Resolute Mining Limited (RSG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Resolute Mining quarterly activities conference call for the period ended March 31, 2021. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Stuart Gale, Interim CEO. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Ali, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all very much for joining our call this morning, where we'll go through the first quarter's operational highlights. I'm joined by David Kelly, our Chief Operating Officer; and Dave and I will run through the quarterly before handing over to you to write some questions down. So we'll kick things off now. I'll just give a quick overview and then hand over to Dave to work through the operations section together with the power station, and then I'll come back and touch on some balance sheet type things before we head to Q&A. So look, to kick things off, it was pleasing to see the continued improvement from a safety perspective during the course of the quarter. And I say that particularly in light of the COVID environment that we're operating in at the moment. There's no doubt that we've still got a bit of work to do in relation to betting down some initiatives from a safety and people and health perspective. But we've got a fairly new and keen management team on site, and they're bringing a really positive attitude towards those sorts of things. So we're looking forward to continuing the journey from a health and safety perspective. As we look to our overall performance, we produced 85,700 ounces of gold during the quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,239. So look, that was broadly in line with the lower end guidance. And as you look at those numbers at a higher level, I'd say we were broadly okay with the quarter. As we look at each of the operations and turning to the Syama sulphide operations. We're showing positive signs there, I would say. So the fact that we hit our highest production since 2016, I take away as a strong positive, but there's no doubt that we've certainly got room improvement at those operations, and we'll be looking to capture a few improvement initiatives as we move forward at the underground operations at Syama. From the Syama oxide perspective, whilst we produced more ounces than the last quarter, it was generally a bit disappointing. Unfortunately, we were not able to recover from the material handling issues that we spoke about in the last quarter. So therefore, we were down on our own production expectations. We are looking to display at the gap pits at the Tabakoroni complex and we're pre-stripping there at the moment. So looking forward to getting down there, where we know the material will process a lot better. So that should provide some upside relative to this quarter from an oxide perspective. And then, of course, at Mako, Mako continues to deliver and it had another positive quarter, running a little bit of ahead of our guidance numbers and our own expectations. It was pleasing from a sales perspective that we achieved a gold price of $1,729 an ounce, and that compares to the average spot price of roughly $1,800. So we're continuing to see an improvement in our hedge book. And you can see the current status of our hedge book in table 6 of the quarterly release that we put out this morning. I guess from the production and the pricing we made some small inroads into our debt, where we saw our net debt lowered to $223 million. So that was a $7 million or $8 million improvement on that front, and we were able to maintain our cash balances at $106 million. So clearly, our focus remains on improving the overall cash position. And that at the end of the day, is going to continue to be focused around our production and making sure we hit our production targets. We're also really pleased to get out our updated life of mine outlook. So this clearly shows particularly at Syama, the long production life that we have there and the gold [indiscernible] that we have. We continue to undertake drilling around the Tabakoroni underground area, but also for other oxide opportunities. And I've no doubt that we -- by the way, we continue to get some really good results on that as well, which will no doubt extend our mine lives through Syama. So that was a quick snapshot. I'll touch on Bibiani towards the end. I'm sure everyone is interested in that, but hand over to Dave now just to run through the operations components.

Thanks, Stuart. Hello, everyone. Look, as Stuart mentioned, the [ recent ] solid result operationally with improvements at Syama, both on the sulphide and oxide front, although there's more to do in both directions. And Mako, once again performed to our expectations. On the sulphide front, we continue to show an improvement that was built up in 2020, and we [indiscernible] of gold relative to the same quarter. Our underground tonnages increased throughout the quarter, and we're now mining at a rate of around 200,000 tonnes per month, fairly consistently. And processed tonnages were down a little, mainly due to an extended shutdown in January have now picked up and in March. We milled again around 200,000 tonnes, and those rates are persisting into April. So we've got the underground and processing plants in a fairly steady footing now. We have had a bit of an issue in the quarter with the main drive shaft and bearings for the primary fan that supplies here to our roaster. That hasn't prevented us putting any material through the roaster, but it has been the efficiency of combustion in that roaster is slightly compromised. That means we get a bit more [ carbon ] in the calcine lead circuit, which has a mild adverse effect on recoveries, which was evident in the quarter. Overall, the oxide operations increased substantially over the December quarter. But as Stuart said, that performance will -- improved, was actually below our own internal expectations. We had significant issues with wet ore at Cashew, we -- in the sector of Perth Aquafil, which gave us some issues, both in material handling and the mine but also in the plant. Over the course of the quarter, we overcame those issues, and that was a positive. But at the Mint, the overall grade, we're able to feed through a combination of blending that material with other ore sources to maintain throughput was lower than we had expected, and that was reflected both in total ounces produced and recovery. The good news, as Stuart said, is that we've begun pre-strip on an extension and deepening of the [indiscernible] Splay pit in April, and that we expect that will be a contributor to our ore stream in this quarter. As you may have seen in the life of mine pre-publication we put out during the quarter, which substantially increased our open pit footprint at Tabakoroni, and we expect to be there operating for some months probably into 2022, in fact. The other thing that's worth discussing at Syama and the other key milestones for the quarter was the fact that construction is now completed on our new hybrid battery and thermal power station, which is stage 1 of the redevelopment of our power facilities at Syama. That means we've got 3 main 10-megawatt generating units in place, 2 of which are now operating and, between them, generating about 90% of the power. We're in the final stages of commissioning the battery backup, which effectively replaces spending reserve in the station and generates quite a significant saving therefore, in fuel use. And the third of the engines will be commissioned shortly. So as a consequence of that change, we will see a reduction in power costs, which we expect to see reflected in overall unit costs over the remainder of our operating life at Syama, which is a number of years. So that's a really exciting development. And it's been a tremendous effort to have that built right through the middle of the pandemic the COVID and all the other challenges that we faced last year. So it's a great credit to our project team and to our partners, Aggreko and Wartsila. On -- moving on to Mako, as Stuart said, a solid quarter. Gold pool was down, obviously, relative to the December quarter, but that was very much in line with our expectations, as expressed in our guidance and in our life-of-mine statement on Mako. We've essentially just got access to low-grade ore this year than we saw through most of last year, and that's reflected in our integrates milled in the quarter and that we expect to see for most of the year. However, as per usual, plants operate consistently and reliably, although it was down a little on the prior quarter, due a planned shutdown in January for a mill reline. But in all other respects that, that mine is performing very solidly. One of the changes that has been very clear at Mako is the accelerated mining we've been able to achieve over the last year. So we're mining roughly 27% higher rates now than we were a year ago, and that's allowing us to advance the CapEx that we need to ensure access to whatever the remaining mine life to plan. So that's all going pretty much to expectations. And we have made, as I say, material increase in movement rates to accommodate those CapEx. Finally, one of the key things we are doing, I suppose, looking for incremental improvement as Mako is to do de-bottlenecking work on the plant. We don't see ourselves spending any money on capital per se, but it's really about minor operating changes that we're looking to assess, particularly around things like mill grate discharge configurations, cyclone arrangements, et cetera, just to optimize our throughput and power use in the [ Syama ] mill. So that remains an ongoing work. But overall, as stated by Stuart, a reasonably positive quarter, but further room for improvement at Syama in both the sulfide and oxide operations, but we're really happy with the trajectory at Syama, particularly in the sulphide operations and the fact that we're seeing improved performance quarter-on-quarter and, certainly, relative to where we were at this time last year. So at this stage, I'll hand back to Stuart, and if there's any questions, he will be able to answer them on our collective behalf. Thank you.

Great. Thanks, Dave. Look, I'll just briefly turn to the balance sheet and a couple of other corporate things that are on the go at the moment. But from the balance sheet, you can see from Figure 2 in the quarterly presentation, which just sets out our movements through the course of the quarter. We were able to maintain our cash balances at $106 million, gross debt came down to $329 million and net debt, $223 million, as I stated before. So that was pleasing, and we are very focused on how we manage cash. We have a couple of debt repayments or debt repayment that's due in September. That's our first debt repayment for $25 million. And as we announced a couple of weeks back now, we are fully expecting that our operational cash flows and cash generation will be more than sufficient to cover those debt repayments. As we look at a couple of the other key items there. I think when we look at exploration and CapEx, that was certainly in line with our guidance. The way that we've structured this cash flow reconciliation is to exclude sustaining and exploration and non-sustaining capital expenditure from -- or just identify it separately. So please, if you're looking at the all-in sustaining cost, then don't add on those capital numbers because all-in sustaining costs, as you would appreciate, already include the sustaining number. So it's a bit odd, but I think the way that we have presented this chart gives you a pretty good understanding of where our cash flows have gone where our cash has been consumed. Working capital was consumed $10 million of that. And look, that's just really some timing issues around our accounts payable balances. That will move a little bit over each quarter, but I'm not expecting significant movements in that. We're probably running it towards the low end from an accounts payable perspective at this stage of the game. We continue to offset our royalty obligations and other tax obligations at Syama against our VAT credits. So this is one of the ways that we've spoken about now over the last, I guess, 6 to 9 months of recovering that VAT position. So that's been accepted by the tax department in Mali, and we'll continue to do that. So that's one of the reasons that you see royalties being down a little bit through the period. The royalty number you're seeing there is really only in relation to Mako. And of course, we do continue to work through the various tax matters that we have on the go with the Mali government. Specifically, I'm speaking about the demands that we've received from Mali. So our team in Mali can or is on a regular basis in contact with the Mali tax office to try to get things sorted out with regards to all of that. I think it's a little bit challenging as we still are dealing ultimately with the interim government there. So it could take just a little bit longer to have that all resolved. So I guess -- look, I'll wrap it up before any questions on -- with Bibiani. And obviously, the events at Bibiani during the quarter were certainly disappointing, and it's unfortunate outcome. We're working well, which I think before we had a notice that we received from the government of Ghana canceling our license. It was really pleasing to be able to go there and actually recover that license. We had some good discussions with the Ghanaian government in relation to that. So we now stand here today speaking to you with confirmation that, that license is restored, and we carry on with operating Bibiani as we have in the past. So we've satisfied all of the conditions that were required to be satisfied by the minister. We've also refunded the $5 million deposit to Chifeng, which is in accordance with our agreement. And probably the most important thing is that we continue to assess what the best outcome is for us with Bibiani, whether that's through the development of that asset or potentially a future sale. And I can say that there's certainly been quite a bit of interest in terms of other parties wanting to consider Bibiani from their own perspective. So I guess with that, I'll wrap it up, and we've got a question that's come through. So I'll just run through that.

It's for the benefit of everyone, it's asking whether we can run through the inventory build of the Syama oxide, and when that will reverse. Is 80% still the recovery for the sulphide circuit as well. So look, I haven't got the specific details in terms of the Syama oxide inventories, but we still have reasonable inventories that are available to us. Most of those came from mining at Tabakoroni underground. And that material was what we were using to assist in blending the cashew material through the course of the last couple of quarters, it is lower grade, obviously. And that's one of the reasons that we saw a lower grade than what we expected. So Dave, I don't know if you have any comments in relation to the ore stocks from the oxides at Syama?

Look, other than just to make the point that we mined at a slightly faster rate than we processed through this quarter, we've got quite a large inventory of stocks -- of oxide stocks that we've accumulated over the last several years. We will deplete those stocks really when we have -- we run out of material of better grade to process. So it will depend really on what the mining and processing schedule is over the next 2 to 3 years. So it will reverse gradually over the next several months. But it's worth noting that we have a significant stockpile already of oxide ore. And really, we process it preferentially on the basis of grade recovery and throughput depending on the characteristics of the ore that we have in our disposal.

And part of the question as well was the recovery target for the sulphide circuit at 80%. So yes, that is our target. We were obviously running a couple of percent below that during the course of the quarter, which is -- which Dave went through during his discussion. So another question. Yes, the question is, as part of the agreement with the government of Ghana, are we able to sell Bibiani? And the answer to that is, yes, we are. So we have an option, obviously, to develop it, and we have a development plan that's been in place for a couple of years now, but we also have the capacity to be able to dispose of Bibiani also. So as I said, it's still relatively raw in terms of the whole process that we went through in Ghana. And we have had a number of parties who have expressed interest in reengaging with us on a potential sale of Bibiani. So we'll continue to explore those options might look like for us. But I think we'll just -- we'll sit tie up on it for a little period of time until things become a little more clear. But yes, most definitely, we have the option to sell Bibiani. So look, there's not a lot of other questions that are coming through. So I'll wrap it up now, and thank you all for your time to listen to Dave and I just run through the March quarter. Certainly, if you have any other questions, please feel free or reach out. More than happy to have a chat or work through any of those questions. But I think just in terms of wrapping things up, we're certainly seeing positive developments at Syama. We're pleased with the changes that have been made to the teams at Syama. And I think we're seeing, as I said, a renewed enthusiasm there, which is great. And we see that there are quite a few opportunities for us to improve on performance to Syama sulphide circuit. So looking forward to that over the course of this year and also looking forward to getting into the Tabakoroni oxide, [indiscernible]. So look, I think with that, thank you all again, and we'll close it off.