Mandalay Resources Corporation (MND) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
February 21, 2025
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorGood day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Mandalay Resources Corporation Q4 and Year-end 2024 Conference Call. Today's 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 risks 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 28, 2024, available on SEDAR and at the company's website. Mandalay Resources disclosed its financial resources at market close. You can access their consolidated financial statements and MD&A on either the company's website or through our profile on SEDAR. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Frazer Bourchier, President and CEO of Mandalay. Please go ahead.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining me on this call today is Hashim Ahmed, our Chief Financial Officer. And in addition, I have Ryan Austerberry, our Chief Operating Officer; and Chris Davis, our VP, Exploration, providing commentary in their respective areas. 2024 was a truly transformative year for Mandalay Resources. Mandalay is now a much stronger company than it was a year ago. And early into this 2025 year we are continuing to build on this momentum, executing on a clear multiyear growth strategy. Since becoming President and CEO in the second quarter of 2023, I have worked with the team to instill a strategic emphasis on high-margin production, cost efficiency, including prudent capital management, operational improvements and increased organic exploration. This approach of execution and accountability delivered outstanding results in 2024. For example, and note, all dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars, free cash flow generation of $69 million. That's after all capital and exploration spend as compared with just $300,000 in 2023. Cash balances increased threefold year-on-year now sitting at over $76 million. All debt completely eliminated now a fully undrawn $35 million revolver facility. That gives us available liquidity of well over $100 million. We achieved our cost guidance with production up 8% from the previous year. That's just shy of 100,000 ounces at 97,000 gold equivalent ounces, and that was at the upper end of our guidance. And exploration success with now over 2 million ounces of gold equivalent in just the M&I category of mineral resources across our 2 operating assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions. And finally, a share price that more than doubled during 2024 at 114%. And at today's price, the share price, which is up over 150%. And that is 4 to 5x the increase of variant relevant indices such as the GDX and GDXJ. We believe that we truly outperformed. I would now like to hand the call over to different members of my executive team to recap the fourth quarter results which bookended this exceptional year for Mandalay Resources. First, Ryan Austerberry, our Chief Operating Officer.
Ryan Austerberry
executiveThanks, Frazer. Mandalay closed out 2024 strongly with Costerfield achieving its best quarter of gold production for the year. As Frazer mentioned, delivering towards the top end of our guidance reflects the hard work and operational execution from the entire team. The exceptional performance at Costerfield was driven by excellent mining performance, reliable plant throughput, continued high gold equivalent grades, which is a trademark of Costerfield. and high metallurgical recoveries. Mined ore tonnage exceeded targets, thanks to increased stoping activity from shorter tramming distances, and the ability to occasionally use larger equipment. This enabled the site to achieve its strongest quarterly gold production of the year totaling over 12,000 pure gold ounces. In 2024, the average processed grades were approximately 11 grams per tonne of gold and 1.7% for antimony, resulting in the production of 43,000 ounces of gold and 1,300 tonnes of antimony, which is nearly 55,000 gold equivalent ounces. In line with Frazer's approach to operational improvements and striving for excellence, we made several targeted investments, which included the implementation of a 2-stage crushing process leading to an upgraded crush product for milling and lowering maintenance time and cost. Rebuilding of the front end of the primary mill, which reduced downtime thereby improving milling rates through increased operational hours. For 2025, due to mining sequencing, we expect Costerfield's production to range between 43,000 to 49,000 gold equivalent ounces with higher historic production rates currently scheduled to return in 2026. Turning to Björkdal. Fourth quarter production remained steady compared to previous quarters, delivering about 9,700 gold ounces and contributing to an annual total of just over 42,000 gold ounces, which was a slight improvement on 2023. Similar to Costerfield, we made several investments aimed at improvements. Completion of the mill conversion project increasing annual throughput by approximately 150,000 tonnes to now 1.4 million tonnes per annum run rate being achieved. Upgrades to the underground water pumping network, which are ongoing, reducing the risk of operational disruptions. And we employed operational efficiency experts to improve systems and processes which will carry through to 2025 this year and expand that to Costerfield. In 2025, at Björkdal, the focus will remain on capital development to increase access to more veins and establish multiple production fronts to enhance operational flexibility. In 2025, production at Björkdal is expected to be 42,000 to 46,000 gold ounces, consistent with 2024 levels supported by stable process tonnage and grades. We plan to continue prioritization of the reliable higher-margin underground material while leveraging the existing low-grade surface stockpiles to fully utilize the plant's 1.4 million tonnes per annum capacity. In summary, we were pleased with the results at both Costerfield and Björkdal in 2024. We will continue to invest in the operations in 2025 in order to maintain the momentum we have established. I would like to now pass the call to Hashim, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who will highlight our financials.
Hashim Ahmed
executiveThank you, Ryan. Mandalay achieved its highest annual revenue to date, reaching $241 million and generated a record free cash flow of $69 million. Our year-end net cash position rose more than ten-fold to $76 million compared to negative $6 million at year-end 2023 underscoring our disciplined approach to cost management, pursuit of operational efficiencies and favorable metal prices, all of which supported the achievement of our 2024 production and cost guidance. Operating costs totaled $110 million, a marginal increase of 4% mainly due to processing costs at Costerfield associated with tailings and water management as well as increased throughput tonnage at Björkdal. Adjusted EBITDA was $122 million, doubling from $60 million. Net income was $48 million increased from $8 million in 2023. Cash operating cost per ounce of gold equivalent produced at $1,106 per ounce was broadly in line with 2023. All-in sustaining costs per ounce of gold equivalent produced increased by 3% to $1,548 per ounce in 2024 compared to $1,497 per ounce in 2023, mainly due to the increase in cash operating costs and higher tailings dam amortization. I'd like to say a few words about antimony markets. Spot price of antimony in U.S. dollars was around $40,000 per tonne at the end of 2024 with some sources stating an even higher price. This represents a significant increase from the beginning of the year, which started at around $12,000 per tonne. However, global import export restrictions on antimony have also put pressure on refiner margins and payabilities. Mandalay is actively working with our refining partners across the globe in searching for new alternative markets for our gold antimony concentrate as a risk mitigation strategy. Our current approach is to sell the gold antimony concentrate on a shipment-by-shipment basis to realize best value for Mandalay. Turning next to our CapEx plan. In an effort to strengthen the foundation of our operations, as Ryan discussed, we will look to make the following key investments in 2025. The new tailings facility at Costerfield to be completed in the first half of 2025, which will provide an additional 6 years of capacity. Accelerated underground development at Björkdal to improve operational flexibility and reduce reliance on lower-grade surface stockpiles and replacement of an aging mine fleet at Björkdal to enhance equipment availability and reduce downtime. The majority of these expenditures are expected to occur in the first half of this year. Additionally, we remain dedicated to creating further value through near-mine and regional exploration at both sites with potential for additional resource allocation to accelerate progress based on success. Mandalay enters 2025 in a very strong financial position. This gives us the capacity to invest in key operational priorities while maintaining our prudent approach to capital allocation. I would like to now pass the call to our VP of Exploration and Operational Geology, Chris Davis. Chris?
Chris Davis
executiveThanks, Hashim. As Frazer alluded to, we are pleased with our exploration progress with notable developments at both Costerfield and Björkdal, leading to key mineral resource growth and mineral reserve replacement. At Costerfield, net of depletion, mine life remains at 4 years, which is considered normal at this operation, which has averaged 2 to 5 years over the past 19 years of operation. On the 28th of January, we were excited to announce that True Blue is emerging as a potential new frontier for Costerfield with high-grade veining, both in gold and antimony intercepted in multiple holes. Building off these new results, the True Blue inferred resource is now 132,000 tonnes at 14.6 grams per tonne gold and 3.4% antimony for 96,000 gold equivalent ounces, an almost fourfold increase from the maiden resource reported last year. Mandalay has committed to unlocking the full potential of True Blue through an extensive extensional drilling program with a third drill rig now operational. In parallel to our regional exploration program, our near mine exploration efforts continue with the objective of immediate mine life extension. We have an additional 3 drill rigs operating underground continuing to grow mineral resources and specifically testing the large potential we see at depth below the Cuffley deposit term Sub KC. At Björkdal, in December, we reported on the discovery of a new underground domain called North Zone Below Marble which marks an exciting continuation of the deposit with great results, including 179 grams per tonne gold over 1.15 meters. These results, alongside continued growth on the underground Eastern extension zone and Aurora zone have created a considerable build of mineral resources at Björkdal and growth of mine life to over a decade. Additionally, and adjacent to the mine, we have also announced the maiden resource of Storheden, which is currently 100,000 gold ounces. Looking ahead, we will continue to grow high-margin ounces at Björkdal with further drilling slated for North zone Below Marble, Eastern extension and Storheden in 2025. I would like now to return the call to Frazer.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you, Chris, Hashim and Ryan. While higher metal prices contributed to a strong year, our renewed operational and financial focus, leading to budgeted execution has played a crucial role in our strong share price. As a result, 2024 is marked by record financial performance and substantial earnings growth. But for us, this is just the beginning of a multiyear growth trajectory, we remain very focused on. In 2025, we have a number of operational initiatives planned to further streamline performance at our operations, while building on our track record of reliable performance. As a result, we anticipate continued strong cash flow from both gold and antimony production. As for antimony, antimony is listed as a critical and strategic mineral to U.S. economic and national security interests by the U.S. Department of Interior. And the CMI, which is a recognized global institution known as the Critical Minerals Institute, lists antimony as one of the 14 most critical minerals to governments in the Western world. So what does that mean for Mandalay? Well, at our Australian culture field operation, we remain the largest single company producer of antimony in the Western world. In the recent discovery and updated mineral resource announced at True Blue, while with any future exploration success this year, True Blue may well underpin that current statement into the future. We will continue to prioritize exploration with the objective of both replacement of mine depletion, and extension of mine life, both in known mineralized areas and potential new near-mine discoveries. We have budgeted a minimum of $12 million for exploration through a part of 2025, with future spend to be stage gated based upon exploration success, and we look forward to updating you on our progress. Lastly, with a strong balance sheet and 0 debt as well as improved valuation, Mandalay is well positioned to capitalize on strategic growth opportunities that support our vision of becoming the next mid-tier precious metals producer. There are numerous consolidation opportunities in the precious metal space, and our shareholders are supportive of our strategy. As a mid-tier producer, we would have increased trading liquidity and the potential for a significant re-rating of our stock to further build upon what has already been witnessed a more than doubling of our share price over the past year. On behalf of Mandalay's Board and management, I would like to express my appreciation for both mine site team's hard work, their loyalty, aligning with our core values and their commitment to operational excellence. It's through the collective efforts of all our employees, including our small executive corporate team that we will continue to strive to reach new heights in 2025 and beyond. Thank you, everyone, and this concludes this portion of the call. I would like to open the lines for questions now.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our first question will be coming from Kevin Tracey of Oberon Asset Management.
Kevin Tracey
analystAnd congrats on a good year. My first question was relating to the reserves or specifically from Costerfield. I understand the comment in the call that the mine life is seen as normal at Costerfield. But I suppose my sense is that your hopes would have been to grow the mine life, given the exploration spending we've seen over the last couple of years. So can you, I guess, talk about that, first, if that's right, and then as we look ahead to this year and the reserve report, you're going to publish a year from now, if you do hope to grow the mine life? And if so, could you talk about where you think that growth would come from? Would it mostly come from Cuffley or True Blue or more Shepherd and Youle, that would be great.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. Thanks for that, Kevin. And a fair question. I suppose the short answer is the last 2 or 3 years with elevated exploration spend, I would say 65% to 70% of that has really been focused around resource growth, both inferred and M&I. So for example, True Blue would be one example of that and some work in Cuffley Deeps is another example. So we expect -- while there's a bit of a lag, at first glance, the reserve increase might look somewhat disappointing. But we expect in the next year or so, you're going to start to see that go up as we build up this not insignificant pool now of resources at Costerfield. And the 2 areas I would say, specifically will be certainly True Blue in 3 or so years. We hope that could be a real game changer, let's call that another Youle, for example. And then the Cuffley Deeps or more so the Sub KC below that, where we're targeting a lot of energy on what I would call the near-mine conversion, both more resources and turning that into reserves. So that's really -- it's been about resource growth initially, but we do expect to start to see improvements in reserves now that we have that pool of resources. And even though Youle winds up, the last area continues to be Shepherd as we go to the west or what we call Shepherd surrounds. But we think the bigger areas are going to come from Cuffley Deeps, Sub KC rather and True Blue eventually.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. And so just thinking about the mine plan in the coming years. And if I look at the reserve report, just the proved portion of the reserves. That's showing roughly 2 years of ore at quite high grades or over 11 grams a tonne. Now I imagine that's mostly Shepherd and Youle. But then if I look outside of that in the probable portion of the reserve, the grade falls quite a bit to below 6 grams a ton. So am I -- or the -- I guess how should we think about it? Should we think about, okay, there's 2 more years roughly of quite high-grade production from Youle and Shepherd. And then as we look towards 2027 there's kind of -- there's still a question mark? Or are you confident that you'll be able to continue to produce high grades in 2027? And is that likely to come from Sub KC before we get to True Blue? It would be helpful if you could talk through kind of the sequencing of the next few years.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure. Yes, Kevin. So just at a high level, I mean, I think your main question is the split in reserves at Costerfield between what we call proven and probable, even though they're all qualified as economic mineral reserves. Usually, the classification we do on the higher confidence, let's call it, proven versus probable is area where we have completed all the development already. So we have top cuts, bottom cuts. So both even a higher degree of certainty and a lot more information and data, which shows those higher grades you refer to, which tends to be more consistent with what we usually have at Costerfield. In terms of the probable as opposed to the proven -- and sorry, that former tends to be mostly Youle and Shepherd. But as far as the probable, a couple of things. Development is not out there yet, number one. Number two, because of the higher metal prices, both gold and antimony, we are actually bringing in more material that normally would not have been economic but -- or significantly economic, and now it is so, even if it's at a lower grade, so there are lower grades there. And then finally, when we do get out there, and this is in areas like Augusta, Brunswick, Cuffley on the edges and some at Shepherd. My sense is those grades will go up as we do more sampling on top cuts and bottom cuts. So that's really the difference, if that was your question between proven and probable, the next 2, 2.5 years, a lot of it Youle and Shepherd. The remainder, we believe, in those other areas of Augusta, areas we call Kendal and Augusta and Cuffley on the edges and Alison, for example, it is -- I think those grades will come up as we get development out there, and it was not in reserves before. So that's good news that it's now significantly economic.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. And True Blue, you think that could come into production in 3 years' time? Or what -- could you update us on the time line on what that could look like? And also, if you could comment on -- is that -- is there a material amount of capital that would need to be invested to bring that into production?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure. I mean, look, this is all early stages. However, we're, number one, moving 3 drills into that now. We just had the 1 drill, so we're hitting that quite hard. Secondly, it's only 2 kilometers to the west of Brunswick, not far from our current working. So we would not expect a lot of capital to bring that in. And then the third issue is, we've already started or will be imminently starting a permitting process to make sure that's not a bottleneck to us. Mind you, we don't think that will be more than 2 years. So between doing more drilling if we get success moving that into reserves, any development that has to go from underground, say, 2 kilometers across, our plan would be to see that in production. I used to say, 5 years from now, but I would say we're looking to target 3 at most 4. So that's why we're drilling so much there. We're both excited about it. We want to make sure that, that could come into the mine plan if we get success there and it proved to be a good economic reserve as opposed to the current M&I resource that's gone up 4 or 5x. I get that, but we want to add more to that and then start to move it into reserve.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. Great. And then shifting to Björkdal. Just looking at the reserve report, can you help me understand the discrepancy between the proved and probable underground grade, which is roughly 1.6 grams a tonne. And then the resource underground grade, which is much higher, 2.4 grams a tonne and maybe you could talk a little bit about what needs to happen to convert that higher grade resource into reserves and maybe even more importantly, when you might be able to mine this higher grade ore?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSo 2 parts to that, Kevin, if I understand it, Björkdal. So -- and if you have -- we can always do a follow-up afterwards. But in the footnote of the tables, the delta or that difference in what we state as that underground reserve grade as opposed to the measured and indicated resource grade, a lot of that is engineered dilution. So we take our stope widths go as wide as 3 meters and our development -- ore development drives go as wide as 4.5 meters. So there is a dilution component to that. There is also, while we try to mitigate that, about 20 -- 15% to 20% dilution that we find occurs. So that's an additional dilution factor that's put in there. It's about 20% for ore drives and 10% for capital. But -- so between the engineered dilution, meaning that's the wedge we have to take it at and some dilution, it does bring that grade down from what you see as a resource grade that you referenced to reserve grade. So however -- so from that 2.4 down to 1.6. We'll both look at ways to better optimize that. And the areas that I'm most focused on there, it's great to have Aurora, which is above the Marble unit, which is large bulk, lower grade. But it's the eastern extension as well as now this North Zone Below Marble, which has been a recent addition and big win for us last year. Those grades are both better. I mean we think those grades could be as high as even diluted, 1.7 to 2 and also more consistent. So that's why it's great to have a longer life and added more, but I want to focus on the higher grade portions of that.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. And just maybe if you could talk big picture about Björkdal. It's been quite a few years now where we've seemingly been getting these exciting drilling results. And also, you have plans this year to increase the spending or the capital spending on underground development and improved operations. Yet the production there seems kind of stuck for the last several years and it's kind of 40,000 to 45,000 ounces a year. I suppose, can you just maybe set up our expectations for where you expect Björkdal to go, looking out maybe a bit further?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure. I mean without -- again, this is all potential. I don't want to mislead to think Björkdal is suddenly going to become a 60,000 to 70,000 ounce a year producer. It consistently runs -- this is after the open pit ended in 2019, where you could get more throughput, but more grade. But here's where I think the upside is on Björkdal, irrespective of even potential polymetallic BMS stuff in the Southwest portion. The first is, as that North Zone I alluded to, I mean, it is a little bit deeper. So we want to invest in that equipment and make sure that it's good quality equipment that can bring that higher-grade material up. There's potential skarn areas we've recently been hitting, which tends to be even higher grade back in the Eastern one. So those 2 areas I talked about, I think that could give us potentially a nice pop in the next year or 2. And then there's -- you'll see 2 things that were new. One is Norrberget, I've always been excited about that. The bottleneck there will probably be permitting, but that could be an interesting open pit, even a starter open pit at higher grades. So that's better than the surface stockpile that's sitting at 0.6 grams a tonne if we can get stuff that's 2 grams a tonne in this open pit, even if it's only a year or 2. And then the last one, you'll see the open pit cutback. We've been doing some economic assessment. We're going to do some further work on that, but that's been added this year that we think a layback makes economic sense. And so even if the grades are a little bit less, just the efficiency with the open pit, even considering the strip ratio is always a bit more efficient than the deeper underground. So I think those things combined without promising, I still think we're a minimum 40,000, 45,000 ounce a year producer. Could it maybe tip up higher? Yes. Do I believe it's going to go longer than even 10 years? Yes. Not enough to justify a further increase in the plant throughput, but the mill has gone from 1.25 million tonnes per annum, and it's now at 1.4 million. So I think that will all underpin a minimum of 40 to 45 ounces a year and maybe better in the next year or so, depending on those areas I just shared with you.
Kevin Tracey
analystOkay. Great. And then just lastly, can you remind me of the goal around the underground mining rate. I want to say my memory is it was 1.2 million tonnes a year, but I could be misremembering that. And is that something you hope to get closer to in the coming years?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. So there's 2 different things. Our underground mining rate right now is about 1 million tonnes per annum, and the rest is supplemented with the old surface stockpile feed. So that gives us a combined rate of about 1.4 million tonnes through the plant. So about 35% comes from surface stockpile and the rest comes from underground. But due to this increased development that we're doing, that's the purpose behind that is to both look to increase the underground mining rate and give us more operational flexibility dealing with targeting higher grades. So for now, it's still around 1 million, we'd like to get that to 1.1 million from underground and then supplement the rest from the surface stockpile. So the plant right now is still 1.4 million tonnes per annum, and that's the split on surface stockpile and underground mining rates.
Operator
operatorAnd one moment for our next question, which will be coming from Ron Stewart of Red Cloud Securities.
Ronald Stewart
analystCongrats, everyone, for a great quarter. Most of my questions were related to the development of True Blue, which got answered. I guess I'd just like you to comment, if you could, on the antimony. I see that you used $19,000 as your baseline price for reserves and going forward. Where do you see it going from here? How long do you think that this is going to last? Or do you have any kind of guidance? Can you give us any kind of longer-term guidance on the antimony margin?
Frazer Bourchier
executiveSure. Thanks for that, Ron. I mean, my general comments and Hashim may want to add in here. The antimony story is very exciting. That being said, I think you appreciate as a mining company, we're probably somewhat conservative. We want to be careful. We're not putting all our eggs in that basket. It's great, it adds a lot of wind to our sales. But a year ago or just over a year ago when it was USD 11,000, USD 12,000 per metric ton. And now the fast market price is 3.5 to 4x that, we think we can capitalize on that now, but it's a pretty opaque market, driven by the export restrictions out of China. And the fact that 85% of all the antimony producers out of China, Russia or Tajikistan. So who knows if that starts to go down, general sentiment is that price will stay for a little while. But I would be false to give you any predictions that are 3 or 4 years out based on the volatility and what's happened so recently, and there were very few that predicted this a year or 1.5 years ago. So we're optimistic. We think there's a benefit to that, but it's not a main lead strategy for us necessarily, but there's a lot of attention and a lot of interest coming into us as the largest producer of antimony in the Western Hemisphere. So for now, we're somewhat conservative. We'll use $20,000 or so in our budgeting, but the reality is the fast market's price is $40,000 right now per tonne.
Ronald Stewart
analystOkay. Fair enough. The other question, I guess, that brings to mind here is with such a robust cash balance and the ability to generate free cash flow, have you talked about or put together any kind of plan as to how much cash you actually want to amass onto your balance sheet at some point here, it's becoming an overwhelming size compared to the market cap.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. No, look, that's a fair question, Ron. In terms of -- as the cash is now probably 25% of our entire market cap today, I think our market cap is USD 320 million. And as we are $76 million at the end of last year, and you can imagine what's happening this year. So we have 2 or 3 options. We're not going to do anything silly here in terms of the inorganic opportunities. If we find something that we truly believe is accretive to give us size and scale, be it asset acquisition or more likely sort of combination with other companies that are producers. It's good to have that cash available in the event of a need for that in the pro forma to further invest and increase the production profile and especially the cash return significantly. In the event that does not happen, we are certainly looking at other options. We do have a buyback program in place. So buyback is certainly an option and/or dividend is something we certainly can consider. Although right now, we don't believe dividend is the best return to shareholders unless we really don't find something that's accretive and makes sense on the inorganic M&A front. So we're keeping all options open. You are correct. There's a limit to how much cash you build up before you decide how the shareholders can see a participation in that.
Ronald Stewart
analystRight. Okay. Well, listen, congrats on the good year and thank you for that.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you, Ron.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] And our next question will be coming from [indiscernible].
Unknown Analyst
analystYes, I've got a question concerning Björkdal. Why don't you spend $5 million and buy an ore sorter and convert the 0.65 grams per tonne to 1.5 grams per tonne.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. No, that's a great question. I mean, internally, we have done some studies on ore beneficiation, both optical sorting and screening which get up the grade there. We haven't had the results that were positive yet that we hoped there. We are certainly going to continue to explore that. So the short answer is, in theory, that sounds great, but ore grade upgrading on that surface stockpile right now has not proven to be economic, be it optical sorting or screening.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. What about ore sorting on the underground ore because your ore is on narrow vein, right? So there should be a big difference between the characteristics of the ore and the characteristics of the waste.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveYes. No, we've done some work there, too, granted, we're somewhat mine-constrained. So finding sufficient ore is always a bit more challenging there. But point taken in terms of even then, while it might not save on the drill and blast cost, it could save on the haul cost of the surface. But the optical sorting there that we did some test work on did not prove up as we were hoping as well. So for now, we're going to continue to look at other opportunities, even though we're underground mine constrained. But at present, that hasn't turned out to show value for us yet.
Operator
operatorAnd I would now like to turn the conference back to Frazer for closing remarks.
Frazer Bourchier
executiveThank you very much. Thank you to everyone for their time. While we were very pleased with how 2024 year went, I'm even more excited for this year as we continue to focus on both operational excellence, organic exploration, both regional and near mine as shared and the potential for inorganic growth opportunities while continuing to be prudent and careful and ensuring we're supportive of our shareholders' intention. So on that note, thank you again to everyone, and all the best.
Operator
operatorAnd this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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