Please use the re-
2026 quarter report. I'm joined on the call today by our Chief Financial Officer, Lee-Anne de Bruin. It was a good quarter for Perseus, and looking at our operating performance for the quarter, we produced 107,000 oz of gold, which was up 18,000 oz on the December quarter. The higher production was achieved from all three of our operating mines. The weighted average all-in site cost was $1,748 /oz , which was lower than the previous quarter of $1,800/oz , and that's mainly due to the higher production. We achieved a realized gold sale price of $4,143 an ounce, which was $706 an ounce more than the previous quarter. Our average cash margin for the quarter was $2,394 /oz , and that gave us a notional operating cash flow of $252 million from all of the operations.
We finished the quarter with AUD 817 million of net cash in bullion. Lee-Anne will speak to that later on in the call. Given the current global market situation, I just want to address the diesel situation. We acknowledge there's a fuel supply uncertainty globally at the moment, and we continue to closely monitor our fuel supply availability, our consumption levels, and our inventory positions to mitigate the risk of operational disruption in the short to medium term. We have fuel supply contracts with reputable fuel suppliers who provide us regular updates regarding our fuel stock levels and broader supply chain conditions. At this stage, we don't have any foreseeable fuel restrictions. In terms of cost, diesel is approximately 10% of our group's all-in site costs. If we see sustained higher diesel costs, there may be some limited impact on our cost base.
The quarter, we made some important changes to our portfolio. Firstly at our Nyanzaga project, our drilling program enabled us to deliver an updated ore reserve, which increased our ore reserve by 73% to 4 ,000,000 oz of gold since the Nyanzaga feasibility study was completed in April 2025. That increase is underpinned by 83,000 m of drilling that was completed since May 2024. The increased ore reserve has extended Nyanzaga's mine life to 16 years from 11 years, including 14 years of production at greater than 200,000 oz of gold per annum. In terms of the project itself, there's been good progress at site and during the quarter, and it remains on track for first gold in January 2027.
In another development last month, we announced our decision to sell our 70% interest in the Meyas Sand Gold Project in Sudan, and this followed a lengthy review of the project and consideration of both development and divestment options. We decided that divestment of the project was the best option for Perseus, and it allows us to reallocate internal resources to our existing internal development opportunities. That transaction was completed yesterday, and all funds have been received. We also made an investment of AUD 23.7 million in gold explorer Aurum Resources. We participated in Aurum's recent strategic share placement, taking a 9.9% interest in the issued shares of the company.
Aurum's an emerging ASX-listed explorer with their key asset being the Boundiali Gold Project, which is a 3 ,000,000 oz pre-development and pre-study project in Côte d'Ivoire, and it's located to the South and just along strike of our Sissingué Gold Mine and processing hub. The northernmost tenements are adjacent to the company's current active mining area at Bagoé. At Yaouré, we achieved a strong quarter with increased gold production and positive cash flow. Overall gold production for the Yaouré open pit and CMA Underground was 36,000 oz of gold at an all-in site cost of $2,049 /oz . A key milestone for our CMA Underground development at Yaouré was achieved in January with first ore coming from the Blika portal, and 1,600 oz of gold has been produced from the CMA Underground during the quarter.
Yaouré produced $68 million of notional cash flow during the quarter. The underground is making great progress, and we'll commence stoping operations early in this quarter that we're in now. For Edikan, we produced 45,000 oz of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,539 /oz . While our AISC was stable for the quarter, the government of Ghana has implemented a new royalty regime that came into effect in early March, introducing a sliding scale structure. Under this framework, royalty rates increase progressively in line with rising gold prices and are capped at a maximum of 12% when the gold price exceeds $4,500 /oz . Some of the increase in royalty will be offset or has been offset by reductions in other levies.
The Growth and Sustainability Levy rate was reduced from 3% down to 1% of gross revenue, and this was implemented at the end of March. A 6% levy on the supply of goods and services has also been removed, providing some relief. Edikan produced a net cash flow of AUD 124 million for the quarter, and notably, the Fetish and Esuajah North pit cutbacks made progress during the quarter with approvals being received by the government, and mining has commenced at Fetish early in quarter four. Our Sissingué operation saw production increase with the ramp up at the Bagoé Antoinette deposit, an associated increase in grade and tonnes milled. The complex produced 25,000 oz of gold during the quarter at a weighted average all-in site cost of $1,708 /oz .
Production costs decreased by about 20%, and that was due to the higher proportions of the oxide material that's being mined at the Bagoé deposit. The net cash flow generated by the complex for the quarter was AUD 60 million, compared with AUD 25 million last quarter. Overall, it was a very good quarter for Sissingué. Looking ahead, we remain on track to deliver our FY 2026 production and cost guidance with gold production between 400,000 oz and 440,000 oz , and all-in site cost between $1,600/oz and $1,760 /oz . I think now I'll hold it. I'll hand over to Lee-Anne and she can talk to the financial aspects of our quarter.
Thanks, Craig. As Craig alluded to, the strong operational performance from our three sites and with our dedicated teams has delivered a solid financial quarter, assisted by our increased exposure to the gold price upside with the hedge book being rolled off. This has allowed for continued delivery against our stated capital management objectives. As Craig said earlier, we ended the quarter with cash and bullion of AUD 817 million, which was up AUD 62 million on the last quarter. This was despite our strong investment in our growth projects, Nyanzaga, CMA Underground and ongoing exploration. Perseus' liquidity is growing and is sitting at $1.2 billion, and this includes a AUD 400 million undrawn debt facility that was secured in December 2025.
Importantly, this number of $1.2 billion excludes our $245 million of liquid investments in relation to Predictive Discovery and Aurum, and excludes the $260 million that we received in April in relation to the Meyas Sand Gold project, should I say. During the quarter, Perseus' board also then approved a $0.05 per share interim dividend, equating to $46 million, so this was up 100% on the prior year period, interim period last year. Where available, trading opportunities existed, we continued to execute our buyback in the market. Our share buyback program did a total of $26 million in the quarter at an average price of $5.39.
As mentioned earlier, we continued to wind down our committed hedge position during the quarter with a further reduction from 11%-9% of the three-year forecast production. The increase in cash and bullion to AUD 800 million gives consideration to the operational cash flows of AUD 217 million that were delivered from our operations. Capital investment in our growth projects. There was AUD 63 million in the quarter invested in progressing the Nyanzaga growth project or gold project. We then had AUD 18.6 million invested in the development of the CMA Underground. Exploration drilling at all of our assets equated to AUD 8 million, and there was ongoing sustaining capital included in numerous TSF works across all three of our sites. We purchased a 9.9% share in Aurum for AUD 24 million.
Importantly, we continued contributions to our host countries with $42 million in corporate and other taxes being paid. We also then returned, as you can see and I mentioned earlier, to our shareholders $64 million, which included the interim dividend paid and $26 million on the share buyback. Just flag this to show that we are tracking the all-in site cost that we always track to at Perseus versus the all-in sustaining cost which the World Gold Council reports on. The key differences here is really the produced versus sold metric that we use as the denominator. We had an accumulation of inventory movements, which was largely inventory buildups at Yaouré with increased mining and building up of stockpiles. In addition, a small impact as a result of a shipment timing at Sissingué.
With that, I'll hand back to Craig to talk about our growth projects.
Thank you, Lee-Anne, and a great set of financial results as well for the quarter. Nyanzaga Gold Project, as I mentioned earlier, remains on budget and schedule with the first gold anticipated in January 2027. Overall, the project progress has reached 48% complete by the end of the quarter, and the total cost incurred to date is $220 million. As of March 31st, the project recorded over 5.4 million hours worked with no lost time injuries. The workforce has increased to more than 3,162 personnel and continues to ramp up in line with construction activity. Significant progress was made over the period on all major procurement associated with the project. Sorry, all major procurement associated with the processing plant is complete.
The fabrication of the mills, the gyratory crusher, and the thickeners have been completed and are in transit to site. Structural steel fabrication has reached 78% completion, and progressive site deliveries are underway. The TSF construction has commenced and is ahead of schedule. The pre-strip mining activities have commenced. The carbon-in-leach tanks installation is ongoing, with the first four tanks nearing their full strike height, and the non-process infrastructure is also progressing well. I look forward to continuing to provide more updates on this transformational project over coming months. Head to the next slide. The CMA Underground project at Yaouré is also progressing well. As mentioned earlier, we had our first ore mined out of the Blika portal in January, paving the way for production from the first stope, which will be early in the June quarter.
At the end of the March quarter, nearly 1,600 m of lateral development had been achieved, and the high voltage electrical power supply to the underground portals was also completed. The project is making great progress. We've spent around $63 million and the stoping ore which is coming out this quarter is an important feed for the Yaouré mill. From a sustainability perspective, we've had a strong focus on vehicles and driving across the business, with the implementation of a number of key initiatives including a review of our vehicle and driving standards, delivering defensive driver training, and progressive installation of vehicle and driver monitoring systems. This effort reflects the reality that vehicles associated with mining and particularly remote operation remains our highest safety risk. Very key and very important focus for the business at the moment from a safety perspective.
Our safety indicators remain strong with a TRIR of 0.75. As I've said before, our statistics only tell part of the story, that true safety performance is measured in human outcomes, and we continue to drive ongoing safety improvements across our business. In terms of our economic contributions in the countries that we operate, our total economic contribution for the quarter was AUD 282 million, including AUD 179 million in local procurement, AUD 91 million in taxes and royalties, and AUD 1.3 million in direct community contributions. We maintain about 95% of our workforce coming from the host countries from which we operate, which really does reflect a genuine commitment to building local capability, just not for our operations today, but for our future growth opportunities as well. This was a great quarter for Perseus.
We delivered a strong operating performance and continued to build on our cash position while making meaningful progress on our strategic growth projects. We made some significant portfolio improvements and all while maintaining high sustainability standards. With a strong balance sheet, high margin operations and a clear growth path, we believe we're well positioned to continue to deliver strong long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you, and I'll now open the floor up to questions.
Thank you. 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, Craig, Lee-Anne. Thanks for the call. Just a couple of cost questions maybe to start with. Firstly, you mentioned that 10% of the all-in site cost was diesel. Is that an average over the past quarter or is that using current spot prices? Just trying to get a feel for where that sits.
Yeah. That would have been in our average for the financial year. It would have been with spot prices probably in about February.
Okay. What are spot prices? What do they look like now relative to February?
It's slightly different for all the jurisdictions, Richard. It's hard to say. For example, Côte d'Ivoire is extremely regulated. We're not seeing the massive increases. For example, in Ghana, which is slightly less regulated, we are sort of seeing the roll-on of the spot effects there. We're seeing sort of similar to what you're seeing in the Australian market in Ghana, where prices are going up probably 50%.
Got it. Okay. Okay, fine. At Nyanzaga, just in terms of procurement, I think you mentioned that everything's been procured basically. Is there any scope for cost escalation there? Or is that pretty much complete now?
I think if you look at what we've spent and committed, we're I think roughly 60-something percent of the project's committed.
Yeah, correct.
All the major items are covered. Short answer is we think it's manageable. We're running through kind of all of our definitive estimate work at the moment, and we'll obviously update the market when that's completed. We're not seeing anything at this point in time that's giving us any concern.
Yeah, nothing material. I mean, a large amount of our procurement was contracted and secured last year. I'm not seeing anything on the major material items.
Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks. Finally, just on Aurum. I know you're limited in what you can say, but there's obviously some proximity to Sissingué there. At a high level, do you see this as a sort of interesting standalone opportunity, or is there potentially some synergy there with Sissingué coming to the end of its mine life?
Potentially. I think if you look at Aurum and they were running a placement in which we chose to participate in, I think it's a strategic investment on our behalf. I think that, as I said before, some of those northern tenements are nearby to where we're currently mining at Bagoé. Also, Kagan and the team are doing a great job of the exploration there, and we were keen to support that and see where things take us. At this stage, it's really just a strategic investment.
Yep. Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Richard.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker at Macquarie. Thank you.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Yes. Sure.
Yeah, cool. Thanks, Craig. Thanks, Lee-Anne. Just firstly, maybe on Meyas Sand, pretty good outcome there, $260 million for the sale of that project in a valuation significantly above what market expectations were. Just flagging, is there any use for the cash here? Have you given any consideration for further shareholder returns through a special dividend or whatnot, or are you just going to bank the cash at this stage?
We'll consider all that. I think, obviously, as we come towards the end of the year and we start talking about dividends and make decisions on what we're going to pay as a dividend this year. Obviously, it all contributes to our cash position and contributes to that conversation. No decisions have been made at this point in time.
Yeah, okay. Secondly, at Sissingué, just the difference between sales and production. Was this just a timing issue or can you just touch on the difference there?
Yeah, it's just a shipping timing difference. That's all, Adam.
Okay. Thirdly, just on the fuel supplier situation. You mentioned that you've got contracts with all the major suppliers. You're not seeing impacts at the moment from a supplier point of view. Could you just maybe talk to what sort of inventories you generally tend to store on site? How many weeks of fuel supply that you have there? You mentioned you're not seeing impact, so I guess you're all okay from that perspective. Yeah. Maybe you could touch on that.
Yeah, sure. We generally have between one to two weeks of fuel on site for all of our sites. I think just stepping back for the supply issue, the supply issue for us is slightly different to your Australian mines because a lot of the fuel is sourced out of Nigeria, and those areas, and Côte d'Ivoire specifically has its own refineries. That said, we are continually looking at whether there's opportunity for upping our stock levels. In Ghana, we've got a long-term standing relationship with ZEN Petroleum, and they have got large quantities of fuel actually in Ghana that they stock up for just their mining companies. We continue to manage the risk and looking at it, but all the work we've done in the last couple of weeks doesn't indicate anything around the supply issue. It's more just looking at the pricing issue.
We will continue to monitor that on an ongoing basis.
Cool. Thanks very much for taking my questions.
Thank you. The next question is from David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research. I'll just read it out for David. He's asked for, at Yaouré specifically, can you provide some expectations for this quarter? And also if the guidance includes the CMA pre-commercial ounces or not.
The guidance for the quarter is that we remain within the guidance range that we have published. As we mentioned in the last quarterly report, at the lower half of that guidance, so that remains. Yes, the CMA Underground ounces are an important part of that production for the final quarter.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.
Okay. Well, thanks, Nathan, and thanks everyone for your participation and interest. I really just want to make a call out to the great people that create the results that we presented today. Perseus has a dedicated team of people across the globe, and they show up every day and live the Perseus values of teamwork, integrity, commitment, and achievement. I just want to thank them all for their contributions, and thank you for your attendance.