B2Gold Corp. (BTG) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Shareholders.

While we believe very strongly in the quality of our assets and people, this is a great team.

We understand the shareholders are focused on results and they have every right to. The board and management are fully focused on the work required to deliver the performance expected of us.

Our operational culture remains the foundation of how we get there. Over the years, we've established credibility with our shareholders, host countries, employees, and local communities by setting clear objectives and working diligently to achieve them. We are operators first with a disciplined focus on safety, execution, continuous improvement, and creating value to the assets we own and operate.

We also believe in reinvesting in our business to create long-term value, whether it's sustaining our existing operations, investing in exploration, or advancing high-quality development projects.

At the same time, we recognize that strong cash generation must translate into meaningful returns, maintaining a balanced approach between investing in future growth and returning capital to shareholders.

We recognize that our success is closely tied to the countries and communities where we operate.

Being a preferred partner means more than operating safely and responsibly. It means working alongside our host governments and communities to create lasting benefits. I think today's announcement for Mali underscores this point.

Looking across our portfolio, we continue to see the benefits of this consistent approach. Our focus is on executing reliably, delivering on our commitments, and generating the confidence that has always been earned through hard work and performance.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mike and the management team to discuss the second quarter results.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kelvin.

The second quarter, it was an important one for B2 Gold. We delivered consolidated gold production of approximately 204,000 ounces in line with expectations, and in particular with strong operating performances from Fukola, Mesbahi, and Ojakota Mines.

And while goose production was impacted by the crusher fire in April, as previously announced, the team there responded exceptionally well, and repairs continue to progress now according to plan.

Our other key area of execution focus for 2026 is bringing Papola Regional online.

And we had recent meetings in Famico with Mali state officials, and they had confirmed that there were no remaining obstacles to the approval of the Manicoto exploitation permit, as all the required steps in the approval process has been completed and validated by their different ministries.

And now, as you've heard, the permit has been granted by the Council of Ministers in Mali.

So the issuance of this. Permit, Manacota expectation permit by the state, but Molly allows us to move forward now in one of B2Gold's most important near-term growth opportunities.

Mine increased dripping activities can now commence.

Fakola Regional is expected to ramp up operations through the end of 2027 and to produce somewhere in excess of 150,000 ounces a year from 2028 onwards through the mid-2030s.

Then beyond Mali, we continue to strengthen our portfolio and balance sheet during the quarter. We completed the sale of our 70% interest in Fingo to Niko Eagle for $325 million.

We repurchased 19 million shares under our renewed NCIB for $92 million and completed the final deliveries into our gold prepaid contracts, which Mike will talk about a little more in a minute.

So while the second quarter reflected some temporary pressures in free cash flow from taxes, prepaid deliveries, and elevated production costs, those headwinds are definitely expected to moderate.

And with the gold prepaid deliveries now behind us and all remaining gold sales now exposed to spot prices, we expect a meaningful improvement in free cash flow generation as we go forward.

So with that, I'll turn the call over to Michael McDonald for discussion on our financial results for the second quarter.

Thank you, Mike. Second quarter financial results on a consolidated basis finished in line with our expectations for the quarter.

Outperformance at Fakola, Masbadi, and Ochikoto offset a tougher quarter for the Goose Mine as it ramped up milling operations following the previously reported fire in certain areas of the crushing circuit in April 2026.

Net income attributable to shareholders was $417 million in the second quarter, or $0.31 per share, benefiting from the gain on the sale of our Finland properties combined with unrealized gains on derivatives.

After backing those gains and other non-recurring adjustments out, our adjusted net income attributable to shareholders was $41 million, or $0.03 per share.

It's important to note that our adjusted net income figures included approximately $71 million of realized losses related to our gold collar contracts during the quarter.

Without that impact, adjusted net income per share would have been just over $0.08 per share.

The gold collar contracts conclude in December of this year, and B2 Gold will go into 2027 completely unencumbered from gold prepayment and gold collar contracts.

Operating cash flow before working capital adjustments was $94 million during the second quarter.

Assuming current gold prices remain, operating cash flow is anticipated to rise significantly into the second-half of 2026 when compared to the second quarter, primarily due to the completion of the gold prepaid contracts that finished in June 2026.

Free cash flow was negative $258 million during the quarter, in line with expectations when we released our guidance at the start of 2026. Free cash flow was impacted primarily due to elevated cash tax payments, including the priority dividend payment to the State of Mali related to their 20% ownership of Fakola, plus the impact of the gold prepaid contracts, which affected just over 30% of ounces sold during the quarter.

On cash tax payments, the amount we paid in the second quarter of 2026 was just under 45% of what we anticipate paying for cash taxes in all of 2026. So you will see the cash tax number moderate in the third and fourth quarters when compared to the second quarter.

The negative free cash flow number also does not include the $325 million of cash proceeds received from the sale of our finished properties during the quarter.

Despite that, our balance sheet remains very strong. At quarter end, we held $287 million in cash and cash equivalents and had working capital of $405 million. We are in a very strong financial position that will only get stronger over the coming quarters at these gold prices.

Finally, we also continue to return capital to shareholders through our normal cost issuer bid and common share dividends.

Year-to-date in 2026, we have now repurchased approximately 35 million shares for a total of $172 million. On top of that, in the first half of the year, we paid out $52 million in dividends.

Combined, that brings total shareholder returns in the first two quarters of 2026 to $224 million, which is over 4% of our current market cap.

Those numbers. Are in spite of the impact of the gold prepayment contracts and the gold color contracts. As we finish out 2026 and enter 2027 completely unencumbered by those two financial instruments, we anticipate free cash flow to rise dramatically at current gold prices and should allow for increased shareholder returns as well.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Bill for an operational update.

Thank you, Michael.

From an operating perspective, the quarter was largely in line with expectations.

Consolidated production totaled approximately 204,000 ounces.

Pecola, Mazbadi, and Ochakoda all exceeded expectations and demonstrated the consistency and reliability that investors have come to expect from those assets.

At Pecola, operations continued to perform well, and our focus remained on the efficient operations of the Pecola and Cardinal Pits while preparing for the commencement of mining at the Pecola Regional.

With the issuance of the Menacoto exploitation permit, we now have a clear path forward for the development of Akola Regional. And just to think about that, remember, we had previously received approval and constructed and prepared all the site infrastructure and all the roads, started the pre-stripping, and have hired all the necessary staff to begin mining.

At Goose, the crusher fire in April affected production during the quarter.

Safety remains our highest priority, and I'm pleased with the team's response to the event. Repair work and remediation activities are progressing as planned, with remediation and phase one of the crusher upgrades expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

In the interim, an additional mobile crusher has been sourced and was delivered to the site in July. We expect it to be operational in early August.

The crushing capacity of the new mobile crusher in combination with the existing crushers. Already on-site is anticipated to be in excess of 3,000 tons per day.

Mosbody and Ochocoto both delivered another strong quarter of operations exceeding expectations, with solid operating performance at both sites expecting to continue throughout the remainder of the year.

The company has increased the production guidance for these operations.

As a result of year-to-date operating performance and our updated outlook for the remainder of the year, we have narrowed our guidance range across the portfolio.

We now expect consolidated gold production of between 820,000 and 920,000 ounces in 2026.

The largest change relates to Ficola Regional, based on the delays and issuance of the Menecola Exploitation Permit, as well as narrowing of the production range at the Goose Mine as a result of the fire, which occurred in certain areas of the crushing circuit in April this year. These changes are partially offset by the previously mentioned guidance increase in both Mazbadi and Ochocoto.

Importantly, our consolidated cash operating cost guidance remains unchanged between $1,155 and $1,280 per ounce produced.

We have also lowered our all in sustaining cost guidance range to between $2,370 and $2,550 per ounce sold and currently expect full year results to be at or below the low end of that range.

Overall, we remain confident in our operating outlook and are focused on delivering a strong second-half of the year. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Mike cinnamond.

Thanks, Bill. Thanks, everyone, for the overview of the quarter. We're obviously pleased with the results and pleased with how we look forward for the balance of this year. And obviously, receipt of... The Manicoto permit this morning is a great step forward for us. We said there were two key things we were going to execute on this year.

One was to move Fakola Regional forward, so now we're well positioned to do that, start moving ahead there. And then the second piece that we said was key was for us to get our remediation, fire damage repair work done and remediation work done at Goose on the crushing plant so that we can bring ourselves up to steady state around about 300,000 ounces a year by mid-27. So I think you've seen in the materials we've released that we've got a good plan for that now and that plan is well underway.

So with that and those comments, I would open it up for questions.

We will now begin the analyst question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request.

If you're using a speakerphone, please speak up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press then two.

The first question comes from Mainland with TD Security. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks.

Congratulations on a momentous milestone.

Maybe, would you be able to just provide a bit more detail on kind of what changed with the most recent discussions in country and has anything kind of changed of the relationship in country that prompted the issuance of the permits now?

I can comment on that. I mean, we've had several visits in the last few months.

To see the ministries, and I think the message was very consistent over the piece they put the new mining code in place, and they the agreements with each of the operating mining companies were negotiated, and then they would put some new layers of governance over how they oversee the whole mining activity in the country, and that included most recently.

Creating the new mining commission that we talked about earlier this year.

So those types of governments, they've also created a state mining company that oversees the interest that the state holds. So I think the consistent message to us over the last couple of visits, certainly this year was that the state's been working hard just to harmonize how each of these ministries interacts, who's responsible for which pieces.

Of the 23 mining code as it relates to the operating companies and then obviously the mining commission that oversees the on an overall basis. So I think the message we got most recently when we traveled there was they've now harmonized all that. They're comfortable with it. They got the right structures set up and they're ready to move forward. And so we were in some ways the guinea pig, the first major.

New permit to be granted under the 2023 mining code. And so it took some patience on both sides, ourselves in the state to get there, but as you can see, we're now there. So that's how I characterize it.

Okay, that's great. And then maybe just what's the timeline from here in terms of, stripping and mobilizing and getting to ore at regional? The guidance at the start of the year was about $8,000 contribution given the permits at end of Q1.

And stripping through Q2, so should we just take that guidance and shift that forward? Just wondering how to think about the coming months and the ramp up to 150,000 ounce run rate.

Yeah, I think we'll give some guidance for twenty-seven when we do the budget, how we see it ramping up, but I think the way to look at this year is we'll get in there now and fairly short order and we can start pre-stripping and that'll take us a few months, so really.

I think it's basically the end of this year, I think, to get up and running. I mean, there's potential for some production near the end of the year, but I think, to look at the balance sheet, I think we'll assume that we strip this year and then we'll ramp up next year through 27 with the goal of being ready by the end of 27 to be producing at a rate of 150,000 ounces a year from regional.

Okay, great. Thanks. And then maybe just last one at Back River.

Can you just walk us through some of the challenges with the mobile crushers and what the ramp up in tonnage looks like through the year, particularly through Q3?

Should we still expect relatively low tonnage until you're able to bring the newest mobile crusher online this month? And then I guess on the mining front, are we expecting a set change in grades as well through the balance of the year?

I'll pass this one over to Bill.

Okay, a few questions there. So on the crusher ramp up, what we're really talking about through Q3 and Q4 is in excess of 3,000 tons per day.

And then on the grade, I don't think you're going to continue to see the increase in grade. I think you'll see it drop back to kind of what we had forecasted before, primarily because.

We're in the process right now of creating stockpiles, basically going into 2027.

Okay, great. Thanks for the detail, and congratulations on a pretty big milestone.

The next question comes from with Jeffrey. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just on the revised guidance for 2026, did that factor in getting the permit, I guess, today? I mean, or is there upside to the guidance? I guess that's what I'm asking.

Do you want to take that one, Michael?

Yeah, no, I think the best way to think about it is that we're comfortable whether there is some minor production at the end of the year or if that officially starts in 2027, we're comfortable with that range that we put out of 390 to 420. So I would say just think about it as the complex will fall within that range and whether or not we get a small amount near the end of the year, it won't affect the numbers materially either way.

Okay, great. And then just switching gears to Goose, the new mobile crusher says it would be operational, I guess, now in early August. Can you just tell us if that's been, if it is operational and just remind us, like, what is the difference between this mobile crusher and the previous one in terms of any different technical specifications?

Over to you, Bill.

So the first part is, we are commissioning even as we speak there is a site on team commissioning, so we think in very short order will be up to our nameplate run rate.

The difference is really that this is this is just a bigger mezzo mobile crusher, very similar to what we had on site before. So basically we kind of we kind of twin what we've got going on there. We just have more horsepower.

Okay, got it. And then going into 27, is there an expectation that these mobile crushers would still be used or they just be redundant?

Good operational question. So the answer is certainly in the first half of the year, the mobile crushers are going to be necessary as we ramp up phase two of the repairs for the group site. And then after that, there is some discussion on whether or not you would use it as bathtub or would we in fact then supercharge some of our regional civil work that we have ongoing?

Got it. Great.

Thank you so much. Congrats on the permit.

The next question comes from Owais Sabeep with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Alberta. Hi, Michael and B2Go team. Yeah, absolutely. Congrats on the Picola permit. This is a huge achievement. So congrats to the entire team.

A lot of my questions have been answered specifically to the Picola ramp up.

As well as the Ghost Crusher. But just on the Picola side and the regional side, obviously, there's some decent mineralization that was already delimited on the six areas.

Is there other more or more potential in terms of, looking at additional satellite plates around the area? Is there a plan now that you have the permit to start some sort of an exploration program in that area as well? Any sort of color on that would be great.

So, I can a couple initial comments. We do have some expiration work plans on regional for this year.

You'll see if we're just commencing that now, actually, just because rainy season's just finished.

So, we will be doing some additional work. I mean, I think there's definitely potential for more work to be done there, right?

But we have developed plans based on what we know is there already.

So in terms of any additional picks, I think we'll be able to give some more guidance later this year as to how we see regional rolling out over the next year.

Okay, thanks for that, Michael. And just in terms of, looking at Goose again, just in terms of more towards the underground build and how are things progressing on the underground side in terms of mining rates, in terms of just equipment.

That's already in place.

Are you comfortable with how things are progressing? What more do we need to see in terms of, ramping that up?

No, it's a great question.

We are comfortable for sure in what we're seeing. We had projected that we had to get up to 12 meters per day of development. We're currently at just over 11, so we don't see any real issues. Things are coming along very well.

Okay, thanks for that, and congrats again on the permit. That's it from you guys.

Thanks.

The next question comes from with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, Mike, Michael and Bill.

Thank you for today's update, and absolute congratulations on getting the permit sorted out in Mali.

Just looking into 2027 and thinking about gold production that year with the moving parts around grades and volumes from Facola and Cardinal Open Pits from the Facola Underground and now regional ramping up, I mean, directionally versus 2026, it would seem. We would be going higher from the current range of 390 to 420, but could you maybe talk around some of the moving parts and just give us a sense of direction where we should be thinking about Fakola production for 2027?

Michael, do you want to give us a sort of overview?

Yeah, I can take that one. So I think for Fakola complex, as you can imagine, with the point in time here now where we've got the permit for the past few years.

When you look at our guidance for the Fakola complex in '24 and '25, we've performed very well in spite of at the start of each year, I think he meant there would be some contribution from regional.

Now we've obviously got the permit and we'll begin activities there, but Fakola still needs to go through the phase 8 stripping campaign, which it currently is in right now, and that really unlocks what's a very. Robust and productive few years for the Fakola main pit, and then you'll have regional ramped up and underground going as well. But I think it's probably premature to speculative 27 yet.

The team will work through in the budget process exactly what contribution we think we can get from each of the components, but I wouldn't bake that 27 will be higher than 26 just because we do need to get through the phase 8 stripping at Fakola.

I think the other moving parts, as you think about '27 though, is Goose will have a significant ramp up into '27. So on a consolidated basis, we absolutely think that there's every chance as they go through the budget process that we'll be higher in '27 than '26 as a company. But for Cola, we still have some work to do and we'll come up with more clarity on that with our guidance next year.

Yeah, thanks, Michael. And just thinking about the permit over the next...

Call it three years.

Are there any other additional permits needed in order to operate any of the -- or to mine any of the deposits at Pecola? And then, in that same thought, maybe you could just address whether you would think going forward now there's an understanding in the permitting process should be much more streamlined now at this point?

Maybe I'll pass this one over to Randall, I think. Yeah, I think the one permit that you would recognize that we're going to need to obtain.

Would be the Dandoko permit. And that's a process that will start on the expectation side probably later next year for 28.

But yes, agree that the establishment of the governance that is in Maui now, we have full confidence that the process will be much smoother going forward.

Okay. And then if I could just ask another on the Sustaining CapEx. So if we could just talk about the Sustaining CapEx guidance in terms of millions, the original guidance from February was about $540 million between deferred stripping, underground development, and maintenance, plus there was about $27 million for sustaining exploration. So given that your all-in sustaining cost guidance is expected now to be lower than the original guide.

What level of absolute sustaining CapEx would you advise we'd be modeling versus that original 540? And was there any change to the 27 million of sustaining expiration?

I can take that one. So you've seen with some of our disclosure that, basically all the sites outside of Goose are under where we expected they would be from a sustaining capital perspective.

They need to get through the year, and sometimes the phenomenon that you see is that sites end up catching up, which we have disclosed we anticipate for their sustaining capital balance. But it's been a good trend in the first six months of the year. So there is a chance we could come in a bit lower on Fakola, Maspati, and Ochikoto. For Goose, as you can appreciate with the impacts of the fire, sustaining capital will probably be higher than what we would have anticipated at the start of the year. So it should overall net out to.

Close to what we thought within your numbers at the start of the year.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Josh Wilson with RBC. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you very much. I recognize you had maybe an hour to go through a lot of the questions that were asking on the numbers in 2027. I'll ask it maybe some different way.

The grades for Ficola, based on the updated guidance, sort of look at maybe the low ones. When we think about 2027 and that phase 8 stripping campaign that was discussed, should we expect, the grades next year versus the back half of this year to be flat or will they decline during that stripping campaign?

Bill, can I pass this one over to you on the Ficola expected grade for 27?

Once again, you hit it right on the head. We're still kind of working through what we're going to be able to get in from the regional versus what we're going to be able to get in from Pokola proper. So I don't really want to comment on exactly what I think the grade is going to be for 2027.

Okay, I figured I'd ask anyways, but we're all very excited.

And then just on the regional capital, I mean, it looks like you spent roughly $40 million so far year to date. What should we think about the remaining capital requirements in the back half of this year and maybe for 2027 during ramp up?

Yeah, I can comment on the back half of the year. So what you'll see is clearly as we begin stripping, you'll see some deferred stripping capital.

That flows through in the back half of the year. So I think you can kind of anticipate that what we did in the first half is representative of what will happen in the second-half, but the first half was more equipment purchases, where the second-half will be more the deferred stripping capital to get down into the OR.

And then I think for '27, again, probably the answer is it's premature at this stage. I think as Bill and the team go through their budgeting process and we look at. What contribution we can get from regional in '27, then we'll have a better estimate of sustaining capital and growth capital for regional at that point.

And just on Goose, following up on one of the responses earlier about the third quarter grades not being maybe as high due to stockpiling.

Could you guys maybe discuss a bit more behind, why that would be? I would think typically, if you were stockpiling, you would stockpile the lower grade material, but maybe is there something behind that in terms of what the strategy is into next year?

Yeah, so the grade is going to be plus 8, so I guess not what I was thinking of when I answered last time.

We kind of had it we over Q2 we had some very high high grade come through, so we are going to see +8 grams and certainly we're going to see in we're going to be in line with what we had projected previously, but what I when I was talking about stockpiling for the. Mobile crusher, you want to make sure that as we get into the phase two ramp up that you want to have material which will be able to carry us through Q1 and Q2. So, how do we get through the winter time with the appropriate amount of material with the mobile crusher?

Great.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Josh.

The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning and congratulations on the news of the permit.

I'll start off with Focola. So how does Focola fit into the company's strategy? I mean, given the delays on the permitting, there was some uncertainty, but does the news of the word of the permits and your relationship with the state right now, does that restore Focola as a cornerstone asset?

I would say, Don, for coal oil was a cornerstone asset. I mean, if you look at it, it's been a great asset for us over the years since we've operated a world-class mine.

We've had great success here. It's run well since we started it up through COVID, through some of the...

The political changes that we saw in the country. So we're just delighted to get this permit. It lets us make long-term plans now. It lets us optimize how we can, mix the mill feed from Focola and from regional and, has potential to extend Focola's mill life.

It took us a little longer, I think, to get this permit than we'd originally anticipated, as but we're very happy that, I think we've worked closely with the state. We're happy now that they've gone through their process and hopefully this opens up.

More opportunities for new permits for other mining companies in the country. So it's still, it's a cornerstone asset for us. It's being historically half of our production. We can see ourselves getting back about half a million ounce days from the complex. It's an impact.

And so, Mike, with this, like, does it mean that you might also step up expiration regionally? I suspect that was probably largely put on hold until the permits are received.

Yeah, I think there'll be some more regional focus, especially looking for further sulfite material on the regional permit, because for coal is primarily a sulfite mill.

Okay, great.

And, on the share repurchases, I mean, the valuation right now, discounted versus peers, in light of this, what's your plan for share repurchases over the next 12 months? I mean, do you plan to get a little bit more aggressive in the near term to take advantage of this?

Do you want to go on, Michael?

Yeah. Yeah, no, we would absolutely agree with the statement that we feel that our current market valuation does not reflect the true underlying value of our business. So absolutely share repurchases with the free cash flow that we estimate these gold prices we will be able to achieve over the coming sort of 12, 24 months will absolutely be on the agenda. These are discussions we have every quarter with our board and with our management team, but absolutely that's a tool we will utilize moving forward, based on where we trade today and even in the future when we hopefully believe we will trade higher.

Okay. Thanks for that, Michael. And, another question, moving over to Goose then. I heard Bill say they're going to use the crushers into next year and someone. And I appreciate all the color that you've given on Goose, but I'm wondering, can you give us a sense of the progression of the throughput rates over the next 12 months?

And is there any early color on Goose costs or production in 27? I think we've deviated quite a bit from the technical part at this point.

Yeah, I can get, yeah, I'll give the throughput by quarter.

As we ramp up into Q3, we're plus.

Two and a half 1,000 tons per day, and then in Q4, we're more than 3,000 tons per day, then in H1, we're once again H12027, we're more than 3,000 tons, and then in H2, we're going to be at 4,000. That's our plan to be at run rate at the end of Q2.

As far as the costs.

I'm not aware of what guidance we've given on that, so Michael, maybe you can answer.

Yeah, I think, Don, you're right in the sense of we're probably deviating a bit from the tech report, just with how the ramp-up's gone relative to when that report went out. But I think it's been a bit premature to speculate on it, but we absolutely believe it's a large growth year next year from a production base of what we'll achieve this year.

But, maybe wait for the guidance to come out early next year.

Okay.

Well, just as a segue to that, I mean, saw Goose ASIC guidance remained unchanged despite the elevated figure that you had in Q2. So should we just take this as kind of a confidence that you're going to restore to a lower cost run rate in H2?

Yeah, 100%. I think you'll see as what Bill has described to end the year.

We should be able to have the main crushing circuit back up and running. And there's some very good grade that's anticipated to go through the mill through Q4. And I think that should give a good representation of what we can achieve in the first half of next year. And then the second-half of next year will be at that 4,010 per day average.

And that will give a really good estimate into what we think the next few years will look like. Because that will be steady state for the Guzman.

Great. Thanks, Michael. Well, that's for me. Congrats again, and thanks for taking my question.

Thanks, Don.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question comes from Terry McClury with Chemical Ingenuity. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys, and I'll follow the theme and congrats on the permit, but just switching to goose and exploration, a year or so ago you cut the reserves there. What I think of you of tightening up drill spacing, I know you've got 6 million of reserves there, so just wondering if we should be expecting some of those houses to start coming back into reserves at the end of this year?

We got 15 here, so I'll pass that over to Vic.

Yes, a significant part of our budget is deeper drilling, infill drilling, particularly at the Llama Deposit. And the aim of that is to actually convert what was downgraded to inferred subsequent to acquisition back into indicators, and obviously that will convert to reserves.

In terms of exploration.

We have what we call the Llama Gap at Llama, which we are moving and working towards where we can fill the gap and add ounces. I think those will be fairly marginal this year, what we'll add during the course of this year. Then obviously the potential for down plunge extension of both Llama and.

At Umwelt, and also what we call the new deposit, which is another deep deposit, but very good grade.

We'll order all that in the picture at Goose.

And how many drones do you have working there? Can I ask you?

Six.

It's okay.

And then just switching to something maybe longer-term, with the Ficola permit now and getting Goose up and running to full capacity next year. Just wondering how things are going with Gramma Latte. Is that something that, or just how you're thinking about that project, is that something that you'd look at potentially starting next year or rather work on capital allocation in the meantime?

I think, we're progressing things at Gramma Latte, so we'll continue to de-risk it. We've got the permit modifications, which are ongoing. That process is going well. From the most recent updates I saw. And then we're also progressing the resettlement program, as you saw in our budget. So that's going to take us into first half of next year, Jerry, anyway. And then we can step back and see where we are.

And in the meantime, the other key focus is to continue to execute on our top2 priorities for this year.

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thanks, guys.

The next question comes from Anita Sony with CIBC World Market. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Mike, and Bill, and congratulations on receiving this permit. I know we're all very happy for you.

Just a question on the throughput levels at Goose this quarter. I think, Bill, you said that 3,000 tons per day in Q3.

What is the, prior to the mobile crusher being installed, what has the group that's been operating at since the beginning of Q3? I assume it was somewhat similar to what it was operating at in Q2. Was it better than that?

Yeah, well, it's kind of dribs and drags right now as we move stuff in and out. So the answer is we can, in fact, on some days run as much as 4,000 tons.

But then, you get a jam up, as we're in the process of fixing the entire line, so we've kind of been in at 1,500 times when we're running 1,500 to 2000, but obviously we'll be ramping up here relatively shortly to much higher numbers.

Okay, and I think I got some query on the grades. Already from other questions. Could you also remind me with the regional permit, what the taxation, it's the 2023 code, but what additional taxes and royalties would be on that or rather than what we're seeing in the main permit? I know we're up the tax rates that are, sorry, royalty rates that are kind of in the 17% zone, but is there anything additional with this regional or for that or that we should be modeling it?

I'm delighted to pass this over to our new tax guy, Michael McDonald, but I can comment.

I always love a tax guy.

Yeah, so I think the primary differences that we saw overall when we moved from one code to the other is that the income tax rate under the new mining code.

It doesn't get that reduced mining rate for very long. The 25% accommodation that you get in Focola, that's a significantly reduced period. So you basically can assume it's going to be a 30% corporate income tax rate for regional.

And in additional on the ISCP, which is for special tax, there was a bump of 2% versus what Focola pays.

The royalty structures were basically the same between the two.

So those are kind of really the primary differences.

But I think I'd just add to that on top of what Mike talks about, which is the corporate income taxes, we also classify the priority dividend that we pay within our taxes. So Fakola proper has an effective rate of around 40% once you factor in the 20% priority dividend. And then Fakola regional will be higher than that as well too in the end once the final ownership structure is set.

You're allowed to deduct the priority dividend from your corporate income tax.

But yeah, it raises the effective rate of what we report within our financials and what flows through our current and deferred tax income line.

Yeah, and to clarify that again, so the 20% interest in Fekola that the state owns is a priority interest, which characterizes a tax. In Fekola Regional, that we expect the state to have 35% interest, so that will be. And that higher amount.

Okay, thank you. And then I think the last question I had was on some of the costs at Goose.

So there was, I think, 16 million to purchase this mobile equipment that was shipped and is being installed right now, and then 11 for the installation. And I was just trying to understand, like, where those costs were they flowing through in the total cash costs, or were they coming in. Through another line and excluded from the total cash cost and ASIC calculations.

This is actually...

Yeah, so the fire remediation costs will flow through our sustaining capital, so that would flow through your own sustaining costs, but then the phase one and phase two capital would flow through our growth capital line, so it would not be included.

Okay, alright, and then so none of these costs went through your, like, I'm just talking about the down, like the, obviously your processing facility was, did you capitalize any costs related to the fire?

Sorry, you removed some of the costs from the fire, right?

Yeah, because that's originally, I think we were talking much higher cash costs this quarter, yeah.

If you look within our financial statements, yeah, there's a there's a line other cost of sales that was just under $16 million in the quarter, and that was costs related to the downtime that we experienced in Q2, and that was that was excluded from our per ounce costs.

Okay.

Alright, and that 15 and 11 I was talking about with the purchase and that won't go through the cost, like the 11 million to install will not be included in the cost as well, right?

No, yeah, total cash cost.

Okay, alright. Okay, that's it for my questions. Thanks, and congratulations again.

Thanks, Anita.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mike for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you very much, everyone, for all your questions. If there are any additional follow-up questions, obviously feel free to reach out.

In conclusion for today, I just want to say we're obviously delighted about the news, delighted for ourselves, delighted for our investors, our shareholders, stakeholders, delighted for, I guess, the state of Mali as well that we can all move forward.

We think this is very constructive.

And it just helps move us along again back to those two key things that we said we were going to do. You've heard on this call how advanced our plans are for Goose and all the remediation work and the upgrade work that we're doing. And we've got a good plan to do that, and we're going to continue to focus very clearly on executing that. And then at regional, we're pretty much ready to go to get going with the stripping activity.

We're excited to do that. We've been poised to do that for a while. Now we have the chance to actually get out there and make it happen. And so, I know there's been a wait for that, but now here we are. So excited for that, very optimistic for the future here as we move the company forward and grow it. So thanks all for your attention today and your great questions and look forward to talking to you all in your course. So thank you.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines.

Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.