticipate our cash flows to lift as a result, assuming a similar metal price going forward. I would like -- I would now like to turn the call to Ryan. Thank you, Ryan.
Ryan Austerberry
executiveThanks, Nick. So turning to our operations. Mandalay experienced a relatively tough quarter at both sites in quarter 1 of 2023. On a consolidated basis, the company produced 19,986 salable gold equivalent ounces, down about 22% as compared to Q4 2022. At Costerfield, processed grades were below expectations and averaged 7.7 gram a tonne gold and 2.6% antimony money during quarter 1 of 2023. A direct driver for this was the need to utilize a higher volume of lower-grade stockpiled material to supplement the lower level of mine ore tonnes during the quarter. As compared to the same period last year, mine tonnes from the underground was approximately 32% less. Like many other Australian operations, the site is working through a tight labor market and facing a few personnel constraints. The 2 biggest issues are a shortage of skilled operators and turnover at Costerfield. The turnover rate was artificially low during COVID, which has accelerated since the easing of restrictions. We anticipate this to normalize and become stable in the upcoming quarters. To shrink this productivity gap, we've hired support contractors, trained new employees and further invested in our current workforce. In addition to this constraint, there were a number of unique, non-systemic issues leading to lost production days, including a power failure, an LHD mobile equipment fire and a ground failure rehabilitation that spilled over from the end of Q4 2022 into Q1 of 2023. We had a 7-day pay outage at the start of the year due to a failure of an incoming power cable feeding the underground, resulting in a temporary loss of power. Although production ramped up shortly after this outage, January's production rate was adversely impacted both in terms of tonnes not mined and increased power costs from required temporary power generation. New electrical infrastructure has since been installed, which is more robust, to reduce the risk of reoccurrence. As a result of these issues, the site produced 11,017 saleable gold equivalent ounces in the first quarter of 2023, lower as compared to the same period last year. In addition, at Costerfield, there was a fire at site in the underground on March 4, 2023. Operations were stopped immediately. An underground autonomous loader caught fire. All underground personnel were quickly accounted for and safely evacuated in accordance with our safety protocols and procedures. This event did not have a material impact on the quarter, but the loader was not repairable. This had a negative influence over mined tonnes due to a shortage of remote loader availability, which is a critical unit of our mobile fleet and the difficulty in procurement for finding replacement niche equipment. Fortunately, we have sourced a replacement, which should be operational at the end of Q2 2023. While unfortunate for this to occur, the safety and well-being of our staff remains our highest priority, and I would like to extend our thanks to local mines rescue teams and external emergency services for their professionalism and assistance. Finally, as we have recently discovered and start to mine yet another new zone at Costerfield, the Shepherd Zone, additional definition drilling will help us better define to the extent possible, with ore bodies of this type, the gold-rich bearing zones from the more barren zones along strike. This is not an unusual occurrence with these types of ore bodies, but it does require additional costs and preplanning to ensure efficient ore extraction. At Björkdal, the site produced 8,969 salable gold ounces during the quarter, which was less than planned. Again, similar to the issue at Costerfield, the Björkdal productivity rates were also detrimentally affected by a shortage of skilled personnel in addition to some supply chain challenges. Training of new personnel has been ongoing, along with increasing contractor presence in the short term to fill labor gaps. Coupled with these personnel constraints, a delay in the scheduled replacement of the truck haulage fleet. A key potential bottleneck to ore haulage caused underground mined tonnes to be lower than planned. As compared to the same period last year, mined ore from the underground was down approximately 24%. The net result from this drop was that processed head grades for the quarter were lower at 1.05 grams a tonne gold, due to the requisite in utilizing a larger volume of the 0.6 a gram a tonne gold surface stockpile in the blend through the mill. Going forward, improvements are expected to come from: Increase in hauled underground tonnes as the new trucks are commissioned, more tonnes from the anticipated higher-grade central deeps areas that come online in the latter part of the year and the ongoing mill conversion project. It is progressing as planned, with commissioning expected later this year. When fully ramped up, the processing plant's throughput will increase by a planned 200,000 tonnes per annum. I'd now like to invite Chris to speak on our exploration.
Chris Davis
executiveThanks, Ryan. During Q1, new mine exploration at Costerfield was focused on depth extension programs below the Cuffley, Brunswick and Shepherd ore bodies. Regionally, the focus remained on prospective ground approximately 2 kilometers to the west of the mine with continued drill testing of the True Blue and commencement of the -- of drilling on the neighboring West Costerfield prospect. In February, we provided an update on Costerfield's regional testing programs, which included a summary on the follow-up testing of Robinson. We also announced early success at the newly discovered depth extension to the historic True Blue mine with vein intercepts of comparable grade to those mined at the Augusta mine. This is exciting as the geological setting of the discovery is akin to the uppermost parts of Augusta and Youle, indicating the highly prospective depth extension environment at True Blue. For Q2, exploration at Costerfield will focus on the continuation of drilling below Shepherd and Brunswick as well as the continued drilling on the True Blue and West Costerfield programs. drill testing of prospective ground to the north of the mine will also commence. At Björkdal, new mine exploration focused on extending veining into the eastern flank of the mine, with extensional drilling of the Lake -- of Lake zone and Aurora. Also targeted was a skarn horizon within Lake zone. In parallel to these programs, drilling continued on the Western extension of the emerging north zone resource to the north of the mine. In February, the company released an update on underground drilling, which discussed the continued extension drilling on the Eastern plunge as well as an update on the significant veining found in the upper eastern extension to the Aurora system. Excitingly, consistent drill results from the eastern plunge extension program continued to produce highly significant grades, the likes of which we would consider exceptional at our high-grade Costerfield mine. These include 783 grams per tonne gold over 35 centimeters and 105 grams per tonne gold over 1 meter from the Eastern plunge extension. These are accompanied by a highlight of 89 grams per tonne gold over 30 centimeters from the Aurora extension. Moving into Q2, the focus will be on the Aurora system, where high-grade veining has been interpreted within the hanging wall western extension and a footwall eastern extension. Excitingly, our 2023 regional drilling also commences in Q2, with the first program being -- with the first program testing the strike and depth continuation of the still-heated mineralization to the northeast of the mine. I look forward to updating the market on these programs in the near future. Thank you. I'd like to hold the -- I'd like to hand the call back to Frazer. Frazer?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Thanks a lot, Chris. I appreciate that. And wow is all I can say with respect to those grades, intercepts. Especially at Björkdal, that's very exciting. We're used to those sorts of intercepts at Costerfield, so it's nice to see that also happening at Björkdal. And look, I'm extremely excited with our organic pipeline of growth opportunities, and we will continue to invest strongly in exploration, I'm a big believer in that, to both extend mine life, especially the mine life at Costerfield, where we can and extend that to what it is right now in both the known mineralized areas as well as the step out for potential new near-mine discoveries. For 2023, we're anticipating still an approximate exploration spend between $10 million to $14 million at both operations combined. And operationally, the team remains hyper-focused on addressing these nonsystemic and labor matters that were discussed, that led to a disappointing Q1 production shortfall, in order to achieve our annual guidance. Our go-forward plan remains a focus on labor while improving site infrastructure and mobile equipment availability. So at this point, I want to thank everyone. This concludes this portion of our call, but I would certainly like to open up the lines for any questions.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Kevin Tracey from Oberon Asset Management.
Kevin Tracey
analystGreat. Frazer, it's too bad we don't have happier results to talk about on your first call here. But as usual, I have a few questions. The first one is on just the first quarter production number. I think if other investors are like me, they were a bit blindsided by that. So I was hoping you could give a sense of, to the extent kind of multiple issues that impacted production at both sites in Q1 were resolved by the end of the quarter. And if we should see a material improvement in the second quarter. Maybe you can even give us the April production number so we have with tens of how things are tracking.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveLook, Kevin, thanks for that question. And well, the first thing is, no, I'm not able to give you April. I want to be careful and make sure I'm on the correct side of governance here and disclosure. However, before I hand over to Ryan to give a more fulsome answer to that, I think as you appreciate, at both mines, it really comes down to mined ore tonnes. It's that simple. We had fairly significant stockpiles at both operations, so we're pretty well on plan for throughput. The issue is, if you don't get those mined tonnes from underground, you're putting in lower-grade stockpile through the mill, which ends up resulting in the gold ounce production shortfall. So to answer your question in terms of why the mined ore tonnes were lower and how those issues have been rectified. I would say most of them, in Q2 and Q3, it will be spread out somewhat, and that has to do with the mobile equipment at Costerfield. and In the trucking issue at Björkdal. But I'm going to hand over to Ryan to maybe break it down -- without over-the-top detail, break it down between the 2 operations on when we think that will be rectified, the main issues at both sites. Ryan?
Ryan Austerberry
executiveYes. Just broadly, like the first quarter was really disruptive. We had yes, issues, particularly at Costerfield, that held up production on a couple of occasions. And with the staffing issues, which we're starting to definitely see come through the other side of, yes. And as mentioned by Frazer then, he -- yes, the equipment is starting to come in, starting to be commissioned. Yes, things are definitely improving, and we'll see that improve over the next couple of few months. So yes, that pretty much covers it.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveAnd Kevin, the one thing I may add is we don't obviously break down our plans quarterly. We just give a general annual guidance. But our plan always was somewhat back-end loaded with respect to higher grade zones we get into at both our mines. So as we get back on track, we are expecting better grades for that reason alone, just in terms of location.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. And maybe I'll just follow up on that. So if I heard that right, it sounds like Q2 won't be fully back on track. So just going back to the annual guidance, just doing the math. To hit the low end of the production guidance, you have to average around 28,000 ounces of production per quarter for the last 3 quarters of the year. And just looking back, that production level's only been achieved on a couple individual quarters in the past. So can you talk, I guess, more about what gives you confidence that the production really will rise? And I guess particularly, I'm interested in, is the -- has the -- doesn't sound like the mining permit has been received at Björkdal. Is that included in the full year guidance? And I suppose, is that the big driver of getting to those higher-grade tonnes at Björkdal that's going to result into the -- in the better second half production?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Maybe, again, I'll let Ryan speak to the permit issue at Björkdal with respect to that question. Ryan?
Ryan Austerberry
executiveYes, it's correct that the mining permit hasn't been received yet, although it's basically we expect it any day now. So I was speaking to the General Manager from Björkdal earlier, and he's contacting the regulators again today to see what the holdup is. We don't anticipate any issues there, and that should flow through. It's not halting us at the moment, so we don't see that slowing us down. Yes. And as Frazer mentioned, the year is somewhat back-ended. So we're still confident of achieving within our guidance that we're aiming for.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveAnd my final comment would be -- sorry, Kevin, my final comment would be, look, relatively new in the chair, the team is exhaustively relooking at the plan and the forecast, which I'm reviewing over the next 3 to 4 weeks. So if there is ever a need for any updates, I will certainly be sharing that in the next quarter. For now, I want the team to exhaust all opportunities to ensure we get back on the plan. So it's premature for me at this point to be making any change to that. I certainly understand your concern on what has to happen in the next 3 quarters to achieve guidance. But we're very focused on doing everything we can there. I'll update the market in my Q2 call.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. Okay. And just lastly on the mine grade. I understand the processed grade is lower because the mined tonnes were lower. On the mine grade, we saw a pretty big reduction really at both sites, but I want to ask about Costerfield. It sounds like the issue is mostly related to Shepherd. I don't think you've mined too many tonnes there yet, so can you just talk a little bit more about your confidence that the realized grades will indeed be quite high there, and in line with what we've seen in the reserve report?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Again, I'll ask Ryan and Chris, respectively, to speak to that.
Ryan Austerberry
executiveChris, are you considering this geology question? You're probably...
Chris Davis
executiveYes. Sure, I can jump in here. So I guess with Shepherd, we are still learning about Shepherd. We're sort of running into an area of nugget-y gold, which is sort of akin to what you'd see in sort of, I guess, more historic kind of Victorian gold fields, like [ Bendigo and Beltrat ], which is good in a way that we're seeing lots of free gold there, but it is tricky, and we're just coming into the top of the Shepherd zone. And we're kind of learning a bit as we go. Ryan made mention to further definition drilling that we're doing in Shepherd, so we are poking a few more holes in there to understand the structural complexity just at the top of the Shepherd ore body. But some of these issues have led us to mine along the vein and then have to move across to another vein as we sort of identify where exactly the hotspots of the Shepherd are as we mine. But -- we are confident in the Shepherd zone. And we are, I guess, pulling together our structural continuity story at the moment.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveKevin, so a final comment for me, Kevin, is -- again, I want to caveat that, when we talk about the higher grades coming at Costerfield, that's not dependent on Shepherd. For this year, that is mostly the Youle area that we know fairly well, that's just getting to those areas. While Shepherd has had some pluses and minuses, Shepherd has really set up for that, for better grades in the future years beyond 2023. So if your question is specific to 2023, I want to emphasize it's not dependent on Shepherd.
Operator
operatorYour next question comes from [ Lawrence Retail ].
Unknown Attendee
attendeeCan everybody hear me? Hello?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeOkay. Great. My first question is for the Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to understand the holdings in publicly traded companies, like Blue Star, and if there's any accumulation or distribution of those shares.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveGo ahead, Nick.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveI can answer that. So we don't actually have any holdings in that entity, but we do have a few other entities that we do...
Unknown Attendee
attendeeSorry, I can't hear you.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveSorry, is that -- can you hear me?
Unknown Attendee
attendeeYes. You just -- you're coming in garbled.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveRight. Okay. I'll slow down. We don't have any holdings in Blue Star, in that entity, but we do have certain holdings in other entities in -- they are available for sale from our part -- point of view. They are non-core from our point of view. But I can't give you any information on whether or not we would sell them. But the values are there in the balance sheet, and the possibility of selling those is something that we have in the future.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeOkay. Have you sold your -- I gather you've sold your position in Blue Star, then.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveYes. That was done several years ago, that's right. Okay.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeOkay. Has anybody there gone back and examined some of the drill results from Blue Star over the last year? And what the program is this year.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveFrazer, I can answer this. We do keep an eye on past -- companies that we've dealt with in the past. But yes, it's -- the focus at the moment is on our operations. But it's something that we're cognizant of.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeOkay. Because it looks like they're hitting some pretty good grades there. And if that Gray's Bay road goes through, that could be a major cost reducer for opening a mine there, plus the dormant equipment that's sitting at Elgin right now that could be possibly reused if you rewired some of it. So anyway, it's good that you're keeping tabs on Blue Star. I'm happy about that. My next question is to the COO. I'm kind of wondering why it's taking so long to get this permit for the northeastern extension for Björkdal. It's been over a year now.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveCan you get that, Ryan?
Ryan Austerberry
executiveYes, I can get that. Yes, we expect that those permits take a year to get. So the actual due date was like it was only a day or 2 ago. So yes. So we're at the time frame now. Yes. So that's basically on our time schedule. But a couple of days late at the moment, so we're following that up. We've had no feedback saying there's any issue, so we expect no problems with that going ahead, being approved.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeOkay. And my last question is for Chris regarding the drill program down by -- is it [ Boliden? ] It's in the Björkdal permitted areas. It's on the west-southern area. What is the drill program for this year? And how many meters does he expect to drill?
Chris Davis
executiveYes. So we are starting our surface drill program just in Q2. We started around the mine at the moment, but we're planning to move back down to that southwestern area there and follow up on the drilling that we did last year, late last year. So there's a significant amount of meters that we plan to put into that area, but it is sort of contingent on the results from that area. And we've also got geophysics planned as well. So we haven't -- I haven't given an update on that area yet because we're actually still waiting on some assays coming in for some of the results that we've got there. So I hope to give a full update on that area after our next drilling program, a follow-up drilling program. So...
Unknown Attendee
attendeeYes, it looks -- it looks pretty exciting with your neighbor next door. It looks like a very exciting area. Another question for you, Chris. With regards to Costerfield and the equipment there, do you -- does Mandalay possess a downhole geophysics type probe that you can use on the Shepherd lode?
Chris Davis
executiveDownhole geophysics? We don't have anything on site at the moment, but we have done trials with different sorts of downhole geophysics over the years. Most that we've found with this style of deposit, it comes back to a keen structural understanding of the deposit, the veining. Antimony isn't actually very conductive, unfortunately, so we can't really light it up like you can a VMS.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeCool. That's interesting. Okay. Well, I learned something today. My last question is for the new CEO, Frazer. With regards to inorganic growth, have you reached out to some of the bigger leaders in the mining arena, such as Uncle Eric or Eric Sprott, to find out if there's anything new and wonderful that we could bring into Mandalay Resources?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Thanks, Lawrence. Look, I know the gentleman fairly well. To be blunt, no, because I want to make sure the Board and myself are aligned as we work through the strategy going forward and we have a framework that makes sense. So we're spending energy in the right areas when we look at these opportunities. But it won't be long before we start to expand that network and have those conversations. And there's been a fair bit of activity before I got here, looking at various opportunities. So I just need to refine that, put a framework around that, and then make sure we have efficient effort going forward. So...
Unknown Attendee
attendeeWell, that is maybe the comment in one of our discussions regarding Uncle Eric throwing out a wide net would all his money and not necessarily hitting big on some of his investments. But I believe, with your team there, including Chris, you should be able to cherrypick what's in that net and find out which ones are the best ones to take a shot at. That's just my opinion. But given Eric Sprott's wealth, he can afford to have a wide net, so to speak.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Yes, you can.
Unknown Attendee
attendeeWell, I'd like to thank you very much, Frazer, for the call. And I'd like to express my appreciation to Dominic for turning the company around over the last 3 years.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you, Lawrence.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from [ Robert Ploom ].
Unknown Shareholder
shareholderComing up lumpy. The first one is, gentlemen, can you give me a little bit more color on the share repurchase program?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure, Robert. I will hand that actually over to Nick. He can give an update on our NCIB program.
Nicholas Dwyer
executiveYes. I'll keep it brief just because there hasn't been too much activity in the first quarter, as you would have seen due to the illiquid nature of our stock due to our large 4 shareholders, which combined, own about 75% of the company. We do see some activity going forward with quite a small daily limit that we can have with that. It's been successful, but we are still somewhat experimenting with the best approach for that. So I guess we're going into this process just with a fairly -- quite slowly. And then as the year goes on, we will be able to ramp that up if we see a bigger block positions to buy. But in the short term, it has been a slow start. But yes, we're seeing how that goes as we progress. But overall, the strategy there is that we do see an intrinsic value in the company, and the NCIB program was put in place to get us to that position. So yes, I'll leave it there.
Unknown Shareholder
shareholderOkay. Very good. That leads me to my next question. I know I've spoken very briefly with Mr. Duffy about this, but can you please elaborate? Do you have any plans for just general promotion of the company as a whole? Are you going to any investor meetings? Or -- it just seems that -- I've been a shareholder for a number of years now. You guys have made such tremendous progress, but you have -- the investing community has almost no knowledge of what you guys have accomplished or done. So can you speak to that a little bit, please?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure, Robert. The short answer is your point is very well taken, and I certainly plan on working with the team to, let's call, overhaul and upgrade our IR strategy, including branding, outreach, as well as dealing with the main 4 shareholders that we have. So the answer to that is yes, that will progress as the year goes on.
Unknown Shareholder
shareholderOkay. Very good. And then I guess my last question is, are there any plans for capacity expansion at Costerfield? And what -- are you at like 90% or 100% there right now? Or what's going on there? Can you give some color as to that, please?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. by capacity expansion, I assume you're referring to an increase in mill throughput, the process plant's throughput in Costerfield. .
Unknown Shareholder
shareholderYes.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. I mean, look, my general takeaway on that is we always look at that opportunity, but I want to make sure, first, that we have increased flexibility and increased mine life at Costerfield because that underground mining ore is the bottleneck presently, not the mill. There is a surface stockpile, I agree with that, but the economics right now wouldn't justify an increase at mill throughput for that not overly large stockpile. However, my vision in terms of increasing mine life at Costerfield and as we debottleneck the underground operation, basic economics would certainly then require us to look at that opportunity to move forward. But for now, that's not the main focus at Costerfield.
Operator
operatorThere are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. And I wanted to reiterate that Mandalay is well positioned financially, allowing for optionality in achieving our long-term growth objectives and value-creation objectives. So in the upcoming calls, I appreciate some patience, but time is urgent. I get that. And I look forward to updating the market on our strategy and vision on how we move forward. So thank you very much again for your time.
Operator
operatorLadies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.
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