Hello, and welcome to today's Resolute Mining Q4 results call. My name is Bailey, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I'd now like to pass the conference over to our host, Terry Holohan, CEO. Please go ahead when you're ready.
Thanks, Bailey, and welcome to everybody. This is our annual and Q4 report, and I've got Chris Eger with me. We are gonna be talking to our presentation, which will be loaded up on the ASX and the LSE sites this morning, and I'll be talking to it. There's 21 pages. We'll get through it rather quickly, so it'll give you time to come forward with that, with your questions. If we jump through to page 2, that just have our revised guidance there, which we'll talk about shortly. Chris will give a bit more color onto that.
Going on to slide three, just to remind everybody, we have the two operating assets, the major one in Mali and the one in Mako, producing gold, and we have quite an exciting exploration portfolio with quite a bit of progress there to report in Mali, Senegal, and Guinea. If we go to slide three, I think this is the important thing. We are now... This call marks of two and a half years in our turnaround project, and I certainly think that we've achieved a lot over that timeframe. If you look at the clear numbers there, where we started out with the debt, we're now in a cash positive position at the end of the year, and that is very satisfying for everybody, I think.
We've now got operations where we think going forward, we can produce about 350,000 ounces annually, and generating cash, we're certainly gonna start generating cash this year. Chris will take you through a few of the numbers, and we're gonna be starting going forward into operating based on cash margins. So I think also, as I mentioned, exciting exploration opportunities, Guinea and Senegal. We've got a three-horse race now going in Senegal to try and find the optimal satellite ore body to put through the Mako plant in 2.5 years. The greenfield, Guinea, it's only just gone temporary pause at the moment because of diesel supplying in Guinea. However, that's gonna be ticking over fairly soon again.
So if you look at it, we think the major expansion now that's ongoing at Syama, our phase one, I think now we've ticked the box on the sulfide processing and mining. As you know, from last year, we found the Syama North, which is a large potential sulfide open pit. We're doing a small expansion on that. Long lead items were ordered last year. We're starting construction this year. We expect to be kicking that in and commissioning it in H1 in first half of next year. That'll take us to 250,000 ounces, and at the same time, we'll be looking hard at phase two, how big should we take this operation? We've put numbers out of 400,000 ounces. This is given that we've got 10 million ounces in the ground there.
So the near-term catalyst for our business going forward and our major focuses, it's doing the organic expansion at Syama, looking hard at the extension possibilities at Mako with the geologists this year, and obviously, the cost reduction initiatives. I think this is key. The cost reduction, I've been talking about this for quite some time. We're starting to see those kick in, and we certainly think that that's gonna improve further going forward. And of course, the exploration potential. We see in all our three areas a lot of prospectivity, and we're gonna, again, spend quite a lot of money on our exploration this year. So we jump to slide five. If you look at the highlights, we hit our guidance, 331,000 ounces.
We hit the, we made the 80,000 in Q4, back on track as far as we're concerned, ready and forward for this year. We know that we were slightly lower than we wanted to be late last year because of Mako, but Mako, I will mention it a bit later, but we completed a major strip at the Mako pit. Twenty-five million dollars was put into that, and that's gonna create the ability to harvest significant amounts of metal out of that pit at 2 gram a ton, relatively cheaply over the next two years, and we'll come into that shortly. I think the major excitement is if you look at our AISC 1,470, we're very excited about that. That compares last year to 1,498, and our guidance originally at 1,480.
We still think we've got a long way to go there. Chris will talk about that also in a short while, but we're very excited about the initiatives that we've put in place and that will unfold over the rest of the year. So we're in a position now where we're producing EBITDA of approximately $165 million and cash flows of $142 million, and we hit, also hit exactly on with our capital and guidance of $70 million for the year. And all the jobs that we wanted to do were ticked off. Exploration, you know, we had a good year there with Syama North, 3.5 million ounces to 2.9 g/t. The exciting thing is that we will be able to start mining some of that sulfide ore body towards the end of this year.
It will be high grade, so we're not gonna sit it on the floor and wait for the expansion of the new plant. We're gonna put it through the existing processing facility, given that we know that it's actually very similar to existing ore. And so we're excited about the progress on that. That's. We brought that to account very, very quickly. And as we know, it's within seven kilometers of the plant, and it does underpin the phase one expansion project, but I would suggest it will also underpin the phase two expansion as well. So, as I mentioned, net cash, $14 million in the bank, that's a big change for us, and we've got our last debt payment in this quarter. Then we'll be debt-free, hedge-free, and looking at max optimal cash generation over this next year.
Meanwhile, while all this activity has been ongoing, we've been ticking the boxes on ESG. In terms of the World Gold Council, we ticked the box with the compliance on the RGMPs. In August this year, we got the thumbs up from them, so we're now looking and regrouping with the World Gold Council on what next. And we also successfully passed the ISO 14001 and 45001 certifications on both our sites. And I think the other very, very pleasing for me is that if you look at our LTI performance, Mako is at 2.3 years right now, but Syama's coming up, it's within 10 days now, we're 5 years without an LTI. And I think that is a very, very impressive record for the operations out in West Africa. Move forward to slide 6.
As you can see, the production growth, if you all remember, in 2022, we released 21,000 ounces from our stocks, and we produced 353. So arguably, the production from the mines is virtually on track. I think, however, despite... If you look at the 2022 costs, you can see them, I think, a major improvement and a step forward on the cost there, given the lower ounces, especially, given that we had virtually 3 ounces in 2022 or 21,000. We've also, as I said, we've proven the sulfide processing, mining and processing. So that's given us the confidence over this last year to actually put in place our mini expansion now, the phase one expansion at Syama. As I mentioned, that'll kick in early next year.
And we're getting more and more bullish, more and more optimistic now with what's going on in Mako. We've got the three projects there. It is a three-horse race, and I think those, at least two of those, we'll be able to bring to account fairly soon. So, we're expecting some good news flow towards the end of this year. So all in our favor, we think we can get to 375,000 ounces in a couple of years' time. And then, as I mentioned, the big prize there, which we're all here for, is to take the Syama operation up to far larger number, and make this company a 500,000 ounce operation. We go to slide 7. Safety, I've talked about, very pleased with the progress there.
Recordable injury frequency rates, that's a bit of a checkered graph there, but it does reflect actually that while we had 15 incidents, we've actually got fewer people on the operation, so you've got slightly higher ratios there. But safety is a journey. We are focused on it. We're taking zero tolerance on the operations to negligence, and we believe that we are systematically improving the performance. As I mentioned, the ISO and the RGMPs all ticks in boxes there. So let's go just a bit more detail into the operational overview, the Syama on slide 9. If you look at the mining, we managed to mine over the year 2.4 million tons. We lost the grade down a little bit by 2%, but I think that's manageable.
I think that, obviously, if you remember this, SLC was originally designed at 2.1 million tons a year, between 2.6 and 2.7 grams a ton. I think we're still in there. We're still doing some minor changes on the ground to the direction of mining in some of the levels to optimize the efficiency of leaving the waste regolith behind and mining ore. That is still a focus in some of the areas, but going forward, we're very confident with the sub-level cave operations. What is also pleasing is if you look at the sulfide tonnage process, 2.26, that's a steady set improvement over time. You can see 2022, we did 2.1.
I think the most important thing that people will remember is our plant there. We did spend a lot of time in the first 18 months of this turnaround on fixing the plant there, and it has achieved a 93% availability over this last year. So I'm very excited about that. We took our plant offline early in January. Now, we've just brought it back online. We've inspected everything. The roaster is in amazing conditions inside. We've got third-party reports saying that it's the best that they've seen for a long time. We're very excited about that. And we've done some minor enhancements to that just to give us a little bit more flexibility going forward and ready for some of the tie-ins for the expansion project that is coming down the track now.
Grades on sulfides, round about the same, going through the processing plant. Recovery is still at that 78%. I mentioned the enhancement work on the roaster. Some of the work that we've just done will allow us to take the temperature in the roaster up marginally. I'm talking about between 720-750 degrees centigrade. And the main thrust of that is to be able to take, sorry, oxidize some more of the carbon and with a plan of trying to improve the leaching, or let's say, reduce the preg robbing in the back end of the sulfide leaching stage. So we're excited with the work that's ongoing there.
But I'd say that I think the good story, if you look at the bottom there, you look at the cost profile on both the sulfides and the oxides, you can see we've made steps there, and we're continuing to make those steps going forward. Let's go to slide 10. This is a slide that we started putting into our pack just to remind everybody, if you look at 10 million ounces at Syama, the majority of that has been indicated, we should not be operating that at 220,000 ounces a year, but there was always a question mark on sulfide. We think we've firmly answered that now over the last two years of operations, and we're firmly on track to take that operation up in terms of ounces. And you can see the Mako one in the corner there.
I think that we'll be able to keep that one going for quite a few years based on the exploration work that's ongoing. If you look at slide 11, just to remind you where the Syama North is, we did quite a bit of mining in the little blue circle at A21 this year. As I mentioned, later this year, we're gonna be starting the strip. There are some sulfides close to surface. Initially, they will be able to take only small amounts, but they're high grade. We will put them through the process this year, and but next year, we're gonna be mining that earnestly and have it ready to feed into the oxide plant, which is gonna go through its conversion process over this year.
Going forward to Slide 12, phase one expansion, just to remind you, at Syama, we think we can go from the typical sort of 200-205 to 215 thousand ounces in phase one. Everything's on track at this stage. Project costs about $55 million this year. We have spent a little bit of money last year on this. Everything's on track. As I mentioned, the, the civils, we're just finalizing the contracts. We should be starting and kicking those off in March. So if you move to slide 13, Mako, I think this is a big success for us this last year. We did mention that we're doing a major final strip on the pit to open up the last 2 to 2.5 years of metal at 2 g/t. That was successfully done.
We're now putting waste rock into the pit, in the stage five areas of the pit, so we're actually seeing reductions in cost there. That's why our costs were slightly lower this, this year than we thought they were going to be. We exceeded plan. We did 119, nearly 120,000 there. As you see, it's a number of $1,373. I think that's a great performance from the guys there. And now we're in a position where we can actually go back up to above 140,000 ounces for a couple of years. These are sort of production levels that we haven't seen in this operation for three or four years, since we hit the high-grade patches in the middle of this deposit a couple of years ago. So that's gonna be in harvesting mode.
We have done some work on putting an oxygen plant in. That's reducing our costs, both on chemical reagents for oxidants and on the cyanide. And we took over the power plant, and we've actually put chillers on those, on half of the machines there to reduce our diesel bill. So there's a lot of technical improvements that we're putting through, we've put through this plant on the last year, so we're expecting some great performance out of it going forward. As I mentioned, we put out a lease recently. We're doing on slide 14, the exploration update. We're active here. We are on the Greenstone Belt. There's a lot of areas that we've been trying to get into for three or four years.
We've managed to sign two JVs at the end of last year, at the quarter, and we're actually active on the grounds as we speak now. We're moving our RC rigs onto Bantaco. This is an area that we're very excited about, and we've also delineated our first inferred resource at Tomboronkoto. So we certainly think it's a three-horse race. I think there's gonna be a lot of news flow out of this over the next year. By the end of the year, we hope to be able to say, "Right, this is the next one," and I think at least two out of three here should actually be processed at some stage, mined and processed at some stage. Guinea, we've been fairly quiet on this, just plugging away at it. We've got exploration licenses throughout Guinea on the Siguiri Basin.
It's the right zip code to have deposits, or sorry, to have licenses. Right up at the top Niagassola , I was there last year to have a look at this, while we were doing the geophys. There's certainly a lot of very interesting structures there. We have delineated some economic mineralization, we believe, although it's unclassified at this point. We are going back in to drill that and then fill it to take it up to mineral reserve, sorry, mineral resources fairly soon. So we should have some news flow on that, and we're very excited about looking at this part of the world. And with that, I'll hand over to Chris, who will take us through on slide 17 for our financials, and then I'll do a bit of a wrap at the end.
Great. Thank you, Terry. Look, I'm very pleased I'm here on page 17 to report selected financial results for both 2023 and Q4. It was a very strong year with progression into 2024. So starting first on some of the key financial highlights for 2023 and Q4. Gold sales were 79,080 ounces, which was slightly higher than in Q3 as a result of higher production levels, and our AISC in Q4 was at $1,080 per ounce, which is slightly higher than Q3, but in line with our expectations. CapEx wrapped up the year at $19.4 million for Q4, and as Terry already highlighted, the CapEx for the full year was at $70 million, which is right on top of our expectations for the year.
But most importantly, operating cash flow was at $30.8 million for Q4, which continues to highlight the strong cash flow generation of the business, which is important to us. In general, in 2023, the business generated very strong cash flows, which is important to reduce our debt levels and position the company for future success. So moving over to the right side, when we look at our full year 2023 selected financial highlights, our revenue was $630 million, which was a decrease over 2022. This is predominantly as a result of lower production levels, offset by higher realized gold price. As mentioned, the AISC for the business continues to decrease, and we finished the year at 1,470, versus in 2022 at 1,498.
So again, a strong achievement in operating costs, as a result of really cost initiatives that we're working through the system. And you can imagine that we're very pleased with this number because we had substantially lower production in 2023 relative to 2022. Unaudited EBITDA was at $165 million, which you can see is a continual increase over the past couple of years, and we expect this number to rise in 2024 at the current gold price environment. So overall, very pleased with our financial results at this stage. We'll be releasing our full year financials in March once completely audited. So turning the slide to page 18, talk a little bit about liquidity. As we know, cash is king these days, and a lot of businesses are having trouble generating cash.
I have to say that we're in a position that we're generating very strong cash flow. For the end of the year, we ended up in a net cash position of $14 million, which is a significant achievement, because at the beginning of the year, we were in a negative net debt position of $31.6 million. So that means that we reduced our net debt by $45.6 million through 2023. So again, very happy with the cash flow generation. As a business, you can see in the second bullet, generating $60 million of free cash before interest and debt payments. So again, very pleased. What did we do with that cash?
As highlighted, we reduced our net debt levels, sorry, our debt levels, and we made $55 million worth of payments of debt in 2023. So that's why today we're sitting in a solid cash flow generative position and in a net cash position we expect to continue throughout the course of the year. So then, what do we think about next year? So moving to the next slide, with regards to our guidance, this is on slide 19. Both in our press release, and obviously in this presentation, gives you a view of what we expect for 2024. We expect the sulfide operation at Syama to increase slightly between 155,000 ounces and 160,000 ounces.
That's really as a result of consistent grades through the year and strong mining levels relative to 2023. Oxide production from Syama between 50-55 thousand. I think one key to note here is the oxide level production is expected to decrease over time as the mine has been mined out of the oxide, so we'll be much more into a sulfide operation. But most importantly, what we see in the business is a drop in our AISC and the higher margin business, and we're guiding AISC to be between $1,300 and $1,400, relative to an actual achievement in 2023 of $1,470 per ounce.
Again, this has been an enormous emphasis on the company in reducing cost, but we're also benefiting from much higher margin ounces at Mako, relating to the fact that we took that significant strip in 2023, and we'll be harvesting gold over the next two years at very attractive levels. CapEx, though, in 2024, is expected to increase quite a bit from 2023. That really relates to the fact that we're spending quite a lot more money in 2024 on the Syama phase one expansion. In addition, there's quite a bit of additional CapEx that's allocated to Syama for equipment, and a fleet replacement exercise that's ongoing for both 2024 and 2025. Exploration expenses are also increasing over 2023.
This really relates to the fact that we're gonna spend a lot more money in Senegal in order to extend the mine life at Mako. We may actually increase this number throughout the year in 2024. Just as we see successes, it's very beneficial to the business to fast track the Senegalese exploration activities. So again, if you see this number increasing throughout this year, don't be surprised, that'll be actually very positive for our business. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Terry for some concluding remarks.
Thanks, Chris. I think if you... slide 20 is a busy slide. I'll leave you to have a look at that, but I think if you look at where we're going this next year in the catalyst, it's obviously on the last column there. Mako mine life extension, Syama phase one to kick in, and the cost initiatives. Those are the three major areas that we're gonna be focusing all majority of our effort on this year. So it's the, it's the cost, it's the Syama expansion to kick in early next year and the Mako mine life extension. Thank you very much, and I'll turn you back to Bailey for questions and question time.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, please press star followed by one. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question, and please do ensure that you are unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from the line of Andrew Bowler from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Good day, Terry and Chris. Just a couple of questions from me about the years beyond calendar year 2024. I mean, you know, noted that you'll still get to provide an updated three-year outlook. But in terms of Syama in particular, I mean, commentary there that the underground grades were, you know, lower than originally expected, and rectification works in terms of dilution, you know, set to get underway. Do you expect those rectification activities to complete before the end of this calendar year, or do you think there's potential for that dilutionary impact going into calendar year 2025 as well?
Andrew, we expect that to change around over this quarter. We were seeing improvements, right through December, which didn't fully reflect in the quarter, Q4 numbers, but we expect to see that over this quarter and the next quarter to get back to where we want it to be. I think, you know, there are still some areas, as I mentioned, underground, where, you know, it's, there's transverse mining, where it should be longitudinal and vice versa. We're just really tidying up some of those areas over, over the middle of last year, and, we, we think we're back on track for this year.
No worries. In terms of Mako, I mean, obviously, you know, some pretty handy resources delineated there recently. Just wondering, in terms of approvals, what the sort of scope there is and you know, potential approval timelines. I mean, obviously, 2.5 years of mine life there, things need to be pretty snappy. Is there a chance that there could be a relatively short hiatus period, or are you pretty confident that sort of, I think you noted two out of those three sources potentially would be mined, but could you get one of those up before the end of Mako's mine life?
It's still, it's Andrew, I know I asked this. When we first started talking about this, I think I was 30% confident, then 50%, then 60%. I'd say I'm probably 75% confident now, but there's always that chance. I don't see it, the permitting, as such, but, you know, with, with, with supply, well, with lots of issues potentially, we should. If we can get the mineral resources up there, I think we can get it on time. If there's any delays, then I think there could be a short window of delay. But that could be a good thing, 'cause it always gives you a good opportunity to renegotiate your contracts.
No worries. Last one from me, just on Mako. I mean, obviously upgraded guidance compared to that three-year outlook release last year. Is that bringing ounces forward from calendar year 2025? So is calendar year 2025 expected to be a little bit lower, given that your output this year is gonna be higher than that original guidance, that outlook, I should say?
Yes. Yes and no. We're just reviewing that at the moment. We are bringing a few ounces forward, but we are seeing slightly higher grade material than we originally anticipated with the grade control. So we just need a little bit more work on that. That's why we're just holding back a little bit, but we will give guidance later this year.
No worries.
It's... Sorry, Andrew. It's always been a trend at Mako that we've always been slightly conservative on grades. And every time we've gone into grade control, we've come out slightly better on grade.
No worries. Thanks for that, Terry.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Justin Chan from SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Morning, Terry, Chris, Mattie. Thanks very much for hosting. Just, maybe just start at both operations. Are there, I guess, grade profiles and/or, and/or any planned maintenance we should be aware of, just looking at the, at the yearly profile this year?
I think, I think the planned maintenance, I think you're gonna see four progressively improving quarters, for lots of reasons. We did do a major stop now on the plant to reconfigure some of our, our milling on the sulfides at Syama, and to just open up that, the roaster, to check it out, and, and to do some enhancements, particularly on the ancillary equipment. So that's the major maintenance for this year. The rest, every time we take a mill offline, then we'll do a little bit of tie-in work. If we can get that right, there should not be any problems. We don't see any major problems, but the engineers are always gonna be slightly conservative and say they need a little bit more time at this point.
Gotcha. But, so I guess looking at the quarters, other than managing rainy season, it's, I imagine every quarter is similar. There's no specific trend other than the high, I guess, rainy season and then some higher grades from Syama North coming in in Q4?
I think Q4 is gonna be a big one, because as we go progressively down Mako, the grade is gonna increase. Around, for example, in Q1, it's just under 2 gram a ton, Q2, 2, Q3, 2.2, and I think Q4, 2.25. So the grades are progressively increasing through the year there, so they're gonna have some impact. And then, as I mentioned, there should be some material coming out of Syama North in Q3, Q4, and we'll put that through probably Q4 at Syama.
Gotcha. And then just on the build profile, similarly, I guess, what is your spend and/or work profile through the year for the expansion?
Chris, do you wanna talk to the spend through the year on expansion?
Yeah. Justin, so from a CapEx perspective, the spend should be pretty equal throughout the entire year. There'll be probably a bit more spend in Q2, relative to Q1 on CapEx. But yeah, it'll be pretty consistent. And going back, Justin, just to your previous point, w hen you think about, when we looked at our budgets, I would say roughly 60% or so of the production is coming in the second half relative to the first half. So as Terry highlighted, the quarters are going to build slowly over the year. So the Q1 should be the low point, and then it should get better and better. The only thing I would be cautious for is just the rainy season and when it starts and when it ends.
Gotcha. Thanks. And just, sorry, I'm stepping into the models for the first time here. Just in terms of understanding, on the tax side of things, like, effective tax rate and when you pay tax, are there any kind of subtleties or things to watch out for this year?
In short, no. It's a pretty consistent sort of payment schedule on a quarterly basis, with taxes at both, both operations, so there's nothing unusual to highlight.
Okay, perfect. Thanks a lot, guys. I'll free up the line. I'm sure the others have some really good questions that I'll benefit from too. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Justin.
Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Reg Spencer from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thanks, good morning, Terry and Chris. Apologies if you've already answered this question, but I only really caught the end of Andrew's questions. I was wondering if you were able to maybe provide some kind of broad or directional or quantify those possible and sustaining cost reductions beyond 2024? Or is that something that we'll just have to wait till that provides through your plan for?
Reg, it's Chris here. Look, I would say we will be obviously providing more specifics, but I think similar to what we highlighted last year, we do expect costs to continue to decrease. Mako, for the next couple of years, we expect numbers to be in line with 2024, so you know, plus or minus. But really with Mako, the key point is, if we do make progress on the satellite deposits that we're expecting, we will then be spending money in order to extend the operation. So if the site were to stop, then we obviously see costs to decrease, but it'll be very good for the company to continue to put money in the business in order to extend the mine life. So that's what I can say about Mako.
On Syama, look, we do expect costs to continue to decrease from the levels we've targeted this in this guidance. Last year, we were saying that we were looking to achieve at least $100 AISC decrease year-over-year, and we're still focused on those types of reductions. But we'll need to do the work properly in order to provide an updated forecast for the next several years once we've got our arms around the mine plan and exactly what we can do on the cost side of the equation.
Understand. Thanks, Chris. I'm gonna try to pronounce it, Tomboronkoto. Looks like it might add a couple of years. It looks like it might add a couple of years to, to your mine life, clearly there. Just shooting over to Bantaco and Laminia, what kind of terms govern those JVs, where you'd have dominant ownership there? And, and can you maybe give us an idea of what kind of resource potential or exploration target that you think those prospects might have?
Reg, it's Chris here. So I'll, I'll maybe start first on the economics of those JVs, and then I'll, I'll turn it over to Terry around, the potential. Look, they are standard JVs with earning structures. We have full control. At the end of the JV, we'll be the operators, and there'll be a standard royalty. I, I don't really want to hand out what those exact economics are at this point, just because it's, it's, it's confidential, and it impacts how we, how we negotiate future JVs, but they're very standard and, and nothing onerous. But maybe over to Terry on the potential.
I think, Reg, you've got to be very careful. We're obviously in fluid stage, but all three areas we have known mineralization, we've known about these for several years. And you can see by, you know, they've had waves of artisanal miners working through those, sort of looking at the top 10, 15 meters there, and they just keep moving down. There's a lot of material in that part of the world. So size-wise, obviously, you know, this is our hopes. We think that the Tomboronkoto should maybe double, but we actually quietly think that Bantaco will actually win the three-horse race. That's how I sort of gut feel at the moment.
Okay. No, that, that's useful. Look forward to seeing some results. Last question from me before I pass it on. There's been a lot of discussion, I guess you could call it, about potential mining code changes in Mali. So far, it doesn't seem to have impacted any of the gold miners operating there. But I was wondering if you've got any comments or any updates, and if you've got any views or comments on what the withdrawal from ECOWAS might mean for your ability to operate in Mali?
Reg, maybe I'll take this one as well. So look, in short, we operate today under the 2012 code. So the new code does not impact our operations. As highlighted, it really only impacts new projects coming to bear in the country. So, I think we're quite confident from that perspective. With regard to the ECOWAS exit, look, Mali's been in a suspended state from ECOWAS since 2021, for the last coup. So they haven't actually really been impacted by ECOWAS from a beneficial perspective. So look, at this juncture, we don't see any impacts. You know, at some point, possibly in the distant future, there may be some impacts to supply chain, but we would just have to route our goods through countries that have treaties with Mali.
But really, you know, it's hard to tell if there will be any impact, but the view from our guys on the ground is, in the short term, there should be no impact. But unfortunately, it is a bit of noise that we need to work through, but like I said, it's not impacting our business.
Yeah, understood. Thanks very much, Chris. I'll pass it on. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, guys. Have a good evening.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. The next question today comes from the line of William Dalby from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking the call, and congrats on a solid year and the continued turnaround. Just a couple questions from me. Firstly, on CapEx guidance for 2024, if I'm interpreting correctly, guidance for the, in the three-year outlook was $95 million-$110 million for 2024, and this has now been revised up to $115 million-$145 million. So yeah, I'm just, just wondering if you could maybe break down that revision, whether that's just kind of deferral and timing of sustaining CapEx or, yeah, whether you could just kind of clarify some detail on that, please.
Sure. Well, William, maybe I'll take that one. So look, in the original guide, call it forecast, we highlighted CapEx for just Syama and Mako, and in the most recent guidance on page 19 of the presentation, we've also included exploration CapEx, which was not included, so that's part of the change. We're just adding another bucket, which wasn't previously provided. The spend for 2024 this year in the guidance is higher than what we've got, presumably here for both Mako and Syama. Slightly, I would say Syama, we identified when we went through the budget process, that it made sense to put a bit more money in replacing our equipment fleet in the underground mine, and that's added an extra $10-odd million. And then same, same with Mako.
It was a bit of additional CapEx items that we saw. And frankly, it wasn't one that was across the board that we thought made sense. Look, the business in the past probably didn't spend enough on CapEx. This is more in 2022 and 2021. So we've told the teams that if there's good projects that provide a good return on capital, they should put it forth, and so we're very happy to spend that money on CapEx. So it's a bit coming from an additional, call it review to the budget process, but also providing additional details on exploration CapEx.
Right. Okay, great. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you. And then just a second question. More broadly, on the Syama expansion, maybe if you could just add a bit more color around, you know, the target of kicking that off in Q1 and getting it delivered by H1 2025, you know, how are you justifying those targets?
Essentially, hi, William. Terry. If you look at where we are now, it's essentially only the installation of a mill into the oxide plant with a flotation section and significant work on the existing plant, putting a variable speed on the SAG mill. All those major key items, which are long lead, were ordered last year, so they'll be arriving in Q3 this year for installation in Q4. We're starting with the civils now for those in March. We're gonna start mining, well, I would say we've been doing mining in A21 up at the top in the existing oxides there last year. We've stopped that, but we'll be starting again later this year.
There are some fairly high outcropping sulfides, which we're gonna harvest this year. The original intention was to put weight for the plant commissioning in Q1 and Q2 next year, but it's more likely that we'll process that because it's proving to be higher grade. It's gonna be 3 g/t, some of it, some slightly over, initially, so that would probably just displace some SLC material in the sulfide plant. So we think that, you know, normally it takes about 3 months to commission a mill. It's nothing complicated as such. You know, we're going from 4 mills on site to 5 mills on site. And then we've said that by H1, we'll be running at a run rate there of 250,000 ounces. It could be earlier, but we're, you know, we're obviously very cautious about timing.
We've given ourselves a six-month of final construction and commissioning. But we reckon we'll be running at a 250 run rate by the middle of 2025.
Okay, great. Thanks a lot, guys.
Thank you.
The next question today comes from the line of Phil Matthews, from Matthews Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, Terry. Great results, starting outlook. Just had one question: Could you remind us, please, of the Ravenswood milestone payments and where they stand? Is there $50 million to receive in March? I just can't quite recall it all. Thanks.
Yeah. The last payment now for the syndicate is $25 million, due in March, and that is the end of the payment, the original $400 million.
... Right, just one payment to, to be received?
That's correct.
And the Ravenswood mine-
Sorry, are you, are you speaking about the Ravenswood transaction?
Yeah, the Ravenswood-
Oh, sorry.
Payments from Ravenswood. Yeah.
Okay. So that, yeah, Terry was speaking about final payments for our syndicated loan facility. On Ravenswood, yeah, there's a couple, well, there's three possible future payments that are due. One is we are due AUD 50 million due in 2027, which is based as a loan. So that we expect no later than 2027. There is a possible additional AUD 50 million due in the first half of this year, once Ravenswood achieves cumulatively 500,000 ounces of production at a set gold price. The set gold price is, has been, will most likely be hit based off of what we see historically. But it's still TBD whether or not the operations continue to perform as expected and meet that 500,000 threshold.
So once we know, we'll obviously provide an update to the market, but at this stage, it looks possible that we will be receiving that AUD 50 million payment in the first half of this year.
Do you know where they are now with their production? Are there any... 'Cause we can't find anything on the internet or anywhere really to get some feedback on it.
So we do. We get monthly reports from them. So we do have a view on that number, but unfortunately, it's not something that I'm able to share to the public.
Right. I think March has been mentioned previously. Is that right or not, on a previous call last year?
It was that the period that they had to achieve it was between March and June of this year.
Right.
We'll know, we'll know fairly soon.
Okay. So you would have a high confidence on that, though, you think?
We're mining, mining guys, so we're optimistic on that.
Right. Okay.
You know, the-
All right.
They're doing a good job there, on that project.
Okay. Actually, just a second question on the hedging. So you've rolled that off pretty much now. That will stay rolled off, is that right, for the future? No more hedging?
That's our anticipation. So the hedging requirement was put in place due to the loan documents that were put back in place in 2022. The final hedging is due to roll off at the end of Q1. At this stage, with the cost reductions that are working through the system, our confidence in our production profile, our confidence in the gold price, we don't see any reason why the business should put any hedging in place. That could change if, through future financing facilities, it's a requirement, but I would say from both the board and the management perspectives, we're comfortable not being hedged.
Right. So the financing facilities in the past required a percentage, didn't they, of the, of the loan, and you've been able to roll it off despite that? I was just a bit confused about that.
Correct. So the banks required that at least a third of the production was hedged, and that bank facility or those loan documentations or the loan itself matures in Q1 of this year.
Right.
The loan is finished, and therefore the hedges are finishing.
Okay. Great. Well, that's exciting. Yeah. Okay.
Thanks, Phil.
All right. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thanks, Phil.
Thank you. As a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. There are no additional questions registered at this time, so I'd like to pass the call back over to Terry Holohan for any closing remarks.
Thank you, folks. I think in summary, we're very comfortable with our progress over the last two and a half years, and this year is all about cost reduction, organic expansion at Syama, and extending Mako, and we'll keep you informed. Thank you very much for your time. It is much appreciated.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.