Eldorado Gold Corp (EGO) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Eldorado Gold third-quarter 2024 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) The conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the conference over to Lynette Gould, Vice President, Investor Relations, Communications and External Affairs. Please go ahead, Ms. Gould.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to warmly welcome you to our third quarter 2024 results conference call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary statements included in the presentation and the disclosure on non-IFRS measures and risk factors in our management's discussion and analysis.

Joining me on the call today, we have George Burns, President and Chief Executive Officer; Paul Ferneyhough, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Louw Smith, Executive Vice President, Development, Greece; and Simon Hille, Executive Vice President, Operations and Technical Services.

Our news release yesterday details our third quarter 2024 financial and operating results. This should be read in conjunction with our third quarter 2024 financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, both of which are available on our website. They have also both been filed on SEDAR-plus and EDGAR. All dollar figures discussed today are US dollars unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast, and you can download a copy of the slides from our website. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. At this time, we will invite analysts to queue for questions.

I will now turn the call over to George.

Thanks, Lynette, and good morning, everyone. Here's the outline for today's call. I'll provide a brief overview of Q3 results and highlights. I will then pass the call over to Paul to go through our financial results and then on to Louw and Simon to review our operational performance.

Turning to slide 4. During the third quarter, we achieved safe gold production of 125,195 ounces, aligning with our progress towards full year guidance. At Olympias we successfully concluded the CBA negotiations and reached a mutually beneficial agreement with the union workforce in early August. This three year agreement, combined with increased productivity in our underground operations and is contemplated in our guidance, supports the 650,000 tonne per annum expansion, an increase from the 500,000 tonnes per annum positioning Olympias for long-term profitability.

Total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs were in line with our expectations at $953 per ounce sold and $1,335 per ounce sold, respectively. Cost increased primarily as a result of higher royalties driven by higher gold prices in addition to higher labor costs during the quarter. Paul will touch on our cost in more detail later in the call.

We're in a strong position as we head into the fourth quarter with our year-to-date production having increased 7% compared to the same period in 2023 and increased 12% compared to the same period in 2022. We have maintained but tightened our guidance ranges on gold production and cost, while slightly lowering the bottom end of the Skouries capital investment and depreciation expense. We also increased the upper end of capital investment at our operating mines, reflecting our full year expectations within the operational and financial performance to date.

We now anticipate gold production to be between 505,000 and 530,000 ounces versus previous guidance of 505,000 to 555,000 ounces, as a result of inventory buildup at Kisladag caused by slower Leach light cycles and work stoppages totaling 17 days in Q2 at Olympias.

Total cash cost to be between $910 and $940 per ounce sold versus the previous guidance of $840 to $940. All-in sustaining costs are expected to be between $1,260 and $1,290 per ounce sold, versus previous guidance of $1,190 to $1,290 per ounce sold.

The tightened cost guidance is towards the high end of our previous guidance, primarily the result of lower production and higher royalties in Greece and Turkiye due to increased gold prices. Depreciation is expected to be between $250 million and $260 million down from $280 million to $290 million as a result of lower depreciation in Kisladag and Olympias combined with favorable adjustment to ARO depreciation at Efemcukuru in Q1 2024.

Sustaining capital guidance is expected to be between $135 million and $145 million versus previous guidance of $135 million to $160 million, primarily due to deferral of projects at Olympias. Skouries is expected to be between $350 million and $380 million versus previous guidance of $375 million to $425 million. The lowering of the guidance is driven primarily by work that is not on the critical path and that has been rescheduled to later in the project phase, and the slower-than-expected mobilization of contractors to site during the first three-quarters of 2024.

Our growth capital at the operating mines is expected to be between $145 million and $160 million versus previous guidance of $122 million to $144 million. Capital has increased over the prior guidance, primarily driven by waste stripping and accelerated spending for the second phase of the North Leach Pad at Kisladag.

At Skouries we remained on track for first production in Q3 2025, we have significantly derisked the project since we put it back into construction in April 2023, with all major contracts signed, including the filter tailings building structure, which is on the critical path. We have approximately 1,000 people at site, including our operational readiness team, which is in the process of operationalizing both the surface and underground mine.

Thus far, we are seeing productivity slightly beating our assumptions. We are steadily progressing towards year-end target of 1,300 workers on site. Our focus, once, we have the additional personnel on site, we'll turn to integrating them to assume productivity levels to maintain the schedule and budget. We are managing this closely and taking proactive measures such as rescheduling some noncritical work on process control facilities to mitigate potential challenges in a tight construction labor market.

Turning to slide 5. Year-to-date, our lost-time frequency rate increased to 0.91 per million work hours compared to 0.71 in the same period in 2023. Positively, our total recordable incidents for the first nine months of 2024 have decreased to 3.11 from 4.70 per million hours worked compared to the same period in 2023.

Our commitment to providing and sustaining a safe, healthy workplace remains steadfast, and we acknowledge that this is an ongoing journey of continuous improvement. Our health and safety focus in 2024 continues to be based on preventing high potential incidents and further empowering our employees to promote a positive health and safety culture.

I would also like to congratulate our team in Quebec, where a number of supervisors were recently recognized for leading their teams to achieve between 50,000 and 200,000 hours without a lost-time incident. This stands as a testament to their dedication to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace.

Additionally, congratulations to members of our Kisladag and Efemcukuru mine rescue teams in Turkiye who collaborated in the third mine rescue competition organized by the Turkish Miners Association tying for first place in the Best Mine Rescue Team award.

I'll stop there and turn the call over to Paul for a review of our financial results.

Thank you, George. Slide 6 provides a summary of our third quarter results. Our operations delivered in line with our guidance, and we continue to be encouraged by high gold prices that contributed to our strong overall financial results in the quarter. As George highlighted, we've tightened our annual guidance ranges and continue to see potential upside in cash flow generation if gold prices remain at their current levels.

Eldorado reported net earnings attributable to shareholders from continuing operations of approximately $101 million or $0.49 per share in the quarter. This compared to the same quarter in 2023, the net earnings were positively impacted by higher revenue due to higher volumes sold and prices realized and a gain on deferred consideration due from G Mining that was recognized in the quarter.

The deferred consideration relates to the sale in 2021 of the Tocantinzinho mine. Following G Mining's declaration of commercial production in early September, we are set to receive $60 million in September 2025 on the first anniversary of the declaration. It should be noted that G Mining has the option to defer $30 million of the consideration for one additional year, after which the balancing payment will increase to $35 million.

Following the inclusion of onetime nonrecurring items, adjusted net earnings were $71 million or $0.35 per share for the quarter. The adjustments in the quarter accounted for the reversal of two principal items. Firstly, a $50 million net of withholding tax gain on the G Mining deferred consideration. And secondly, a $33 million unrealized loss on derivative instruments.

Our free cash flow in the quarter was negative $4.8 million or positive $98.3 million, excluding the capital investment in the Skouries project, reflecting the strong performance of our underlying operating assets. In the third quarter, cash flow generated by operating activities before changes in working capital was $166.5 million compared to $97.5 million in the same quarter in the prior year.

The increase is principally driven by revenue, which increased by $87 million, driven by higher volumes and realized gold prices, partially offset by higher production costs they increased by $26 million, $10 million of which related to higher royalties.

Third quarter total cash costs were $953 per ounce sold and all-in sustaining costs were $1,335 per ounce sold. Our costs increased compared to Q3 2023, primarily as a result of higher royalty expenses and increased labor costs. The higher royalty expense in Q3 impacted ASIC by approximately $70 per ounce when compared to our original full year guidance.

In addition, increased sustaining capital investment at Lamaque, Efemcukuru and Olympias contributed to high ASIC for the quarter compared to the same period in the prior year. Capital expenditures on a cash basis were $169 million in the third quarter, including investment in growth projects at Kisladag, where we focused on planned waste stripping and the North Heap Leach Pad and related infrastructure.

At Skouries, we continue to advance major earthworks and infrastructure construction for the project and invested approximately $83 million in the quarter. It's worth noting we have restarted investing our own equity in the project in the fourth quarter this year, following the catch-up of the project finance funding to our agreed 80:20 split.

Current tax expense of approximately $40 million for the third quarter increased from approximately $21 million compared to the same period in 2023. The increase is primarily due to firstly capital gains tax of $9.9 million on the recognition of the deferred consideration related to the sale of the Tocantinzinho mine. And secondly, increased Turkish taxes of $5 million. And finally, increased mining duties in Quebec at $3.4 million.

Deferred income tax recorded an $11.4 million recovery in Q3 2024 compared to an expense of just over $30 million in the comparable quarter in the prior year. In the quarter, deferred tax included an $8.2 million expense reflecting the use of tax pools in excess of accounting deductions in Canada, a onetime $5.9 million expense to Dutch tax exposure accruals, and both of these were offset by an $8.3 million net recovery primarily related to local currency asset revaluation due to the weakening of the Turkish lira against the US dollar.

Turning to slide 7. Our balance sheet remains well funded to meet our investment requirements. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of $885 million including $677 million of cash and cash equivalents and $208 million of available credit capacity.

Cash increased over the quarter as a result of positive cash flow from our producing mines, combined with drawdowns from the project finance facility for the Skouries development. We expect to build cash during the remainder of 2024 as we benefit from strong gold prices further drawdown of our project financing. This build will be partially offset by the restart of equity contributions from Eldorado to the Skouries project, as mentioned earlier.

In summary, we're focused on maintaining a solid financial position, providing Eldorado with the flexibility to respond to opportunities whilst delivering our growth strategy, all while continuing to be committed to responsible mining as a foundation for our business as encapsulated in our values of collaboration, coverage, integrity, drive and agility.

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Louw to go through the Greek asset highlights.

Thanks, Paul, and good morning. Starting on slide 8 at our Skouries copper gold project. At the end of Q3, overall project progress was 79% when including the first phase of construction. This compares to 76% at the end of the second quarter.

During the summer months, we anticipated slower progress due to vacations and the rescheduling of noncritical work, but we are now seeing an upward trend and expect this momentum to continue over the next three quarters. Detailed engineering has advanced and is now 78% complete and continues to be focused on the critical items. We are expecting additional progress over the balance of the year and expect to be approximately 90% complete by the end of the year.

Work continues to ramp up on construction of major earthwork structures, including the haul roads, water management ponds, low-grade stockpile, the integrated extractive waste management facility, primary crusher, process facilities and filter tailings facility.

Productivity improvements initiatives by the earthworks contractor, including a partial second shift continues to yield improvements. Work continues to advance on the filtered tailings building, which is on the critical path.

In September, the first contract for the building was awarded which included the building structure and mechanical installations. Piling has completed for the filtered tailings building and concrete work is progressing to enable construction of the structural steel. With three active drills on site, the piles for the filtered buildings and ancillary buildings continue to progress.

Work on the process plant is progressing well. Re-lining of the flotation tanks was completed as planned and structural and mechanical work is in progress. Off-site pipe spool fabrication continues and delivery of HDP piping to site has commenced. Scaffolding is advancing to support electrical, cable tray and piping installations, and the contractor continues to ramp up to support increasing levels of activity.

Work is also progressing on the underground development to support test stopes mining in 2025. Approximately 70% of the equipment and operator licenses has been received to date, and development mining is ramping up. While we have lowered our underground development for 2024 to between 500 and 600 meters, we are still on track for ore from the test stopes during the plant commissioning period in 2025.

Moving on to slide 9. During the third quarter, the capital investment at Skouries was $82.7 million, slightly less than our spend during the second quarter. This brings our year-to-date spend at Skouries to $227.1 million.

In addition, our overall committed spend for the project is $788 million. As George mentioned earlier, we have lowered and tightened our guidance range to be between $350 million and $380 million, and do not expect it will have an impact on first production in Q3 2025.

The photos on the slide and the next few slides will show the advancement of work underway. In addition, we have provided a link of a progress update video in our Q3 news release. Showing here, construction of the three thickeners progressed on plan during the quarter. On the right side of this slide, there are a series of photos showing the progress in the interior of the main process plant.

Turning to slide 10. The two photos on the left-hand side are the primary crusher. Progress continued to advance on the construction of the foundation with retaining walls and stabilized excavations nearing completion. Construction of the crusher building will commence in November. On the right-hand side is the filtered tailings area, where you can see three drills actively working. The contractors productivity has continued to increase. And to date, 388 piles have been completed out of a total of approximately 871 at the filter facility.

On the next two slides, you will see the advancement of work on the support infrastructure, including the process control room building, process plant, substation, water pump station, lime plant, air blowers building and floatation reagent plant areas.

On slide 11, Infrastructure on the west side of the building are shown, including the secondary substation where foundation and steel work is progressing well, alongside advancements at the pump house and the control building where work commenced earlier this year.

On slide 12, infrastructure on the east side of the main process building has shown including construction works progressing on the Lime plant, air blowers building, compressor building and floatation reagent area. We expect to provide progress updates as we advance towards the first production in the third quarter of 2025.

Moving to Olympias on slide 13. The third quarter gold production was 21,211 ounces and total cash costs were $1,210 per ounce sold. During the third quarter, as George mentioned, we successfully signed a three year CBI agreement in August, and there were no work stoppages during this period compared with the second quarter.

With the planned expansion of the mill to 650,000 tonnes per annum from 500,000 tonnes per annum, we have started ordering the long lead items, including the grinding mill, thickness and floatation cells. Total cash costs were impacted by increased labor costs, which included one-off and backpay payments and higher royalty expenses as a result of higher realized gold price as well as higher gold ounces sold.

I will stop there and hand over to Simon to discuss the Turkish and Canadian operations.

Thanks, Louw. Starting in Turkiye on slide 14. At Kisladag, third quarter production was 41,084 ounces, with total cash costs of $899 per ounce sold. Total cash costs were primarily impacted by increased royalties as a result of increased average realized gold price.

Production was slightly below plan as a result of a few contributing factors. The crushing circuit availability has been impacted due to maintenance issues leading to slightly lower stock tonnes for the year-to-date than planned.

We are working on a solution and expect to have a modified edge block installed in the first quarter of 2025. In addition, a small portion of the ore coming from the center portion of the HPGR contained particles that are greater than 10 mls, which has slightly reduced recovery due to the larger particle size.

As we continue to analyze data following the ramp-up of the HPGR and the agglomeration drum, we are seeing lead cycles extending beyond the planned 220 days, which has led to an increase in gold inventory. We have responded to these operating challenges through irrigation optimization activities, which have demonstrated positive results through drawdown of gold inventory, partially offsetting the longer leach cycle. Additionally, as we have previously discussed, the geometallurgical study has commenced with drilling currently underway.

During the year, we have being constructing the Adsorption, Desorption and Recovery plant, which became operational this week with the first gold pool. The new North ADR plant is expected to provide a number of benefits, which will be realized at both facilities, including reduced carbon handling requirements, optimization of stacking, irrigation and extraction cycle and decoupling of the North and South heap-leach facilities for maximum cost efficiency. Congratulations to the kisladag team on their drive to achieve this significant milestone.

At Efemcukuru on slide 16. Second quarter gold production was 19,794 ounces at a total cash cost of $1,325 per ounce sold. Gold production throughput and average gold grade at Efemcukuru were in line with the plan for the quarter.

And now moving to the Lamaque complex on slide 17. Lamaque delivered production of 43,106 ounces at a total cash cost of $728 per ounce sold. A slight decrease in the quarter compared to the prior year's quarter primarily due to lower gold process, partially offset by increased throughput.

Total cash cost increases were affected by higher sales volumes, slightly higher royalties due to the higher average realized gold price and additional costs incurred in labor, contractors and equipment rentals. The team remains focused on driving productivity with development rates increasing in both Triangle and Ormaque mines during the quarter. This positive trend is expected to carry forward into the fourth quarter.

We remain on track to take a bulk sample from the Ormaque deposit and announce our inaugural reserves by the end of 2024. We had an advanced development to 173 meters compared to a plan of 150 meters for the month of September and to over 200 meters in October. Today, we have stockpiled 11,500 tonnes of material of the targeted 25,000 tonnes. We were planning to put through the mill in December from Ormaque.

I'll stop there and turn it back to George for his closing remarks.

Thanks, team. As we head into the fourth quarter, we're in a strong position to achieve our tightened gold production and cost guidance. Gold production levels are up 7% year-to-date compared to this time last year, and we continue to build momentum towards first gold production at Skouries next year.

The record high gold prices have significantly boosted our margins and the regions where we operated have also benefited from higher royalties and increased tax payments. By maintaining disciplined cost control and capital allocation, alongside elevated gold prices, we expect continued margin expansion driving further growth in free cash flow from operations.

Thank you for your time. I will now turn it over to the operator for questions from our analysts.

We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

Cosmos Chiu, CIBC.

Maybe my first question is on Skouries and the progress at Skouries. As you mentioned, underground development is now targeted for 500 to 600 meters previously, 2,200 meters. Fairly sizable gap, I would say.

But as you said, George, it's not going to impact your Q3 '25 first production. But my question is, it's not going to impact the timing of first production, but could this impact the ramp-up and the speed of that ramp-up after first production? Is there a way for you to catch up on underground development?

Yes, Cosmos, thanks for the question. So the way I would describe it is the Skouries underground really isn't an important part of the production profile in the first several years. And in fact, it ramps up over, say, the next seven or eight years and at the end of the decade, becomes the sole feed to the plant.

So we really put an emphasis on getting the underground going as part of the initial construction to really check the box on all other technical assumptions. The size of the stopes. And we wanted to get early information so that we can further optimize. And we have hope still that we can make the stopes larger than what's currently in our feasibility study.

Now the reason or the slower ramp-up in the development really was our transition from the Greek contractor had been doing the development to date to our Finnish contractor, it's really going to ramp it up and do the test stope mining. We're bringing in European expertise on underground mining to be able to mine these large, more technical stopes that are part of the Skouries design.

So yes, I can tell you the delays were related to getting our European workers and their equipment certified and licensed to operate. But the initial productivity we're seeing out of this workforce is pretty fantastic. We will be able to continue to catch up as they deploy more workers and it really has no material impact on the next several years of Skouries operations.

Yes. That's good to hear. Maybe that leads in well into my next question here. As you mentioned, total CapEx of this project is $920 million. You've spent slightly over $410 million so far with $770 million committed. So in terms of that $920 million versus the $411 million that's spent, the difference? Can we expect that to be spent in 2025? Or it sounds like maybe not, given that some of the underground might be pushed out a little bit in terms of development? I'm just wondering timing of the spend and if the $920 million is still a good number to use?

Yes, we're still confident and comfortable with the $920 million. Our employee count on construction has been rising all year. And as we said, we're expecting a further increase over the fourth quarter. And then that larger workforce will continue to execute construction through into the third quarter. So you're going to see a significant ramp up in spending in Q4. And then even more in Q1 breakthrough into commercial production.

Regarding a few things that might not happen by commissioning time. Yes, there's some noncritical infrastructure that's been delayed a bit from archeological studies that were done. Some of that might spill later into next year and perhaps even beyond. But it will have no impact on our ability to operate.

And then on the underground piece, we're still going to get the plan to test stopes into the mill in the third quarter, fourth quarter of next year. So no impact on the underground portion of production next year. And we'll update the market in the new year with guidance on everything.

But again, the underground spend next year isn't material to our commercial production or even the next couple of years of operations. It's really another year in test stopping in 2026, and then ramp up of infrastructure to then support higher mining levels over the next five years. So all that I just said is not very material to the project for next year.

Of course. Maybe one last question. George, as you mentioned, you've tightened your 2024 production guidance. If I take your tightened guidance, it implies that you'll be increasing in Q4 production by about more than 10% quarter-over-quarter. I think Simon kind of touched on it, but could you maybe again summarize which ones will be the drivers in terms of that potential higher production into Q4?

Sure. So the first thing I would say is, we're in a better position this year than last year with our year-to-date production, and as you know, we've been growing production over the last couple of years, and you're going to see that expand even further, ultimately to 45% production growth by 2027.

So we're on track to deliver that high-quality growth. In terms of the fourth quarter and in even the year, our production at Lamaque and Efemcukuru are going to be stronger relative to original guidance, and we're a bit weaker in Kisladag and Olympias for the reasons we noted.

And you got a strong quarter at Lamaque, consistent with prior years. And at Olympias, where collective bargaining is in a good position now, and we're expecting a strong quarter out of Olympias in the fourth quarter relative to the challenges we had in Q2. So anyway, we're comfortable with our updated guidance and expecting a good fourth quarter.

Mike Parkin, National Bank.

On slide 14, you noticed you're doing some sub cell collection system, deep ripping procedures, new approach to the solution. I can't remember off the top of my head, but you guys use stackers for placing the agglomerated -- well, I guess it's a mix of agglomerated and non-agglomerated ore on the pad.

So what caused you to add ripping on the new -- I assume it's on the new pad only. And did you do that on the old pad? And what's making you decide to do that, you're using like a grasshopper system, I would think you're not worried about compression?

Great question, Mike. I mean yes, we use a conveyor system that takes the crush to the agglomerated ore from the crushing facility out to our heap leach pad. And at the end of the grasshoppers, we have a radial stacker. So you're right, that radial stacker minimizes compaction of, say, haul trucks delivering the ore to the pad.

In our case, we've got -- these are rubber tire grasshoppers and rubber tire conveyors. So there's a bit of compaction. You got maintenance and other light vehicles. And it's a typical practice where you do ripping to try to fluff up the crushed ore and maximize the ability to get good permeability throughout the ore.

So I can just tell you in all copper and gold leaching ripping is a pretty important part of efficient and good permeability. The challenge with the dozer doing that ripping is it does it in one direction, and you can pull it in multiple directions. But what we can do with these track hose is rip it in every direction. And we can do some ripping without removing drip emitters if we have a particular pad that's saying a bit of ponding or not getting good permeability. So it just does a lot better job of fluffing up the ore and maximizing permeability through the pad.

And I think you know we only agglomerate roughly 1/3 of the total crush material. And that 1/3 that goes through the agglomeration drum, gets mixed with the other 2/3. And we're kind of counting on the transfer points between grasshoppers to mix and further agglomerate the entire feed to the pad.

I mean that's one of the things we're studying over the next several quarters is what happens if we add more agglomeration drums. And we're also looking at particle size, what can we do to crush a bit finer, that's probably more screening. And at the end of the day, is there an ability to further optimize recovery in total production including even debottlenecking the plant. So that's the study underway. Back to your specific question. It's just a better way to rip the surface and to further optimize permeability in the pad.

And are you seeing any concerns around structural integrity. I remember when you were there a year ago, you had samples of the column test showing that the agglomeration really was stood well on a structural kind of integrity in terms of resistant compaction. Is that kind of proving up in the pad application versus the column test?

Over to you, Simon.

Yes. Thanks, Mike. Yes, we continue prior to putting the agglomeration drum into circuit. We didn't have a lot of cement as a binder to create that stability. So with the agglomeration drum, we do add that cement and it does create that both those agglomerated balls as well as some further strength into the actual pad.

Tanya Jakusconek, Scotiabank.

Maybe, George, I just wanted to come back to the non-critical work that you've kind of deferred at Skouries. Can you just review with me what you deferred? So part of it is the underground development? What else has been deferred?

Yes. So the underground development was deferred really just due to delays in getting licensing of the workforce and permitting an equipment. The archeological impacts are non-critical infrastructure, such as our truck shop for the open pit. So we have workarounds for that. We'll use what, I've used at many startup operations, [Cerro Negro] as a well and a little over the top for doing maintenance until we can get the truck shop constructed. So workarounds are in place depending on the timing of getting this archeologic clearance, it might still get done next year. It might not. But will not impact our ability to operate.

And I think you can remember the Cerro Negro operation in Argentina when we built that in a prior company, it was in two years before the truck shop was built, had no impact on the operations. So it's a truck shop is one of the issues. And another one we have an office plan for both the underground and open pit, separate facilities.

The open pit office is also being delayed by these archeological studies. So we'll be using the underground office and other facilities during the interim phase while we get that office constructed. So again, it's non-critical infrastructure that was planned to be worked on this quarter and next, that will be delayed to some degree.

Okay. So really, what I'm taking from you is that it's really the truck shop and sort of the office that you can operate from other areas. And just as an aside, what's taking so long for this archeological permit? Are there [some], I mean I remember the phase that like I think there was ways or something that we were reviewing with this permit from ways that was found for -- ?

Yes. Well, I mean, -- so in the open pit near the out crop, there was a furnace that was deemed to be back in the days of Alexander The Great where they processing for outcrop. So we moved that a couple of years ago.

In this case, on kind of the edge of the pit, where this infrastructure was going to be put in, they've been doing the archeological studies. And unlike North America, there's a long history of civilizations in Greece and other European countries. And there's lots of artifacts. So even though this is up in the foothills about that and they have found some things and they want to make sure that this area is cleared appropriately.

And so just to describe it, you've got, I don't know, around 40, 50 people labors with wheel barrels and archeologists that are sifting through the sands and the surface and they're obviously finding some things because we have a lot of activity.

But they really have to complete the work to determine what's there, how significant is it? Could it be moved? Are we going to have to work around and leave it in place. Those are the sort of things that happen typically in Greece on any construction project. Fortunate to say this is the only activity and it's not critical to our start-up and we'll have workarounds for it. So I'd say a normal process in Greece.

Okay. So yes, it was separate from that furnace of Alexander, The Great. Okay. Just wanted to come back to -- and I don't know who wants to take this question. Just on this inflation. You mentioned that you're seeing higher labor costs. So -- just wanted to review with you. I have in my notes here from previous calls that are about -- and maybe this is -- if someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I had about 30% of your cost is labor. That's yourself employed and then about 40% if I include the contractors. So I'm going to start first, is that a correct number that I have?

I think 27% is the number, so very close. 27% in Q3.

Okay. So sorry, did I hear 47% or 27%?

27%, 2-7%.

Okay. So 27% is all of your employees?

For labor, yes.

Labor. And does that also include contractors? Or is that separate?

It's -- the contractors are separate that gets built in as a single, so that 27% is our workforce.

And what would be the percentage that would be contractors? And the reason I'm asking, George, is I'm just trying to understand if you have different inflation in your own workforce at 27% and how is that different from the contractors. That's all I'm trying to get.

I don't have the contractor percentage. But I would tell you, there isn't a significant difference other than timing. Obviously, where we have union operations in Turkey and Greece, I mean we do our collective bargaining immediately, there's a change in labor cost. The contractors are on different schedules. So timing would be a bit different, but I would say that the inflationary pressures are very similar.

And when you did your current agreement at Olympias, what sort of inflation rate did we see there for labor?

So, we signed a three year agreement on Olympias, and it averages about 3% over the three year contract. So fairly consistent with inflation in Europe.

Yes, that's good to hear. Okay. And then the other thing that I wanted to make sure. I understood, there was such a big -- I think it was mentioned that $70 an ounce was the impact from increase in gold price in your royalties. I think it was this quarter.

If I can remember correctly, and I just need to understand my sensitivity again. I think you did your budgets at $1,900. And I think for every $100 move, it was about $20 per ounce impact on your cost. Maybe I could just have that confirmed. And just so that I understand that when you go to give guidance next year, I can kind of understand what the gold price impact would be on your costs?

So Tanya, it's Paul here. In the third quarter compared to our budget, just to give you a sense, the royalty cost is around $105 per ounce more. And so we had our budget set at $1,900 and our realized prices were $2,492. And so the difference there, a $600 increase in realized prices gave us $105 an ounce more in royalties.

Okay. Perfect. That's great sensitivity to have. And then finally, another number that would be very useful for us is how are you thinking -- and I appreciate all of your reserves are based on looking at cutoff grades, et cetera.

So I'm thinking you're going to be reporting your reserves very shortly, usually in early December. So we're just like two months away -- oh, no, not even two months, one month a bit. Can we just maybe talk a little bit about how you're thinking about your reserve linear cutoff grades? And ultimately, I think I had a $1,400 gold price for your reserve. Maybe someone can share how you're thinking about that as we come to your reserve base?

Sure. So yes, our current reserves are at $1,400. We do expect to update our reserve statements before the end of the year. We're not looking at a material change in price assumption. And we essentially look to our peers. We take a look back -- three, five year look back on metal prices.

But we continue to believe it's appropriate to say conservative on metal price and reserves to ensure we have solid margins in any gold price environment. Even though we're in a pretty good bull run, and it appears to be continuing. We're not going to count on that from a reserve and resource statement perspective. So as you say, we'll be updating the market with the definitive price assumptions for this year's reserve update, just don't expect any material change.

And when you say material change, I mean I'm assuming it's like less than 10%, would that be not material to you?

Yes, less than 10% would be not material.

(Operator Instructions) Lawson Winder, Bank of America.

One thing I wanted to follow up on with respect to Tanya's questioning on labor inflation. It's just -- I might have missed it, but did you disclose what is the built-in annual increase in labor inflation with the new CDA? And if not, could you share that and whether there's any difference year-to-year or is it consistent each year of the contract?

Yes. So for our collective RA agreement on Olympias, it's a three year agreement. Over the three years, it's kind of averaging 3% each year. So fairly close to inflation. There was an -- additionally a one-off payment that isn't cumulative on their base that was tied into our decision to move forward with the expansion of Olympias. So anyway, I'd say it was a good win-win agreement with our workforce and, -- sorry, wage increase is consistent with inflation in Europe.

Yes, fantastic. And then just looking at and thinking about capital allocation, the gold price is not obviously significant. You guys are clearly benefiting from that despite the spending on Skouries. Is there any thought internally to potentially reinstating the dividend near term? Or is that a decision that just has to wait until the completion of construction that Skouries?

Yes. I mean dividend definitely is a focus of the company. And our view is when we set and reestablish our dividend and our dividend policy, we want it to be sustainable. And so for us, the focus will be in 2026 after we're in commercial production.

Okay. And probably an obvious answer to my final question on capital allocation, but just as you look at potential options for growth, obviously, you have a lot in the portfolio. What about external options for growth? Does Eldorado what's your stance on M&A is really the question? I mean does Eldorado feel that you can be opportunistic. Should opportunities come along? Or is that something that's just off the table for now?

Well, I mean, we have a corporate development team. And like every company, we're always looking for opportunities. Obviously, with our focus on Skouries, that's priority one. If an exceptional opportunity came along, we're definitely going to look at it, we'd be opportunistic. So I'd say it's not a primary focus. It's a secondary focus for us.

That is all the time we have for questions today. This concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.