All right, we're going to stay in West Africa, a little bit further, a little bit further west. Predictive Discovery in Guinea, to take us through their development and how they're getting on. Wonderful project. Andrew Pardey, Managing Director. Andrew.
Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. It's nice to be back here again. From 12 months ago, we've achieved, we've had achieved a lot more. In January, we had our environmental compliance certificate issued to us, which allowed us to then submit the application for the exploitation permit. In June this year, we completed a definitive feasibility study. There's been a lot that's been happening across the entire project. There's the usual. I'm not going to go through those. You can read those at your own leisure at some other time. These are the highlights. Rapidly advancing a large scale, the large scale Bankan Gold Project in Guinea. We have a 5.5 million oz resource and we have a 3 million oz ore reserve.
This is one of Africa's largest and most advanced gold development projects, which has an average 250,000 oz per annum production profile for greater than 12 years at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,057 / oz. As I said recently, just at the intro, the major catalysts have been achieved. The environmental and social impact assessment certificate was issued to us in January, the end of January, which allowed us to submit the exploitation permit application. The DFS was completed in June and the exploitation permit is in the final stage of the application process. It's gone through the various committees within the Ministry of Mines. It's then gone into the government's [JEDA] system and it's now sitting on the President's desk waiting for signature. We have a very experienced board and management that has financed, built, and operated mines across Africa and elsewhere in the world.
Obviously, a very strong gold price in this environment with the current gold price being well over $3,500 / oz. Our reserves were done at $1,800 / oz and the economics applied for the definitive feasibility study were done at $2,400 / oz. Guinea itself is a, you know, has a very, very strong mining culture. It's one of the biggest exporters of bauxite in the world. It also has the biggest mine development project in the world underway, the Simandou Iron Ore Project, which is a + $20 billion investment into the country. That will be exporting first iron ore by the end of this year. Corporate overview. We've got major institutional and strategic shareholders, which you can see in that slide there. We've also got very strong research coverage covered by six analysts across both Australia, North America, and Europe. You can see the share price performance, etc.
As we've been unlocking, de-risking the project, you can see how the share price has improved over the course of the year as well. Again, I touched on this briefly, but very experienced board and management and country management operations, etc. You can see these are all the various projects that board and management have been involved in across Africa with extensive experience in Guinea as well. About Guinea, I mean, I've touched on it, but you can see Guinea's got major mineral resources. You can see on the left of that map of Guinea where all the major bauxite mines are located. One of the biggest miners and exporters of bauxite in the world. In the top right, you've got the Siguiri Basin where you've got the major gold operations. You've got the AngloGold Ashanti Mine that's been now operating for over 30 years.
The Lefa NordG old operation, which has been operating for over 20 years. Down to the south, we've got ourselves, Predictive Discovery , and just across the other side of the river from us, we've got Robex as well. They're in construction as we speak and are expected to be pouring gold by the end of this year. It's a very attractive endowment. Down in that southeast corner is where the major iron ore deposits are. Construction on that, the infrastructure upgrades, development has just progressed at such a rapid rate. That will be exporting iron ore by the end of the year. Guinea's got an established mining code and structure. It's a 5% royalty plus 1% for local development, a 30% corporate tax rate, and a 15% free carry for the government of Guinea. Onto the project itself. It's a large-scale, long-life project with very strong economics.
Obviously, as the gold price goes up, it also increases very, very significantly. As I touched on before, the reserves are at a grade of 1.78. The resources are at a grade of 1.66. The DFS came out with pre-production CapEx of $463 million, which is very similar to the PFS study that we put out the previous year. Importantly, the all-in sustaining costs are just over $1,057 / oz, which was a 10% reduction on the PFS. Very, very strong financials. $1.6 billion NPV and an IRR of 46% at a $2,400 gold price. Each $100 adds another $140 million to the NPV. Very strong production profile, as I said, 250,000 oz a year for greater than 12 years. This is a highlight slide. This is of the NEB, the main deposit. The project is made up of the NEB and the BC deposits.
NEB is both a combination of large open pit and then underground as well. We initially start mining the GBE to the north. We mine that out first, and then we establish a decline from the base of that pit whilst we start pre-stripping the NEB pit. When we turn the mills on, first production is coming from both the open pit and the underground. The open pits are standard open pit sequence for various staging. The underground mining is a combination of longitudinal and transverse long hole open stoping. As I said earlier, the mine designs are based on an $1,800 gold price. There is significant upside potential on the deposit itself. Also, the nearby satellites and regional exploration targets along the 35 km of strike length that we have across the Siguiri Basin.
Processing, it's very simple metallurgy and very high recoveries. The definitive feasibility study will come out with a 4.5 million ton per annum processing plant, which was designed by DRA out of Perth. Standard primary crushing circuits grind P80 of 75 microns, and we achieve recoveries of over 92%. Up to 50% of that gold is recovered up front through the gravity circuits. There, you can see this is the conceptual layout of what the processing plant has been designed by. There is also, when we're ensuring there's sufficient space for further expansion of the processing plant should it be required in the future. Again, touching on the economics, production schedule, and the cash flows, you can see in the top chart there the production profile, 250,000 oz average production across the + 12 years.
You can see the all-in sustaining costs by year, which average out at $1,057/oz over the life of mine. From year one of production, you can see significant cash flows, greater than $250 million U.S. dollars per annum. This increases to over $400 million per annum at using a $3,300 gold price. Payback is just over a year. Committed to sustainable development and local content. As I said, at the start of this year, we got our environmental compliance certificate issued, which allowed us to apply for the exploitation permit. That process involved in excess of two years' worth of work to submit an environmental and social impact assessment and get it approved in Guinea. You've got to have a minimum of two years' worth of environmental data and social data, etc.
When I joined the company at the start of 2022, there was zero work that had been done in those areas. Firstly, we had to do a rapid environmental assessment that identified no critical flora or fauna across the area. We had to negotiate the terms of reference of the ESIA with the government of Guinea, with the Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development. We could go on and start the clock ticking for getting a minimum of two years' worth of data. We completed that last year. We submitted the application. That then went through a series of committees, and they issued the environmental compliance certificate to us in January of this year. Another strong component is social and community. Key social management plans are in place in advance of starting construction to support the community, support local development, and local education.
At a countrywide level, the government revenues will be in excess of $2 billion at a $2,400 gold price. During peak construction, the workforce will be in excess of 1,500 people, and the operational workforce will be around 1,100 people. The majority of those will be local Guineans. There will be very few expatriates involved in the entire project. This is the implementation schedule and where we're at. We are now in discussions regarding financing the project, looking at the various options for financing. That is underway as we speak. We can make a final FID in the first half of next year. We've also got preparation underway for execution readiness and what we can do, commencing early works over the process of the second half of this year, etc.
With all that coming into play, we expect to be commissioning at the start of 2028 and in commercial production by the middle of 2028. On top of all of this, what we've spoken about, we've got significant exploration upside. All the assay results that you can see on these diagrams are not included in our current mineral resource inventories. The blue shaped outline is the NEB open pit, and you can see targets like 800 West. We've got 15 m at 22 g / ton, 9 m at 2.73 g. Down to the south, SB, again, you can see there's a whole series of very, very strong assays. At this stage, none of those are in the mineral inventory. You have the other projects as you extend along strike up to the north.
You can see there is significant exploration upside on top of the current 5.5 million oz resource and 3 million oz reserve. In summary, investment highlights, you know, what we've talked about, production profile. It's one of Africa's largest and most advanced gold development projects. Outstanding economics, NPV of over $1.6 billion at a $2,400 gold price, payback of less than two years. With the ESIA being issued, we're able to submit the exploitation permit application. The DFS has been completed. We're expecting to get the exploitation permit issued to us imminently. It is sitting on the President's desk. We've got a strong leadership and management team with a proven ability to be able to develop and operate the operation. This is all validated by the major institutions that we have backing us and supporting us through this entire project.
As a reminder as well, you know, the biggest mine development project in the world is underway in Guinea. That's the Simandou Iron Ore Project. With that, I'd like to say thank you and any questions.
Any questions from the floor?
Well done, Andrew. Just a quick question. How much stuff is on the President's desk? I mean, is it something that we're going to get a near-term result? Is it just it happens when it happens?
Look, I'm feeling confident it will happen very, very soon. I mean, we spend, I personally spend the majority of my time in Guinea. When I'm not in Guinea, my CFO is in Guinea. If the CFO is not in Guinea, then my other Executive Director, Sandra, she's in Guinea. We're regularly there, and we're making sure they know we're there. I even carry a pen in my pocket when I go to the offices as well. I'm feeling confident. I'm actually feeling confident that quite a few of the applications that are sitting on the desk will be approved in the near future.
Brilliant. Thank you so much.
Any further questions? Andrew, I have a technical question. You've gone with filtered stack tailings.
Correct. Look, we chose that method because when we first started off on the project with the National Park and the proximities to the National Park, we thought that would be the best method to do. In our ESIA compliance certificate, it's not a requirement, so we can change to other various forms of tailings stacks if required. We thought initially when we first started and inherited this project, being 18 km away from the core zone of the National Park, we wanted to de-risk it as much as possible.
Yeah, good decision. Now my final question, please remind us when's the first gold?
When did I say? 2028, if not sooner.
All right, fantastic. Thank you very much, Andrew.
Thank you.