B2Gold Corp (BTG) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, my name is Pam, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the B2Gold Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

Mr. Johnson, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, to the B2Gold conference call to discuss the results of the second quarter of 2022. As you can see from the news release we put out, we had another very strong quarter. We beat our budgets in a number of periods. And very importantly, we're able to maintain our guidance for 2022 even in this current environment of inflation, what we're seeing in the world, so a very good first half.

We have guided that we're going to see some higher cost due to inflation primarily in the second half of the year. But because of the start first half the year, we remain on our guidance for 2022. Then Mike is going to talk a little bit about the details of the quarter financial results, but I just want to give a little summary before that.

So as we said, very happy with the results. The other significant announcement we made today was that we are not going to proceed at this time with the development of our Gramalote project, our joint venture, 50-50 joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti. Both parties have agreed on this time that it does not meet our economic thresholds to go ahead and develop the project.

We had -- are in the process of doing an updated feasibility study, which will be completed in the third quarter of the year. We had some hopes that we could approve the economics of Gramalote from what we had in the previous study, which indicated a $1,500 gold to about a 15% IRR, but we thought there was potential to maybe improve the economics in 2 ways.

One was to look at some of the different engineering approaches and design approaches to try and bring that capital cost down through some high-quality engineering work, some good work was done to actually reduce the footprint of the project as well. So the good news was that we knocked a little over $100 million off the original projected capital cost, which was over $900 million.

We actually managed by doing this different approach, approach technically to bring that cost down, as I said, by over $100 million. But inflation really did us this time, not surprisingly looking at the construction for this magnitude. So most of the gains from the reduction of capital were wiped out by the effect of inflation.

The second thing that happened was we were hoping that with some additional infill drilling, we could perhaps improve on the resource in the sense of increasing the ounces, so we can divide the capital cost by more ounces, which made sense. Unfortunately, drilling is hard to predict. So we didn't get additional ounces we hoped for. We have a bit of a drop in grade with infill drilling.

So for now, the good news about the Gramalote project is projected operating and all-in sustaining costs have always been low and they remain quite low. The biggest issue is that a big capital cost upfront. So we're going to now look at our alternatives, AGA and ourselves have signal that and we're each going to look at our drills going forward.

And clearly, they would need to go on a, maintain our permit and continue with some of our resettlement planning and things that we've been doing there. We've done a lot of the work there, continue with that work while we evaluate the alternatives going forward. And clearly the alternatives would be, is there a smaller project. We've played around about a bit before in the past.

Is there a smaller project that makes sense from the large scale we were approaching it with or does it make sense to look to sell the Gramalote project. So both companies or each company has to make this determination, and we're reviewing all the various alternatives. But we do have a permit in place. And this decision was based on really the -- using our capital and our very strong financial position and how we want to utilize that capital.

So part of that focus going forward now in terms of use of capital will be to consider even increasing the amount of drilling that we're doing, what we call now called the Fekola complex as the engineers like to call it, which includes the coalmine itself. And then there's some vast stretch of land that goes all the way to Anaconda in North and maybe many targets in between.

We continue to get really good drill results that suggest we're significantly increasing the 3 million ounce resource that we had released before the Anaconda area and for the North area of the Fekola complex. We continue to get good results. And most importantly, not only the saprolite material down to 50 meters, but below that we continue to get some very good intercepts, some good grade, good wins, and the sulfide below.

So we do believe that there's tremendous base potential here. We've seen some of it, but we're very much in the early stages of Fekola complex with the drilling we've done when we look at the multiple targets. The Mamba itself Anaconda is really getting our attention in terms of -- in the short term, it shows the potential that the drilling we've done so far to be in other Fekola-type deposit and maybe have that sort of size implication and potential.

In addition to that, the drill programs can in a lot of rigs is focused on (inaudible) how dated that gets, but also drilling many other targets and other deposits that we now have in this belt. So we're very focused on that because we can then the short-term we're planning, as we've said before, Stage 1 and exploiting the Anaconda area is to truck the ore. From Anaconda, also from Cardinal and potentially other sources like the recent project we acquired through Oklo Resources.

So we have (inaudible) and opportunities to truck ore various site staff to Fekola, we're going to be moving some of that material later on this year and from some of these sources of mineralization or deposits. So we will be able to increase production simply by trucking good-grade material -- by 200,000 ounces a year for Fekola. So it's a real positive.

It really improves the life of mine which will be coming out soon with life of mine, but that significantly improves what was already a strong life of money for Fekola. So lots of news to come out and will be coming out soon with additional drills from this area and let you know why we're very excited about it as a significant project, not only in the first stage of trucking saprolite material, but the second stage, which would involve building a second mill somewhere in the Anaconda area.

So that's something we're having a hard look at right now, obviously, it's subject to further successful drilling results, but what we're seeing, we're very confident that there's going to be a stage 2 here, which would entail subject to further drilling and feasibility, et cetera, building a second mill. So the Fekola complex in our mind, for what we're seeing so far, clearly has the potential to significantly produce gold production on Stage 1, but also in Stage 2.

So could the Fekola complex one day produce (inaudible) ounces of gold year? We think that's the kind of potential that we're seeing. So we'll be really focused on that. In terms of other things, we've been getting some very encouraging drill results in Finland as well in our project there that is adjacent to Rupert Resources' exciting new discovery in Finland. So more news to come from that. And beyond that, we are, I think as everyone knows and everyone in our sector is looking at the M&A alternatives or opportunities.

So we're looking at a few things right now. We're in an enviable position because we have a very strong cash position. We decided not to go ahead at Gramalote. So we've an extremely strong cash position with no debt and are able to continue to pay one of the leading dividends on a yield basis in our sector, but also have significant amount to money to devote to exploration and potentially the next development projects at Anaconda.

But also if we find something we like, we also can use our strong cash position when we look at M&A without the need to significantly dilute our shareholders. So we're looking for opportunities. There aren't many projects were in love with out there. There's a few. And sometimes it's hard to find a dance partner, a willing dance partner in terms of looking to grow in our sector in these states.

But we continue to look and if we do a deal, it won't be because we view ourselves seeing it. It's because we will have found something that we like and we think is accretive for our shareholders. And then we'll do what we've always done, which is to bring our great technical team to bear not only to build these projects, but also our exploration team has had tremendous success in every acquisition we've done in the last 15 years at finding additional gold, which we don't pay for an acquisition, but we've had a great track record of doing that.

So that's where we sit. We're very, very happy with the quarter. So Mike's going to tell you why, and we think we're very well positioned for continued growth from our existing assets and also looking at the potential for responsible, sensible, accretive M&A.

With that, I'll pass it over to Mike, and I will open up after Mike for questions.

Thanks, Clive. So I'll start - I'll just run us quickly through the second quarter, some of the main results. So firstly, on the revenue side, we had a good revenue quarter. We sold 205,000 ounces at an average realized price of $1,861 per ounce for revenues of $382 million. So it's a bit higher than we thought we were going to have. Obviously we sold a bit more than we thought with positive production and also revenue was higher than we forecasted.

On the production side, total from our operating mines, 209,000 ounces from our 3 mines for the quarter. We included our share of calibers results, total production reported was 224,000 ounces, so both of those total is probably in line with the budget. Fekola had another strong quarter, 123,000 ounces, in line with budget and its Fekola's processing facilities actually achieved record quarterly throughput of 2.42 million tonnes in the Q, which is very impressive and a higher-than-budgeted throughput, though was offset by lower-than-budgeted mill feed grade as we used, again, low-grade stockpiles to feed that additional budgeted feed. Reminder to the Fekola's production is expected to be significantly weighted to the second half of 2022 when mining reaches the higher-grade portions of Phase 6 in the Fekola pit.

I should also comment on the recoveries in the quarter were slightly lower, 92.4% in the budget of 94%. And that's mainly because we had lower availability of line because of some of the sanctions that were in place in Mali. So that led us to reach some of what we were doing and reduced recoveries in the quarter. However, with the sanction is now left, all reagents are now available, so that shouldn't be an issue going forward.

Masbate production in the Q, 54,000 ounces, slightly above budget of about 1,000 ounces. And with process tonnage, which is about 6% or above budget, which was offset by lower-than-budgeted process grade. The higher than budgeted throughput really came from continuous optimization of the grinding circuit and the lower the budgeted process grade came mainly from lower than budgeted mine grades at the bottom of Montana pit, which is now effectively mined out.

The Otjikoto 31,000 ounces, slightly below budget, 2,000 ounces below budget, and that was really due to slower-than-planned ramp-up in development at the Wolfshag underground mine. We did replace the underground mining contractor and those development rates at Wolfshag have improved. And we now expect that we'll hit development ore in the third quarter of the third quarter and then still ore production sometime in the fourth quarter.

So it's basically we pushed that out one quarter from where we thought it would be before. And we did see lower grades as well because we're not getting into that we'll shut higher grade as quickly as we thought. So when we take all that into account, we did reguide production in Wolfshag when a production release a little early in the month. So it was 175,000 and 185,000 ounces. We reguided down by 10% to between 165,000 and 175,000 ounces for the year.

But we did have an offset at Masbate because Masbate was already year-to-date at 7,000 ounces ahead of budget. So we reguided Masbate upwards by 10,000 ounces and so overall, total production guidance for the full year remains unchanged. And Clive alluded to I mentioned the positive cost results for the period so we definitely saw some good results. On the cash cost side, including all our operations, including I am not caliber total cash costs are $781 per ounce compared to budget 95%.

So we're actually under budget or broadly our budget, I guess, we could say. And that's -- when you look at that, it's really as a result, we did have lower than budget money tonnage at some operations, but this was offset at all operations by higher-than-budgeted realized fuel prices. So when we took those 2 main factors into account, we ended up broadly on budget for the quarter. Fekola has always led the way, $639 per ounce, up $64 under budget, and it was a result of lower-than-budgeted total mining processing and site general costs.

Total mining costs were lower due to lower overall tonnes being mined and that was partially offset by higher than budgeted fuel prices, as I mentioned. And the mine tonnes were lower than budget due to it's a temporary change in mine sequencing. And again, it relates back to those ECOWAS sanctions, the availability of some reagents and other supplies meant that we've temporarily changed our mine sequencing.

We expect to regain that and put it back on track for the full year. And Otjikoto, Otjikoto was $1,136 per ounce, which is $24 under budget. And in total, under budget as a result of a weaker to maybe dollar and delays in incurring Wolfshag underground mining costs, but again, partially offset by higher fuel prices. Masbate was maybe the outlier for the Q and so it's cost for the cash cost for the quarter were $840 per ounce, which is actually more than $100 over budget, and that's almost exclusively due to higher than budgeted diesel and fuel costs in the Philippines.

And on the all-in sustaining cost side, we really saw that merit gain. The consolidated all-in sustaining costs include our share of Calibre were $1,111 which was $78 under budget. And that beat against budget was mirrored results at the sites apart from Masbate and hence really, it's a function of again, lower than a budgeted cash costs, higher gains on fuel derivatives and lower sustaining CapEx.

And the lower sustaining CapEx as we've seen quarter-to-quarter is just a function of timing, we think that the full CapEx that we expect to incur for the year will be incurred later in 2022, we will catch up. And then Masbate, it was $1,082 per ounce or $28 over budget, and that really mirrors the fact that we were over budget on the cash cost side, partially offset by lower budgeted CapEx in the Q but again, we think those 2 thought out.

And year-to-date, a couple of comments on year-to-date where we are for the 6 months so we're 12,000 ounces ahead of budget overall, total including in all operations, our share of caliber. So that's positive. And like I said, we've retained our overall budgeted production guidance for the year. On the cash cost side, including all operations and our share of caliber, we were $52 under budget on the cash cost side and $193 under budget year-to-date on the all-in sustaining cost side.

As I mentioned, the cash cost side, we've just seen some gains there in Q1, offset based on the fuel price increases that we've seen coming in mainly in Q2. The all-in sustaining cost side, we're well under budget and that is a function, as you mentioned, the lower cash costs, timing of CapEx, which all of which we expect to see reverse later in the year and also some higher derivative gains, but overall, very positive first half of the year performance.

And so, what we've seen overall, though, is that we did see fuel prices increase through the Q. And as we look forward and we forecast for the year, we did forecast higher than budgeted fuel prices across our operations. So that led us to revise the second half cost guidance for each operation, we revise that upwards. But because the -- we had such a positive first half, when you put it all together, we still guided on an overall consolidated basis that our cost guidance is maintained.

For cash costs, we think we'll come in at the upper end of our consolidated range of $600 to $640 per ounce. And on the all-in sustaining cost side, we still think we'll be in that overall consolidated range of $1,000 to $1,040 per ounce. So move positive, I think, on the overall operating results as they are. In terms of other things that are happening in the operation, I think Clive can mention most of them. Obviously, Fekola and Mali regional development a big thing for us, and Clive touched on all of those things.

We do expect to see Oklo that deal close sometime mid-September. And then as part of that and part of what we disclosed in the releases, we are looking at how best to optimize that Fekola complex regional development. We've got 4 licenses there now, including Medinandi, Bakolobi, Mankono, [Vitaco] and now we've got Oklo coming on expected mid-September. And so we're really -- we've just been looking at those, just trying to decide what's the optimal wage feed for Fekola, high-grade saprolite in the short-term.

And then also looking at that bigger picture of what we want to do maybe longer term with potentially a second melt maybe Menankoto. So that's a big focus for us we will studies are underway. I think we expect to have by year-end. And then I think we now see that saprolite truck, we maybe start sometime in the second quarter '23. And Clive, I think the other main thing we focused on in the quarterly results of looking in Gramalote and evaluating our options that something Clive already touched on that.

Couple things to highlight on the earnings side, we did see some volatility on foreign exchange. So we saw some foreign exchange gains and losses there, mainly due to cash holdings that we all need contain some of the payables that we have locally. And then on the tax side, we did see higher taxes than we expected in the second quarter, and we tried to highlight that in the release. And those are really related to 2 things.

One was, again, fluctuations in foreign exchange led us to some hits on the future income tax side due to that. And then also on the holding tax side, we had approximately $22 million of holding tax that we had to pay in the second quarter related to dividends, intercompany dividends that we declared in Mali, which are a little higher than we thought they were. So we had to pay the taxes upfront, and that impacted the overall tax charge.

On one other item to note on the derivative side, we do have -- we are so seeing the gains and the benefits of our fuel hedging program. We hedged just under $8 million of gains on fuel hedges in the Q. And year-to-date, we've seen $27 million. And we took a look back at how that's done since really the inception of COVID March '20 when it came on and we really started seeing fuel prices start to fluctuate.

And since March '20, we've either realized or recorded gains of approximately $50 million since I've started. So we've got about $20 million of that still on the books that we expect to online over the course of the next year, 1.5 years. I will say also on the fuel side that we had a rolling program where we were trying to put on 50% of 1 year's needs and 25% in the next year's needs. As we've seen fuel peak and becomes so high.

We've stepped back from putting on new hedges because it's very hard to tell exactly what the volatility that is. But we still have 30% of our needs hedged for the balance of 2022 and 18% in 2022. And a couple of comments on maybe -- or sorry, on the earnings side so earnings, EPS, GAAP EPS of $0.04 per share and adjusted EPS also $0.04 per share. Year-to-date, EPS was $0.11 per share and adjusted EPS was $0.10 per share.

And maybe just a couple of comments on the cash flow side. So cash provided by operating activities for the quarter. This is after changes in working cap was $125 million approximately $0.12 per share from a non-GAAP basis. And then year-to-date, operating cash flows after working capital changes were $232 million, approximately $0.22 per share. I remind everyone as well, just like we guided on the production side, production is definitely weighted to the second half its approximately 40% half 1, 60% half 2.

And cash flow is also weighted much more significantly in the second half of the year. We had guided operating cash flow initially $625 million for the year. That assumes a $1,800 gold price for fiscal 2022. We've reguided now slightly downwards to $575 million for the year, and that reflects the fact that we're now using $1,700 for the second half of the year. And like we showed in our cost guidance, we do expect there to be some higher costs due to inflation mainly fuel and hit in the second half and also just the time of some working capital items.

So operating cash flow for the year currently forecast assuming $1,700 goal for the balance of 2022 to be $575 million. We ended the period though, $587 million in the bank, $600 million undrawn on the line and in great shape of liquidity wise. And we continue to pay that as Clive mentioned to one of the highest dividends in the sector, USD0.04 a share per quarter approximately $170 million annualized for the year so a very good shape there.

And that rounds out, I think what I was going to mention on the financial results.

Thanks, Mike. Just a couple of things, I want to talk before we go for questions. So let's talk politics. There has been some positive developments in Mali recently with the (inaudible) of the organization of West African states, reaching an agreement with the current government of Mali about the elections and having democratic collections to be held within 2 years we expect our March of 2024.

That caused that agreement, which we welcome caused we cost draw the section. So it's really been hurting the economy of Mali and one of the challenges around the world today. Africa everyone is aware, has been hit as things like the -- also the Russian invasion or in the Ukraine has obviously hurt - many countries all over world, including Africa tourist supply and we those sorts of things. So it's good to see the sanctions are moved and the Mali economy has suggest to start recovering here.

Gold production remains a very, very important part of our economy, we remain with a very good relationship with the current government as we have for the previous government, and we're confident with that going forward, not our liners also many other Western companies have successfully explored and developed over many years. If you go back and look at random, et cetera, various decades of successful gold production.

Government is our partner. We're a major tax payer in the gold space the gold reserve and very important part of the economy about that it will remain so going forward. So - the government is a 20% partner in Fekola and will be -- we anticipate we'll be a 20% partner as well in the rest of the licenses as we move them towards development. So we've seen an improved environment in volume, which is nice to see the local people for the economy also it makes it easier for us.

We've done an excellent of staying on we're beating budget during a difficult time of getting supplies and as Mike alluded to. That's eased up now, and so we're very positive on that development. In terms of Colombian politics, some people have already speculated as part of our decision in Gramalote was based on politics and the recently elected government. That's not the case at all.

It was -- this is an economic decision based on the economic results of the study that we've been working on and those results are not strong as I said, for us to what has been the most of capital to build Gramalote at this time as I mentioned inflation hurt us et cetera. So at the end of the day, it's not a decision or clinical decision at all. We're waiting to see the new Minister of Mines appointed in other ministers in the public company, but we everything we've seen so far suggests to us that the company wants to continue to grow with their economy and a good way of doing that is responsible mining.

And from everything we've heard so far with the government, we expect the new government to audit the permits that people have for mining it, we have a permit to migrate a lot. So not a clinical decision at all based on the economic factors of the utilization of capital today, what's the best use of cap. So I guess speak for AGA, but I do have heard that they're going to continue to pursue at the Gramalote project, which is a large copper-gold project that would be exploited by blockade and mining.

I understand there continuing to be positive looking at that project going forward. But I can't speak to them, but I believe they're going to continue with that project in Colombia. So I just wanted to make those 2 comments on the political situation that we find ourselves in a again, improved for sure in Mali -- and talking our political decision.

With that, I'll open it up for questions.

Your first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank.

Congrats on a strong first half and really great to see full year production and the specialty cost guidance unchanged. So I have a couple of questions from me. Maybe starting off with the fact that you mentioned earlier on the call, with Gramalote being on hold, the focus of B2 will now be on exploration, advancing Anaconda as well as M&A. Maybe a little bit more clarity on the M&A side. Is the focus to look at late-stage development projects still or would you consider producing operations as well? Also, maybe some color on any jurisdictions that you would focus on?

Yes I think Ovais, we are -- as we've been in our history, really looking across the whole spectrum of potential acquisitions in terms of stage of development. We are looking at some junior exploration companies where perhaps there's some kind of a strategic investment but also joint ventures or potential as we've done in the past mergers. So we're looking at that. We're definitely looking at development projects with our construction team and who are going to be working on that -- currently shortly in terms of road construction, et cetera.

So we have a team that can take on anything as we've shown virtually anywhere in the world. So we're looking at development stage projects as well. And we're also open to the potential friendly merger or acquisition of a producing company as well so right across the whole spectrum. And I think in terms of jurisdictions, we really don't tend to limit ourselves. But of course, we would like to see some opportunities in the new jurisdictions.

North America, we'd love to do something we found the right fit. But we're pretty open. I wouldn't understates the potential significance of the Finland exploration drilling as well. There's a major discovery there that made that we are not just an area of play then means, we're getting some good mineralization and some of the new zones there that we're seeing. So that's going to be a focus as well.

But right across the spectrum in terms of M&A, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we're an extraordinarily strong financial position to utilize cash as well as potentially some shares in terms of M&A activity, but we're going to maintain the discipline that we've shown for 15 years and before that at B2Gold in the acquisitions we do, they have to be accretive, and they have to be -- realistic low prices going forward, and we're just going to continue to have it lifetime, which is to do accretive acquisitions that have some upside potential, we'll continue to pursue.

And then just switching gears to Anaconda in terms of tracking of the saprolite material, Mike mentioned that, that's been pushed on to Q2 of next year. Is this a function of your expectation on the permit additional exploration and development work required? Any more color you can provide on that?

Yes I think I'll pass that to Bill. But I think the -- yes, I'll just pass it over to Bill just were to understand what we're going to be doing and when we're going to start to see material, whether it be Cardinal or others these other deposits being struck down.

Yes it's a good question and one that we probably should have been clarifying the whole way. We always talk about this kind of end of 2022 as a time period where we could do it if we so chose, but you have to remember, we're trying to optimize the whole district. And so, we're looking at not just getting material from Bentako, but what does it look like for a whole optimized area.

So yes, there are some permitting things that we have to go through, but we're also trying to find out where the best over is to get to the mill first. And so, it's not just looking at Bentako by itself. So we picked Q2 as a way that we feel like all the permits can be in place, get our equipment in, put the road in and get ore down there. But I would argue that from your side, you shouldn't really focus on that because those ounces have already been replaced with ounces from other places like Cardinal and Fekola.

I think just to be clear, the Bentako is part of Fekola complex, which is within the Fekola complex is part of what's been called the Anaconda the sold Anaconda area, which Masbate has been within that has been a very exciting target where we've been getting some of these really good results and so we're on the same page. So when we talk of Bentako has been.

And just kind of just a follow-up on that. So essentially, you're looking to come out with a kind of a master plan for the district, and that's expected by the end of this year?

Yes so remember, we've kind of got 4 studies going on, and 2 of them are kind of love to get it, right? So at first, we got the underground, right, which we didn't really talk about. We got the underground study, which has shown really good economics. We're actually now looking at contractor bids and how does that all work to try and move that forward. So that will be coming out this year, an update on that.

You've got the Phase 1, which is what you're talking about, which is kind of like the regional play, whether it's Oklo or whether it's Bentako Fekola. We're also taking -- we've been very open about this high-level Phase 2, which would be a stand-alone mill. What would it take to do that? So we're looking at what would the cost be and the ounce profile, which would exceed the NPV of trucking and when would that come in.

And then the whole thing is being optimized by Whittle looking at all of our sources to include Fekola and Cardinal and really trying to put the best ounces in and that will definitely come up by the end of this year.

Your next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets.

I just wanted to follow up on what you just said, Clive. I just want to make sure I heard correctly. Did you say that you would be open to a friendly merger of a producing company?

Sure, we're -- we've always maintained the growth opportunity for the company to pair up with another producer, that's obviously something we're here to build shareholder value, and we look at every opportunity to do that. I think we like where we are today in the sense of our ability to take on additional projects and grow the company and also our ability to potentially to add some additional production to what we're doing.

We just had a very strong ringing endorsement from our shareholders, not a couple of months ago now or last at our AGM, we're somewhere close to 80% of the shares that are outstanding on the B2Gold, which is really extraordinary and over 90% of the shares voted for the Board of Directors, which there for the strategy of the company and for management.

So paying the industry-leading dividend, maintaining a strong cash position being debt free with the technical teams that we have, the financial teams and all the things that we have and our responsible mining team and you'll see our new responsible mining which came out -- continue to be industry leader. We're -- we do have a strong mandate for our shareholders to continue to grow the company, and that's our focus. We'll look at various alternatives, how do best do that.

Okay, I -- just wanted to say that actually, my questions were with regards to whether or not you had considered Senegal and specifically thinking about IAMGOLD [foto] asset in light of their updates this morning. And I just maybe get an idea of some of the assets that might be up for sale or available for sale some of the regions other than friendly merger that you might be interested in?

Yes I mean, I can't comment on specific opportunities, but suffice to say that in our -- looking at opportunities, of course, one of the areas that you look for opportunities in is around where you are because you've proven your ability to do it in that part of the world, et cetera, and there are some interesting opportunities. We're looking at a whole lot of different things as well as you saw the Oklo deal. We're looking through is there value to be added because we have a mill or maybe a second mill may further value in the Mali area where we could traditionally and also to see the Fekola mill.

Not a need for sure when you look at the -- all the targets we have and the results we've got so far within the Fekola complex, completely if there's something that makes sense when we look at it. And also, as I mentioned earlier, of other jurisdictions around the world, we think we're in a very strong position right now to do the right kind of M&A to continue to complement growth from existing projects with other opportunities.

Okay. I just want to close out by commending you for being disciplined. I've seen a lot of companies just rush headlong into projects, whether or not they make sense. And I know your share price is down a little bit today, but I think pausing the Gramalote project is the right decision. And I'll leave it at that.

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Congratulations Clive, and team on another strong quarter. My question has to do with the Oklo acquisition and Bentako -- is the opportunity here something that is relatively near term? Like for example, are the permits in place is there potentially near surface mineralization whether for trucking or stand-alone just so if you could provide a little bit more color on what you see as the opportunity here. I recognize that we'll wait for the master plan at the year-end and we'll find out more then, but what were some of the things about Bentako that attracted you? And what's the near-term opportunity here?

Sure I mean, Oklo first we build Oklo, Oklo's a pretty exciting acquisition for us because of just what you talked about the potential for a good grade material and service. Bill you can talk about that a little bit more?

Yes, sure. I mean we saw it really as fighting both the whole Anaconda complex, have been Bentako Menankoto as to what place that comes into the sequencing. It's got some high-grade material relatively close to surface. They've actually done a very good job of bringing their permit forward. They've got a lot of their environmental baseline work done. They had a mining plan, which showed it trucking it somewhere at some point.

So that made it very easy for us to think about what it meant for us. We actually -- we've been out in the field. We see certainly an easy trucking route to Fekola. And so the answer is it's got all the things that we would look forward to really fight for one of the first positions that we would bring it in trucking into Fekola for sure.

Also has a very strong exploration potential. There's a story partly told through some good call exploration, but there's a lot of potential like seeing in all these zones, but the potential on struck with potential with that.

And will you be setting up any rigs on Bentako anytime in the near future?

Any what, sorry. Yes, indeed as soon as it closes in September, we were on standby ready to get tuck in straightaway.

Okay great, that's all for me.

So on that topic, we will -- I would say within the month, where we'll be coming out with an additional news release on some of the exploration results we're seeing from the Fekola complex. We're seeing some great results and we'll share those soon, I would say, by early September.

There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.

Okay well, thank you, operator. Thank you all for your attention and thanks guys for your questions and good answers. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.