Predictive Discovery's March 2020 operational performance and financial results for the quarter, as well as the strategic progress we've made as we continue developing a leading West African gold company targeting 400,000 ounces of production per year by 2029. We recently achieved the major milestone of completing the merger between Predictive Discovery and Robex, which was finalized post-March quarter end on April 15th. I thank everyone who was involved in this process and helped see it through to completion. We're all excited about what the future holds for the company and look forward to achieving our first milestones. This followed the achievement of commercial production in Kiniéro in February, and we will talk more about Kiniéro's operations through the quarter in the slides to come. Skipping over the disclaimers, we'll now move to slide four, which sums up our newly combined business.
Following completion of the merger, we now have a unique platform. Two producing mines being Kiniéro in Guinea and Nampala in Mali, as well as our tier-one Bankan development project which is near Kiniéro in Guinea. Together, these assets underpin our pathway to more than 400,000 ounces per year by 2029. We now have 9.5 million ounces in resources, including 4.5 million ounces in reserves, and a management team with a strong track record of mine development in Africa. As the slide highlights, catalysts ahead include consolidating Kiniéro's production, securing the Bankan and Mansounia mining permits, and making the final investment decision for Bankan and obviously commencing construction post that. Slide five. Oh, sorry. PDI is now a $3.3 billion U.S.-capped company with strong institutional shareholder base including BlackRock, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Helikon, Vanguard, Merck and others.
As of 31st March , pro forma cash was $263 million, and pro forma debt was $130 million. As you can see, there is strong coverage. This is an excellent platform for us to continue to grow the company and drive further shareholder value. Here we show our key highlights for the quarter. This included gold production of 48,000 ounces and gold sales of 42,000 ounces. We achieved this at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,192 an ounce across the group, with Kiniéro performing particularly well with an AISC of $1,043 an ounce.
This generated $201 million of revenue and we finished the quarter with a cash balance of $263 million, plus an additional $15 million in gold bullion on hand. In addition, we provided gold production guidance of 180,000-220,000 ounces for 2026 calendar year, with cost guidance to follow next quarter. The March quarter marked a major step change in production at Kiniéro as we moved through commissioning and into ramp up. Gold production was 48,178 ounces, up 308% from December quarter. Mostly, thanks to Kiniéro's being in production.
We achieved gold sales of 41,799 ounces for the quarter, which was up 271%. Revenue increased to $200.8 million, a 321% increase quarter-on-quarter. All-in sustaining costs for AISC decreased to $1,190-$2,000 per ounce, down 37%. Robex ended the quarter with $240.4 million in US cash and PDI with $2 million in US dollars. Group production for 2026 is 198,000-220,000 ounces with Kiniéro contributing the majority. As we state here and in the quarterly report, we plan to provide cost guidance for the year in June quarter when we have two full quarters of production from Kiniéro completed.
As you can see from this slide, PDI is now a scaled low-cost producer with a near-term growth funded from free cash flow. Focusing more closely on Kiniéro, it delivered exceptional ramp-up during the March quarter with mining and processing performance exceeding plan. Ore mined increased to 2.14 million tonnes and total material mined to 5.1 million tonnes. Processed ore rose to 1.61 million tonnes, reflecting the first full quarter of production. Recovery improved to 19.1%, supporting gold recovered of 45,073 ounces. AISC for the quarter was $1,043 per ounce, demonstrating the low-cost nature of the operation. The key takeaway here is that Kiniéro exceeded plan in every major metric and is a testament to our development team and our operations commissioning teams on site.
Nampala continued to deliver steady and reliable performance during the March quarter. Gold production for the period was 10,000 ounces, which represents a 9% decrease compared to the prior quarter, but is consistent with the planned mine schedule. Mining performance remained strong. Ore mined increased 27% quarter on quarter, and total material moved increased 11%, reflecting improved access to ore zones following the completion of higher waste stripping in the previous quarter. Processing throughput averaged 291 tonnes per hour with 504,354 tonnes of ore processed. This reflects stable plant performance, even though throughput was lower than December quarter. Head grade improved 4% to 0.71 grams per ton, which helped offset the lower throughput and supported by real gold production.
AISC for the quarter was $1,699 per ounce, a 10% reduction from the prior quarter, driven by an improved strip ratio and disciplined cost control. I'll hand over to our CFO, Ross McLean now for the presentation of the finance for the quarter
Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us on the call today. Turning to the financial performance and cash flow, the strong ramp up in production in the March quarter translated directly into a very strong financial outcome and associated cash generation. All figures in the cash flow waterfall are in US millions dollars. Robex started the quarter with $146 million and finished March with $240 million, reflecting a cash increase of $94 million over the quarter. When combined with PDI, this results in $263 million of pro forma cash after completion of the merger. The increase in cash was driven primarily by strong operating performance.
Cash margin from operations was $139 million, underpinned by excellent production, cost outcomes and an average realized sales price of $4,803 per ounce. After removing CapEx, this translates into free cash flow of $90 million for the quarter, demonstrating the strength of the business as a cash generator. Total capital expenditure for the period was $37 million, largely comprising growth capital at Kiniéro following construction activities at year-end 2025 and into Q1. This figure will materially reduce in the next quarter, improving free cash flow performance. Other investing activities contributed $11 million, driven by the maturity of short-term investments and interest received. The key takeaway from this slide is that the Q1 financial performance establishes PDI as a scaled cash generative gold producer.
Importantly, one of the key synergies from the merger was financing, specifically the ability to leverage free cash flow from Kiniéro to fund the Bankan development. The performance delivered in Q1 lays a strong foundation for PDI to deliver on this strategy. Thank you very much, and I'll hand back to Matt.
Thanks for that, Ross. We'll now move on to discuss our development project, Bankan, and provide a bit more detail on the company's combined assets and outlook. At Bankan, execution planning continued to progress well during the March quarter with strong collaboration between PDI and the Robex teams. The focus remains firmly on the critical path and long lead items so that construction can commence as soon as the exploitation permit is awarded. Primero was awarded the front-end engineering design contract. The optimized flow sheet and process design criteria are nearing completion. Process and instrumentation diagrams are advancing, and layout development is progressing well. The primary and oxide crushing area is already well-defined. Long lead items have been fully identified, and tendering processes are underway on major mechanical packages.
The packages for the power station, SAG mills, the primary crusher, the primary feeders, the vibrating grizzly feeders have all been issued for tender with evaluations advancing. Tender packages for structural steel and plate work fabrication are also in development. Environmental and social work streams continued to advance during the quarter, including baseline monitoring, technical studies and ongoing engagement with authorities. These ensure that Bankan remains construction ready once the permit is granted. Let me just highlight key achievements from the March quarter and outline our priorities for the rest of 2026. From a safety perspective, the group delivered an excellent performance. PDI maintained a TRIFR of 0.0 and Robex's improving to TRIFR of 2.3. Safety remains our highest priority, and these results reflect strong culture and discipline across all sites.
Total production for the quarter was 48,177 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,192 per ounce. Our average realized gold price was $4,806 per ounce, supporting strong margins, and Kiniéro really started to show what it is capable of with 38,178 ounces at $1,043 per ounce, demonstrating the strength of the ramp up. At Bankan, execution planning continued to advance so that construction can commence immediately following the award of the exploitation permit. This remains a major strategic milestone for the company. Financially, the group is in a very strong position.
We generated significant cash during the quarter, ending with $263 million of pro forma cash and $130 million of debt following the completion of the merger. The balance sheet strength provides the platform to advance Bankan while continuing to optimize Kiniéro and Nampala. These achievements set us up well for 2026, and we focus on operational delivery, permitting progress at Bankan and disciplined capital allocation. We also show here our objectives for 2026, including our production guidance of 198,000-220,000 ounces of gold, including 157,000-174,000 ounces at Kiniéro and 41,000-46,000 ounces at Nampala.
We hope to see the exploitation permits granted for Bankan and Mansounia as we move closer to final investment decision for FID at Bankan and get construction underway. We have strong drilling and exploration programs out in 2026, aiming to increase our reserves and resources and extend our mine life while continuing to develop a pipeline asset. Opportunities to leverage our competitive advantage as a reliable and efficient mine-building team, particularly in Africa. With that being said, I'll open up the floor for questions before I move on to closing remarks.
Thanks, Matt. Just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. Your first question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey. Please go ahead, Richard.
Hi, Matt. Thanks for the call. Just wondering if you could give an update just on your expectations regarding timing for the Bankan license, and also just how much money you're willing to spend prior to the receipt of that license? Just in terms of, you know.
Yeah. I mean, it's a good question. I mean, the answer is how long is a piece of string? We have been waiting for a significant amount of time. We have a project or two mining licenses that deliver about $500 million a year in revenue once they're both in operation. We see it as a highly accretive project for the government.
It's just like a telco.
In terms of taxation, royalty and you know, pre-carried interest dividends. We have no reason to think that it's not gonna be issued in the next three to six months. Again, we've been saying that for a while, so I don't wanna like I wanna temper expectations. The Guinea government is still going through a cleanup process of some of its tenements, mainly in the bauxite space. You know, we're expecting essentially permits to be issued any day. Like, I can't give you much more detail than that.
Yeah.
It's somewhat out of my hands. In terms of what we're going to spend, we'll keep our expenditures rather modest. You know, we've got a few million dollars allocated at the moment. We haven't sort of set out a program for the board for the next quarter of spending and what we're comfortable to do. We're gonna have relatively minor spending up until you know the process of that mining permit is granted.
Yeah. X sort of long lead time items, it's pretty much minimal spending?
Well, I mean, long lead items, we've essentially done the procurement and bought the, you know, the vendor data, but we haven't actually locked them down or, you know,
Right.
We haven't-
Right
bought them, you know what I mean? We
Yeah
... the procurement processes take, you know, one to two months at least. Having them done sort of gets rid of a couple of months of lead time, so you're ready to actually place those POs on the exact day that you actually get the permit, I guess, or exact day that the board makes the FID decision.
Yeah. Okay
which will be similar timelines.
Fine. Yeah. Just one more on the Nampala. I wanted to get a sense of how you're feeling about production sort of potentially rolling into 2027. Is there any sort of juice left to squeeze there?
Yeah. Look, there's still juice left to squeeze. We've still got a mine plan for the rest of 2027. We're still predicting sort of 40,000-45,000 ounces coming out of that. It's not completely dead. There's a lot of stockpiles. There's some relatively easy ore. You know, it's obviously become a much more difficult jurisdiction to operate in. You know, there may be divestment processes run this year.
Okay. All right. Great. Thanks. Great quarter. Well done.
Thanks, Richard.
Thanks, Richard. Your next question comes from Paul Howard at Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead, Paul.
Thanks very much. Good morning, guys. Yeah, great quarter as Richard alluded to there. From my mind, just on the going forward with Kiniéro, 157 to 174 guidance, quite a bit above the 141 in the DFS. That's 1,000 ounces in 2026. What's driving that primarily? Is it throughput? Is it better grades, better recoveries, a bit of everything?
Mostly it's throughput through the mill, where you know on our best days we can. The mill's sort of doing somewhere between 900-1,000 tons an hour, which translates you know. Well, even better than that. Translates to you know somewhere between 7-8 million tons per annum. The grades pretty much remained as per plan and as per the resource model and grade control models, you know. It's just been a very efficient ops team, I guess. We've had lower energy uses, lower reagent usages than planned, yeah, just absolutely pumping tons through the mill.
Yeah. Following from that, I suppose, is it particularly softer material? Like, the all-in sustaining was very low as well. And is that sort of something we can expect for the next couple of years?
Yeah. You can definitely expect it for the next couple of years. We don't have any real fresh joining the blend for the next three years. I mean, oxide, and this has been a bugbear of mine my whole career, it's always given a higher Bond Work Index than is sort of required during physical testing. Mostly because it's difficult to recover, you know, an oxide core. They generally choose the most competent piece of that core for the compression testing, which derives that Bond Work Index. It's always given a higher power rating than what's required through the mill. You know, when you actually do start grinding it, you find that it requires almost very little power to actually pass through your circuit. It is the oxide holiday I've spoken about previously.
Yeah.
It really does, you know, help you a lot and, you know, you've got it. We've designed our circuit knowing that that was likely to happen, so, you know, we're getting the recoveries to match.
Excellent. Just a couple for Ross if you don't mind. Ross, is all-in sustaining costs calculated on gold sales or produced or recovered even?
It's based on gold produced, Paul.
Produced.
Yeah.
Okay. Cool. Then on that $ 37 million CapEx, can you perhaps help me with a bit more of a breakdown? I know you say a lot more of it, a lot of it's at Kiniéro, but, like, is there any spend at Bankan there? Is there anything at. Obviously, there must be something at Nampala in a sustaining sense. Maybe break down by the three assets first and then a bit more detail on what's been spent at Kiniéro, if that's possible.
Yeah, sure. There was AUD 32 million of development CapEx at Kiniéro and-
That's essentially a hangover from production, right?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Gotcha.
Sustaining capital, we had AUD 2.2 million at Kiniéro, and then at Nampala we had about AUD 500,000 of sustaining CapEx, and then the remainder was sort of CapEx at sort of growth CapEx at Kiniéro.
Excellent. Great quarter.
Yeah.
Thanks, guys. I'll leave it to the next one. Cheers.
Thanks.
Thanks, Paul.
Your next question comes from Mike Millikan at Euroz Hartleys. Please go ahead, Mike.
Yeah, thanks guys. A very good quarter. Just a very quick one from me. Given the recent news in Mali, any impacts at Nampala or everything's just business as usual?
Yeah. I mean, surprisingly there was very little impact. I mean, besides the sort of 24 hours itself. It was very quiet on site. The local village and surrounding communities were quiet. Yeah, we had a few flights canceled, but everything seems to be landing and working again now. It's surprising that that kind of thing has become business as usual in Mali, but it really just went on business as usual.
Well, good to hear. Just a very quick one from me, last one, is just exploration spend. What should we expect and what should the split be between, say, Kiniéro and Bankan, for example?
Well, we've got AUD 13 million left for exploration spend at Kiniéro. For Nampala, I don't have that number off the top of my head. I think it's about AUD 6 million for the year, but I can't really pitch that to anyone. It should be in one of our slide decks though.
Yeah, I'll check all that. No worries.
Sorry.
So-
I'll get back to you on it, but there is an exploration spend to extend the mine life out at Nampala just sort of stepwise, but I can't remember the exact number.
Yeah. Matt, it's AUD 6.6 million for the year.
Okay.
Yep.
Cool. Thanks.
At Nampala.
Any update on, say, the Argo license and a few other licenses within country as well in Guinea?
Look, there's no updates on them. It's. Yeah. Like, if there was any updates, I'd be announcing them, Paul.
Yeah. Okay.
We're not really chasing a lot, a third Guinea asset anyway. Yeah, obviously we'd like to get Argo back. Yeah, if the other permits fall away, we're not overly upset.
Yeah. Gotcha. No worries. Thanks very much, guys. Cheers.
Thanks, Mike.
There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Matt for closing remarks.
Thanks, Nathan. In wrapping up, I think our March quarter demonstrates the strength of the platform we're building, having brought these two companies together. We're delivering a step change of production, strong cash flow generation, and safe disciplined operations in both Kiniéro and Nampala. PDI is now a scaled, low-cost African gold producer with near-term growth funded from free cash flow. Bankan continues to advance towards construction readiness, positioning the company for its next phase of growth once the exploitation permit is awarded. Across the portfolio, the strategy is clear. Stabilize and optimize our producing assets, advance Bankan as a tier one development project, and continue to unlock value through targeted exploration at both Kiniéro and Bankan. Thanks very much for joining us.