Throughout the meeting.
An investor webinar and conference call. All attendees are in a listen-only mode. If you would like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the Raise Hand function within Zoom. For those phoning in, dial star nine. I will now hand over to Perseus Mining Executive Chairman and CEO, Jeff Quartermaine. Thank you, Jeff.
Thanks, Nathan, and Welcome to Perseus Mining's Quarterly Webinar to discuss our March 2023-2024 quarterly report that went to the market this morning. Unfortunately, our CFO, Lee-Anne de Bruin, won't be with me today. She's currently traveling, as we'll refer to later on, but I'll do my best to answer any financial questions as well, of course, any technical questions or questions of a more general nature about our business that you may have later in the call. The agenda for this webinar is that firstly, I'll provide you with an overview of what Perseus has achieved operationally during the March quarter, and then following and also actually following the quarter end. And then we'll have a Q&A session.
For those of you who are listening to the call on your computer, you should be able to track the presentation visually on your screen. As usual, I'll try and keep my presentation as brief as possible, as all the details that you need to understand our achievements this quarter are fully documented in the market release, that, as I say, was published earlier today. But before heading to the presentation, let me just highlight a few key points. Now, as the title of our quarterly report says, our team at Perseus has delivered another impressive operating performance this quarter. Not only in terms of gold production, all-in site costs and cash flows, but also in our business growth area, where we're endeavoring to progressively grow and upgrade the quality of our asset portfolio.
Now, one of the very pleasing things about our March quarter is the consistency of our operating performance, that underpins everything that we seek to do here at Perseus. Now, this quarter, we produced on average 1,416 ounces of gold per day, every day during the quarter, compared to 1,415 ounces per day in the December quarter. The contributions for each of the three mines was also very similar quarter- on- quarter, with Yaouré contributing about 48% of production, Edikan 39%, and Sissingué 13%. That's not to say that we didn't face challenges from time to time. We certainly did and do, but our team finds a way to deliver, and once again, this quarter, they've done this very, very well.
So notwithstanding the ups and downs of mining, I mean, after the first three months, and indeed actually just about the first four months of the six-month period for which we've provided market guidance on costs and production, we are once again well on track to comfortably achieve or possibly exceed, in the case of production, or come in underneath, in the case of costs, the guidance that we've given to the market for the six-month period to June 30. So in other words, we're just simply continuing to do what we promised to do, month in, month out, in line with our core value of achievement. So without further ado, let's look at the scoreboard and just see exactly what I'm talking about. So, let me just move that on. Okay, in terms of our operating and financial results.
So for the quarter, another, another strong performance. 127,471 ounces were produced for the quarter at an all-in site cost of $1,091 an ounce. That's up a little on our previous quarter for the reasons that we articulated last quarter, and I'll come back to this in just a moment. The average sale price was $2,025 an ounce, which is clearly up on the previous quarter, giving a cash margin of $934 per ounce, and generating a notional cash flow of near enough to $120 million for the quarter. Now, at the end of the period, we had $702 million of net cash and bullion in our bank.
And of course, no debt, $300 million of undrawn credit available, so near enough to $1 billion available to continue to fund the growth of the company and continue to return capital to shareholders. Now, you know, also, as I said, all three mines are performing well, consistently achieving or exceeding targets. The March quarter was no exception, and you can see from that chart that, you know, over a period now of extending from early 2020, you know, we've had a case of rising production in a period where the gold price has been rising. Our costs have been relatively flat, and so we've been progressively increasing the margin and happily being able to sell more gold into that rising market, which is, of course, the strong generation of cash.
We'll go running through the three mines. 661,283 ounces of gold from Yaouré. Yaouré is clearly our major contributor. The production cost was $874 per ounce, all-in site cost of $2,025. Now, we did predict last quarter that we would have a slight increase in all-in site costs at Yaouré this quarter and next quarter, in fact, as we work to recover from a period of time where we endured very wet conditions and also some struggles with our mining contractor. Now we are progressively making inroads into that.
I must say that, our mining contractor took exception to me publicly commenting on their performance last quarter, but, you know, the fact is that I wouldn't be commenting if they were hitting the target. So never mind, we're pushing through that and we're getting back on track. The cash margin of $984 per ounce, generating $60-odd million for the quarter, is very healthy. And the thing that is pleasing is that, on a reconciliation basis, the ore body is performing pretty well. I mean, in fact, actually it's +15% in terms of contained ounces. A lot more tons than we were expecting, and slightly down on grade. In terms of Edikan, Edikan's been a terrific performer yet again.
Near enough to 50,000 ounces, 49,096 ounces for the quarter. Performing very, very well right across the board. All of the metrics are pretty much online with where we were hoping to be, and at an all-in site cost of $982 per ounce. So, you know, Edikan, the mine that you know was not particularly well regarded by many early in the piece, is really performing very well. And you know, full credit to the team at Edikan for delivering that performance. Once again, you know, operating cash margin of $1,054 per ounce, so generating 50-odd million of free cash from the operations this quarter.
Similar to Yaouré, the reconciliation of the block model for the mill, you know, is pretty even on tons, 12% positive on grade, so up about 12% in terms of contained ounces, so that's pretty pleasing as well. Sissingué's also been moving along fairly well after a fairly disastrous wet season last year. We've made some pretty strong inroads into turning the performance around at Sissingué, and we're starting to see, you know, some reasonable results coming through. The costs are elevated relative to where we would've liked them to be, but there's a clear understanding of what that's about. And as I say, the performance of our contractor there is very strong and we're in much better shape to face the next wet season when it comes around.
Still the reconciliation to block model is very strong, you know, up 27% in terms of contained ounces. And we have been drilling around both Sissingué and the Fimbiasso pits. And you know, getting some pretty strong results from that, which look like we should be able to extend the life of the Sissingué operation by a couple of years. But we'll be saying more about that in due course, as the full sets of results come to hand. So the three operations are running very strongly, and that's put us into a position where, in terms of our half-year guidance of 226,000-254,000 ounces, we're really well positioned, and similarly on the cost side.
In fact, if we achieve our budgets for the next 2 months, we should be right at the top end of that range, if not a little over, and under the bottom end of that cost range. So once again, pushing along very nicely relative to the targets that we've set. In terms of our financial position, as I said, $702 million on the balance sheet at the end of March. Zero debt, with a $300 million undrawn line of credit. And that is, you know, that has been accumulated after paying taxes, paying dividends to shareholders, and generally contributing to our host communities and host government. So that's a fairly credible performance, I think, and certainly puts Perseus in a very strong position to look to the future.
Now, the thing about it is that you know, we are working in a very safe and constructive manner. Our safety stats are pretty well static on where they were previously. So we've been working very hard on our safety programs. We have a program called the SHED program, which is Safety Home Every Day, which, you know, keeps people very focused on their safety. And we also have a fatality risk management program, working with both our employees and our contractors. You know, the safety thing is very, very important for us, and it is challenging in an African setting, where people's cultural settings are different to what we might be used to in Australia.
But nevertheless, we are making very good inroads into that, and people are performing very well. As I say, in terms of contribution to community, that's also been particularly strong. About $143 million into the community into our host communities or countries, I should say, over the quarter. As we have reported in the past, very high local and national employment rates, about 95%. Our gender diversity is reasonably stable, but that's and it's low relative to Western terms, but I think that's a function of the cultural setting in which we operate, rather than anything else. Environmentally, we're working along, you know, as we're targeting, remaining fairly stable in terms of carbon emissions, et cetera, et cetera.
We've got no particular environmental incidents during the period. Now, I mentioned at the outset, organic growth. We have been working pretty hard on the exploration and study side of things to try to improve the life of mine, of each of the existing mines that we have. Now, we did put out a release in February, documenting details of exploration success at Yaouré, and also the Sissingué Fimbiasso operation. So anybody who would like to see the details should refer to that document. But the drilling has been going very, very well, particularly at Yaouré, around the CMA Underground, at depth, and also to the north, we seem to have identified another particular area we call Zain, which is well mineralized.
We're also getting some pretty interesting results out of the, Yaouré pit itself, actually. We're not sure we fully understand the structural complexity in there, but it certainly looks as if Yaouré, the Yaouré pit might be a little bit better than we anticipated. I mentioned before that we're working around the Fimbiasso area. We're also getting some pretty interesting results coming there. The assays indicate that mineralization is continuous down dipping along strike. You know, it doesn't go forever, but it's certainly enough to extend the life of the operation up there by a couple of years. So that's particularly encouraging. At Edikan, we, you know, have been looking at the mining lease and the adjacent exploration permits.
It's an interesting situation because a lot of our work at Edikan. Well, we started Edikan in 2012, so, you know, in the early years, when we were looking at various deposits, we were using a very much lower gold price for optimizations, et cetera, than what would be reasonable today. So we're going back to taking a look at some of those opportunities to see whether, in fact, with a higher gold price, we might be able to, you know, bring some of that mineralization into our reserve inventory. We're also looking at exploration works on the newly acquired, or relatively recently acquired, exploration permits. Work this quarter has been postponed while we've been gaining land consent and access.
This has been made a little bit more complicated because of the very highly elevated cocoa prices that are being experienced in West Africa. So people are a little reluctant to allow access to land if it means that they're not being compensated at current market rates for their cocoa trees. So there's been a fair bit of discussion around that, but we have actually reached agreement, and in fact, post the end of the quarter, the compensation money has been moving pretty freely. We'll be getting access and working there during the current quarter. The other thing that we've done on an exploration front, which is very interesting, I think, is that in January, we entered into a binding cooperation agreement with a division of Ajlan & Brothers, which is a large Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conglomerate.
Now, what we're going to be doing with our friends at Ajlan is investigating various projects located both in Saudi itself and also on the African continent, particularly up in the north, where having a partnership with people from Saudi would be beneficial from a geopolitical perspective. We're going to be looking at early-stage projects in the Kingdom, where the government is running a tendering program of tendering out properties to private companies. So that is one area that we'll be looking at. And as far as the North African projects are concerned, we are looking at early-stage things, but more likely we'll be pushing towards projects that are at PFS or DFS stage, and can be advanced into development in the medium term, using Perseus's in-house exploration and development skills.
So this is a very, very exciting opportunity, really. I mean, you know, how successful it is remains to be seen, for sure. But certainly, there, there's a lot of change going on on the African continent in terms of influence. The Saudis are very keen to invest in, in, in, in, the, the minerals industry, and we're very keen to work with them to see if there isn't some mutual benefit to be derived. In terms of project development, our Meyas Sand project in Sudan, as people are aware, activities were suspended for a period of time while the country sorts itself out.
We have reestablished ourselves fairly comfortably back on the site some time back, and a services contract has been signed with a local drilling contractor, aimed at testing the exploration targets on the Block 14 block, and also in the GSS pit. We do expect work to start on that in the June quarter, and we'll be, you know, accumulating further drill results. Now, one of the things that we will be doing as far as Meyas Sand is concerned, I mean, we're not looking to develop that project anytime soon, but we will continue to drill it. And we are planning to update the feasibility study that was done for the project, that was done under the CIM rules, which is the Canadian standards.
We will do that in order to be able to restate the reserve as a JORC-compliant ore reserve, rather than a foreign mineral reserve estimate. The point being that, at the present time, there's something like 2.85 million ounces in that deposit. We believe that we can extend that well beyond that, and of course, that will then be added to the existing reserves at the three mines, plus what we picked up through the Nyanzaga Project, which I'll talk about in a second. And that'll show that, you know, Perseus' total reserve inventory is pushing up towards 10 million ounces in reserves, which is a fairly healthy position to be. Now, speaking of the Nyanzaga Project, I guess people are well aware of the activities that Perseus has been involved with during the quarter.
Now, on the twenty-second of January this year, we announced our intention to make an off-market bid for all of the shares in OreCorp, who, of course, are the owner of an 86% contributing interest in the Nyanzaga Project in Tanzania. In March, we received the Tanzanian Fair Competition Commission approval for our offer, and as part of those negotiations, we agreed to increase the government's free carried interest from 16% to 20%. Later in March, we elevated our bid from AUD 0.55 to AUD 0.575, and that resulted in the OreCorp board recommending our offer to shareholders. Now, since then, things have moved pretty quickly.
So in April, post the end of the quarter, the offer was declared unconditional, having got over the 50.1% level, and we advised that we won't be—we weren't going to be raising the offer beyond that point. Now, on the seventeenth of April, you know, we passed the 90% ownership level in OreCorp, and we've commenced compulsory acquisition. So for all intents and purposes, Perseus, the deal is finished, formally closed on the nineteenth of April, and we've been moving forward ever since. Now, I've just got back from Tanzania, and in fact, I mentioned Lee-Anne, our CFO, earlier. She's on her way back from Tanzania.
We were over there with Matt Caven, our head of project development, and we've been talking to the Tanzanian government and all key stakeholders that you know, we could find around the place over the last week or so. I have to say that the response to Perseus becoming a partner of the government in Tanzania has been massively supportive and you know, overwhelmingly strong, as it has been on the site indeed. So we're looking forward very much now to moving this project forward very, very strongly. There'll be three streams of work commenced almost immediately. One will be completion of the housing relocation and landowner compensation program that had been previously started. The second is to bring in a number of drill rigs to drill out the ore body.
We believe there's a significant opportunity to extend the reserve beyond what had been previously stated with some additional infill drilling. And then the third line of work will be the front-end engineering and design program, aimed at putting ourselves into a position where we can make a final investment decision to develop the Nyanzaga project later in the year. And then go into development, and that should take about 18 months to two years to reach commercial production. So it's a very exciting opportunity, this, for us. It's going to add materially, we believe, to Perseus's fortunes going forward. And of course, given our cash balance, we're able to fund that off the balance sheet, which makes the whole progression of the project so much easier.
So very exciting, and you know, a lot of hard work's gone in over the last quarter, but it is starting to deliver some results for us and for our shareholders in particular. Now, one of the things that I've been you know, talking to shareholders about a lot in the last three months, you know, is our capital management strategy. Quite clearly, we're generating significant quantities of free cash, given the elevated gold prices and relatively low all-in site costs that we've been achieving. Now, you know, we have, over time, clearly articulated our plan to upgrade the asset- the quality of our asset portfolio through a combination of organic and inorganic means. And, you know, of course, to deliver this outcome in full, this will require us to use some of the cash reserves.
For instance, the OreCorp offer was a cash offer, and of course, we have the capital program coming through from there. Now, notwithstanding these growth plans, and the growth plans are certainly delivering, as I say, when you add up the reserve inventory at Nyanzaga, Meyas Sand, and Edikan, Yaouré, and Sissingué, it's becoming a very substantial number. Now, I'm not allowed to add them up myself, because one set of those results is under CIM and the rest is under JORC. But nevertheless, if you do the sums, you'll figure it out, that there's a very substantial portfolio of projects there, which gives Perseus, at this current time, at least three projects with a life of mine of well in excess of 10-15 years.
So a fairly sizable asset portfolio. Now, notwithstanding these growth plans, it is likely that there's going to be surplus cash available for distribution to shareholders over and above that which is payable under our existing dividend policy, which you'll recall, is set to deliver a minimum of 1% annual yield. Plus, what we've done in the past, of course, is to make various bonus dividend payments as well. Now, at the end of each half-year reporting period, our capital management plan is reviewed, and of course, this will happen once again at the end of or after thirtieth of June. And at that time, consideration will be given to the size and method of distribution of cash to shareholders.
So in the past, that additional distribution has taken the form of bonus dividends, but we'll also look to see whether we should be considering capital returns or share buybacks, which tend to be favored by some of our shareholders. So all in all, you know, Perseus's cash position is strong, and benefits should continue to flow to our shareholders. So in conclusion, as I said at the start of the call, we've had another strong quarter on all fronts, including gold production, all-in site costs, cash flow generation, and business development. Pleasingly, the work's been conducted in a safe manner, in line with the targeted standards, and in a way that has generated material benefits for all of our stakeholders, including our host governments, communities, employees, providers of goods and services, and our investors.
That is pleasing because that is the mission of Perseus Mining. Now, looking forward, our production and cost guidance for the six months to June thirtieth is looking likely to not only be achieved, but possibly even exceeded if we, if we, can stay on track. Our financial fortunes are strong, certainly helped by the buoyant gold prices, but our cash balance continues, you know, to remain very strong, notwithstanding the fact that we have used some cash recently to acquire the Nyanzaga Gold Project. We do need to fund that development, as I said, and we're currently estimating that that'll come in at a cost of $450 million-$500 million.
But we are continuing to generate very strong cash flows, given that every day we're currently producing around 1,500 ounces of gold at a cash margin, you know, of near enough to $1,250 per ounce at the present time, or that equates to about $1.875 million in national cash flow each day. Now, what we plan to do with this ever-growing cash balance is something, as I said earlier, that exercises the minds of both management and investors alike, not to mention our analyst friends who are on this call. Now, without disclosing our hand prematurely, let me assure you that we do intend to continue to grow our company and incrementally improve the quality of our asset portfolio.
At the same time, we do intend to continue to return capital to our shareholders in appropriate amounts and using appropriate mechanisms. You know, as I said, for some time, our capital management strategy has been based on the base dividend of generating a 1% yield, but we will look at this more closely, at the end of the quarter, and, as I say, watch this space. Now, finally, in conclusion, I do want to acknowledge the wonderful contribution made by all of the men and women that make up the Perseus Board, management, and operating teams in what is now five countries.
As a team, you've continued to do an outstanding job, and I sincerely thank everyone on behalf of all of our shareholders and our board, for all your efforts in helping us to continue to deliver on your promises. Thank you, everyone, for your attention today. This brings to an end my presentation, and I'm happy now to take any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff. 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 David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research. Please go ahead, David.
Hi. Good morning, Jeff. So just a couple from me. Firstly, on Nyanzaga, maybe can you give a bit of a timeframe of what you're thinking for the infill drilling and study before you can really come back to the market with sort of your take on the project and putting your stamp on it? Obviously, there's been a number of approaches thought about over the years, you know, from Barrick with a very large open pit to then more self-funding models and even things like an underground. So any color you can put on what you're currently thinking would be appreciated.
Yeah, okay. Look, well, look, we obviously did a lot of technical work as part of our due diligence study for this acquisition. And as part of that work, we formed the view that the, the best way to develop that deposit was to use a large-scale open pit, as opposed to the development plan that had been fashioned by OreCorp, that seemed more, aligned to attracting project finance rather than optimally, developing that, that deposit. So we're reasonably certain that that is the right way to go, and that's certainly, you know, being applauded by the government in the sense that it's, it's making better use of scarce national resources, and it's also giving Perseus a much longer life project as well, I might say. Now, as I mentioned during my early presentation, that we're gonna be commencing drilling very, very shortly.
We've been talking to people in country about rigs, which are currently available, and so they'll be getting going very, very shortly. The timeframe is, as I said, we would like to reach a final investment decision by the end of this year, which means that between now and then, we'll do detailed design, upgrading the reserve, upgrading the life of mine plan, and coming up with definitive cost estimate for the project. That should be all done by the end of the year, and then we'll move into development from there.
Brilliant! And then, if I can have a follow-up on Yaouré. Obviously, tracking well above guidance, is there anything fundamental that we should be thinking in terms of the change of grade or throughput for the current quarter? And then in terms of the mill throughput, obviously, the last couple of years, you've done 3.9 million tons. This year, tracking to sort of be below that, despite having, you know, sprint capacity, I guess the mill has actually shown it can do over 4 for periods of time. So are we just seeing a more constrained capacity going forward, or is this year a one-off?
No, look, it's there's nothing abnormal that's going on there. I mean, I should point out the capacity of the mill, the design capacity of the mill is 3.6 million tons. So the fact that we've been doing well above has been a function of how well the plant's actually been operating. But, I mean, the thing is, what we are trying to do, and this has been part of the part of the, you know, the thoughts around bringing on the underground mine at CMA, is to keep a reasonably consistent feed grade, which will be a combination. At the present time, it's all coming from the CMA pit, but into the future, it'll come from the CMA underground and the Yaouré open pit.
And what we're looking to do is to blend that material, keep a reasonably steady grade, and to keep the production profile reasonably steady out into the future. I mean, it does dip off as we stand today, towards the end of the life of mine that we published. When was that? Late last year, I think it was. But, you know, that is expected to change as we drill further down, dip on the CMA Underground. We've only gone down about 500 meters at this particular point, so we do expect to see a lot more material brought from the underground, and that, you know, when that gets into the mine plan, we'll see a continuation of production around, you know, current quantities and, or, you know, and grade. So that's the, that's the ultimate plan.
I think the dip down in throughput this quarter might have been a function of an elongated mill shutdown that we experienced at Sissingué there. We had to do a pretty major reline, which had a bit of an impact on, on throughput for the period. But look, there's nothing, nothing untoward at, at Yaouré. The big challenge for us is, as I said last quarter, to get ourselves back on track as far as waste removal is concerned, because we did fall behind our plan in the December quarter. You know, a lot of work is going into that at the present time.
The contractor is bringing additional equipment onto the site in terms of diggers and trucks and drills and the like, and, you know, more material will be moved, and we should be back on track, you know, around the middle of the year. Not necessarily thirtieth of June, but plus or minus a bit, and we'll be on track, and, things will move forward from there. But Yaouré's been quite a revelation, I must say. Very, very productive mine. And interestingly enough, we have similar thoughts about the Nyanzaga project as well. We think that, you know, perhaps a bit unloved by some of the experts out there, but, we believe that under our stewardship, we can deliver a fine project. And if we can do as well as Yaouré, we'll be in good shape.
Brilliant. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alex Park at Citi. Please go ahead, Alex.
I can't hear, Alex. You might be on mute. Are you?
Hi, Jeff. Given you've progressed on Nyanzaga, is there still any appetite for Newmont's Akyem asset?
Well, look, somebody did ask me this on the last webinar. We said at that stage of the game, we would take a look at it. We have taken a look at it, and we'll be communicating with Newmont in due course on that particular one. At this stage, there's nothing further that I'd like to add.
Right. And then just on Nyanzaga again. So are you thinking that your approach would be a larger open pit, with no underground component to that?
Well, it's a large open pit, but depending on what happens when we get towards the bottom of the pit and what the drilling results are, you know, we may well go underground. Because, you know, there is certainly a very-- well, apparently a, you know, a very rich period, a zone of, of high enrichment towards what the bottom of the scheduled open pit is. Now, how far that mineralization extends is something that deeper drilling will determine. And if there's an opportunity to go underground off the bottom of the pit in a similar fashion to what we've done at Yaouré, then that's something that we'll look at very, very carefully as we, as we get further down there. But, certainly the initial period, and we're talking, you know, 14, 15 years as it currently stands, is, is through an open pit operation.
But, yeah, no, if we can find, if we can find mineralization at depth, so we'll be certainly going after it.
Great! Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Jeff for closing remarks.
All right. Well, thank you very much, Nathan, and thanks, everybody for being on the call today. As I said, another strong quarter, and we will continue to deliver those sorts of outcomes we expect in coming periods. It is very exciting for Perseus and for our shareholders on where we're currently positioned. And, you know, there are some really great opportunities there to kick some serious goals, and that's what we'll be trying to do. So thank you very much. Look forward to talking to you further later in the year.