Morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Webinar for its June 2021 Quarterly Activity Report. All attendees are in a listen only mode. I will now hand over to Perseus Mining's Managing Director and Chief Executive, Geoff Quartermaine. Thank you, Geoff.
Thank you very much, Nathan, and welcome to Perseus Mining's June quarter webinar. This morning, I'd like to provide listeners with an overview of our June 21 quarterly report that we released to the market early today And then follow-up with a Q and A session to address any issues that aren't clear either from the report or from a presentation. Now at the risk of being accused of repeating myself each quarter, can I say that Perseus has once again recorded another strong quarterly performance this quarter, This time producing 102,780 ounces of gold, 16% more than the March quarter and 50% more than in the December quarter? In the process, we generated a cash margin of US605 dollars roughly Aussie per ounce for every ounce we produced and that resulted in notional cash flow of US62.1 £2,100,000 for the quarter and an increase in our net cash position of over £50,000,000 quarter on quarter. I think it's safe to conclude that Perseus is doing what we said we would do in terms of transitioning our company into a reliable multi mine, multi mid tier gold producer And putting ourselves firmly on a course to achieve our stated aim of producing 500,000 ounces or more of gold per year at A cash margin of US400 dollars per ounce or more from fiscal 'twenty two onwards.
During the quarter, each of our 3 mines including Edikan in Ghana as well as Sissingue and Yayori in Cote d'Ivoire has performed very well. In fact, both Yaiori and Sissingue comfortably exceeded the top end of their respective guidance ranges for both the June half year And the full financial year, the 30 June, compensating for Edikan that lags slightly behind its targets. As a group, we produced 191,246,000 ounces In the half year and 328,632 ounces for the full year. And not only have we broken our own production records, but we have in the process Exceeded the top end of the market production guidance range for bad periods for the group. Now, if I am sounding a little too self congratulatory to some of this tastes by highlighting these achievements, This is not intended, but it is worth noting that Persis has come a very long way over the last few years.
And at times like this, it's worth pausing Very briefly to recognize what has been achieved. Now these results are the result of a lot of hard work and resilience in challenging circumstances What is now a first class team of people that Perseus employs, straight across 3 operating mine sites and several exploration sites West Africa, local offices in Accra and Abidjan and of course our corporate office here in Perth. And not to overlook The contribution made by our Board of Directors has guided the management team during this period. So, sincere thanks goes to all who have contributed, including their families, I should say, who have provided a lot of support while we have battled the COVID pandemic in recent times. I should also note that what has been achieved This occurred in a reasonably sustainable manner as was reported in our very comprehensive 2020 sustainability report That was released to the market early in the June quarter and which was well received by the investing public that it seems to be becoming increasingly focused on these areas along with their army of advisers and rating agencies.
So in summary, as a company, Perseus performed very strongly once again during the June quarter And it continues to be in a very good place. And for those of you who haven't yet had an opportunity to read our June quarterly in any detail, Let me briefly talk in a bit more depth about the key elements of the performance and then open up to questions. So firstly, let's Discuss the Yaoyi mine, which as you know is our newest operation. We produced 37,343 ounces The gold at Yaoy during the quarter or 59,438 ounces for the half year, comfortably above our production guidance for the June half of 48,000 to 50 2,000 ounces. Our all in site cost for the half year was US10.36 dollars an ounce, which was below the guided range of I should note that this is actually the all in site costs for the June quarter only since prior to declaring commercial production on 30 All costs were capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Now this was quite a remarkable performance by the team at Yaiori. During the half year period, they managed to commission the plant and ramp up production while confronting and successfully addressing 3 separate events of significant equipment Very little, which happened during commissioning in the March quarter. They also had to endure power rationing by the Ivorian Power Authority during the June quarter. That meant from about mid May on, we ran on reduced power draw for a significant portion of each day. And notwithstanding these challenges, The team found a way to live by one of our core values and deliver on our promises by doing what we said we would do.
Now in regards to the power issue in Cote D'ivoire, this was a bit of a wake up call for us and we've since installed and commissioned a Backup 18 Megawatt Power Station at Yaiori. Not only that, the Ivorian Power Authority seem to have sorted out There are issues, so all is good on that front. And as of earlier this month, month of July, our power allocation was increased And we've been operating largely unimpeded. We do plan to release an updated life of loan plan for Yaiori in mid August. It's But this will coincide with the release of our group reserve and resource statement update that we normally publish each year slightly ahead of the release of our financial report for the year ending 30 June.
That will come out around About the 20 something or 20th, I think it is, of August. This year, we've added incrementally to the Yaoro reserve resource inventory. And rather than confusing the picture by releasing these documents separately, we held back the life of mine plan and the 2 documents will be released around the same time. As I said, this life of land plan is based on a mineral resource that includes a modest increase compared to the original DFS, but it will not include the additional resources resulting from the recent drilling of Gayore underground targets. When these additional resources We'll expect that they'll materially increase life of mine, but further updates on this will be provided later in the year and beyond that.
The life of mine plan update will, however, reflect actual costs and this I expect will show an improvement in project economics relative to the DFS. So, Yaiori is up and running very successfully. And having visited the site myself early in the June quarter, I can say that it's everything that we had hoped it would be. So far this month, we've been feeding 100% high grade fresh ore from the CMA pit into the mill And the results are very encouraging indeed. Let me just say that without going into detail, Very encouraging.
And our other Ivorian mines are singing. We produced 23,224 ounces Gold Bear during the quarter or 48,763 for the half year. Once again comfortably above our production guidance range of 39,500 to 43,000 ounces for the June half. Our all in site costs for the period were CAD7.15 an ounce, which was in the guided range of CAD6.50 Mining costs have gone up a little at Sissingue as we got deeper into the Stage 3 pit relative to the last half year. And this quarter, we've also been impacted by in USD terms, U.
S. Dollar terms, by strengthening of the euro and therefore the SEPA against the U. S. During This has impacted particularly the cost of diesel, which as you know is used not only in the mining fleet but also to fuel the Sissingue power station. Now to cite this, it's been a very good year for Sissingue, this financial year.
From a production point of view, everything has run extremely well month in month out. We've exceeded most, if not all, our production KPIs such as runtime grade recovery. And this has enabled us to produce a total of 104,672 ounces of gold during the year at a weighted average all in site cost of US6.76 dollars per ounce. Now with the strong gold price that we've enjoyed throughout the year, this has enabled us to generate close to BRL105 1,000,000 in notional cash flow from Sissingue alone. Now those who've been following us for a while would remember that that's pretty much what it cost us to build this particular mine.
Now given that the capital investment into sinking was fully repaid in early 2020, this cash goes straight through to equity representing Another win for SINGI during the quarter, or should I say, it was a couple of days after the end of the quarter, Occurred when President Mutara, the Ivorian President signed a decree granting the long awaited exploitation permit for the It's been a while coming, but with the license now issue, we can plan the future with confidence. We've also been putting the final touches onto a definitive feasibility study for the Antoinette, Juliet and Veronique Deposits which are located on the Bagway exploration tenant. This DFS along with an environmental and social impact assessment We'll be lodged with the mineral commission in early August along with an application for an exploitation payment to cover this area. Now, We're confident that now that the concept of satellite mining has been accepted by the Ivorian government The issue of the Fimbiaso EP, the Bagway EP should be approved reasonably quickly. In any event, Once the Bagway DFS is finalized, we'll set about preparing an optimized life of mine plan for what is a combined Sissingue can be our Sibagwe operation.
We do expect that this will extend the life of the operation at Sissingue beyond Fiscal 'twenty four, even if there is no more discovered on any of the licenses, which at this stage seems really unlikely. Anyway, in summary, fiscal 2021 has been a great year for Sissingue. The next few years will not be as strong production wise unless we find some more very high grade ore, But provided we can keep our costs under control and keep on producing gold in reasonable quantities, we'll still Continue to generate incremental cash flow and there's certainly nothing wrong with doing that. Now turning to the Edikan mine, June quarter production was 42,221 ounces at $12.17 an ounce, a little bit below our expectations both in terms of reduction in costs, even though it did represent an incremental improvement on both the March and the December quarters. We had, in fact, actually hoped to Done a little better than that.
But anyway, in terms of the half year, we produced 83,045 ounces of gold at £12, £13, which compared favorably to the December half, but as I say, came up a little bit short on our half year Market guidance parameters. There were several reasons for this. During the period, 2 of our key contract Maintenance fell behind schedule, reducing the availability of equipment at critical time set, meaning that we didn't have access to the ore that we were planning to access during the period. And I'm talking about Some relatively high grade ore in the AG pit. This material hasn't gone anywhere.
It just simply meant that it wasn't mined during the period when we were hoping to have mined it. And that what it also meant was that we needed to supplement our mill feed with ore from other sources, including low grade, run of mine stockpiles. This changed the grade and the hardness of the ore feed, which affected throughput rates and this all affected production. The other factor related specifically to the Fetish pit, which is the other main pit, a main ore source during the quarter. Now as noted in our March quarter, reconciliation between process tonnes and grade of All relative to the mineral resource block models for the finished pit was below standards below industry standards and this continued into early April.
So, To address the issue, we promptly embarked on a program of infill drilling. We drilled about 1100 odd meters in 9 RC holes. And we subsequently updated our geological interpretation of the Fetish ore body, including a narrowing of some high grade gold bearing structures. And we updated the Fetish mineral resource model accordingly to more closely reflect the tonnes and grades that were being picked up by grade control in the March Quarter ending April result. Now as a result, grade and reconciliation improved through from May onwards.
But when we look at the quarter as a whole, the grade of ore produced through Benish was also lower than originally planned And this also directly impacted gold production. Pleasingly though, things have got back on track and in the month Both in June and in July. And certainly in July, we're I think this morning, that was up to 18th, we're about 8% above our budgets So, in fact, Edikan seems to have got back to back on track. Look, Edikan has never been an easy mine, but We are a fairly resilient bunch and have become quite adept at identifying problems and addressing them fairly quickly and successfully. Now that said, the challenges we have encountered at Edikan over the years was the prime mover for us employing a corporate strategy of diversifying our production portfolio And adding additional mines in the different jurisdictions, which is exactly what we did by developing the Sissingue and the Yaiori mines.
Now from time to time, each of our minds will go through good periods and not separate periods. But across the group, we do expect to be able to consistently meet Our group budgets and achieve or even exceed our group goals. This is certainly what has happened across the portfolio in the June quarter, The June half year and the 2020 financial year 2021 financial year. And we've got the expectation that will be again repeated in the coming periods. Now Speaking of coming periods, we have provided production and cost guidance to the market in our quarterly report for the 6 month 12 month periods to 31 December 2021.
Now across the group, we're expecting in the 6 month period to produce somewhere Between 225,000 and 255,000 ounces at an all in site cost of £9.25 to 1025, you can read in the report how that's broken down between the various mines. Supposed to say that the greater proportion of that goal will be coming from Yaiori. What that means in terms of the calendar year is that this Calendar year, we'll be producing somewhere like 416,000 to 446,000 ounces in the range of 975 to 1035 ounces. Now, look, as a general rule, and with a measure of prudence involved, Perseus typically provides guidance to the market for 6 months in advance only. We're following that approach again this year, but I will say that we do expect A slide picked up in production in the June half year twenty twenty two, which means that our forecast that we produce in excess of 500,000 ounces The goal from fiscal 2022 onwards remains firmly intact and firmly within our sites.
Turning to our financial position throughout the June quarter, we've continued to improve our balance sheet strength Through generating strong cash flows and, dare I say, our prudent financial management. International cash flow from operations of US62 $1,000,000 that we generated this quarter allowed us to reduce debt by US30 $1,000,000 Fund exploration at all three sites, pay all manner of taxes, including income tax in Ghana, pay dividends to the government in Cote D'Ivoire, High corporate overheads and still retained a cash and bullion balance at the end of March of US156 $1,000,000 giving us a net cash position of US50 6 after taking into account our outstanding debt of $100,000,000 So this net cash position is US50.3 million dollars better than The position at the end of March, so a material improvement. Clearly, we're benefiting from a strong gold price, but we're also benefiting from strong production growth at the same time. In that sense, the timing of our production growth has been very fortuitous. And on that basis, if the gold price remains strong in coming periods, as many expect it will, then it's not unreasonable to expect further growth in our balance Now before someone asked me at the end of the session whether we continue to hedge the price of a small percentage of our gold production, the answer is yes.
We are currently price hedged to the extent of about 20% of our projected production over the next 3 years at a weighted average price of $15.95 per ounce. This average price is about So, 43 more than at the end of the March book due to our policy of where possible delivering into low price hedges and replacing them with higher percentages. Now, this has enabled us to average up the value of the book to this level, Where it's well in excess of our weighted average all in site costs, ensuring that even for the hedge downs, since we can comfortably exceed our stated target of achieving a cash margin of $400 or more for our production. I should also say that during the very dark years of 2013 2014 when the industry was staring over the abyss with very low gold prices, Perseus had a Hedge book of $1600 an ounce. And it was that hedge book back in 2013 2014 that probably saved this company From oblivion basically.
So having a hedge book such as we've got, we think is very beneficial in terms of ensuring Our business can continue to operate under all manner of price conditions. Now speaking of the future, as I did when commenting on our balance sheet growth, our Plans for the future growth of Perseus' business is also a very regular topic of conversation with investors and analysts. Now, as I've already mentioned, we are close to completing the DFS, the development of several deposits located on the Bagway exploration tenement. And we do We plan to publish the updated life of mine plan for the Sissingue operation in the September quarter. As said, this will incorporate Recently discovered extensions of the Sissingue mineralization as well as Bagway and the Fimbiasa deposits.
Now without preempting the full outcome of that planning exercise, the life of the Alsissingue will certainly extend it and we do expect to get further exploration Now speaking of exploration success, we've also embarked on a very significant exploration program, Currently expected to take at least 3 years, during which we'll thoroughly examine a number of exploration targets that have been Identified very close to existing infrastructure at each of Yaiori, Edikan and Sissingue. And if we can achieve what we think is possible, we will materially add to Our reserve and resource inventory. At this stage, we're predicting the biggest bang for BAP to come from Work adjacent to Yaiori and also Edikan. We previously talked about the underground opportunities at Yaiori that we think will materially extend the life of That moment, there's also a number of very interesting opportunities coming up at Yaiori that are accessible from the surface. And we get the feeling that we've hardly scratched the surface in that part of the world.
As far as EDICAD is concerned, we've also Recently started drilling at the Bremen prospect that we talked about that's on the Agikusu permit, where significant mineralization It's been identified on the surface in artisanal mine workings. Now getting access to this land has been a challenge, But I'm delighted to say that the rigs are turning at Bremen and we are very optimistic about our prospects and success. And I'm sure you'll forgive us if we are somewhat circumspect in reporting the exploration success in coming periods. Finding gold mineralization is not a huge challenge in West Africa, I have to say, but securing the rights to develop and monetize that Before anyone else moves in does involve a little bit more effort. So that said, we do hope to be able to progressively inform the market on our exploration results as they come through.
So in terms of growth, clearly the organic growth avenue that we're pursuing It's well and truly in our sights and looks like it has the potential to generate some pretty interesting outcomes. I should also say at this point that Potential inorganic business growth opportunities involving either mergers or acquisitions are also regularly assessed by our in house Interestingly, in the last couple of weeks, I've been told by several people that they have it on good authority that Perseus is allegedly Ready to pounce on a range of different companies, some more improbable than others. Let me assure you that if we do decide to transact, Two things are certain. One is the market will be kept fully informed before the individual investors, I might say, And that the transaction will be in the best interest of our shareholders. And then those things go without saying.
Given the challenges of implementing value We're not pinning our hopes on this activity for delivering growth in the immediate future, preparing, as I said, to focus on near mine and early growth exploration strategies, but we are looking For the right opportunities. So in conclusion, as I said at the start of the call, the June quarter has been yet another very good Our production is strong. Our costs are under control. We're managing our business We are looking to grow our business And we are now in a position where our shareholders can very recently expect to start to receive an income stream from Perseus By way of dividend or share buyback, both of which we should be positive for our share price in due course and both of which are being looked at fairly closely as we speak. Our share price has already performed strongly in recent times relative to our peers And it does appear as if the quality of Perseus' performances and earnings capacity is being recognized by the market.
So as far as we're concerned, it's all good. And I'm now very happy to take any questions that you may have. Thanks very much.
Your first two questions come from Reg Spencer at Canaccord. He congratulates you on the quarter. And then his First question is, can you remind me how much of Edikan reserves are represented by Fetish?
Off the top of my head, I can't give you an accurate answer, but it's pretty clear if you have a look at the published information. It's not an enormous amount. And I should say that The issue that we had last quarter and early this quarter was simply the result of paucity of drilling in one small part of the pit. So, I wouldn't take it, but that is going to have a material impact on the overall gold that's taken from that finished deposit.
Thank you. And the second one is regarding dividend policies. So he's just asked, can we expect an announcement of a dividend policy with FY21 result 'twenty one results based on expected profitabilitycash flow.
Yes. Look, without speaking on behalf of the Board, I think it's Fair to say that that will happen. We are looking at that very closely. One of the things that we need to do is to have a get our thoughts out of our house in order to enable payments of dividends out of the parent company. And that's something that we're looking at now.
But certainly, the opportunity to Our pay dividends has always been within our mind from this period onwards. Once we could see A pretty clear line of sight to a consistent cash flow. I think we are at that point now. And so there's very little reason why We would not announce the dividend policy when we release the full year results in August.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Jeff for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, look, thanks very much, Nathan, and Thanks, listeners, for tuning in today. As I said, it's been a strong quarter for Perseus, another strong quarter. And we're looking forward quite optimistically to the next quarter and beyond that. And if the start to July is any indicator, then We'll be having another decent report to bring to you very shortly.
So thank you very much and we will speak again shortly.