Hello and welcome to Virtual Investor Conferences. On behalf of OTC Markets, we are very pleased you have joined us for our last day of our three-day metals and mining conference. Our next live presentation of the day is from Mineros. Please note, you may submit questions for the presenter in the box to the left of the slides. You can also view a company's availability for a one-on-one meeting by clicking "Book a Meeting" in the top toolbar. At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome David Splett, Chief Financial Officer, and Ann Wilkinson, Vice President of Investor Relations of Mineros, which trades on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol MNSAF and on the TSX under the symbol MSA. Welcome, David and Ann.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much to everyone who spent the time with us today and took the opportunity to learn a little more about Mineros. As mentioned, I am David Splett, I'm the Chief Financial Officer of Mineros. I joined earlier this year, Mineros, because of the fact that I think the interesting element of the story and the growth prospects of Mineros are truly compelling, and I want to share some of those elements today with everyone. The first step is to walk yourselves through the safe harbor statements that are being provided to you. I'll highlight that you can spend these in your late evening to read. Where I want to start the story off and the explanation off is that I joined Mineros
this past summer because what I saw in the company after analyzing it was that it had an extremely stable and consistent production base in Nicaragua and Colombia, and the operations have been consistent over the years, both in terms of production and in terms of costs. The Mineros production base in Nicaragua comprises two underground mines, the Panama and the Pioneer Mine, and also cooperative artisanal supply from around our Bonanza concessions. In Colombia, we have alluvial plain recovery platforms that produce, again, a very consistent production platform and cost profile for investors. With that base, our new management team is working to grow the business, grow our production, and reduce our AISC over time. We're starting with low-risk projects like the de-bottlenecking operational excellence in brownfield projects and then working sequentially through to greenfield projects and M&A opportunities.
I start with the notion Mineros is a compelling investment story given the fact that you look at, despite a 100% increase in our share price over the last two months, as Ann Wilkinson, myself, and our team have worked in the markets to expand the story and gain investor interest. You look, despite that 100% increase, we still are relatively low in terms of scale relative to our peers on an EV to consensus production basis, despite our return of capital to shareholders and despite our operating cash flow. We've demonstrated to investors that they can enjoy capital appreciation and return of capital based on our demonstrated history. The one thing I would like to highlight is in 2025, as we go through the year, investors can anticipate that we will be returning $30 million to them in dividends, and we've already paid $15 million this year.
There's still a lot of runway for us to grow relative to our peers on an EV to consensus production basis. I would also highlight on this slide, when we look at our financial metrics to June 30, 2025, this was based on a gold price of approximately $3,100 for the first half of this year, starting at about $2,600 at the beginning of 2025 and finishing off at $3,300 at the end of June of this year. In Q3, we're looking at an average gold price of $3,600 - $3,700 per ounce, and in Q4, we're already north of $4,000. The one point I would like to highlight is our free cash flow for the first half of this year was impacted by $43 million of cash tax payments that will go down materially in the second half of this year.
Investors can anticipate that our cash and cash equivalents will grow substantively as the year progresses. When we release our financials after the first week of November this year, I think it will be clear to everyone the value proposition and the financial strength of the company. This financial strength is leveraged off of a very stable production platform that starts off with approximately 2.1 million oz of PNP reserves and a production platform that has been consistent over the years at about 200,000 oz of production. What I would say is that when we look at the production base in Nicaragua, we have the two underground mines that supply 25% of the feed to our plants, and we have 75% of the ore supplied by the cooperative miners in Nicaragua. In the Nechí Basin, we have our mobile recovery systems on the alluvial plain.
The interesting thing about our AISC is that our artisanal ore supply in Nicaragua is primarily linked to gold price and secondarily linked to the grade that's supplied by the artisanals. Our AISC will flex up while gold prices go up. What this provides investors is also an AISC that will flex downwards should we see a shock in gold prices. Our AISC are fairly unique in that they're variable with gold prices, and we can provide assurance to investors that their investment is actually protected. What I would also highlight is that when we provided our 2025 guidance earlier this year, we were looking at a $3,000 - $3,500 gold price through the course of 2025. Now that we're north of $4,000, we can anticipate the AISC will continue to flex up a bit more.
Again, this is a variable AISC that will move downwards should there be a shock given the gold price movement. I want to now go to our alluvial production platform, and then I'll move on to the Hemco production platform. The alluvial plain in Colombia is a really interesting asset. In fact, it's what I consider to be a rare asset in the gold mining industry. We have 1.4 million oz of PNP reserves, and that gives us about a 12-year mine life, but that's substantively longer given the fact that our mineral inventory will support continued mining. This basin has allowed for 9 million oz of gold production since 1895, and we have produced through our Nechí alluvial operation 3.2 million oz over the last 50 years.
Our mining concessions have approximately 415 sq km of land package, and there is still exploration potential throughout that land package. We could substantively increase our PNP reserves and resources with an extensive drill program. This will allow us to expand our mobile fleet of recovery plants, and we can do a low-cost growth strategy in Colombia. The other interesting thing about our Colombian operations is that we have two hydroelectric plants. The Providencia hydroelectric plants provide 18 MW of power to our operating systems, and in fact, we sell power back into the Colombian grid. Mineros, as a result of its alluvial operation, has a very small carbon footprint when you compare it to a traditional, say, 100,000 oz per year gold mine. I want to amplify one point relative to the Nechí operation, given the fact that it's not a well-understood asset.
When we design our mine plans for our Nechí operation, we begin with an infill program, and this infill program is focused on identifying the gold resources through the mining area. After we've completed that infill drilling program, we then move towards constructing a dike around the mining stage, and the intent here is to ensure that we isolate all water, all environmental impacts from the river system and from the outer region. This dike is constructed at least 30 meters away from the river bank, and after we finish the construction of the dike and the isolation and the containment area is complete, we move our mining fleet in through the dike system, and then we close off the overall containment area.
When we begin our mining operations with our fleet of five large recovery units and multiple smaller mining units, I would highlight that it's all electrical power supplied. I would also highlight that there's no chemicals, reagents, or other fuels used in the mining process. I would also highlight that as we do our progressive mining in the area, we are also doing a very aggressive mining reclamation program. We have one of the most aggressive reclamation programs I've seen in the mining industry. In fact, shortly after we've completed mining operation in the mining stage, we will complete a reclamation program and ensure that the property is now available for agricultural uses going forward. We have a strong affiliation with our communities, and they're the ones that step in and take over agricultural use in the area after we've done our mining operations.
In Nicaragua, we have about 190,000 oz- 200,000 oz of PNP reserves from our underground mines. That in and of itself is enough to ensure at least six years of operation. The industrial mines supply approximately, as I mentioned earlier, 25% of our ore that's processed by our plants, and then cooperative artisanal mining supplies 75% of our production. This artisanal supply is nationally regulated. What I would highlight is that in Nicaragua, artisanal miners are granted by national law access up to 1% of the concession area. For Mineros, what this means is artisanal miners are granted access to mine, typically narrow vein, shallow, and potentially high-grade ore that is not amenable to mechanized mining. The other thing that is interesting about this is that they are typically limited technically to a depth of about 20 meters- 30 meters.
If there is an extension to the ore body, it is still fully Mineros given Mineros must be supplying the coordinates of all mining that takes place in our concession by the artisanal miners to ensure that we're complying with World Gold Council or ICMM or GRI standards, we have the coordinates of all high-grade hits that are being experienced by our cooperative supply. This is a unique benefit to us. As opposed to us having, let's say, five exploration geologists, we may have anywhere up to 100 exploration geologists giving us some greenfield hits. The other thing is that our land package of approximately 150,000 hectares is still largely underexplored, and one of the initiatives by the new management team is to really start getting a good understanding of our package. This picture gives you an idea of the Hemco land package, 151,000 hectares.
Our operations and mines are at the northeast of the package, and our new Porvenir project is to the southwest. Artisanal miners will typically mine the outer areas of the package in areas that we don't typically have a lot of access to. One thing that's truly notable about our exploration strategy now is that historically, Mineros managers would limit the cap or place a cap on the grade of ore they would allow artisanal miners to supply our production plants. What this meant Mineros would not accept any ore over a certain grade. With the new management team, we removed those grade caps for artisanal ores, and we have received ores that have exceptionally good grades, impressive grades that have now helped to redefine our exploration program.
We are now drilling in a couple of areas in the Hemco area that we did not know of because of the fact of the grade that was supplied by our artisanal miners. One of the things that we're doing based on our own exploration program was the Porvenir project that's located approximately 11 kilometers from our existing operations. This is a polymetallic mine that we are currently advancing through PFS that should be completed by the end of this year and early next year. This PFS property is likely to produce doré, copper concentrates, and zinc concentrates with significant gold credits. We continue to explore the area because we think there is still significant exploration potential with the deposit open on strike and at depth.
The other thing we did in September of this year was the announcement of the acquisition of the remaining 80% of the La Pepa project. La Pepa is an advanced gold exploration project in the Maricunga area of Chile, which is a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction. With this $40 million acquisition in September of this year, effectively we've taken control of an ore body that contains between M&I of 1 million oz in total mineral inventory of about 2 million oz and north of 2 million oz. This ore body is amenable to an open pit, low strip ratio, heap leaching operation, and we think over the course of this Chilean winter, as we expand our exploration program and aggressively explore the territory, that we can provide shareholders with meaningful hits. Where will those meaningful hits come from?
When we talk about the statement of M&I resources, these occur in the northern resource body. Some of the inferred resources or a good portion of the inferred resources occur in the south. Our thesis is that there is continuity between the two ore bodies, so we believe they're connected, and we think through the drill bit, we can materially increase the mineral inventory in La Pepa. This is a property we think that has immense NPV and potential for shareholders, and we will aggressively drill it, and we will be looking to try and advance a PFS over the next couple of years. As we get permits to advance things, we'll be keeping all of our investors updated on that. Where do we see growth?
As I mentioned earlier, we have the Porvenir polymetallic deposit, which contains 572,000 oz of gold, and it's in the southwest portion of our Hemco package, as I mentioned earlier. As it stands, we anticipate we'll be producing doré and copper concentrate and zinc concentrates. When we originally developed this project and we looked through concept studies, we were looking at an NPV north of $200 million at $1,800 gold. As we complete the PFS in 2025, we'll be updating all of the assumptions, and having gone out to some of our suppliers to get the pricing for materials to build the mine, we'll have a much better assessment of the capital costs and the NPV as we finish off 2025.
The other thing that Ann and I have been doing and management has been doing over the course of the last four months is ensuring that the investment community and other operators, small operators, mid-caps, and even in some instances the large caps, know Mineros name, know our production platform, and know our financial capability. What we're finding is that we are evolving to be a go-to name in this area, and we've been approached with numerous projects throughout the Americas. I would highlight that as we maintain and manage our growth strategy, we focus first on de-bottlenecking, going into brownfield, greenfield, and then inorganic growth opportunities. We will maintain a tight focus on capital discipline, particularly given gold prices where they stand today. When we talk about capital management of capital, I would highlight that this year we'll be providing shareholders with approximately $30 million of dividends.
What this implies to shareholders, what this implicitly states to shareholders, is that they can count on the fact that there will be capital discipline in Mineros We will return capital to shareholders, and with our financial resources, there is significant more share price appreciation in our future. When you combine the share price appreciation and capital return to shareholders, it provides a second-to-none opportunity to everybody. The other point I'd like to highlight is that we have a tight capital structure, and our current management plans do not include any anticipation of issuances of equity nor bought deals. We will continue to focus on growing the business through the drill bit, growing the business through de-bottlenecking, and then through brownfield and greenfield opportunities and disciplined capital management.
I hope this provides everyone a good understanding of the base of Mineros, the management philosophy, and I would invite the participants to ask Ann and I your questions. Thank you very much.
David, we have about seven questions in. I'm going to ask them not necessarily in the order that they came in because some of them will build off each other, but starting with a question, what are the most significant operational or jurisdictional risks facing Mineros' core assets, and how are these being mitigated?
Interesting question. Very good question. In Nicaragua, Nicaragua is subject to OFAC, which is the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the United States, and several of the government ministries and government personnel are subject to sanctions. We recognize in Nicaragua that there are some jurisdictional risks. I would highlight to investors that Nicaragua, in my experience both in this company and historically in my career, Nicaragua is an outstandingly good jurisdiction to carry out mining because the government, the communities, the people are all supportive of the mining industry, and it contributes to the GDP. We believe that we have to make sure that federal authorities internationally and both locally recognize that we comply with all international standards. We know we comply with all Nicaraguan standards, and we are not affiliated with any one particular group.
We are ensuring that we will continue to comply with those standards that are required. In Colombia, there are challenges associated with illegal mining activity, as you would see in a lot of developing nations, and we often supply the government. In fact, on a daily basis, we'll supply the legal authorities with pointers to where some of the illegal activity is taking place. We comply with governments. We ensure that they're aware of the activities we're carrying out, and we will always comply with all international standards, whether it's ESTMA, World Gold Council, or GRI, whatever the standard may be. We think that is the first basis to ensure that we protect shareholder value. Anything else, Ann, you think that should be added?
No, I think that's pretty comprehensive. Moving along, we have a question. Any delays in services given the extraordinarily high precious metals prices right now?
Services, I'm not quite clear on the question. Problems with services?
Part and parcel of that question may be another question that we got. What are the main factors impacting your cash costs and all-in sustaining cost guidance for 2025, and how are you positioned to manage cost pressures if gold prices become volatile, and I would suggest more volatile?
Very good question. One of the things we touched on in the presentation earlier is in Nicaragua, 75% of our ore that is processed in one of our three plants there, 75% of the ore is sourced from cooperative artisanal mining. The pay for this ore is based on gold price. They get a percentage of gold price, typically a range I can't disclose here, but a range that still leaves us a significant profit margin. This price that we pay will flex up as gold price flexes up, but what it Mineros is almost a one-of-a-kind benefit that our AISC, our cash cost, will also flex down substantively if gold has a shock downwards. We have almost a real-time linkage to gold prices with our AISC.
We are significantly insulated versus other producers because your typical industrial mine, the AISC is fixed and going up as gold prices go up and demand for services and resources go up. We're fortunate in that if gold prices were to shock downwards, our primary impact of purchases from artisanal miners will go down. The other thing that we do is on our wholly owned mines and in our operations, we have operational excellence programs that continue to look for the means to improve throughput and to improve recoveries. An example of this is one of the news releases we gave in early September on our scavenger units, which are there to improve our recoveries. We've designed some plants to attach to our mobile plants, and these units, scavenger units, will improve our recoveries by up to 8% to each of the mobile mining units.
That will drive down AISC, that will drive down cash costs, and we continue to focus on capital discipline as it applies to capital projects because capital projects are also facing pressures. We are also being very disciplined on front-end engineering for all capital projects to ensure we execute cleanly and decisively.
I've got two questions that are similar. I'll ask it in one question, but kind of a two-part question. What are the main drivers behind Mineros' expected production growth in the next one to three years, and what milestones should investors watch for? That was question number one. The second question was, how dependent is future growth on organic expansions versus potential inorganic M&A transactions, and what are your acquisition criteria?
Okay, that's a lot of questions in two questions.
On growth, how do we think about growth, and is it coming internally or externally, and kind of unpacking that?
Okay, let's start out at the macro level. The world that we control is the world of organic growth. Inorganic, and I'll talk to the inorganic side first, we have been approached on multiple projects, both development projects, near-term producers, and existing mines. We will execute on an inorganic opportunity if we can provide value in terms of improving the mining operation or the mine planning or the capital discipline or the operating costs. We have been approached, as I mentioned, several times, many times, in fact, and when we have the right opportunity, we will ensure that we execute on it in a timely fashion. There's availability out there. We will continue to keep our powder dry until the right one comes along.
Now, on the organic side, near-term growth is coming in Nicaragua by de-bottlenecking the Hemco plant, and we've got a plan that is currently in execution to increase production by about 15%- 20% through the de-bottlenecking program in the Hemco plant. The other area where we see opportunity for growth is what I mentioned in our expansion or our acceptance of high-grade mineral from the artisanal suppliers. We have received ores that have exceptionally high grades of gold in them, and we think that there's significant growth potential tied to accepting higher-grade ores. In the alluvial operation, we can build and implement new operating platforms at a fraction of the cost that it would be for a traditional mine.
In fact, our Aurora plant there that's in the picture, that was a $20 million investment, and we also have smaller suction units that operate that work to extract ores too that are as low as $4 million investments. We are looking to expand our fleet of mobile recovery systems and gravity separation systems to increase our production on a low CapEx basis. I think that answers a lot of the questions, Ann.
I think we're at time, and we're not out of questions, but I think the last question I will ask Mineros is trading at a significant discount to the peer average. What do we believe the market is missing or undervaluing about your story? I'm going to jump in with the first part of that question. This is a 50-year-old or 51-year-old company. It was listed in Toronto four years ago. There wasn't enough marketing done around it. There was not enough exposure to the U.S. markets. Historically, we were trading kind of as an afterthought on the pink. New management comes in and focuses on optimizing for transparency, communication, and raising awareness around the brand. Hence, you will have seen us start to trade on the OTCQX Best Market starting last Friday. Over to you for anything else I'm missing.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the.