Thor Explorations Ltd. (THX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Thor Explorations Limited Investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, as usual, we would like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand over to CEO, Segun Lawson. Segun, good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon. Welcome, and thank you. I'm pleased to be here again presenting our Q2 2026 financial and operating results. For the benefit of those who are new here, I will start with an overview. Thor Explorations is a West Africa-focused gold producer with a presence in 3 countries in Nigeria, where we have what I would describe as our flagship project, the Segilola Gold Mine, which is now in its fifth calendar year of gold production and forecast to produce between 75,000 and 85,000 ounces of gold this year. Our second project is the Douta project in Senegal, where we are at the final stages of putting together our -- reaching our final investment decision. So that involves finalizing our negotiations with our financiers and with the government of Senegal for the mining convention. And we are looking to position to build that project during the course of the next few months and aiming to be in production, should I say, in the next couple of years. And finally, we are in Côte d'Ivoire, where we've assembled a prospective portfolio of 5 exploration licenses now, and we're advancing exploration, particularly on our 2 priority licenses and low-cost exploration on the other 3. So to recap that in Nigeria, our production in 2025 was just over -- just about 92,000 ounces. This year, we expect to produce between 75,000 and 85,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost guidance of between $1,000 and $1,200 per ounce. Senegal, our project there is 100% owned by us. We have a global resource of just under 2 million ounces and a reserve of 1.2 million ounces grading over 1 gram per tonne. We are very encouraged by the preliminary feasibility study, which we released earlier this year, which showed a pretax NPV 5% of $908 million using a $3,500 gold price. And in Côte d'Ivoire, as I mentioned, we are pushing ahead with exploration on what is very prospective and exciting ground of Birimian Greenstone. From a capital markets perspective, we're listed on both the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and the TSXV market of the Toronto Stock Exchange. We have had a very volatile share price performance over the last couple of months, and I will go into my opinion on our valuation later on in this presentation. But what I would like to emphasize here is that we do continue to be supported by our institutional shareholders. And the -- in terms of price targets and our coverage, it's not just my opinion as it is the consensus that we are undervalued and there is significant upside potential in our valuation. So how did we perform in Q2? It was a steady and strong performance. I think the process plants and the mining operations are now -- have been in a steady state for quite a while. We mined just over 1 million tonnes as we get towards the final southern end of the open pit. That was a mine grade of 1.54 grams per tonne and that has been steady over the last -- should I say, through the course of this year. In terms of -- I still see a big takeaway here really in the terms of the ore stockpile. Our ore stockpile has been growing as we continue to maintain a throughput head grade of just over 2.5 grams per tonne. We now have about 58,000 ounces of gold on our stockpile grading at 0.74 grams per tonne. So the significance of this is we have already sunk all these costs. We have mined this gold, and we have about 2 years' worth of throughput material using a $4,000 gold price and about $260 million of gold just sitting on the stockpile at the moment. So in terms of our processing performance, that has been steady through the course of the last 5 quarters as well, processing about 240,000 tonnes per quarter. And as a grade, as I mentioned earlier, we are maintaining about just over 2.5 gram per tonne head grade. The recoveries have been stabilized as well, really coming in at 93.3%. We recovered 18,500 ounces of gold and poured just over 19,000 ounces of gold during the quarter. Financially, it's been another very strong quarter. We are in a steady state of production. We have been very disciplined with our costs, and we are continuing to produce in a very high gold price environment. The gold price has come down from the last -- the previous 2 quarters -- and we still managed to generate revenues of $77.6 million, of which it was $48 million in profit for the quarter. And as you can see, if you look at in terms of our liquidity, our cash flows from our operating activities have continued to grow quarter-on-quarter and so has our working capital position. We finished the quarter with a net cash position of $218.6 million with a working capital position of $230.8 million. So we've been continuing to strengthen our balance sheet, grow our cash reserves, and we have done this all whilst maintaining our dividend policy and returning money to shareholders on a quarterly basis at a rate of CAD 0.0125 per share. Since we announced our policy in April last year, we have returned USD 38 million back to our shareholders, and we will continue to do so on a quarterly basis. So another big takeaway from this quarter was even though we had this strong performance, we do have -- we did have over 7,500 ounces of gold, which remain not sold in the period, and we will be -- or should I say, we have sold immediately after the -- subsequent to the end of the period in Q3. So to summarize that in a snapshot, we sold over 17,000 ounces of gold from the 19,000 ounces we poured. If we look on a half yearly basis, we -- it has been an excellent start to the year in terms of revenue, $151 million over the first 6 months of the year is a record. Our EBITDA of $108.4 million over the first 6 months of the year is another record. And our net profit for the first 6 months of the year, which was $95.5 million, of which $48.7 million was in the quarter is also a record. I guided you towards our stockpile at the end of Q2 of 58,400 ounces, which is roughly at the throughput rate we're going now is about 2 years' worth of plant supply. And we finished this with an adjusted net cash position of $218.6 million. So the company continues to perform well operationally. The mine continues to produce. We are -- we have no issues with our costs. We are continuing to produce gold at a very high margin. Our balance sheet continues to grow. Our liquidity position continues to improve. And our net cash position is forecast to continue to grow through to the end of the period. And the reason I emphasize on this is I would like to discuss for a couple of minutes on our valuation, which we don't normally do. And I would like to probably turn attention to this really based on our recent share price performance despite our strong financial performance. So if we look at our PE multiples, we have the -- compared to our peer group, we are -- we are trading at a material discount given the cash we have in the bank, our net cash position and the fact that we continue to have exploration upside. Same with our enterprise value to EBITDA ratio as well. We are -- compared to our peer group of 3.5%, we're trading at 1.3 on a 1-year ratio or 1.4x on a 2-year ratio. And then if we look at our price to net asset value, again, we're in the bottom quartile compared to our peers. I say this prior to moving on to the exploration section because if we look at our valuation of let's say, CAD 740 million to CAD 750 million or USD 0.5 million (sic) [ USD 0.5 billion ]. We have a net cash position of about $220 million and the stockpile sitting there with an additional $250 million. So in the unlikely event we were to switch off all the light and stop operating without finding another ounce of gold or producing further than the stockpile and this year, we would have the same amount of cash as our market capitalization. And obviously, that is a very unrealistic scenario. We have material exploration upside to deliver to our shareholders, and I'll talk you through that through our exploration potential. So last week, we press release a set of drill results. We've been drilling away underneath the Segilola pit for a while now. It has been a challenging exercise trying to understand this unique ore body. I think the 2 key takeaways are: firstly, there's a significant amount of gold that has been drilled underneath the pit. And secondly is that as we drill, we get more information as to what is controlling this mineralization, the direction it's plunging and the fact that it continues to remain open at depth. Our deepest holes are now fully open at 400 meters, pardon me, below the final pit design. As a strategy now, and I've mentioned on our last couple of calls, we are chasing a minimum number of ounces prior to updating our, should I say, mine life and mine plan. And that number is around about the 300,000 ounce mark. We believe that's a good number to plan from even at a reduced throughput rate, that would actually add a material mine life to the end of the open pit. And we are getting some traction with this strategy, and we are continuing to push ahead. We have 4 rigs currently operating that we own ourselves. We are able to drill at a low cost flexibly, and we're able to even as the drilling campaign continues, one of the conversations we're currently having internally is to add to our fleet of drilling rigs to see how we can accelerate our drilling activities. If we look at our drill results in cross-section, you can see in these 3 different cross-sections ranging from the north of the pit to the south of the pit, the final pit design, we are intersecting wide high-grade gold mineralization at hundreds of meters below the final pit design. So for me, it's not a question of if there is more gold here or if this mine life will be extended. It's how much there is and how much the mine life will be extended by. And that's what we continue to work towards. These intercepts are strong high grade ranging between 5 and 11 grams per tonne. We've had our widest intersections at depth, 19.5 meters grading over 3 grams per tonne, and that remains open. And we're truthfully excited to keep infilling this mineralization, both down dip and also working our way back up towards the bottom of the open pit. So this is all going ahead. We will be continuing this and looking to make these underground development decisions over the next over the next 3 to 6 months. And that's the time line we're giving ourselves to reach this minimum number of ounces of mineable extractable gold underneath the pit. So moving over to Senegal. We have a project where we have been drilling and advancing through various stages of development. It's been organically developed by ourselves right from grassroots, we drilled the first discovery hole in 2012. We drilled a significant amount of meters here, over 133,000 ounces. And with the reserve and resource sitting where they are, we've had a very low discovery cost of around about $8.5 per ounce. This deposit is in the Birimian rocks in the Kéniéba Inlier in Senegal. And I think for us, now we have established our land position there. We've continued to grow it with prospective ground by adding what is a very prospective addition, the Bousankhoba license, which has generated 14 kilometers of gold and soil anomalism, which we've been spending the course of the year drilling, and we are now looking to, first of all, release some results and then secondly, add whatever discovered ounces here to our global resource at Douta. I think at the moment, we have a reserve, should I say, of 1.2 million ounces grading over 1 gram per tonne and a total global resource of just under 2 million ounces. What is encouraging about this is that we -- prior to making these additional discoveries and adding this additional ground, we completed our preliminary feasibility study, which was economically robust. It showed a 12.5-year mine life with a CapEx requirement of $254 million at a $3,500 gold price, a payback period of under 1 year with a post-tax IRR of 61%. The project is designed in 2 phases, a very low-cost initial oxide phase of 4 years, which would produce 400,000 ounces and then extending beyond that. Part of the activities we've done post preliminary feasibility study is drilling out additional oxide resources to extend that Phase 1. So the oxide phase currently spans 4 years with the primary ore phase running approximately another 8 years. This will generate very strong cash flow with the oxide phase all-in sustaining cost below $1,500 per ounce. If we look at a higher gold price of $4,250, the project's NPV goes up to $1.4 billion. This project is a project which we have been advancing through the course of the year. I will come to a small progress update later on in this presentation, but it's a project which we are positioning ourselves to reach that final investment decision this quarter over the next 4 to 6 weeks. To summarize the resource, what we have here is the original Makosa resource with the Makosa Tail and the Baraka resource and completely prior to the PFS undrilled 14-kilometer strike length of mineralization in Bousankhoba. Looking at Baraka 3, when we completed the preliminary feasibility study, one of the things we noted was there was scope for growth in the oxide and in the fresh. There were areas within the pit shell and along strike that were deemed as inferred and couldn't be included in the reserves. So one of the first pass activities we ticked off earlier this year and at the beginning of this -- of Q2 was to convert the inferred ounces into indicated. And this was a successful, should I say, venture, which we will also be incorporating into our updated resource. We did the same with Makosa East and Makosa Tail, where we had inferred -- previously inferred material within the pit and down dip, we have now drilled and looked to convert that to additional resources and reserves as well. We think the upside here, which will -- which changes us to should I say, the project will be the drilling out of the acquired Bousankhoba license. We kicked off a 40,000 meter drilling program this year on 5 targets. We are now reaching the end of that program, and we do have a significant amount of drill results that we are looking to -- we are collating and putting together in a series of press releases as we receive all the drill results, which should be -- continue to be released through the course of this quarter. So we have the exploration ongoing. We're currently completing this 40,000-meter drilling program. In terms of reaching final investment decision and where we are in the development plan, we are pretty much at the final stages of discussions with our financing parties. We are looking to put a significant amount of the required funding from our -- we are able to, should I say, put a significant amount of the required funding from our balance sheet, and this will be added with a project financing combined with project financing. There will be no shareholder dilution required to build this project. The other key requirement for us is receiving our mining convention with the Senegalese government. I'm pleased to say we've had a very, very progressive talks with the Government of Senegal and the Ministry of Mines who have been extremely supportive. We are at the final stages of that. We've had a number of iterations and drafts received by ourselves and gone back to the ministry, and we expect to close that off in the next couple of weeks. So we are looking to make that final investment decision this quarter and push ahead with this build in Senegal. So that would be our second mine to add to the ounces we're producing in Nigeria. And this is a long-term production mine, which at the moment is designed to run for 12 years. However, the drilling -- the 40,000 meters of drilling we have done this year, and we will continue to do is looking to enhance the project, particularly enhance the life of the first phase of the project. So finally, I will move on to Côte d'Ivoire, where we have our early-stage portfolio of now 5 licenses. I won't give too much of an introduction to the country. It's been a success story in terms of gold discoveries and mines -- gold mines being built. We added the Loudiba license last quarter, and we have focused our exploration on the Guitry and the Marahui projects. The Guitry project, which we own 100%, we have had an initial successful drilling campaign last year. And then this quarter, our focus was rather than prior to drilling out the -- should I say, the discovery we made last year, we've carried out a permit-wide auger drilling campaign, which has been successful in delineating 6 mineralized drilling targets. And as you can see from the picture on the right-hand side, these range from 1.5 kilometers in strike length to 400 meters in strike length. What we're now doing now to -- in the current period is closing off the auger drilling in the untested areas to see if there's any connectivity between all these 6 targets. We're extremely encouraged to have these. And what we -- where we are positioned now is to come at the end of the quarter and the beginning of Q4 to drill out all these different targets. If we can repeat the success we had last year and at the beginning of this year, which was our initial discovery at Krakouadiokro on any of these additional targets we're on to something very exciting for us as a company and also for a company our size. So we very much look forward to that. And then lastly, in Côte d'Ivoire, we have our Marahui license, where we had the extremely encouraging starts with the soil geochemistry and the rock chip geochemistry on the Birimian greenstone. We have designed quite a substantial drill program, which you can see on the right-hand side. That drill program was slightly delayed, but I'm pleased to say we're well stuck into that now. I don't have results in this presentation, but there will be results out this quarter in the next few weeks. This is a very important project for us really because of how excited we are from -- of the initial exploration results. This project has a strike length of a 5-kilometer mineralized zone in terms of soil and rock chips and a parallel 3-kilometer mineralized zone. We're very encouraged by the mapping that's gone on, the geophysical surveys that has gone on and the initial drilling that we are looking to -- that we have carried out here. So without saying too much prior to the results being released, we look forward to updating the market with our drilling results here in Marahui, which will be in the next 2 to 3 weeks, certainly. So I'll finish off by saying we continue to produce gold at a high margin. We continue to generate very strong cash. Our balance sheet is growing now materially on a monthly basis. We maintain our guidance of 75,000 to 85,000 ounces, and we maintain our all-in sustaining costs of $1,000 to $1,200 per ounce. We're targeting extension of the mine life through the definition of additional underground resources and delineation of near-mine resources. I will also mention that in addition to the mine life extension, there is another 2 years or should I say, over $250 million of gold, of which costs have already been sunk sitting on our stockpile to go through the process plant. We're finalizing our permitting approvals for Douta to reach a final investment decision this quarter and commence construction, still on time in this second half of the year. And we're very much looking forward to pushing forward with our second mine as a company. In Côte d'Ivoire, we're very encouraged by the initial -- by the exploration results we've had, both at Guitry and Marahui and look forward to updating the market with these results as we continue to progress. And lastly, we continue to maintain our dividend policy and responsibly returning money to our shareholders whilst we continue to grow our balance sheet. We are making sufficient provisions to keep our dividend policy, to grow our balance sheet and to fund the construction of our second mine with our own internally generated cash, project financing and importantly, without the need to have any shareholder dilution. So that's everything, and I'm happy to proceed to the Q&A session. Thank you.

Perfect, Segun. That's great. If I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. [Operator Instructions] Just while Segun takes a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Segun, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions. So thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. But Segun at this point, so I'll hand back to you to address those where appropriate. And if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great. Thank you.

Okay. Okay. Yes, there are quite a lot of questions. I think it's 35 questions. I will work my way through them and do the best I can. Thank you. So the first question is, looking at the medium-term production profile for Segilola, how should investors think about the floor of the annual output over the next 3 to 4 years? So I think that's a good question. I think if we look at from where we are now and we take a complete base case, we will have -- this is a base case based on our DFS reserves of 500,000 ounces, which we've already exceeded. We have 75,000 ounces this year, and then we are looking at a stockpile of, should I say, 60,000 ounces over the course of the next 2 years, which would be 30,000 ounces a year at a very low cost of production. Now obviously, we intend to add to that. It's not just a stockpile we intend to produce. Like I mentioned in the presentation, which hopefully answered your question, we are looking to define an underground resource and reserve with a number in mind we have being 300,000 ounces. So depending on what the throughput rate is of those 300,000 ounces, supplementing the stockpile production, that can range from the base case we have of 30,000 ounces up to between 50,000 and 60,000 ounces per year. It's too early to say, and I -- it's probably not a good idea to say what my personal expectations are prior to the completion of the drilling of this underground resource, reaching this number and producing a resource statement. Nevertheless, we will have an updated resource statement for the underground at the end of the year. And we are looking to -- we have the target number in mind. However, we will be regardless or not making this target number, we do feel it is necessary to have an upgraded resource released. Okay. Next question. Any plans to rebuy the stock? Look, we have this question pretty much every time. I think it's something that's also on for discussion internally given the really cheap valuation versus our peers, it would make sense. We have looked at this previously. The issue was the amount of stock we could buy in the period of time it would take given the regulations guiding buybacks on the AIM market. So one thing I will say since we first looked at it, our volumes have massively increased, and it's something we can keep discussing internally. We haven't made any decisions on this. I think at the moment, returning -- the mechanism we're using to return money to our shareholders is the dividend policy, which we believe is sustainable. However, the more we believe we're undervalued, which we are, if you think we have a project which we are aiming to be fully funded this quarter and has an NPV of around about $1 billion, and we can build that without any shareholder valuation. We do think the share price is extremely cheap at the moment and a re-rating would almost be inevitable. At this stage, do you have a sense of the potential CapEx costs might be for any extension of Segilola, particularly as the mine moves underground. At this stage, we are in the -- we are carrying out studies. Third-party consultants are carrying out these studies. So I can't give you a definitive answer on the CapEx yet, but we do believe we have sufficient provisions for this as well. What's holding up the Douta final investment decision? Is it expected in Q3 2026? Or will it be Q4 2026? So the Douta final investment decision, like I said in the presentation, on the financing side, we believe we're pretty much there and no issues. I would say that the main delay has come in getting our mining convention finalized. There has been a change in minister in Senegal as well, which obviously -- had a period of delay through that. But I'm pleased to say I've -- myself and the team have had a very good, should I say, correspondences and meeting -- series of meetings with the new minister in his office and the ANVIL government, and this has progressed very quickly since he's been in office, and we do expect this mining convention to be finalized over the course of the next few weeks. And we are targeting and we do expect realistically a final investment decision on Douta this quarter, Q3 2026. When can an updated MRE be expected? I'm guessing this is Douta. We are aiming to update the Douta MRE once we have all the results of the 40,000-meter drilling program and the infill drilling, which we've already carried out, and we will -- we are aiming to have that out in Q4 this year. The next question is the buyback question, which I've just addressed. What are the risks you're most concerned about at Douta? Look, we've been very pleasantly surprised with how the government and how the negotiations have gone with the government. We are using our EPC partner that built our mine in Nigeria to build our mine in Senegal. So we have a very good relationship, and we have very recent mine building experience. We are building a gold mine in a high gold price environment. So we remain very encouraged. But however, geopolitically globally, there continue to be a lot of risks. There's a risk of price escalation and there's risks of escalation in global oil prices as well, which could have an effect on our all-in sustaining costs as well. And like any project, in the world of this size of this magnitude, there is a risk -- there is the underlying execution risk. But like I say, look, we try to mitigate what's in our hands. We have the mine building team, good experience. And I think most comforting, we have the support of the Senegalese government. Can you provide some clarity on the company's tax position for 2027? Yes, the company currently has -- is still under the Pioneer tax exemption and has no corporate tax to pay on Segilola in 2027. When can we expect some clarification on the company's gold production target and sources of that gold for 2027? Yes. As per our guidance, the gold production is 75,000 to 85,000 ounces from the open pit resource. And like we do and we continue to do, we blend some from the stockpile, we maintain a throughput grade of just over 2.5 grams per tonne. Can you expand on the gold stockpile where it comes from? Is this ore that is lower grade and therefore, hasn't been put through the plant? Yes, that's exactly right. The lower-grade material, sub-1 gram mostly is put on the stockpile. And we try and -- there are some very high-grade areas of the ore body. So we try and blend low grade and the higher-grade material to get our throughput head grade of 2.5 to 3 grams per tonne. And what we can't put through to -- when we blend, we put on the stockpile there. Obviously, when we started producing and when we did our feasibility study, gold was trading sub $1,500 per ounce. So the stockpile has got increasingly valuable and a lot more economic for us. When are you targeting the updated Segilola MRE? I think I mentioned that in my presentation. We will look to update the MRE before the end of the year. What is the estimated all-in sustaining cost for deep pit mining at Segilola? Well, the AISC for anything in the pit remains between $1,000 and $1,200 per ounce. If we are referring to the underground, that will be -- we will get those numbers as part of the ongoing studies that are being carried out. When is the first mining of the satellite deposit? Is there any drilling being done in these this year? If yes, can you share any results? Yes, there has been drilling been done. We -- in Q1, I believe we released -- we had some of them in our presentation. We can include them in this presentation when it goes on our website. There is ongoing drilling at the moment. It is going at a bit of a slow rate because we are in a very heavy rainy season. And we will -- yes, we will be looking to update our results there as well. Does the 300,000 ounce target include the satellite deposits? No, this is what we're targeting underground. Does your AISC quoted for Segilola include drilling costs? If so, which drilling costs? Yes, it doesn't include the exploration drilling, but it includes all the drilling required for development and doing, should I say, ongoing operations, so drill and blast, for example. Thor Explorations appears inexpensive relative to cash it's generating. What do you think the market is getting wrong about the company? And what specifically will you cause the valuation discount to close? Yes. Look, it's -- like I said, we're trading very, very cheaply compared to our cash. I think there are a number of factors. One perhaps could be the jurisdiction. We're still the only large-scale gold producer in the country. I think maybe there is still a big question mark over the mine life extension. And I'm sure once we have a definitive statement on that in the public, that will be a major catalyst to how people see the cash generation here. I think the next significant milestone will be the Douta final investment decision. This is a real mine with over -- at $4,200 gold over $1 billion worth of money to return to our shareholders, of which $400 million will be in the first 4 years of production, all to be built from our own resources and without any shareholder dilution. So I think these will be -- these major catalysts that will close that valuation gap. And also -- so that will be Nigeria and Senegal. And also, we have a portfolio which is completely not looked at in Côte d'Ivoire and has the ability to deliver multiple multimillion ounce resources based on what's been discovered in the country and based on the size of mines we're chasing given our land package and our initial exploration results. So these are our targets. We think there's a lot of value to be unlocked. We think our value not just future forecast. Our value is underpinned by existing cash and cash flow development in Senegal and what I can only describe as the blue sky opportunity we have in Côte d'Ivoire. Okay. The next question, I believe I've already answered. CMCL, which you included in your comparable valuation slide has had multiple director buys. Why are Thor directors and management not buying shares at these 52-week low levels? Look, I think it's well publicized Thor's Board and management have significant skin in the game, owning well over 14% of the company, very supportive shareholders and have bought shares on numerous occasions even after the payments of dividends. So I think, yes, look, those are all personal decisions by the directors and management. If you process the stockpile at 0.74, what do you estimate the all-in sustaining cost would be? Yes. Look, like I said, for the stockpile, significant amounts of these costs have been sunk already from an operating perspective. It would just be processing costs, which I believe at the current rates would be no higher than about $450 per ounce. What's the percentage split you're aiming for at Douta between project financing and year-end cash? Right now, we're being very conservative. We think we can do a 45% cash and 55% financing, and that gives us sufficient headroom to increase our leverage should we choose to further down. Next question has also been answered. Also, do you know if Thor is subject to the 15% top-up tax for 2026? Or does the pioneer status override that? The Pioneer status is our governing regulation on this. Good luck. Great good luck with everything. Thank you very much. I've answered the Douta financing questions. Could you remind us how much upfront cost of Douta will be and what proportion will be funded from the existing balance sheet loans? I understand there will be no share dilution. Yes, the Douta upfront -- total Douta project cost is -- well, our PFS was $255 million. So if we put a 10% contingency on that is where I expect would be reasonable guidance. We expect to fund 45% cash and 55% financing. What is the current royalty rate at Segilola? The current royalty rate at Segilola is 15% of the ad valorem price, which is prescribed by the ministry, which works out to around about just over $25 per ounce. Okay. There are a lot of repetitive questions here. What work is required before construction can begin at the Douta? When do you expect to realistically begin construction? We expect to commence the project in Q3. And when I say commence the project, that means begin the EPC contract, ordering of the long lead items and starting the initial civil works. So we expect to start in Q3 and construction activities throughout the course of the rest of the year. If you're going to fund 45% of Douta and the rest debt, you should have about $150 million-ish spare. Can we expect a special dividend? Look, we haven't considered that just yet. I think it would be prudent to keep a contingency buffer. Are you planning to hold a large percentage of cash relative to market cap longer term? Or is it temporary now because of holding it for Douta CapEx? Yes. Look, a lot of it is, as I mentioned, 45% of the Douta funding is coming from our cash reserves. So we're going to push a lot of cash towards the Douta CapEx. And in the longer term, as once we derisk Douta, who knows what our scenario will be. Ideally, we're aiming to build another mine after Douta and hopefully, that will come from our Côte d'Ivoire portfolio. We don't know what might be out there that we might be able to have inorganic growth through an acquisition. So I guess the cash gives us the optionality. I think I'll do 2 more questions. Answered CapEx again. More buyback. When is the first -- I think I've answered that. You mentioned rock chips. Was there any artisanal mining before? There was artisanal activity in the area, not actual -- nothing semi mechanized or extensive on our existing targets. More buyback. It seems buyback is very topical, and we will discuss that internally again. So yes, I think I've covered everything. If there are additional questions, I'd be happy to -- we would be happy to respond as a company by e-mail. Thank you very much.

Perfect, Segun, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time then addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this afternoon. And of course, if there are any further questions, we'll make those available to you after the meeting. But Segun, perhaps before really now just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that would be great.

Yes. Look, like I mentioned and I made a bit of a theme of this presentation, we do believe we're significantly undervalued. We do believe we're significantly undervalued. We are generating strong cash. We're returning money to our shareholders. We're building a project that's worth over $1 billion in terms of NPV, which we own 100%. We have growth coming from exploration in 3 jurisdictions. And we have blue sky exploration potential in Côte d'Ivoire. So we're diversified by stage of development and jurisdiction. We are continuing to unlock value. And personally and as a company, we're very excited by the next 6 months and the next 18 months ahead, where we're really transforming as a company from a single mine open pit producer to a multiple mine, multiple jurisdiction producer with a very strong balance sheet and still significant growth potential. Thank you.

Perfect, Segun. That's great. Thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback. On behalf of the management team of Thor Explorations Limited, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.