Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Resolute Mining first quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question- and- answer session through the phone lines, and instructions will follow at that time. For those listening via the phone lines, the presentation is now available within the Investors section of Resolute Mining's website. For those watching the webcast, if you wish to submit a written question, you may do so by using the 'Ask a Question' button on the Spark Live page. I would like to remind all participants that this call is being recorded. I will now hand over to the Chief Executive Officer, Chris Eger, to open the presentation. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome to Resolute Mining's Q1 2026 activities report. I am Chris Eger, CEO of Resolute Mining, and today I'm joined on the call with Gavin Harris, our Chief Operating Officer, Dave Jackson, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as Matthias O'Toole, our Head of Investor Relations. Moving on to page four. I'm very pleased that we had a very robust quarter in the first part of 2026. Let's talk about a few of the operating metrics and then go into more details in the upcoming slides. Look, first of all, in operating metrics, we achieved pretty much all the targets that we were hoping for. Starting with the fact that we only had one lost time injury in the first quarter, therefore, we had a TRIFR of 0.43. Gold produced was just under 60,000 ounces, right on target with our guidance.
Our group AISC was at $2,200, slightly higher than expected, but it was all due to the fact that royalty expenses were higher in the first quarter as a result of the higher gold price environment. Our capital expenditures for the quarter was at $33 million, with $4.2 million of that coming from the Doropo project. Further on in the slides, our CFO, Dave Jackson, will give a bit more color as to what we expect in the upcoming quarters, because we do expect CapEx to start increasing as we get Doropo up and running. Due to the strong production of the business, net cash at the end of the quarter was just over $315 million. We generated a healthy amount of operating cash flows of just shy of $120 million.
As you can see on this slide, revenues and EBITDA were substantial at $337 million and EBITDA at $200 million. Again, the beginning of the year has been incredibly robust for the business and we're very pleased with the progress of the company on all fronts. Moving to slide five, I want to talk about some of the key activities in the business, but again, we'll go into more detail in the upcoming slides. First and foremost, at Syama, it's operating extremely well, on budget, on plan, with gold production at 7,000 ounces from the oxide circuit, and sulphides producing just about 37,000 ounces. Similarly, in Senegal at our Mako operation, stockpile processing continued exactly on plan with gold production at 15,800 ounces. More importantly, across the business on some of the key projects that we are developing.
In Côte d'Ivoire, Doropo, we had two key milestones in the first quarter, namely receiving the exploitation permit as well as formal FID from our board. Construction activities have kicked off, and we'll go into a bit more of the detail as to exactly what's happening. It's really starting in this month with substantial work streams planned in the month of May and June. Similarly, in Mali, our Syama Sulphide Conversion Project continues to remain on track and on budget. The flotation circuit is complete, and we're just starting commissioning of that circuit. Similarly, in Senegal, the extension of Mako project continues to progress as expected. We're near completion on a couple of technical studies and planning for application of the mining permit for Tomboronkoto in this quarter within the application for the Bantaco license in Q3.
As I mentioned in the previous calls, we've also really ramped up our exploration expenses, and we believe that we're getting really great results in all of our expenditures on exploration. Most notably at the Doropo project in Côte d'Ivoire, we successfully drilled the first campaign with some very exciting drill results, which I'll talk about in the exploration section. We also kicked off an exploration program at La Debo. In Guinea, as you may have seen, we signed a strategic MoU with a company called Nimba Mining Company, which is 100% state-owned by the Guinean government in order to explore new gold licenses. We're right now in the process of working with the government, identifying which projects we should work together on. Again, I'll speak a bit more in the upcoming slides.
Moving to the right side of the page, we're going to talk a little bit about production for the year as well as our AISC and CapEx guidance. As you'll see, in Q1, we achieved 60,000 ounces right in the middle of our guidance. For Q2, we expect similar type levels within Q3 and Q4 being higher levels as a result of processing higher grade sulphides once the SSCP program is completed at Syama. With regards to the AISC guidance, at this stage, we're maintaining guidance for the group at the levels of $2,000-$2,200. However, this guidance was set based off of gold price of $4,000, and if we continue to see elevated gold price throughout the rest of the year, we'll likely be at the upper end, if not exceed the guidance levels.
We'll give more color on guidance for AISC in our second quarter results in July. With regard to CapEx, we're now firmly on track with the spend for this year. Today, we still very much are maintaining our CapEx guidance of $310-$360 million. As previously flagged, we anticipate the CapEx spend to ramp up dramatically in the second half of the year, but starting to build as well as into Q2. Moving to slide six. This is a slide that we've now presented a number of times, but it's important to recap the organic growth profile for the business. Look, in 2025, the business achieved 277,000 ounces firmly on track with our guidance at that time. Both in 2026 and 2027, we're targeting 250,000-275,000 ounces, with strong confidence in achieving those levels.
Most importantly, as mentioned before, our Doropo construction activities are well underway, and so I firmly believe that from the beginning of 2028, we will be producing in excess of 500,000 ounces at that point in time. In addition, the business is seeing tremendous success in the exploration portfolio, specifically at La Debo in Côte d'Ivoire. I'll explain this a bit further on in the presentation. Today, I firmly believe that our fourth mine will be from one of those two assets as we continue to develop and progress the exploration activities. With that, I'll turn it over to Gavin to go through the activities in each of the countries that we operate.
Thanks, Chris. We start with an update on our rapidly progressing Doropo project in Côte d'Ivoire. Early in Q1, we announced the award of a 14-year mining permit for Doropo, which covers the planned mine life and can be extended. The ability to extend is important, as we believe Doropo has the potential to expand, given the conservative $1,950 per ounce gold price used for reserves, which is way below the current spot gold price. Also, the majority of the deposits are open along strike and at depth, and the further exploration potential we have with drilling activity commencing in Q2. FID, the final investment decision, was expedited given the robust economics of the project, and we have moved quickly into construction. The EPCM tender process was completed during Q1 in parallel with the permitting. The EPCM contract has been awarded to Lycopodium Minerals after a detailed evaluation process.
Lycopodium was selected as they have constructed the majority of new gold mines in West Africa over the past decade and have a proven track record in delivering quality outcomes, are currently active in Côte d'Ivoire on the Koné project with Montage, all of which reduce the overall risk to the Doropo project. Behind the scenes, our ESG team have been working tirelessly with all stakeholders, especially the local community leaders, in order to provide land access for the project. Land surveys have been completed, compensation tariffs for land and crops agreed, and payment mechanisms established to allow for early works construction activity to commence in April. The earthworks and early construction work tenders were also completed during Q1 and awarded to De Simone, another company that has a reputation for delivering mining projects within Côte d'Ivoire.
Doropo is a transformational project for Resolute and remains on track to deliver first gold in 2028. Building on the success of 2025 with the release of the updated DFS that outlined a larger and longer life operation, the project team under Rob Cicchini have kept the momentum going through Q1. The project team has grown during Q1 with over 40 persons directly employed on the project, bringing in key experience on the ground at Doropo and for support functions in Abidjan. Approximately 75% of the employees are site-based, with the remaining 25% providing administrative assistance from the regional office.
The key work streams at this stage of the project include land acquisition and crop compensation for the areas outside of the early works footprint, such as open pit areas and waste dumps, clearing and construction of the road access network linking the construction areas, clearing of the main construction areas, and commencement of earthworks, upgrades to the existing Denoa exploration camp to accommodate construction teams, construction of the permanent mining accommodation camp, procurement of long lead items and steel fabrication that were identified during feed, early works for the grid power connection, including procurement of componentry to connect to the grid. The capital expenditure on the Doropo project is forecast to be $40-$50 million during Q2. Total capital expenditure remains within the guidance range of $170-$190 million during 2026, with most of this expenditure occurring in the second half of the year.
As a result of a strong end to 2025 across our mining operations, backed up by achieving our first quarter plans, we enter the Doropo construction phase with a net cash position of $315 million. Here are some recent photos of the initial groundbreaking ceremony for the project and the team on the ground. We expect to provide visual updates through our social media platforms as the work progresses over the duration of the project. Now we move across to an operations update from Mali. You may remember from the Q4 update that we made some significant changes to the management team at Syama during the second half of 2025.
The new Syama team were able to deliver a strong end to 2025 and have followed up with another solid quarter delivering the production plan while significantly improving the quarterly site safety performance, reducing the number of restricted work injuries by 75% compared to previous quarters in 2025. Gold production of 43,802 ounces performed in line with expectation and at the higher end of the guidance range for Q1. Most of the gold produced, 36,682 ounces, were from the underground sulphide operations, which performed efficiently during the quarter. Sulphide ore throughput was 8% higher quarter-over-quarter, with good reliability and performance in both PP1 and the roaster. Sulphide recoveries were marginally lower due to the higher throughputs achieved. With the imminent conversion of the oxide plant and reduced reliance on oxide mining, 7,120 ounces were produced from oxide stockpiles during the quarter.
Feeding stockpiled oxide ore allowed for further open pit optimization work to be completed, developing sulphide ore in the Syama North pits for the rest of 2026. Higher Q1 AISC of $2,227 per ounce is a reflection of increased royalties due to a high realized average gold price of $4,858 per ounce during Q1. When evaluated against guidance, which used a gold price of $4,000 per ounce, the AISC is towards the middle of the guidance range at just under $2,100 per ounce. While there has been some minimal impact to supply chain activities, for the most part, we have not experienced any disruption to operations as a result of the ongoing instability in the Middle East. In order to mitigate the effects of any potential supply disruptions, key consumable stocks have been increased accordingly to ensure continuity of operations.
What has been experienced is that in April, fuel prices, which are regulated by the government, have increased by approximately 40%. This increase through Q1 will have an impact on AISC from Q2 onwards. It's expected that if fuel price remains at the current levels for the remainder of the year, the result on the AISC will be an increase of approximately $75 per ounce. However, as prices are regulated, there is a chance they reduce once there is further clarity on the situation in the Middle East. Specifically at Syama, storage capacity has been increased for LFO, used for equipment operation, and HFO, used for power generation. LFO inventory is currently 80% of total capacity, representing over 50 days of continuous operations. HFO inventory is currently above 90% of total capacity, representing over 40 days of continuous power supply.
HFO is key to continued gold production, powering the underground mine, the processing plants, and other site infrastructure. Key reagent stocks on site all exceed three months, and all other goods remain in transit, with some subject to minor delays at the current time. Syama explosive stocks continue to fluctuate without material impact on the operations, with over 30 days of operational coverage currently stored on site. Further progress has been made to secure a modular emulsion manufacturing plant to be installed at the site, and we continue working with the Malian authorities for the required permits prior to construction and commissioning. The manufacturing facility is expected to be commissioned in H2. To recap, the Syama Sulphide Conversion Project, which started in 2023, adds key infrastructure to allow sulphide ore to be processed through the existing oxide plant while retaining overall flexibility to still treat oxide ore.
As we approach the final stages of the project construction, the work streams have been separated into two stages. Stage one consists of commissioning and operation of the flotation plant and pebble crusher to process 110 tons per hour of sulphide ore. Stage two consists of commissioning the ball mill and secondary crushers, which will increase overall production to 215 tons per hour for sulphide ore. Stage two also includes the commissioning of a new electrostatic precipitator on the roaster, which will increase concentrate throughput by 15% to treat the additional sulphide concentrate being produced. Stage one commissioning commenced in April, and stage two commissioning is planned during Q3 when remaining construction activities have been completed. Q2 will experience a three-week shutdown of the roaster where a full internal refractory rebuild will take place, alongside mill relines and girth gear change out on PP1.
Processing oxide stockpiles in Q1, along with the extended shutdowns in Q2 to tie in the SSCP, roaster upgrades, and planned maintenance in PP1 reflect the gold production being weighted towards the second half of the year. The safe and efficient delivery of the SSCP on time and on budget is another important milestone in the history of Syama. Overall, the progress at Syama in the last six months has restored confidence in gold production forecasts, stabilized costs despite the current inflationary environment, and most importantly, Syama remains on track to meet 2026 guidance. Our Mako operation in Senegal, like Syama, also delivered another reliable quarter. Q1 gold production of 15,801 ounces was in the middle of the guidance range for Q1, with AISC in the lower half of guidance at $1,669 per ounce.
Mako continues its reliable execution of the production plan, and while stockpile variability is always possible, overall gold production is expected to be steady throughout the rest of 2026. Processing throughput of 574,000 tons was a reduction quarter-over-quarter, with planned maintenance shutdowns in Q1, mill relining, and because of recovery optimization trials at the lower feed grades. While no material supply disruptions have been experienced to date, LFO prices have started to increase towards the end of Q1. The LFO price in Senegal is currently 30% higher than anticipated, and if this continues during Q2, it is estimated to increase AISC by approximately $50 per ounce for the full year. The Mako operations rely on LFO for equipment operations and power generation. The inventory is currently 94% of total capacity, representing approximately 30 days of continuous operations.
Other consumables and key reagents have stocks exceeding one month, and for the majority, exceeding two months. Senegal has seen much less disruption to supply chains compared to Mali, having its own port in Dakar. To recap, the Mako Life Extension Project, or MLEP, will extend the current Mako mine life up to seven years, producing between 75,000-85,000 ounces of gold per year. It encompasses two main areas, the Tomboronkoto and Bantaco deposits, which are located approximately 20 km from the existing Mako operations. An initial ore reserve for the Tomboronkoto deposit of 348,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.2 grams per ton was declared in our 2025 resource and reserve update. Detailed economic evaluation of the Bantaco deposits is substantially complete, and exploitation of part of the existing resource is expected. The current Bantaco resource includes 10.8 million tons at 1 gram per ton for 351,000 ounces.
The Mako processing plant will continue to be fed the remaining low-grade stockpiles up until the end of 2027. Of the two MLEP deposits, Bantaco is expected to provide mill feed ahead of Tomboronkoto due to less restrictive socioeconomic factors, primarily the relocation of Tomboronkoto village. Based on the current understanding of permitting timelines, the Bantaco deposits will commence mining in H2 2027, and Tomboronkoto is conservatively scheduled to commence mining at the end of H2 2028, providing mill feed in January 2029. The key workstreams are advancing Bantaco and Tomboronkoto permitting over the next quarter. The Bantaco ESIA permit will be submitted during April and is expected to be validated after the 90-day consultation period according to the technical services procedures of the Senegalese government, assuming there are no clarifications required.
The submission of the Bantaco mining exploitation permit will be immediately after the validation of the ESIA, estimated to be in August, and the final approval of the mining license is expected to be in the first half of 2027. Mining is currently scheduled to commence in July 2027, allowing some contingency within the permitting timelines. The Tomboronkoto ESIA has been pre-validated by the Senegalese technical services departments and has been supported and approved by the Tomboronkoto village and surrounding communities. The application for the mining exploitation permit is expected to be submitted in May and is expected to be approved early in 2027. The authority for the relocation of Tomboronkoto village is provided within the mining exploitation permit. Stakeholder engagement, surveys, and community consultation have all been completed with an agreed site for the establishment of the new village.
There are two additional ESIA permitting workstreams that are in progress. The first is for the Mako plant upgrades required to feed the Tomboronkoto oxide ore and the in-pit tailings management facility. These will be submitted in April. The second, which will be submitted in May, includes the ore transportation route between the new deposits and the Mako processing plant, including a bridge across the Gambia River. This enhances ore transportation, but existing ESIA submissions also allow for use of the RN7, a national road between the deposits and Mako operations. The delay for this submission is the preapproval required from the Gambia River Basin Development Organization, and our application was submitted to them in March. It is currently anticipated that both submissions will be approved by September after the 90-day consultation period. With that, I'll hand you over to Chris to talk through our exploration activities.
Thank you, Gavin. Now I want to spend a bit of time to dive into the exploration portfolio of the business. Turning to slide 18. As you can see on page 18, the company has a healthy pipeline of exploration assets at various levels of development. In Senegal, in the first quarter, we focused our exploration drilling at our Laminia and Sangola licenses. However, I have to be honest in that the exploration results were not that great, but we're very much focused still on developing our Tomboronkoto and Bantaco projects. The bulk of the key activities for exploration did center around Côte d'Ivoire at the ABC project, La Debo, and even Doropo. I'll defer my comments on these projects for the upcoming slides, as there's been significant developments in the first quarter. As you would have seen in Guinea, we continued exploration activities at Barma.
Most importantly, we developed a joint venture with our partner company, Nimba, which is 100% state-owned, in order to develop new licenses in Guinea. With regards to our ABC licenses, as you can see on the right side of the page, ABC comprises of four key licenses or permits. Ferkessédougou, which is just south of the Ahafo Newmont ownership company, the Koné permit, Windou, and Bamanzo, is where the existing resource exists of 2.2 million ounces at 0.9 grams per ton. It is important to note that the existing resource is based off of a 0.5 gram per ton cut-off grade and constrained to 250 meters at depth. We believe that this deposit has got significant potential, and that is why we have been focused on drilling at Koné in the first quarter. A total of 64 RC holes were completed in the first quarter for over 11,000 meters.
In the second quarter, the plan is to continue our drilling activities as well as to publish a scoping study that is based off of the existing resource for this deposit. I wanted to provide a few illustrated examples of some of the drill results that we're seeing at the ABC project. What you see on this page on the right side is actually the Koné South deposit, because today, Koné, the 2.2 million ounces, is made up from two different zones, Koné South and Koné Central. The Koné South mineralization, which you can see today in the magenta box, is about 1.5 km in strike length. What we did is we drilled to the north and to the south, and in both cases about 500 meters, and we're very pleased to see consistent mineralization to both the north and the south.
We're very confident that the ore body continues well to the north into the south, and that we will be able to increase the resource dramatically from the drilling activity that we've done to date. I anticipate that in the second half of the year, we'll update the mineral resource for ABC that will be substantially larger from what it is today. In conclusion, what you should be able to see from ABC in the upcoming months, first and foremost, is initial scoping study that I believe will show very robust economics of possibly our fourth asset. In addition, we'll continue to update the market on what we see to be very exciting and robust drill results, and then therefore having a clear progression to an updated resource in the second half of this year.
Moving to page 21, our other key exploration activities in Côte d'Ivoire is our La Debo project. La Debo was picked up in 2024, and we announced our maiden resource in 2025, which you can see in the bottom right side of the page. We've actually just started kicking off the drilling activities. In March of this year, we completed 2,000 meters. Unfortunately, I don't have any key results to date, but what we're focused on is drilling out G3 South, which you can see in the northeast of the deposit, and we're focusing on drilling it at depth and along strike because we see it open in both directions. We'll be kicking off at least a 13,000-meter drill program with the intention of as well issuing a scoping study at La Debo in the second half of this year, in addition to an updated mineral resource estimate.
We do think that we can get close to 1 million ounces, if not more. That's our target, and at this point, it's looking very encouraging. Moving to page 22. In addition to our ABC and La Debo exploration projects in Côte d'Ivoire, there's also key exciting activities at Doropo. As you can imagine, when Centamin operated Doropo and was developing the feasibility study, at some stage, Centamin stopped their exploration activities. The team has been redoing all the existing drill activities and believes that there's opportunities to increase this project and this deposit substantially. In the near future, we're going to focus on drilling programs in two key areas: at the Vako Shear Zone, which will be more greenfield activities, but more importantly, at Kilesegi, which is in the southwest, which is our largest pit.
We're looking to actively drill both these zones in order to increase the resource and reserve of the project, and we're targeting at least 30,000 meters of drilling with hopefully an updated resource and possibly reserve in the second half of the year. Again, in conclusion, in Côte d'Ivoire, really great activities on exploration. A, in the fact that I believe that Doropo will be a lot bigger and longer mine life, and B, with the fact that what we're seeing at ABC and La Debo, I believe one of these two assets will become our fourth mine. Finally, moving to page 23, also very excited to talk about our activities in Guinea. As I've already discussed, in Q1, we signed an MoU with a state-owned mining company called Nimba Mining to evaluate potential gold opportunities throughout Guinea.
Where we are with this joint venture is at this stage, we have been working with Nimba to identify targeted zones that we believe would be the most interesting to do joint exploration work. That list is with Nimba. Next step is for Nimba to work with the government to agree that those are the right zones to start with, and then from there, we'll start exploration activities. In conclusion, I'm very keen on Guinea as possibly a fourth country where we will have operations, and therefore it makes sense to dedicate efforts to this joint venture as we continue our cooperation with the Guinean government in developing new projects. With that, I'll turn it over to Dave Jackson for a financial summary.
Thanks, Chris. Today, I will walk you through the Q1 headline financial results, highlighting the key performance metrics. Overall, we had a very strong quarter, and our Q1 metrics were in line with expectations. We continued to strengthen our balance sheet and build significant cash in the business. Looking at the financial highlights, our Q1 revenue was an impressive $338 million, generated from the sale of 60,000 ounces of gold at an average realized price of $4,858 per ounce. As previously noted, Resolute remains fully unhedged and continues to sell all of its gold at spot prices. At quarter end, net cash stood at $315 million, marking a $106 million increase from Q4. Included in the net cash figure is $100 million of unsold bullion, representing nearly 22,000 ounces of gold that were sold shortly after the quarter closed.
The group all-in sustaining costs for Q1 was $2,210 per ounce, which was within our expectation. Included in the AISC is the impact of increased royalties, which amounted to $120 an ounce due to the increased gold price realized in the quarter. As Gavin noted earlier, we are seeing increases in fuel and other input costs, which will start to flow through from Q2 and impact all-in sustaining costs moving forward. Currently, we are maintaining our group all-in sustaining cost guidance of $2,000-$2,200 an ounce. However, this will continue to be monitored if higher input costs persist and gold prices remain at current levels. Let me now walk you through the key components of our cash flow summary that led to the net cash position of $315 million at the end of Q1.
The quarter delivered robust operating cash flow of $120 million, up $34 million on Q4 last year, largely reflecting higher gold prices and increased sales volumes. CapEx totaled $33 million for the quarter. This includes $13 million on project capital across Syama and Mako, $8 million for SSCP, $3 million on the MLEP, $4 million for Doropo, and $5 million spent on exploration. Overall, CapEx and exploration spend were within expectations for Q1 and on track to meet guidance of $310 million-$360 million for the full year. VAT outflows for Q1 totaled $9 million across Mali and Senegal. Resolute continues to engage with local governments to settle these amounts. However, we are pleased to say we obtained $4 million of VAT mandates in Senegal during the quarter, which will be used to settle payables during Q2. On working capital, we've recorded a $3 million outflow for the quarter.
This was solely driven by a reduction in payables, which were settled in the normal course of business. As previously announced, we received $32 million of proceeds from the sale of Resolute's stake in Loncor Gold during the quarter. We closed the quarter with net cash of $315 million, which is up $106 million from the start of the year. This positions the business with more than $425 million of available liquidity. We currently have just under $100 million of available overdraft facilities in Mali and Senegal, which are available for working capital management or development opportunities in the country. As we move into Q2, we expect cash flows to decrease compared to Q1 as we ramp up CapEx spend on Doropo. Further to this, we anticipate income tax payments of approximately $50 million related to our assets in Mali and Senegal.
This is arising from the strong net income performance in 2025. Supported by our continued healthy cash position and ample liquidity, the company is well-placed to fully fund its 2026 CapEx requirements, including construction at Doropo. This is through existing cash balances, anticipated strong cash flows for the rest of the year. However, we continue to consider a range of options to further enhance our balance sheet and support development of the Doropo project, which we're expecting to be finalized during the year. As a reminder, we also have a receivable from the sale of the Ravenswood mine, which is currently valued at $52 million at the end of Q1. The receivable matures in 2027 and could be repaid early in the event the asset is sold. In summary, we are in a very solid financial position and are excited about the continued growth of the business.
With that, I'll hand it back to Chris.
Thank you, Dave. Just now, a couple slides to conclude our presentation today. First and foremost, moving to page 28, what I wanted to highlight is that we're very much achieving all of our targets that we set out at the beginning of the year. As you can see on the left side, in Côte d'Ivoire, we've achieved our mining permit for Doropo. We've achieved FID. We've started early construction works. At Syama, our operations remain very much on track and on budget with both the production as well as SSCP. In Senegal, we've submitted the Tomboronkoto ESIA, and the Bantaco ESIA is close to being completed with anticipation of submitting our mining application for Tomboronkoto in Q2, and as well as in Guinea, as I've already talked about a few times, we completed an MoU with Nimba, as well as continuing our early-stage activities.
The business is achieving what it said it was going to do, which I'm very pleased about. Moving forward, you can see there's quite a few key milestones in the near future that I'm very confident we'll be achieving throughout the rest of the year. Moving to page 29. Look, in conclusion, I couldn't be more pleased with how the business is performing in the first part of this year. Our production performance means that we're firmly on track with our guidance of 250,000-270,000 ounces. We're advancing all of our projects across each of the countries that we operate, firmly on track and on budget at this stage. We generated a healthy amount of cash in the first quarter of the year, so that net cash position was over $315 million.
What that means is that today, with the business and the assets that we have within the business, we have a firm trajectory to achieve over 500,000 ounces of gold production by the end of 2028. Then in addition to that with what I'm seeing in the exploration program, I think we can do a lot more by the end of this decade. With that, I'll hand it back over to the operator for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you are dialed into the call and would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for a moment to assemble the queue. We'll take our first question from Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead.
Hey, Chris, Dave, and team. Thanks for the call and congrats on a good start to the year. My first question is just on the AISC guidance, and you've given a lot of helpful color, and I know there's a lot of moving parts with gold price, et cetera. Just to clarify, so effectively, I guess with the fuel, leaving prices aside for a sec, is it fair to say you'd be trending into the middle to upper end with the fuel side of things and then layer on gold prices after that? Is that a fair summary?
Justin, it's Chris here. Thanks for the question. Look, I think probably the more impactful sort of number on AISC has to do with the gold price, because it's a meaningful impact to royalty expenses at a higher gold price. In the first quarter, as Gavin highlighted, we were up about $135 versus our guidance, really because of the gold price. If the gold price is at $48,500, I would expect us to probably be above our guidance range for the full year, because it's going to be probably about a $200 impact to guidance. Look, as we've highlighted, we are seeing about a 30%-40% increase in fuel prices that are just hitting in the month of April. I kind of expect those numbers to reverse by Q3, but that's just my guess.
The way that we did the math is that if we assume 30%-40% increase and that stays consistently throughout the entire year, then we'll see about a $75 impact to AISC at Syama and about $50 at Mako. But it could easily reverse, so that's why we'll probably do a deeper dive in Q2 and see where we're landing at that stage.
Yeah, gotcha. Thanks. On tax, you've done really well to flag the $50 million for Q2. Are there any other lumpy payments through the year that we should be aware of?
No, not really. That's the one where we pay our historical and provisional income taxes for both operations in the second quarter. The other that we just flagged was CapEx. Look, CapEx in the second half of the year is going to increase with Doropo. Look, the feasibility study's on our website, and that also highlights exactly what the numbers should look like in the second half of the year. From an operating perspective, the key kind of lumpiness comes from tax payments, which is in Q2.
Got you. Maybe just one on ABC. I guess, how much of the resource is in Koné that we're looking at, and how much is contributed from satellite pits? Just trying to get a sense of kind of what the asset looks like and where you-
Yeah. No, it's a good.
Extending along strike makes sense. Yeah.
It's a good question, and look, we will be putting on our website some more specifics on ABC so people can actually see it visually. Koné is where the entire resource sits today, and it's in two zones, Koné Central and Koné South. In the presentation, I showed a map of Koné South. Koné Central looks very similar, so it's effectively just two ore bodies. What we're doing is we've been drilling to the north and the south of each Koné Central and Koné South to extend the resource, which again, based off what we're seeing, the mineralization is extending in both areas. There are also, in addition to that, other satellite areas that we are drilling out.
To the very north of the Koné license, there's an area that we've done some drilling on that we may add a resource to in the second half of this year. The focus has been to get the quick win, which is just to extend the existing resource in both Koné South and Koné Central.
Got you. How deep are both of these deposits? Most of the ounces it looks like oxides. Is there much of a sulphide component at the moment?
Yeah. No, it's all very much oxide and that type of material, which we've consistently seen in Côte d'Ivoire. We've been drilling to about 150 meters. Look, I think the way we think about it is it'd be a standard open pit operation up to 150, 175 meters. It does extend that depth. We've seen it continuing, but the way that we focused on the drilling today was to do more holes to the north and south at about 150 meters in depth.
Okay, awesome. Well, thanks for the preview. I'll free up the line. Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Jasper Mainwaring with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Oh, Hi all. Thanks for the update. Just one from me. Given the company's strong net cash position, how should we be thinking about shareholder returns? If you're considering returning some of that cash back to shareholders versus funding future growth and exploration projects?
Hi, good morning. Look, I think as you can imagine with what we have with regards to CapEx requirements at Doropo, that we'll be using the existing cash and future cash from operations to fund our organic growth activities for the next couple of years. From 2028 and beyond then, we'll be generating a lot of cash, and look, we would anticipate that we'll evaluate at that point in time options to return cash to shareholders, but we'll have to effectively benchmark that against any other organic activities within the business. The one caveat that I see today is actually what we're seeing at ABC. This project, like I said, is going to be probably 3 million+ type ounces, at least at some stage. I think the economics will show that there is a mine there to be built.
Whether we build it or somebody else, that's a question that we'll decide in the future. I guess the point is, in the next couple of years, we use all of our cash to fund the organic growth projects, and then from 2028 and thereon, we'll have excess cash to think about shareholder returns.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Richard Knights with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, gents. Thanks for the call. Just another one on ABC. You sound quite interested by the exploration results you're getting. Is that changing your view of what the ultimate scale of the project could be? Is that changed view going to be reflected in the scoping work that you're going to publish next quarter?
Look, it is absolutely impacting our thinking because we know the project and the size of the ore body is going to get a lot bigger than what the original resource, which has been published. Because of the time constraints and we wanted to get the scoping study out as quickly as possible to show the economics of this exciting project, we ran the scoping study on the original resource, the 2.2 million ounces. In the next couple of months, when we issue the scoping study, we'll highlight that that was the point, and then we'll also continue to update on drill results. I think the scoping study will provide sort of the size of the plant and the CapEx requirements, and then what will happen over time with additional growth in the ore body is just extension to the mine life.
Yeah. Okay, fine. Thanks. Maybe just one more on explosives at Syama. Obviously, you're trying to get around that with The facility that you're looking to construct in H2 on-site. Do you have a view of what the timelines are around that permit? Also, I suppose, is there any risk, or how do you view the risks around access to explosives into the second half in the event that you wouldn't get that permit?
Yeah. No, thanks for that. Look, maybe I'll turn that over to Gavin. He'll have more specifics than I would. Gavin?
Look, the supply situation at Syama is a lot more stable than it was in the previous year. We're not seeing any disruption to the operations from our current suppliers. The key reason for manufacturing on-site is more to de-risk the movements of explosive materials around Mali, bringing in raw materials rather than explosives coming in from regional centers in Mali and then also from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Look, we have secured a modular plant, which is ready to be imported, and it is currently in Ghana. It's only just across the border, so not too far away. We do expect that we can get that up and running in H2. We've had the authorities come and do a site visit, and the permitting is fairly straightforward.
We have manufactured explosives on the site there before, so in the location that we're proposing in our magazine area, so we see it as a relatively low risk of not proceeding at this stage.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. That makes sense. Maybe just one more just on the VAT balance that's owing to you in Mali. I suppose, A, where's that sitting at the moment, and B, are you still sort of hopeful of being able to get that back in a reasonable timeframe?
Look, the VAT, the bulk of the receivable sits in Mali as expected. Today it's around $70 million. Look, I was in Mali in early March and had good, productive discussions with the government, and they were working with us to issue those VATs. The dialogue and the conversations are all going in the right direction, but yet we haven't received anything. I am confident we will get them at some point in time. When, I don't know. It's a very different conversation this year than it has been in previous years. Look, in both Senegal, even Côte d'Ivoire, we received VAT, but there's always a delay, and we have to fight for them. Look, I think, like I said, in conclusion, I'm confident we'll get something at some point in time. When, I just don't know.
Yep. Okay. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks for the call.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead. Justin Chan, your line is open.
Hi. Sorry, I was on mute. I just have a couple of questions on Doropo, and maybe could you give us a sense of what you're hoping to accomplish for the rainy season? It looks like the construction camp and village. I was wondering if you're hoping to get some water or the water storage facility started for this rainy season, or is that next year?
Gavin, you want to take that one as well?
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, look, we are starting the early works construction there. The water storage dam and the water harvest dam are two of the key components there. In the event that we don't get progress enough to store significant amounts of water, we are putting in boreholes as well at the moment. We've got a contractor mobilized to site to put in bores at this stage, starting this month.
Okay. Got you. Is that a major kind of like the water storage, is that a major kind of operational consideration or getting it kind of at a good level before startup, or is that not really a major consideration?
No. We believe that during the next rainy season next year, we'll certainly have all the infrastructure in by then, so we believe that we'll harvest enough during the wet season. Obviously, you would've seen through the DFS update that we've actually doubled the capacity of storage, to prevent any shortages going forward with the unpredictability of the wet seasons in West Africa at the moment. Also to allow for expansion in the future as well, if we deem that we want to expand the project further.
Okay, got you. All right. Thanks very much.
There are no further questions. That concludes today's call. Have a nice day.