Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SBM to the St. Barbara SBM Group events are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Craig Jepsen, MD and CEO.
Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us in St Barbara's March 2021 quarterly briefing. On the call with me today is the executive team from St Barbara, along with Lucas Welch, Chief Transformation Officer and David Cottrill, Manager, Investor Relations. At this point, I'd like to draw your attention to Page 2 and encourage a reading by standard disclaimer. As always, at this point, on Slide 3, I would like to begin recognizing our traditional owners and First Nation people, the lands in which St. Barbara operate in Australia, Canada, Papua New Guinea and pay more respects to elders of past, present and emerging.
Now turning to Slide 5. Slide 5 outlines our 5 core commitments related to St. Barbara operating safely and sustainably. Of note, St. Barbara became a signatory of the United Nation Women's Empowerment Principles.
We also realized and released our modern slavery statement. With the ongoing global challenge of COVID-nineteen, it was pleasing to learn that 93% of our employees believe that COVID-nineteen is being managed well by the company. On Slide 6, we have had 5 recordable injuries for this quarter, most of low severity. Importantly, we recorded 0 injuries in March, which was a high production month for us in the quarter. This demonstrates our goal of 0 harm is possible.
Priority areas of focus during the March quarter were whole of business focus on care, which stands for control, action, respect and engage. Safely transitioning to a new underground mining contractor, Aqualia has also been a key focus of ours. Although in comparison to our peers, we are certainly doing well, we still have a journey to travel and reach 0 harm or 0 life changing injuries. In terms of COVID-nineteen on Slide 7, the COVID-nineteen situation in PNG deteriorated in the quarter with a significant increase in community transmissions across the country. By the end of March, a number of Cymbeline employees and community members tested positive for COVID-nineteen.
The employees were isolated in non-site quarantine camps and containment measures in place to protect other employees. While specialist medical care and support has ensured to recover the majority of cases, 2 of our employees sadly passed away in medical complications while were positive for COVID-nineteen. St Barbara is extending due care and support for their families. Whilst the St. Barry operations have been unaffected by COVID until recent escalation, it remains a dynamic situation with increasing pressure on resources and people.
St. Barbara continues to work closely with the government and non government agencies together with local community to manage the situation at St. Barry. On Slide 8, quarter 3 March key achievements in particular. I'm pleased to report the performance of the March of March was strong, delivering 50% of the total production for the quarter.
This was a result of a company wide transformation and implementation of Building Billings initiative over the recent months. The cash contribution from the operations for the quarter was AUD 41,000,000 Of note, we have progressed a number of our growth options to unlock inherent value in our business. This is uplift 2 of our strategy, which is to grow the production from the Leonora province and deliver brownfield projects at Simberry and Atlantic. First, we have reviewed a number of aspects of the Leonora province plan relating to geological models, resource models and pit optimizations. We are planning to release the details of this work, plus the Leonora mill options during the June quarter.
Secondly, we yesterday released the Synberry Sulfide results, which demonstrate we have a very robust and financially viable project. The Board has approved US13 $1,000,000 in pre investment work. This includes metallurgical test work, engineering work on the wharf and infrastructure design, deposits along placed upon long lead items, including fleet purchases. We have submitted the SEIS to CEPA for the project and expecting a modification approval to the process to take somewhere between 9 12 months. 3rd, we have submitted the environmental impact statement for 15 Milestream And in February, we expect to submit sorry, in February, and we expect to submit the EIFs for Beater Dam in May.
All of these are significant milestones for the Atlantic and Australian PNG operations. Most importantly, we continue to operate safely despite the COVID-nineteen headwinds, particularly in Canada and PNG. Now moving to Slide 9. We first published Slide 9 in the December investor briefing. It shows 2 near term uplifts we're looking to achieve over the next 2 to 3 years across our operations, which are progressing as planned.
As I outlined, during the December quarter briefing and the half year briefing, we are executing to plan with building business initiatives underpinning the performance in March in particular. Delivery of the sulfide feasibility study and in the coming weeks, we will provide an update on the Eleonora province plan. On Slide 10, Slide 10 shows the contribution from each site and annualized cash contribution amounts we outlined in the December investor briefing. Our company wide transformation is well underway and launched in December 2020 as evidenced by these results. At the end of March, we achieved 50% of the FY 2021 targets driven primarily by Atlantic and Guadalupe operations.
I'm pleased with our progress and I look forward to continue to unlock value in our business through our program. Slide 11 is a deeper dive into some of the initiatives driving performance at Atlantic and Guilherme in particular. The mill throughput and availability recovery rates at Atlantic continue to edge upwards with 8% increase in mill availability. At Leonora, the team has balanced development and production with a 14% uplift in development meters and a 24% increase in total material move compared to FY 2020. These are key performance indicators and value unlocked as outlined in the December investor briefing at each of our operations.
Moving on to Slide 12, highlights of quarter 3. Consolidated production for the quarter was 82,000 ounces on sustaining cost of AUD16.45 per ounce. March was an excellent month, clearly demonstrating performance potential across all operations, which I'll talk about in more detail in the operational sections. As I mentioned earlier, operational cash flow in the quarter was AUD 41,000,000 It's however worth noting that we sold less ounces than we produced, which will come through on the balance sheet in the next quarter. Cash at the end of March was $100,000,000 and with debt of AUD102,000,000 The key items impacting cash flow were $23,000,000 of dividend payments, dollars 9,000,000 of income tax payments, dollars 7,000,000 of growth CapEx and $6,000,000 of exploration expenditure.
Slide 13 shows the consolidated quarterly production and all in sustaining costs. The March quarter result was driven by lower production in January and February and significantly stronger performance in March, particularly from Glalier. The strong performance in March is expected to continue into and through quarter 4. On Slide 14, we'll enter Q3 results. Production was 20000 and 6,000 in sustaining cost of $11.28 per ounce.
The operations were impacted by weather events and winter operating conditions with production lower than the previous quarter. The lower grade results is attributable to the use of stockpiles of supplementary mill feed as winter affected the mining rates. Despite this mill performance in March was a new record. Throughput was up 5% on FY 2020 with availability at 98% and the average recovery for the month was 94.5%. As we move into the final quarter of the financial year, we've adjusted FY 2021 guidance to production between 100,000 110,000 ounces, all in sustaining costs between AUD 9.58 and AUD 10.50 per ounce.
At Leonora, Guayali's production was AUD42,716 ounces and all in sustaining cost of AUD15.55 per ounce. While the numbers for Guayali look almost identical to the December quarter, in reality, January February were development focused months with 50% of the production for the quarter achieved in March. Mill throughput increased at Guayla to 9 plate capacity of 1,200,000 tonnes per annum for the second half of the month. The development rate substantially improved with both February March achieving advance of over 400 meters. These themselves are records.
McMahon commences as an underground mining contractor at Guayli in early May. This change of underground operators expected to reduce the mining costs from around 8% to 10% and support our productivity improvements. FY 2021 guidance is adjusted to the lower end of the previous range of 175,000 and 190,000 ounces. This could include 5000 to 7000 ounces of production from ore purchased from 2nd Fortune, which would replace lower grade land or province ore if required. All in sustaining costs between $15.90 $16.30 all in sustaining per ounce.
Onto Slide 16 of Simbere results. Sembary recorded a weaker quarter with production of 18,981 ounces and all in sustaining cost of AUD2426 per ounce. The reporting period was impacted by lower grade lower oxide grades in particular and with the transition law resulting in lower recoveries. Production in March improved with higher oxide grades in the Sumat peak in particular. This result in production in March is equating also to about 50% of the total quarter production.
The remainder of the original Rotecon belt is replaced during the quarter, which has resulted in higher mill throughput, which will continue into quarter 4. FY 2021 guidance is adjusted to the lower end of the previous range of 95,000 to 105,000 ounces and all in sustaining cost for 20 17, 20 20 and 18.10 per ounce. Onto Slide 17. At Guaya, new areas of our mining lease and current footprint have been identified for inclusion in overall mineral resources. As part of the debottlenecking, Guaya's underground production rate in a number of areas of current Guaya Deep's mining front have been identified and incorporated into the mine plan, including intermediates and the shallows.
Slide 17 presents a long section of the upper part of the mine showing the Guaya shallows target. During the quarter, the additional phase of underground dom drilling consisting of 11 holes was completed. 4 hangwall loads have been identified and the team is commencing a resource estimation work in the coming weeks. The team has also conducted a review of the upper part of the mine. This has identified a number of attractive targets for infill drilling including Old South Qualia, Old West Lode and targets in the south end of the mine above the 5 85 meters below the surface.
We will drill these areas out over the next 6 to 12 months. Onto the Leonor province on Slide 18 shows Slide 18 shows the deposits in the areas in the focus of both close to Gualia and further to the north. Work has progressed in the Leonora province plan as involved, reviewing of the geological models, existing resource models and building new resource models, completing pit optimization and considering mill expansions. We are planning a more detailed update on the province plan for Guaya and Leonora in the June quarter. Slide 19, in terms of Leonora province plan, this time line incorporates the information from the 2 previous slides, which includes the expected increase of mineral resources and plans to launch a pre feasibility study covering Tower Hill, Harbor Lights and considering a mill expansion.
The indicative timeline for assessment, development and production reach of the major areas within the Leonora province plan ensures we will deliver building building strategy as outlined and announced in our December announcements. On Slide 20, yesterday we released the results of the Simberry Sulfide Feasibility Study, which highlighted a robust project with a strong financial returns. The Board has approved the pre investment work of $13,000,000 and farm investment decision targeted for March 2022 or sooner. The next steps include completing the supporting trials on waste rock management and tailings footprint with submission for CEPA in quarter 1 FY 2022. We're working to update the mineral reserves for the end of the financial year reporting.
Over the next 3 to 6 months, we'll complete the reserve definition drilling program. Importantly, we will continue to build on stakeholder engagement to ensure appropriate consultation supported by legislative assurity for the program. In terms of oxide drilling targets, Simferi exploration at Simferi is targeting additional oxide mineralization within the mine corridor. 6 oxide targets were drill tested with the aim of defining additional inferred and indicated resources. Results highlight that Pingadaw North and Cell Tower contain oxide mineralization.
In addition, resource definition drilling is planned to be completed and converted to unclassified and inferred mineralization in the very near future. We expect to release these drilling results in the June quarter. On Slide 22, as we delivered a promise, in conclusion, we've had a solid quarter and a very strong month of March across all of our operations. We expect to continue in quarter 4 and as billion becomes the way we deliver. We've progressed with unlocking value in our business, expect to provide a detailed update on our province plan in the June quarter.
The balance sheet remains strong, positioned with AUD 100,000,000 in cash and AUD 102,000,000 in debt. Building drilling initiatives are starting to deliver with FY 2021 annualized cash contribution target already 50% achieved since launching in December. We have continued to implement COVID-nineteen protocols across our business and keep our people safe and maintain stable operations. With cost reductions starting to be realized and progress made with regards to Brownfield project pipeline in particular, quarter 4 has been set up for a strong finish to finish the financial year. And with that now, I'd like to hand back and hand over for any questions that people may have.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your first question comes from Alex Barclay from Morgan Stanley Australia. Please go ahead.
Hi, Craig and team. At Qualia, you stated you're trying to get to 12 minuteing funds by the end of next quarter. When are we likely to see the benefit of that tonnage increasing towards the 1,100,000 tonne per annum you wanted FY 2023? And also for Q4 this year more specifically, you'd be expecting a better mix of tons and or grade to reach guidance. So how do you see that quarter developing?
Yes. Alex, I think clearly quarter 4 is certainly going to be a challenge. But it's something that we believe we have the strategy and the mining fronts and I guess the production profile to be able to achieve it. If I look at the last few weeks in particular with Qualia, the development work that we've, I guess, did late last year and more so in January February starting to pay dividends and the mine is potentially starting to unleash itself and debottleneck itself. The results that we're seeing at the moment are exceptional.
They will continue into quarter 4. Now of course, we don't want any more headwinds like fall of ground or any issues with the mill. We're really going to be going hard to finish the quarter strong. But we only have to repeat what we've done in March to continue on such a performance. So to answer your question, in the last couple of weeks, in particular, in the last month of March, we've actually been milling at around the 1,200,000 tonne milled run rate.
So that has been unlocked, and we certainly have enough material to feed that mill. So we're quite confident that those rates will continue on. As you said, we've developed some open headings. We've got more mining fronts that we can go through now. We've started to debottleneck the mine quite well.
The team has done a great job moving waste from underground and setting ourselves up, in particular for FY 2022 as we finish FY 2021. But I think now we're starting to see the benefits of the development work, the building branch program, the debottlenecking the mine, short term mineral control, management operating systems and of course, some good reliability with the mill. So I think all in all, the production quarter 4 will be strong. Don't really want any more headwinds. That's further growth of opportunity to keep that mill topped up.
I'm looking forward to coming out later this year or in the June quarter, in particular, talking about the promised plan in a lot more detail that's starting to unfold for us. Okay.
Jambu Atlantic, the mine grades fell a bit quarter on quarter. Would you be expecting them to rebound back up towards reserve? And where do you see Tukui over the next, say 12 months? Plus how long should we expect to see that bump you've been getting from mine to mill grades of roughly 0.3 grams per tonne? Is that likely to continue?
Look, I think the mine to mill grade will balance out, particularly, I mean, it's tough in January, February, March at Atlantic as we all know that we've been much so harsh up there and we certainly get affected in the mine an awful lot, a little bit in the processing plant as well. And I'll talk about that in a bit more detail later. But we've been certainly moving low grade stockpiles into the mill to keep up the mill feed while the mine has been affected by the winter in particular. So that's really the issue with grade at this point in time. If I look at how the team have gone with debottlenecking the mill, The reliability is world class.
So the availability is up there with the best. The throughput has increased by 5% in the month of March as well. So the building burnished programs and unlocking the value there is going quite well. So I see Tukoy being a very solid operation over the next 12 months, very strong cash position. So very optimistic about what's happening there.
And with the mine grades, they're going to drop to sort of 0.7 grams per tonne, it's been the lowest for quite a while. Was that a down quarter for any particular reason? Are you expecting that to rebound?
I suspect that's a timing issue more than something that will continue on. So as we transition and develop the mine, we're certainly going through some low grade areas. And I think this is more a timing problem than what we'll continue into next year. Okay.
And last question for me on Simberry sulfide project. What sort of regulatory outcome and certainty are you looking for in the next 12 months? And could the project be approved even if you don't get mining certainty beyond your current license in 2028? Thanks.
Yes, Alex, absolutely. I think so there's a bit of work to do yet. So we're committed to the ESIS. And there are 2 pieces of work that are outstanding for that to be approved and we'll get that in during the next quarter. So I think we're saying somewhere between 9 12 months for approval.
I believe we can get that approved a little bit sooner, provided we work very closely with the regulators. And part of submitting the ESIS for the SEIS in advance of having 2 pieces of work not completed was as you'd appreciate, there's many thousands of pages involved in these documents and we wanted to give the government, particularly SIPA, the opportunity to review them technically and prepare for the last 2 addendums that we will put in, in the next 3 months. So that's progressing really well. I don't believe there will be a regulatory issue moving forward. I think there's still a cloud over the mining act and what that would mean.
There's opportunity for us around, I think, as you said, Aramel needs to be renegotiated in 2028. If I look at the program as we've got it now and the sulfide project itself, the it's got about a 13 year life of mine extension at about a 3,000,000 ton run rate at 3,000,000 tons. I mean, it's certainly a robust project to pay it back within about 3 years or less. If we look at and while we've got some time during the CEPA approval process over the next, say, 9 months in particular, we'll look at variations to that mine plan and opportunity to be able to expand what we're currently intending to build up to say 3,500,000 or 3,700,000 tons or whatever the number economically turns out to be in the best investment case. So there's a bit of work to do about that.
So if we build the plant and we always said we're going to build it to be expandable. But now while we're in the phase of engineering and pretty much the process flow sheet itself, there's not a lot of extra money involved in making a tank bigger or making pumps to increase the throughput rate. So we're looking at that. So the opportunity would be to increase the mill throughput, the mining rates through extra equipment and mining fleet more than anything and larger sized tanks. So I guess what I'm saying is we could increase the throughput, which would decrease the risk around 2028.
So there's a bit of work to be done on that. And I look forward to working with the government in making that happen.
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Radcliffe from Global Mining Research. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Craig and team. So just had a couple of questions, maybe starting with the some very feasibility study. I see there that the life of mine sustaining capital for the project looks to have doubled. Just wondering if you could sort of provide some more color there. I see part of that is related to a power plant upgrade.
So maybe is that a big chunk of that? And when would that actually be spent?
Yes, David, a really good question. I think the issue with the power plant during the feasibility study was grossly underestimated the amount of power generation with the need on the island. The most uptick in capital cost in particular is the extra power that we would that we've identified during the feasibility. So I think that's most of it. As the Board have approved about $13,000,000 on for long lead items and deposits on pieces of equipment, We're currently in commercial negotiations and searching for power plant opportunities in terms of building extra, whether it be extra modules, whatever we do there at the final day.
So I think the long lead items or the lead items in that's probably around 12 to 14 months away from now. But there's still a lot of work to do in that power generation side, which is causing some of the uptick in capital expenditure.
Okay. Thanks. Then following on just maybe to help us better understand it. Sort of what are the sort of gold what is the gold price you're using now for evaluating projects? Because I see you're doing this at US1500 dollars Does that mean that this is now across all the businesses?
And then specifically for Zimbri, I may be wrong, but I thought the reserves were cut at $13,000,000 So does that mean there's potentially some upside to reserves as they get recut at $1500,000,000 or are they sort of disconnected in the way you approach it?
No, no, no. They're certainly not disconnected. I will pass over to Garth to give you more detailed explanation on the investment hurdles. But as we recap the different gold prices and realize the different opportunities, it does change somewhat within the projects. And we're seeing this in Beryone change somewhat as well.
Garth, have you got a comment? Yes. I
think we review the gold price assumptions each year, obviously taking into account the market and the outlook etcetera and we update our resources and reserves as at the end of June. So that's a process we go through and setting the gold price for the feasibility study. We've updated that gold price based on the outlook to $1500 And then we also set an exchange rate if we're using Aussie dollar gold price. So we reevaluate those exchange rate assumptions as well. So that's something we do annually.
And then of course we have separate to that we'd have our investment hurdle rates which we use as well and the gold price feeds into that.
Okay. So when you recut reserves, it sounds like you might be cutting them at a higher price, but I guess we'll wait and see what you do midyear.
Yes. I mean sometimes the reserves are not always that sensitive to gold price changes. It depends on in the past, Golaria hasn't been particularly sensitive to changes in gold price. So you don't always see a big lift in reserves just because you've changed the gold price.
Okay. Thanks. Maybe just moving to Gualia then. You've halved the growth capital guidance for the year. Could you provide a bit more color on that?
Does that actually potentially impact near term on what you're targeting to deliver? And do we defer that capital into next year?
So in terms of Garth, I'll let you talk about the capital as well. But in terms of deferring the capital, I don't think that's really part of that the change in what you're seeing there. I think the capital is changing significantly over a period of time at Guilera as we do things around the mine plan and the mine production in particular. And of course, the feasibility plans that we have could also change that profile of capital. We've spent a lot of capital this year on development, in particular, not so much on the growth side of the business.
But Dalf, any other comments?
Yes. So I think the questions you're asking is around the growth capital that we've adjusted down the guidance and that is there is some growth projects there that probably will be deferred into FY 2022. I think some of the capital that was in the growth was around tailings dams. And some of the timing of that expenditure will not occur in FY 2021 and that's part of the reason for that down revising down that growth capital range.
Okay. And then maybe just one final one, if you don't mind. Just the change over the mining contract for Iguala, obviously, that can cause disruptions. How you think you're managing that? And then just to expand again on that, the commentary before about how we should think about lifting the ore rates that are obviously delivered to surface and how they all sort of come together when you think about that FY 2022 target of 180,000 to 200,000 ounces?
Yes. Look, I think the changing the mining contract is certainly something that we're managing very,
very
closely and working with McMurrayans and Burncutt to make sure that the mine operation continuity is continued up. And 1st and foremost, the safety is managed accordingly because of that huge distraction. But from a business perspective, to actually pull the lever on that transition now is the right thing to do, particularly as we set ourselves up to success for next year. Having said that, as you can see, the March rates have been exceptionally good. So the performance of the people on-site has been exceptional during these changing times.
So that's one box ticked. The safety and the transition is something that we're working on as well to make sure that people are not distracted and we get on and finish the year out very strongly. The other bit, I guess, was the early mobilization of McMahon's. So we have engaged McMahon's to be at site and some of the people are obviously at site now and underground. All their training, their inductions is unfolding as we speak, ready for the transition early next month.
We also have a McMahns crew mobilized underground that have been doing some drilling and some development work in the intermediates and the Anguilla shallows in preparing for reserves and resources upgrade at the end of next quarter along with supporting burn cut in the transition, so people are there mobilized. So we're certainly derisking wherever we possibly can and planning with both organizations as smooth transition. What will that do is, given the development work, the open headings we have, the early works that's going on as we speak in the shallows will set us up for 2022 minuteing rates, as we said, during that building brilliance program late last year. So the targets that we have put and set ourselves, what we're doing at the moment are now able to reach those.
Brilliant. Thanks very much guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Reg Spencer from Canaccord. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning guys. First question for
me is in relation to Leonora. I note that your slightly revised guidance does imply 58% lift in required production Q on Q. Assuming you can run at that 1,200,000 tonne per annum rate, can you remind me as to how much lower grade third party ore as mill feed that might comprise? I'm just trying to back out what kind of mining volumes and or grade you would need to hit that guidance number.
Yes. Reg, I think we have been impacted by some grade issues in recent times. But we're still planning on reserve grade and the head grades feeding the mill as we planned. I think the confidence to get us to the production levels will be around reliability, grade holding up to where it is and certainly continuing for the March run rates that we've been able to achieve. And of course, if I look forward, if you take the March results into the quarter, then we get across guidance quite well.
And of course, these are the targets and the numbers we'd have set ourselves for the future as well. So I think coming off the back of March into the quarter, into quarter 4th to deliver guidance is the future sort of numbers that we will run the operation to. In terms of 3rd party or as you would know in different announcements that we're actually funding some development with 2nd Fortune and we've received some of their ore and that's sitting at the processing plant as well. We're bringing in some low grade stockpiles and we may use the opportunity to use 2nd floor June ore to replace some of our lower grade stockpile ore that's in the province. And we haven't fully decided to do that at this stage because of the mining rates and what we've been able to do to run the mill at the rate of about 1,200,000 tons in the last few weeks to continue that on with our own underground and proven source.
So there's a few things in the mix of how we're going to achieve guidance, but we don't want to be more headwinds either. We believe we'll debottleneck the mine. We've got enough mining funds now. If grade holds up, which we certainly believe it will, then we'll come home with a very strong sale as long as what we did in March. Okay.
Thanks.
Can we expect any disruption on the contracted changeover? Or does your guidance and budgets provide some a little bit of fat in there for any potential disruption?
Yes. Look, no, we're not certainly running with any fat anywhere. Given the headwinds in the first half of the year, we had fall of ground and other issues. So certainly any fat that we had was consumed back in those days. And this is really now showing us how we can have to operate the mine and move forward.
I'd have to call out both contractors. So McMahon's in particular with an early mobilization of their people and equipment being ready and also participating as we speak in some of the early works in the shallows, but also the performance and the professionalism of Burn Cut working with us through the transition period. And at the moment, both are working exceptionally well together underground. The St. Barbara team working very closely in support and the planning process as well.
So look, I'd like to call out everybody that's working extremely hard at Kuale to bring the quarter full as strong as we can.
All right. Got it. Thanks. Last question for me, it's from Biri. Should we assume lower recoveries going forward given that your bill feed blend is likely to comprise a high proportion of that transitional ore?
I guess how should we
be thinking about recoveries on the oxide prior to any commencement of production from the sulfides?
Yes, Reg, I think if you'd ask me that question in the February where I was getting some sleepless nights over recovery in the transition material and potentially the lack of ore body knowledge that we had, the drilling programs during the feasibility study have opened up a lot of oxide opportunity for us and we're currently putting that into our plans. So what we saw in January February was very ordinary recovery rates. And that we hit by throughput rates, not just recovery. But March, in particular, last half of March was a lot stronger in recovery. And we certainly have got more body knowledge now coming out of the feasibility.
We've got some 2 very strong oxide targets that we are currently drilling out and getting more information about that, that we'll put into our 2022 and 2023 plan. That will stabilize recovery back to recovery of old more than where we have been in the 1st several months of this year.
Okay. So I guess in the near term then, recoveries may end up being towards the lower end, but that should pick up again as some of these new cleaner oxide sources come into the plant?
Yes, that's correct. The more ore body knowledge we can muster over the next few weeks with the data we're already compiling, the better off we'll be mining the oxides accordingly to improve our recoveries. Okay. Excellent. Thanks, guys.
I'll pass it on. Thanks, Reg.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. And that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.