Thanks, Nathan. And thanks to all the investors dialing into the call. We've got a team here. We've got Padraig O'Dowd here, our CFO. We've got Todd Giltay, our General Manager of Finance, and also Nick Hart, who is CEO of Aruma, who's advising on our debt funding process for Kiaka. Just, off the, off the top, it was a quarter of production up and costs down, which is really positive. Also significant quarter for growth with our resource and reserve update and our 10-year mining plan, published. unhedged resources now standing at 12.6 million ounces and unhedged reserves at 6.4 million ounces. For the quarter, we didn't have any significant social or health or safety incidents.
Our TRIFR is now standing at 1.67 compared to the West Australian gold average of 7.1, which is very positive. Gold produced in the quarter was 56,307 ounces, which is up 13% on the December quarter. Our costs were down 10% at AUD 1,172 per ounce on sustaining costs. Again, I've always note that, you know, we're reporting our all-in sustaining costs according to the World Gold Council guidelines. Unhedged gold sales were 48,208 ounces, and unhedged sales at AUD 1,878 an ounce.
That generated AUD 29 million of operating cash flow, after our final installment of AUD 25 million to the Burkina Faso government from our profit in 2021. The underground mining plan, moving on to that, tracked very well. Ounces were up 13% on the last quarter, mostly due to higher grade. The underground grade average nearly AUD 8,000 per tonne. Open pit mining continued really well, significantly ounces are up over the previous quarter. We've finished that pit cutback at the southern end of M5. We'll see that strip ratio trend lower over this year and over the next few years. Our processing continued its strong performance.
It's been very solid at nearly 760,000 tonnes milled at an average head grade of AUD 2,500 per tonne and nearly 94% recovery, which is an outstanding effort. On growth, during the quarter, we released our resource and reserve update and our 10-year mining plan. That's something that we want to keep doing, which demonstrates that we're a sustainable business with long-term prospects. Our resources increased by 1 million ounces to 12.6 million ounces of gold, and that's net of mining in 2022. Our Ore Reserves increased 4.7 million ounces to 6.4 million ounces of gold net of mining in 2022 as well. That's with the addition of Kiaka coming in.
Also, we converted two panels of underground material at M1 South, which we'll continue getting ahead of production in M1 South throughout this year and next year as well. Currently M1 South's got a mine life that takes us out to 2037, and well past the 10-year mining plan. The 10-year mine plan incorporated Kiaka as well, which has got a mine life out to 2042. Moving on to Kiaka. The project's been, the project summary's been reiterated in this morning's quarterly report.
Years 1-5, we're expecting 233,000 ounces per annum production, and about 220,000 ounces production per annum over the life of the project, which is about 18 years, which takes it out to 2042. You know, both operating centers have got relatively low cost and long life mines. During the quarter, we also made good progress on construction at Kiaka. Earthworks for the main camp and front gate were completed. We focused on completing our areas relating to security and fencing. Upgrading the exploration camp, and starting on the permanent or the main camp for the project as well, which we expect to have well advanced throughout this quarter.
We've also secured some long lead items during the quarter, it's pleasing to note that we're not seeing any escalation in costs. Over 20% of the project's now committed and fixed. You know, we believe the capital estimate from August 2022 is still accurate. Major commitments include EPCM services, SAG and ball mills, primary crusher, apron feeders, thickener. We're actually getting down the track on some of these major components and we're not seeing any escalation, which is very positive. Finally, just on Kiaka funding. We're quite well advanced on that. We're expecting to appoint a syndicate of lenders later this quarter.
Given the gold price at the moment, around AUD 2,000 an ounce, we're expecting to fully fund the construction of Kiaka with somewhere between $250 million and $300 million in debt and cash flow from Sanbrado and also, you know, utilizing our cash at bank. That would see us finishing construction in the middle of 2025, and from then on, being a solid plus 400,000 ounce producer at costs around about $1,000 an ounce, which is, you know, last quartile for the industry at the moment. All right. Well, that's the quick summary of the quarter. Nathan, I'll hand it back for questions.
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question directly to Richard, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. For those phoning in, dial star-[microsoft]. Alternatively, you can enter it into the Q&A panel within Zoom. Your first question comes from Roger Fitzpatrick at Charlton Asset Management. He's just asked, if you could give some more color around the build costs at Kiaka, and I guess why in the current inflationary environment you're not seeing an effect so far.
All right. Thanks, Nathan. Thanks, Roger. Well, I think, you know, the major reason is that, I think we saw steel prices peak last year. We've seen oil prices peak last year, which kind of relates to a lot of the piping products and HDPE that we need for the project. Also from a labor perspective, West Africa hasn't seen the same cost pressures as more developed jurisdictions like Western Australia, and North America, US and Canada. I think that's one of the reasons, but also, you know, West Africa is a historically a good place to build gold projects. Very, very simple terrain in particularly in Burkina Faso. It's quite flat.
We don't have any of the uncertainties around earthworks that some of the North American projects seem to have had recently. I think if you look more broadly, over, you know, recent years, and particularly projects that, you know, we've built, previously with like a podium and like a podiums built with their other clients, they'd build them on time and budget or generally, slightly ahead of schedule, under budget. Hope that answered the question.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Hinsley at Cranport. He's asked if you can secure $250 -350 million in debt, then is that enough combined with the cash flow to avoid any capital raise for Kiaka? Secondly, would you need to hedge for the to get the debt financing?
Yeah. Look, if the gold price stays around the current spot price, yes, that, you know, AUD 200,000 million, AUD 250,000 million in funding would see us fully funded. And look, maybe Padre, do you want to talk a bit about hedging? And really, you know, we do believe the gold price is going higher over the, over the, you know, higher for longer, which is why we're more focused on, you know, keeping our Ore Reserve calc prices at $1,400 an ounce so that we, you know, we maintain margin. It is a discussion that we have quite a bit here.
Discretionary, yeah.
Yeah.
Under our negotiations, hedging will be discretionary. Yeah. For the, for the loan, negotiations, hedging will be, excuse me, discretionary, not mandatory. Whether we hedge will be decided at a later point.
Okay. Well, thanks, Nathan.
Thank you. Thank you. We've had a series of questions, asking for comment about the security situation.
Yeah.
in Burkina Faso. Just wondering if you could give an update on that, please.
Certainly. We continue to see, you know, unrest in the north and the east of the country. More recently it's been a result of, I guess, the government's military action. I think if we go back to the start of last quarter, there were a lot of questions around the French leaving and whether Russia's Wagner Group were gonna come into country. You know, we kind of advised after meeting government officials at Indaba in early February that, you know, we didn't think that was the case. Thankfully, we're now, you know, well into April and, you know, we haven't seen a Russian mercenary group come into country. The French demobilized from Ouagadougou in February as well, which it went reasonably smoothly.
I think since then, we've seen the military in Burkina adopt some of the tactics that terrorists have been using in the north and east of the country. They're much more mobile now. They're using, you know, motorcycles and technology to track terrorists in the north and the east of the country. They've also acquired new equipment. They've recently bought Turkish drones, the TB2s, that have been very successful in the Ukraine. You know, over the last two months they've had significant success in tracking down terrorists and canceling them, I suppose. We hope that continues.
You know, if you have a look at, you know, across the Sahel in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, you know, there's more than 1,000 schools that are closed at the moment. You know, it's a situation that doesn't get a lot of press. You know, mostly the Burkinabe government and Mali government have had to take this fight on themselves with very little international assistance. It's pleasing to see that, you know, the Burkinabe government since the second coup or the change in leadership in September last year really have got on the front foot. They've made really good progress. You know, we're quite positive on the situation at the moment, and we hope it kind of keeps moving in the right direction.
Thanks, Richard. There's no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to you for closing remarks.
All right. Thanks, Nathan. Look, looking forward to next quarter. You know, we want investors to keep an eye out for the company announcing the syndicates that provide $250 -300 million in debt financing for Kiaka. That would see us, you know, fully funded at the current gold price and not requiring an equity raise to fund Kiaka. Also we are drilling at M5 South. We are infilling beneath the base of the life of mine open pit and expecting, you know, with further good results there that we could sink a decline off the bottom of the M5 open pit and open up our second underground mine for the project. That drilling and scoping study work is underway at the moment.
With that, thanks everyone for dialing in. We look forward to updating you again next quarter.