Good morning everyone, and welcome to Endomines Capital Markets Day 2026. My name is Anni Turpeinen. I'm the Chief Communications Officer here at Endomines, and I will be your host and moderator today. It's really nice to see so many people present here in Helsinki and also a great group of people following us online. A warm welcome, everyone. On behalf of the whole Endomines team, I want to say that we are truly excited to host this, very first Capital Markets Day of Endomines. This is a milestone moment for us and also a perfect time to open up where we are as a company. Endomines is in a very interesting phase right now, and today we will give you a deeper look into what we do, where we are heading, and the next steps in our golden growth journey.
Before we start with the presentations, a few practical points. We have two presentation blocks today, and after each block, we will have Q&A session. We encourage everyone to take part, both here in the room and online. If you are following online, please type your questions in the chat box, and please send or ask your questions in English. Now I would like to introduce today's speakers, who also form Endomines' management team. Welcome. In the first part, we will have presentations from our CEO, Kari Vyhtinen, our Chief Operations Officer, Ilkka Räty, and our Chief Technical Officer, Jani Rautio. In the second part, we will have presentations from our Chief Sustainability Officer, Hanne Mäkelä, as well as our Chief Development Officer, Sampo Hirvonen.
We also have our CFO, Minna Karttunen, present here with us, and she is happy to answer your questions during the Q&A. This is our management team at the moment, but in April, our team will be strengthened with a new member. We are happy to welcome Chief Legal Officer Eleonora Skaffari-Väisänen to the Endomines management team. Warm welcome, Eleonora.
Thank you.
Today, in addition to our management team, we will have one external speaker, Petter Langenskiöld from Evli, who is joining us a little bit later. Before we start, I would like to remind you that this presentation contains forward-looking statements, and here you can see the disclaimer. Finally, I think we are ready to kick off. I hope you enjoy the Capital Markets Day. With that, I hand over to our CEO, Kari Vyhtinen.
Thank you, Anni. Good morning, everyone. Personally, I have just a little bit of background. I've been with the company now four years, and I joined the company due to two reasons. One reason is that I truly believe in gold. Like, unfortunately, we live in a world where there is a lot of instability, geopolitical tensions, and so on, and there is always a need for a safe haven like gold. The other main reason was that there is a true opportunity at the Karelian Gold Line to create something big. Like, back in 2022, the company was very small. We have gone a long way, but there is a lot more to come, and we are well on our way to make this a great Finnish sustainable success story.
This is a picture from the area that we operate, and it's a perfect area for mining. It's quite isolated in a way that there is a lot of forest and so on. Big forest companies, they actually own main portions of the land. However, there is good infrastructure. There is roads. There is electricity. There is a town 30 minutes away, bigger city 1.5 hours away, where there is actually commercial airport. Also, good train connection to Helsinki, so very easily accessible, and it's also for people good place to live. We have been very lucky in getting great employees who have made this possible. If you start with five key points that we focus on, we want to grow the production each year.
We have done it successfully now for four years, but we will continue doing this. This is one of the key points, that we grow the production, so we grow the cash flow. Then the cash flow we can actually invest into exploration. We invest in exploration to grow the gold resource base, so the amount of gold that we know is in the ground and is available for production at later years. What is very unique situation is that we actually control the Karelian Gold Line. It's an Archean greenstone belt, very similar to, for example, Kalgoorlie in Australia. If you travel to Australia, visit Kalgoorlie, there are tens of companies side by side. They fight for the space. It's the same in Abitibi, Canada. It's the same in Witwatersrand in South Africa.
It's the same even in Finland, Lapland. Like, there are tens of companies. They each fight for the space. However, we control the Archean greenstone belt. It's very unique and it gives us the opportunity to grow the resources for tens of years. Also, the global trends support long-term gold upside. Lately, the world has been absolutely crazy, like with the war in Iran. It's very difficult to predict what happens in a few weeks' time or in two months' time. However, in the long term, there are very the basic fundamentals are there that there is a need for a safe haven like gold and that we believe will stay. Finland is a great place to be. It has been chosen to be number one place by the Fraser Institute for mining investments.
It's maybe not the fastest, but it's predictable and it's stable, and if you work in a right way, you can actually do mining in Finland. That's the main point. As mentioned, we operate in a Karelian Gold Line, approximately 40 km long Archean greenstone belt, and we control the belt. We have our production in a place called Pampalo. That's also our ticker in Nasdaq. There we have an underground mine, open-pit mine, and then we have production facilities where we actually produce gold concentrate that we sell to Boliden. We perform exploration in two locations, the Southern Gold Line and the Northern Gold Line. They are both approximately 20 km away from Pampalo, so fairly close.
In the Southern Gold Line, we actually are permitting the area to take it to production around 2030, and that will increase our production level to 70,000 oz-100,000 oz per annum. What is really important, there is also tungsten and molybdenum in the Southern Gold Line. When that comes to production, it will include gold, tungsten, and molybdenum. Tungsten being a critical mineral in the European Union used in the defense industry in the world that we live today, very important mineral. We have achieved major turnaround. Very pleased about the turnaround that we have achieved from 2022 to 2025. We have increased our revenue by more than three times. The group EBITDA is 36% and the group EBIT is 17%.
I have to mention that at 2025, the average gold price was $3,436. Currently, we are at $4,500 level. Even if everything else would remain the same, then this year will be better than last year. We are really looking forward to 2026. We had a record year in 2025, but we expect 2026 to be significantly better. The turnaround, it comes from two factors. It comes from increasing production. We have almost doubled the production from 2022 to 2025. This year, the guidance is that the production volumes will grow by 10%-20%. The growth will continue, and we want to grow every year. The second factor is the gold price.
As mentioned currently, what is happening in Iran is affecting the market globally like almost everything. It's quite uncertain to say what will happen in a few weeks' time. Especially what has affected gold price is the forecast for interest rate cuts. That has changed a lot and that has affected the gold price now. However, like when we talk with the investment banks, when we talk with the investors, when we talk with all the other stakeholders, everybody believes that the fundamentals are there. On the long term, the gold price later this year, it is expected to go again above $5,000. That's at least our forecast that next three, four months, we will stay between $4,000-$5,000.
Later this year, it will go above $5,000 again. There are basic fundamentals that support the gold. There is the uncertainty. There is a lot of central bank buying like last year, China and Poland especially. A lot of the nations, they want to reduce the dependency on the U.S. dollar, and that will continue. There is so much debt with the countries and so on. It's the economic situation is not good and there is always a place for a safe haven like gold. Our strategy and executing our strategy, our strategy has five key points. Pampalo production, it's the engine of our operations, and that's where we create the cash that we invest, and we invest it in exploration so that we can grow the gold resources. Also, the resources have value.
Of course, the cash flow has value, but the resources have value. If we know that there is 1 million oz on the ground that we can use later, that has a significant value for the company. The critical minerals, it is really important that more focus we will place on the critical minerals. We just published that we have signed a non-binding LOI with the Australian company, part of the Sandvik Group on the tungsten, and that means that we will jointly develop a product which is sellable to the market, and Sampo will explain about it later on the development part. Financial stability extremely important. We want to separate us from junior mining companies that continuously raise money. We are financially stable. We have cash in the bank. We have a positive cash flow.
We also have some credit facilities available. We have some loans that we haven't withdrawn. We are in a stable position, and that's how we want to keep it also on the short term. Sustainability, that's really the backbone of our business. We want to do things in the right way. In Finland, it's a lot about. On the environmental side, it's a lot about the water that's critical. We want to have the water as clean as the water in the nature, and Hanne has a great presentation about it later today. That's exciting. I really encourage to listen that one also. Our long-term targets, we aim to increase the gold resource to 1.5-2 million oz by end of 2030.
It's currently at 620,000 oz, so that means that it's approximately three times of the current situation. Take the production to 70,000 oz-100,000 oz around 2030 and at the same time tungsten and molybdenum into the production. That means approximately five times last year's production and then a fossil-free gold production by 2035. Just a general overview, how do we get there, then the other presenters will explain it in more detail. How do we plan to achieve our targets is that we have grown the resource. If you think about the resource target of 1.5-2 million oz, we have successfully grown the resources.
We started exploration activities in 2023, and it has increased by 211%, so from 200,000 oz to 620,000 oz. From the work that we have done last three years, we have calculated that when we drill 10,000 m, so the resource growth comes from the exploration drilling. When we drill 10,000 m, we get approximately 100,000 oz of resource growth. Our plan to go from 620,000 oz to 1.5-2 million oz is simply to drill 120,000 m of exploration drilling. Last year, we drilled 18,000 m. This year, we are making a record campaign ever, the highest campaign ever by Endomines.
We are drilling 50,000 m, which is significant even in world scale and a significant portion of all the exploration activities that will be done in Finland in 2026. It's going to be a strong start. We had excellent results last year, and now we are drilling 2.8 x more. We expect a lot of exciting results this year. This larger resource, when you know that there is gold in the ground, then you can plan the investment, how to grow the production. For example, if you have million ounces, you can plan that let's take it to 100,000 oz. You have 10 years production, and during those 10 years, you can actually do more exploration and build up the resource further.
Our long-term view is that last year we produced 16,630 oz of gold. This year, we have given a guidance that the growth is 10%-20%. We plan to steadily grow to the maximum capacity of the existing facilities, which is approximately 25,000 oz-26,000 oz. Maybe with some de-bottlenecking, we could get closer to 30,000 oz. When we take the Southern Gold Line into production, we increase it to 70,000 oz-100,000 oz, and at the same time we will build a separate facility for tungsten and molybdenum. That's not the end goal, like, that's a step in our journey.
Two, three years later, we plan to take the northern Gold Line also later to upgrade the southern Gold Line and grow the company to be a significant gold producer on a world scale. Critical minerals, as mentioned, this is part of the strategy, very important. This is something that we want to focus on and especially tungsten used in the defense industry. 80% of the global tungsten is controlled by China. As it is with many critical minerals, China is controlling 80%-90% of the global supply. Here we are putting a lot of emphasis on this to take this into production in 2030. As mentioned, we signed the LOI with the Austrian company, which is part of the Saqndvik Group.
Together we are developing a suitable tungsten product. We also launched the European Union strategic project status application in January 2026, and we expect to get a decision this year. Even if we get a negative decision, we will go forward. This is not something that affects the decision that are we going to produce tungsten or not. But if we do get this critical project status, then it helps with permitting, it helps with financing it. It is going to be beneficial for the company. U.S. update. We have had seven assets in the U.S. We sold three, and now we still have four. We two of those are in Idaho, and two are in Montana. With Idaho, our plan is to divest the assets. There are no plans to develop the assets in Idaho.
However, in Montana, it's quite interesting. There is two good assets. There is the U.S. Grant that has very high gold grade, and it also has over 400 g/ t of silver. That's a very significant silver grade, and there is a lot of exploration potential. There is existing mill which needs to be repaired before commissioning, but still the facilities are there. Eight kilometers from the U.S. Grant, there is the Kearsarge deposit, which has the potential to actually be a large volume gold production area. It's very significant. This is something that we see that we want to do some investigation, maybe some small drilling campaign to increase the value.
After that, we can evaluate if we want to divest or have a joint venture or something. This is not our focus area. The main focus is in Finland. However, it makes sense to actually develop the assets further before making decisions what to do. Thank you very much. Now I will invite our Chief Operations Officer, Ilkka Räty, to the stage to talk about Pampalo.
Thanks, Kari. Good morning, everyone, and welcome also from my side. It's great to have you with us today. My name is Ilkka Räty. I'm Chief Operations Officer, and I will give you an overview of where we are with our gold production, what we have achieved so far, and how we are continuing to build the business in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way. Pampalo today. At the moment, we have three active production areas. Two of those locate in Pampalo itself. We have one underground mine and one open pit. Depth of the underground mine is 100 m at the moment, and 15 km from Pampalo, we have a deposit called Hosko. It's also underground mine, and depth of that is 150 m. There are little differences between those deposits if we think about the grades.
In underground mine, the grade is somewhere between 2.5 g/t-3 g/t . Open pit, 0.8 g/t-1.3 g/t , Hosko is 1.5 g/t-5 g/t . Annual production from Pampalo mine, Hosko and underground included, it's 80%-90% of the annual production. Hosko includes 10%-20% of the production annually. We have a Pampalo mill, all of these ore goes through that facility, maximum capacity of that is 26,000 oz. If we think the last year, production was 16,630 oz. There are lots of potential to increase the production. Guidance for 2026 is 18,300 oz-20,000 oz. Expected increase is 10%-20%.
Like I mentioned that we have an open pit and underground mine also, so there are a little bit differences between those two. Typical logic is that open pit generate cash flow faster in the early stage, that the most accessible ore is extracted first, and later the deeper and often higher grades parts are mined underground. That's the same logic we used in Pampalo. We started in open pit mining, and then we went to the underground. This kind of activity helps maximize the overall value of the deposit. From an investor perspective, the key question is not which method is cheaper in absolute terms, but which one generates the strongest net cash flow over the life of the project.
There are lots of activities before we get the ore from the ground to the surface. Of course, one priority is the safety. In our case, it's also a value. Many people say that safety is the priority number one, but like we know, priorities may change over time, but values remain. That's one of our values. Everything started with the right planning. We do ore body modeling. We are using geological data to define the shape, the grade, distribution, and economic limits of the deposit. Then we have a main layout design. Access ramps, levels, stopes, ventilation raises, and haulage routes are also designed to access the ore body. After that, we select the mining method.
The most suitable method is the long-hole stoping or cut and fill. This is chosen based on the geology and rock stability. After that, production sequencing. The order and timing of mining areas are planned to optimize production and cash flow. After that, we do the drilling and blasting design. We have a detailed drilling patterns and blasting plans. Those are prepared to ensure efficient rock breakage and safe operations. Infrastructure and safety planning goes along the side. We are planning ventilation, ground support, transport logistics. Every safety system is integrated in the mine plan. This planning phase ensures that mining operations can start with a clear, safe, and economically optimized path to production. Okay, here you can see the picture from our money machine, or maybe gold machine in this case.
This process is designed to turn mine ore into high value gold concentrate through a clear, efficient, and scalable flow sheet. It begins with the crushing, where ore is processed through a jaw crusher with a capacity of approximately 120 tons per hour. The crushed ore sized to zero to 15 is then stored in temporary storage for ore. This ensures a steady and reliable feed to the plant. From there, the ore enters the ball mill circuit, where water and steel grinding balls reduce it to a fine particle size approximately 100µm, 120 µm. This is a critical step as it liberates the valuable minerals from a host rock and prepares the material for efficient downstream recovery. The ground ore is then classified in cyclones.
Less refined materials is recycled back into the grinding circuit, while the correct size fraction advance to the flotation. In the flotation cells, the valuable minerals are concentrated into marketable product stream. Finally, the concentrate is thickened and filtered to produce the finished gold concentrate. Product is transferred to finished goods storage, ready for shipment and to bullion and to further refining. This process creates a disciplined path from ore to concentrate. Controlled crushing, precise grinding, efficient classification, and proven flotation recovery are supporting our reliable route to revenue. The pricing basis is average LBMA morning gold price for the month following the delivery month. On this slide, I want to highlight that environmental monitoring is core part of responsibility and compliant mining operations. Everything starts with the water.
We closely monitor both process water and discharge water, including parameters such as metals, suspended solids, and pH. This ensures that any impact on downstream water bodies remains under control. At the same time, we track water recycling rate, which is important in both ways, environmentally and economically. For groundwater, we conduct regular sampling from monitoring wells, and this allows us to detect any changes early and assess potential impact around the mine and processing plant. We have noise and vibration as our key focus areas. Through continuous measurement, we ensure that our operations stay within permitted limits and minimize disturbances to surrounding communities. In terms of air quality, we focus particularly on dust and particulate emissions. Alongside all of this, occupational health and safety is fully integrated into our approach. This means systematic incident reporting and proactive risk assessment.
We aim not only to respond to issues, but to prevent them. At Endomines, we don't just plan how to mine. We plan the entire life- cycle from the beginning, including closure. Our Pampalo deposit demonstrates strong geological continuity supported by recent exploration. Long-term value is not only about what we extract, it's about how we operate. We design our mines with closure and rehabilitation in mind from day one, removing infrastructure, restoring land forms, and returning the area to safe and sustainable state. Many former mine sites have been successfully rehabilitated and transformed into lakes, natural habitats, tourist destination, or community spaces. Proper mine closure planning ensures long-term environmental and economic value. Here you can see the Pampalo cost structure. This slide illustrates how we are actively improving Pampalo cost structure with a clear focus on capital efficiency and scalability.
The key message here is that we are systematically reducing our reliance on subcontractors. In 2024, subcontracting represents about 67% of our cost base. As we move into 2025, that comes down to 60%, and by 2026, we expect it to decrease further to below 50%. Reducing subcontracting lowers variability in our cost base, improves margins over time, and makes the operations more scalable as production grows. Electricity and other costs remain relatively stable, which supports overall cost visibility. In summary, we are not just growing production, we are systematically improving the quality of our cost base, making Pampalo more efficient, more resilient, and better positioned for long-term value creation.
Here you can see the cash cost and, like you see that unfortunately it increased a little bit in 2025, so increase was 11.8%, so it was EUR 1,432 per ounce. There are two main factors behind this. One is that because of gold price is higher, it's easier for us to go to the areas where the grade is little bit lower. For example, that if we have a stope where grade is 1 gram per ton and next to that is another stope, 3 g/ t, we need more work to get 1 oz of gold. So that's one part why the cash cost is little bit higher.
Of course, we took over the underground mining business last year, and this was also one reason why cash costs increase. From a strategic point of view, that was the right decision. I'm personally really happy that we do it. Now in Pampalo, we have only one management who takes control how we do the daily operations. People are more happy that there are no any contractors to dictate the way we're going to invest. We have only one management there, which is really nice. This was good decision, and I'm really happy of my team who actually do the work. Cash cost is already at a good level now, but I still see a lot of potential for improvement as we continue to optimize operations and capture additional efficiencies.
There have been quite a lot of news in the newspaper and media about how this new tax, mining tax and electricity tax affect the mining industry. Background for this is that 2025, Finland decided to increase taxes on mined minerals. These changes took effect in January 1 and will raise, of course, cost of mining companies. Changes in electricity taxation is one change for this year. If you look at the impact in our case at the moment is not that big. Mining tax is estimated to be EUR 1.62 million and which share of Ilomantsi is approximately EUR 0.5 million-0.6 million . Electricity tax is approximately EUR 0.2 million .
It's worth mentioning that the mining tax is reported in the income statement as operating costs above EBIT. Pampalo going forward. This is something I am really happy to show to the people. I've been now working two years at Pampalo at Endomines and it has been a great adventure. At the same time, I have to remind myself that this is only a beginning. I'm pretty sure and confident that there will be a lot of great adventure coming. If you look at this, compared to 2024, we increased 16.3%, and this year guidance is to increase 10-20%. We are doing this step by step. 16,630 oz was the production in 2025.
Like I mentioned, 10%-20% is the growth, and we steadily go towards the 25,000 oz. Like I mentioned in the earlier that 26 oz is the maximum mill capacity. After that, we do the ramp-up. 2030, the production will be somewhere between 70,000 oz-100,000 oz. Tungsten and molybdenum enters to production. We still have a lot of unblocking full capacity at Pampalo. We have a lot of small activities ongoing all the time. For example, maintenance development is the one. We are reducing waste through lean practices. I've been working with lean 10 years now, and I think we are a little bit behind if we think the mining industry, but now it's ongoing already. We are updating capacity about the limited machines.
CapEx is approximately EUR 3 million in 2026, 2027. Like I mentioned, we're reducing subcontracting all the time, and we have also targeted investment in equipment, infrastructure, and process improvement. Also, evaluation of new feed material including Rämepuro is ongoing. I also like to mention that we are currently producing. We have a 4 shift pattern, which means that we have 4 shift s. We run our mill 8 days, and then we have a 2 days shutdown, maintenance shutdown. Our target is to change to 24/7 production during the H2 2026. Permit allows us to produce 450,000 tons per year. Last year, production was 265,000 tons. Okay, sorry for that.
In the mining industry, we operate as guests in the communities we work. These are not just project sites, they are people's homes and culture. Being a guest carries responsibility. It means we approach every operation with respect, humility, and accountability. Just as a guest honors their host, we are committed to listening to local communities, respecting their rights, and minimizing our impact in their environment and way of life. We're working closely with local people. We have a continuous dialogue, and we have at least different events during the year. Open day at the mine, it's once per year. We have neighborhood meetings called tupaillat 3 or 4 times per year. We have a stakeholder cooperation group, actually started early this year.
We also sponsoring local sports teams, hobbies, nature recreation, and regional vitality. We have an open and transparent communication. That's the only way we can do operations. Thank you from my side, and I think Jani will continue with exploration.
Okay. Thank you, Ilkka. That was very interesting. Okay. I'm Jani Rautio, Chief Technical Officer, geologist by training, and I've been in the mining industry now 25 years and 13 years with Endomines. I'm qualified person defined by the JORC code. We're gonna talk about exploration. My responsibility is the exploration in the company, and we have a huge area where we are doing exploration, and we have a team that I'm managing. What is Karelian Gold Line? It is a 40-50 km long gold mineralized portion of Archean greenstone belt located in Eastern Finland. We have production facilities in Pampalo, in the center there, and we are doing exploration in Southern Gold Line and in the Northern Gold Line. There are geological similarities.
The other gold mineralized Archean greenstone belts in the world, like Kalgoorlie area in Australia, Abitibi belt in Canada, and then Witwatersrand area in South Africa. All are significant gold production areas. We have similar rocks than in these famous production areas. It is often asked, how we know that there's gold potential in the Karelian Gold Line? Also, it's wondered why we geologist can estimate something that is not known, estimating the unknown. It is actually quite simple. We are comparing areas. In the world, there are better studied areas, similar greenstone belts, similar gold deposits, and about same geology, same width, same length of greenstone belts, but they are better studied.
They have been in production, for example, 100 years and they are much better known than this our greenstone belt in Eastern Finland. Then we just compare and then we create our own estimate about the potential that way. I think the potential in Karelian Gold Line is very good. In the next slides you will understand why. We believe that there's going to be several mines in this area, and that's what we are aiming at. How we do exploration in Finland? There are multiple stages, but we usually always start with geophysics. That's the fast way to get a lot of information from large area.
Like there, we had a drone survey around Ukko area, and that just took some days to complete. You will have kind of a basic knowledge about the bedrock. The next stage is soil geochemistry. There, we take a small sample, and we assay that for gold and for the other elements. Then we cover a large area, and we try to recognize potential areas for gold and then also outlining the areas where we want to concentrate. Next phase is outcrop mapping. In Finland, it's about 3% of the bedrock that is outcropped, but it's very important for geologists. We will map all those known outcrops, and then we will record the rock type minerals and structures.
From that, we try to figure out what the geology in the area is. Of course, we are combining that information with geophysics and geochemistry. We already know quite well where we should concentrate with the exploration. This is still quite cheap, these three first ones, so that the kind of low-cost exploration. When we go to base-of-till sampling, it's also referred often BOT or BOT sampling. There we drill a vertical percussion drill hole through the overburden to the surface of the bedrock. Just above the bedrock, we will take a small sample, about 300 grams of bottom till, and that we assay for gold and also for other elements. That represents the bedrock close by.
If you know what was the movement of the glacier, you just follow that then up ice, and usually it's within 50 m from the sample, the host rock or the source rock of that till. That is an exploration tool that is developed in Finland, and it's especially for the glaciated terrains. It's a very good tool and some big discoveries are also in Finland made with the help of this exploration method. Then when we have some anomaly in till and we know that there is gold probably in the bedrock close by, we will bring the drill rig. That's the most expensive part of exploration, diamond drilling.
It's more than EUR 100 per meter when you are drilling this kind of a diamond core. In the center picture here, you can see drill core. This is kind of a sample that comes out when we are doing drilling. The drill holes are normally about 70 m-600 m deep into the bedrock. It will go with some angle, like 45 or 60-degree angle to the bedrock, and then you can cover quite a lot with just a single hole. A geologist will log the core or report the geology and minerals structures from the drill core. When they're done, they will mark the sampling intervals. We are sampling that drill core in 1-meter pieces.
First we will cut it, and then the other half will stay in the core box, and the other half is sent to a laboratory. Then it will take some weeks for laboratory to assay that core. Then when we have all the results from the drilling, then the final stage of exploration is the resource estimate. There we are estimating how much we have gold in the ground. This is exploration pipeline. This is describing how exploration project is going from that early stage to a producing mine. You start exploration by deciding what are you exploring. Like in our case, it's gold, so we know that we want to find gold.
You choose area that is gold potential or potential for that metal that you are looking for. For us, of course, it's Karelian Gold Line, Archean greenstone belt, and they are very well known for their gold potential. At this early stage, you do a lot of geophysics, soil geochemistry, outcrop mapping, base-of-till sampling, and you just collect a lot of data. You collect all that big amount of data and with the help of that data, you define drill targets, something that you want to test with diamond drilling.
When you have created your drilling targets, there we have a few there, but usually you need tens, or actually this is a kind of pipeline that there's all the time coming new targets, and then you test them, and then they move forward in this pipeline. In that stage where you have the drill-ready target, we drill test them and that's the stage where you do discoveries. If there's something in the bedrock, you will find it most likely at that stage. If you do a discovery, it moves forward and the next step is delineation drilling. You map out the size of the deposit and grade and try to understand what's the size.
After that, you will move to inferred resource. It's the resource that is defined by this JORC code. There are certain rules that we have to follow, industrial rules, that when you do your resource estimate that you have to follow. At the moment, we have Karelian Gold Line over there. Just couple of weeks ago we published Kartitsa resource estimate and that was the first resource estimate for Kartitsa. When you have this first resource estimate done, most likely you will drill it better. You will increase your drilling density and put more holes, in-fill drilling and get more reliable estimate. You are upgrading the resource.
Now at the moment we have Southern Gold Line at that stage that we are doing already infill drilling. Next step after that, well, of course immediately when you have the inferred resource you start doing technical studies. That includes mineralogical tests, processing tests and then also you are thinking about already and designing the mining, how you're gonna mine the deposit that is in the ground and also then you consider also the economics of the project. Also the permitting will start at that stage because it will take years.
When you have done enough technical studies and you are quite certain that it's a good project, then the next step is doing feasibility study. That's a large study that shows that if the economics is viable or not. If it's viable then of course you can define the ore reserve when you have all the information and you can prove that, okay, so we can mine this economically. You can announce ore reserve and it goes to production. The exploration doesn't stop there when it's in production. You still do near mine exploration and try to find more resources and extend the mine life.
To do all this exploration you need to have a good team that is driven by these discoveries. We have eight geologists and two geo-technicians in the team and that team is supported by a number of consultants that are highly experienced in geophysics, geology. Very often it's difficult to describe to people how good team we have but at the end of last year there was a Fennoscandian Exploration and Mining conference and there we received this Agnico Eagle Award for our exploration efforts during the past few years.
There are a lot of happy faces there at the conference because that was quite unique that you will actually get some reward when you are doing a lot of work but then if you get something from your colleagues so we always appreciate that a lot. Of course we have these discoveries that we have made so we know that we are doing great things. Then we go to recent exploration results. This is the permit situation that we have there at the moment. We are controlling the whole greenstone belt there in the Ilomantsi area. We have plenty of areas and exploration is just taking very small portion of all that.
We also think about the future that we want to keep this whole greenstone belt under our permits so we can continue this exploration also in the coming years. Altogether we have 9,600 hectares of valid exploration permits. That means that inside that area we can drill and do this drill sampling and this slightly heavier exploration. We have also 32,000 hectares of exploration permits applied that are in the process but they are not valid yet. We still have a little bit of reservations, 935 hectares, and those are kind of reservations that means that you will own the mineral rights but you are not allowed to do exploration yet.
We are the main owner of exploration rights in the area. We started this more regional exploration three years ago, 2023, and we have had a discovery every year since then. We started 2023 and there we were drilling in the Kuittila area. That's almost the southernmost point of the greenstone belt or Karelian Gold Line there and we got very nice intercept, 18 m grading 5 g/t . Also silver, 173 grams per ton. That was very significant discovery and got a lot of attention.
Next year, 2024, we were drilling in the northern part of the Karelian Gold Line, actually the northernmost end there where you can see the spot and there we're drilling this Kartitsa area that was unexplored area, practically unexplored. Some little bit exploration was done but practically it was almost untouched. Nobody had done any exploration in the area and in the area where we were drilling, so the closest historical drill hole was 5 km away. There was absolutely no information that what's up there. We drilled this 13 m grading 2.76 g/ t in the area where that was not known that there is actually gold in the area. That was very, very good hit.
Then next year, or actually last year, we discovered this Ukko deposit that got also a lot of attention. There, the first hole, 30 m grading 3.28 g/t, so that was also a very good intercept and got a lot of attention. Sorry. For those who are not very familiar with these drill intercepts, because we are putting out a lot of drill intercepts all the time. Every month, there is a release coming out and saying that we have what we have done in the exploration, and then we are announcing these intercepts. There is a rule of thumb in the industry that we use. We multiply grade by the length of the intercept.
Like, there is 80 m grading 5 g/t , you just multiply 18 times 5, and you will get 90. Then what we are aiming always is to get this 100 gram meters, and that's something that people think as a world-class intercept. It's excellent intercept and then the company will get a lot of attention and people are very curious what's going on when you can get that 100 gram meters. That's what we're always aiming and that's like proving that the deposit is very good. Even 50 m is enough to have very good deposit and all our...
These discoveries are at least at 50 m and that already tells you that there's potential in that deposit. Even 8 gram meters is enough to make mining. Like in Pampalo, we have 4-meter wide tunnel, and if we go into ore body, just 2 grams will give you that 8 gram meters. That's enough for mining. When you're doing exploration, you like to see little bit higher numbers and of course these are more or less discovery holes. Of course, when you start actually drilling it, you will understand it better and then you will get better intercepts. We have been very lucky just with the first drill holes. Okay.
This is the discovery that we made in the north, Kartitsa. We started there already, 2023. We did till sampling and then we visit the outcrops in the area, and we tried to understand what's the geology in the area. We recognized this structure in the geophysics. This is a magnetic image that you can see there on the left-hand side. Then there's all the drilling that we have completed this far. It was a brand-new discovery, so there was nothing known in the area. The closest historical hole was 5 km away. In the center picture, you can see that there's gold. All this yellow color is gold. We were very impressed with that discovery.
Now just a few weeks ago, we put out a resource estimate and we have their inferred resource 2.5 million tons grading 1.6 gram per ton gold totaling 134,000 oz gold. It's already significant. We were just drilling the northern part of the deposit. It's about 300 m-400 m long portion here that the resource covers. Then this year we have continued the resource drilling towards south, but that was not include the resource estimate yet. There's plenty of room to grow it towards south, that is very obvious, but also it's open towards north. Of course at depth too. A more recent discovery, it's the Ukko discovery that's in the southern part of the Karelian Gold Line.
There was this large banded iron formation that we knew that might be hosting some gold deposits. There are a lot of examples from the world that there are significant gold deposits related to these banded iron formations. But it was so large area that we didn't know where to start and so on. Altogether, this is about 8 km long and more than 5 km wide area where we have this iron formation and they are known to be very good traps for gold when these are forming these ore deposits. So we knew that that's very interesting, and that was sitting in the middle of the Karelian Gold Line.
We knew that there are structures going north-south there, very close by and then this could be something big. First year two years ago in the summer, that was 2024, we did outcrop mapping. We visited all the outcrops in the area. Geologists were hammering samples there and making their description about the geology and structures. From each outcrop, we really took a sample. Immediately, we noticed that most of the samples were mineralized. There was a little bit gold in almost. Well, the majority of the samples had some gold, so we could see that, okay, so this whole thing is probably gold mineralized.
The best result was, I think it was 2 grams per ton gold just taken from the outcrop. Last year, about a year ago, that was April 2025, when we took a drill rig there and drilled the first hole ever to that Ukko structure. We drilled under that outcrop that had 2 grams. There were three significant intercept just in that one drill hole. The best of those was that 30 m grading 3.28 g/t.
That was already 100 gram meters just that one intercept there. We knew immediately, okay, now we have hit the thing then, and this is going to be big. We have been doing some scouting holes to the southern part also and we have already published that there is also gold hits in the south. You have to always concentrate to something. We are studying that northern end there, where we have this UKKO-001 discovery hole, and at the moment, we are doing resource drilling there. We are defining how big the northern part there is, where we know that there is a lot of gold.
Even at the moment, there are 2 rigs, and they are doing this resource drilling there. We will get a lot of meters in a short time, and we are aiming to complete the first resource estimate for this Ukko deposit this year. It will be very interesting. Then we have kilometers and kilometers of that structure still to study. Then I can also mention about the geophysics. It is really helping us. This pink color here is marking everything that is conductive. We believe that that conductive rock is where also gold is then sitting. That is what we are using in exploration. Then the black and white image there as a background is a magnetic map layer.
This is a banded iron formation, means that it's very magnetic. There's magnetite mineral layers in the rock, and it's very magnetic. This is a geological cross-section of that same deposit. This is from west to east, and we are looking towards north. The UKKO-001 drill hole, the first discovery hole was here. We have mineralization coming all the way to the surface. It's right there at the surface, the best mineralization there. This is a geological section. Blue marks the sedimentary rocks, and then dark blue marks this fine-grained sediment that is together with iron formation. That gray color marks the iron formation that we are mostly interested in.
Already in this section, you can see that it's mineralized all the way to the bottom and the best mineralization there seems to be like from the surface to 200-meter depth. There is already a very interesting area there just close to the surface. These iron formation-related deposits are known that they are very continuous. If you find something, it just continues, and it's possible to follow it. Then, of course, we are working on a greenstone belt. It's always possible to find also the other metals than gold. In this case, there is a lot of tungsten and molybdenum in the southern part of this greenstone belt.
When we are doing this drill sampling, we are assaying altogether like 40 elements, and we have assayed tungsten and molybdenum from the area. We know that there is a lot of these metals in the southern part of the Karelian Gold Line. We have started or explored only for gold this far. We have been concentrating the gold and then we haven't really done anything on this tungsten and molybdenum earlier. We have defined the Kuittila deposit there, so there's a lot of drilling and from those drill holes, so we have assayed tungsten and molybdenum and we know already quite well how much there is tungsten and molybdenum sitting next to this Kuittila gold deposit.
They are different parts, like gold is on the other side and then tungsten and molybdenum are there beside gold. They are not occurring in the same rock. If you are like doing open pit, you still have to mine everything around the gold deposit. We have also a lot of potential in the bedrock and now this year we are aiming to do also tungsten and molybdenum exploration, just going after these. These are till anomalies, so that describes usually the bedrock below and it's very nice long anomaly there that we are planning to study more carefully this summer.
There is a tonalite in the center here, so there's a 5-kilometer wide tonalite intrusion and then this tungsten is just sitting at the edge of that large tonalite intrusion. In this picture you can see scheelite. Scheelite is the mineral that is carrying this tungsten metal and it's re-reflective in the UV light. Geologists can easily spot it from the drill core when we look at the drill core. Okay. Looking ahead. Why are we doing exploration? Of course, resource growth enables long-term growth. If we want to grow, we need resources. That's the reason why we need exploration. In this chart, it describes our total ounces there at the Karelian Gold Line. The latest update was just some week...
few weeks ago we had 619,000 oz already defined in the resources. Like 2020 to 2021 and 2022, we were just concentrating to Pampalo mine and trying to replace everything that was mined during the year. The aim was just to replace that amount and we didn't do much exploration. Really, in 2023 we started this exploration and we started to drill some serious meters around Pampalo mine and along this Karelian Gold Line, like 12,000 m, 21,000 m, 18,000 m. Now this year we are planning to drill 50,000 m, which is already very significant amount of exploration drilling. You can see that this really works. With these kind of meters, we can grow the resource.
more than 200% increase in three years. Okay. exploration focus areas in 2026. We are increasing the amount of exploration drilling to 50,000 m per year. We are demonstrating the large-scale potential of the Ukkolanvaara project with completion of the first resource estimate. There's the tungsten and molybdenum potential in the southern gold line and perform exploration drilling near Kuittila to follow areas with high gold potential. We are also restarting Pampalo nearby exploration. It's already started there. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you Kari, Jani, and Ilkka for the presentations and please don't go away, Jani. We have a question and answer session right now. Please come to the stage, Ilkka and Kari as well. I think we have about 15 minutes for the questions. Let's start with the questions in the audience here, and then we move on to the online questions.
Atte Jortikka from Inderes. Good morning. What is the current management view on the life of mine of the current production zones in Pampalo and Hosko?
Well, how we do it is that because it's a sort of orogenic deposit, it continues well to the lower levels. Each year we drill so that we have approximately four years of production. When we mine one year, we get to the lower levels, we drill again to a little bit lower so that we don't consume the resource. We are not planning to drill, for example, 10 years of reserves. We drill each year. It's just a cost factor because when you go to the lower levels, it's easier to drill when you are closer to the deposit. Each time we go a little bit lower, we drill.
We expect the life of mine to be long and it's same in Hosko. We are continuously drilling. With Hosko, we have a little bit less information, but we are drilling this year more and so that we know the continuation to the lower levels. Right?
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Do you wanna add some?
Yeah. Yeah. It's same thing there that you just go step by step to the lower levels.
Speaking of costs, how will the lower share of subcontracting in OpEx affect the cash cost this year and also going forward?
Do you wanna-
Yeah.
I can answer, but I think we're like Ilkka mentioned that when we took over the business of the mining subcontractor, there were some extraordinary costs related to the takeover. It was, as mentioned, we had challenges during the Q4 to get it done and there were some extraordinary costs. However, in the long term, we see that that's the way to have a more efficient production and lower the cost level. Currently, the main focus is on the volume and then we can fine-tune the cost level. We would expect that it sort of steadies out now this year.
Yeah, definitely.
Yes.
Of course, I would like to say that we have quite a lot of seasonal work and when I the first time saw those numbers I was thinking, what's going on, why we are using so much subcontracting, but when I deep dive on those numbers, I realized that we have lots of seasonal work. We are doing bigger maintenance. We are doing laboratory analysis, dam constructions, bigger constructions. Those are seasonal work and there is no any reason to hire our own employees on those activities.
Thank you. On Rämepuro, what kind of volume could that deposit bring to the production and on what kind of schedule?
We have a permit for 50,000 tons. It's fairly small volume, but we also have a plan that we will investigate if we apply for bigger permit. That will naturally take a little bit time or two to probably three years to get it. We have a permit that we could mine like 50,000 tons of the ore now.
Okay, thank you. On exploration, what are the current most interesting areas in terms of exploration in addition to the current known deposits in Southern and Northern Gold Line?
Well, of course it's Ukko that we are drilling even at the moment and then there's Kuittila also in the Southern Gold Line. There is the Ukko and Kuittila, and they are located in the Southern Gold Line area. Then in the north we have Kartitsa, and that's also very promising. We have three main targets at the moment, areas where we are going to concentrate.
Do you have other deposits kind of earlier in the pipeline?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
What are those?
Yeah. As I mentioned, we have had like 10 or so projects and there's all the time new projects coming to the pipeline. We know that there's gold all along that 40-50-kilometer-long structure, but it's just you have to concentrate to something because you cannot do everything at once. There is plenty of exploration potential like Rämepuro. It's just a deposit that is being mined near the surface and but it still continues and there are a lot of these known deposits already that nobody has really look at what's happening at depth and north and south of those. But as I said, we have to choose where to concentrate and we will get the best result that way.
Thank you. Lastly from me, will you keep the kind of drilling volume at 50,000 m from now on every year?
No. We plan to increase it, of course. That's the goal that next year will be bigger than this year, hopefully, but let's see how it goes. It's like what Jani was showing. I was looking myself that last three years we have drilled just little bit over 50,000 m. Now we will do it in three years total. Now we will do it in one year. It's very exciting, but still there are so many targets, good targets that we could investigate. It would be nice to have even higher volume. It depends on the cash flow because we are financing everything from the cash flow.
Actually, additional question to that. How will the spot price, kind of, gold spot price affect the drilling volumes? Will the drilling volume this year be 50,000 m at the current spot levels?
Yes. Yes, yes.
Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Is there any other questions in the audience? If not, we will move on to the questions from the chat. Let's continue with exploring. What is the current level of expected cost per drilled meter when exploring?
Okay. That's. Yeah. There are different elements in that what you calculate there. One portion goes to a drill contractor and then you have to cut the core into two halves with a diamond saw and then you assay gold and also the other elements. That's also very expensive. But I would estimate that we are about EUR 120 per meter as we are drilling at the moment. That's about the cost at that.
Includes everything.
Okay. Are you carrying out exploration with your own resources, or are you looking for industry partners?
Well, that's maybe for Kari to answer.
Yeah. Well, our goal has been that, like we've I think that's a really competitive advantage to do it yourself. Of course, there is some limit that at some stage maybe we could think about a partner. I think we made a choice in 2023, like then there was the option to have a partner and then do sort of joint exploration. Usually what happens then is that you form a joint venture, you start to do exploration. Then next year you need to raise funding, and then the other partner provides the funding. After a few years, you don't own any more of this, much of this joint venture.
Our goal has been to do it ourselves so that we own everything 100% because that creates the most shareholder value. That's our belief. Because if we have drilled, like 10,000 m, we get 100,000 oz. 100,000 oz is worth a lot of money. It's a lot more than the investment that we make. We want to own everything. That's current view. On the long term, maybe we review that if we want to have a partner.
What about the exploration areas? Do you have other areas in mind than the surrounding areas of Pampalo?
Well, of course, it's the whole Karelian Gold Line where we are doing exploration, so it's about 20 km north of Pampalo and also 20 km south of Pampalo. That's what we are concentrating. Then we have also some areas to the west of Pampalo, so there's actually another branch of this greenstone belt where we have very early-stage projects and we are now doing some tests also there. That's totally unknown what we're gonna find there. Yeah, that's where we are concentrating, Finland and Ilomantsi.
Okay. Let's move on to the production. This question is about Pampalo employees. How many people do you employ in the Pampalo production plant? This is for Ilkka.
In total, Endomines has 74 people, and in Pampalo, 64 is the headcount.
You are planning to hire a great amount of people in the coming years. Is it challenging to recruit new personnel? What type of skills and competencies will be needed now and in the future?
Well, I have to say that it's getting easier every time, and I think because everybody knows more and more of what Endomines is doing. That's one part. I have to say that this year, for example, we did this personnel survey with Eezy Group, and we got the Most Inspiring Workplace award. I think those kind of awards helps us to increase our headcount in the future. What kind of expertises we need? Geology is of course the one, mining engineering, operators, and yeah, many different kind of expertise.
What about Pampalo cost structure? Why is the share of suppliers increasing quite significantly this year?
I think there are two reasons. Of course, one is that when we are increase our production, we need more supplies for that. So that's one reason of increase. Second one is that last year subcontractor was taking care of some of the supplies, so those prices were included in their contract. Now we can separate those from the bills.
Okay. Let's move back to the exploration of tungsten. Have you defined the size or magnitude of tungsten formation? How significant can the amount be?
Yes. There is good potential that we know that there is tungsten and molybdenum in the ground. Thus far we have concentrated only to drill that gold deposit in the area. It was kind of byproduct that came out from that. We noticed that we have very interesting drilling intercepts of tungsten and molybdenum. We also realized that we don't have enough drill holes to create a resource, so we cannot yet do the official resource estimate and come up with the grades and tonnages and so on. The potential is great, and yeah, Kari knows some rough figures already that you probably want to say.
It's there, but it's too early to say exact grades, but it's big.
Do you want to add something?
I think Sampo has some information.
Oh, yeah. He's coming later.
later.
Yeah, yeah.
Our design is based on producing 1,000 tons per annum.
Mm.
Which is quite significant.
This is Jani for you. You mentioned that you could perhaps de-bottleneck the plant and get to 30,000 oz per year, but are these options to expand further there? Is there additional exploration upside?
Well, there is, yeah, definitely exploration upside. Then it's
Of course there are limits with the current Pampalo mill, so we can increase a certain amount, but after a certain point, we need another plant and now that's what we are drilling for at the moment at the Southern Gold Line, as I explained. That's the area where we are defining resources and then there would be another plant in the Southern Gold Line and that's where we also have potential.
Okay. We have time for one question, and this is about our location in eastern Finland. You are located very close to Russian border and planning a big investment over there. Are you not worried about the Russians in the current geopolitical environment? I think this is for Kari.
Yes. We are not worried about Russians in the current geopolitical environment. Like, Finland is part of NATO and, it's, I think also in Finland we are generally not worried about the Russians.
I think those were the questions for now and we will have another Q&A session at the end of the event, and then you will have another chance to ask questions. Now it's time for a little break, 15 minutes, and we will get back to 11:45. Thank you. Hello. Welcome back from the break. Now we start the second part of today's Capital Markets Day. We have three presentations ahead of us, and then we will have the final Q&A session, where you can ask your questions to all of the presenters. First, our Chief Sustainability Officer, Hanne Mäkelä, will talk about our sustainability journey now and especially in the future. Our Chief Development Officer, Sampo Hirvonen, will continue with an overview of our development project on the Southern Gold Line. With that, Hanne, please welcome to the stage.
Thank you, Anni. Good day, everyone, and welcome back also on my behalf. My name is Hanne Mäkelä, and I'm Endomines' first Chief Sustainability Officer. I've been working for the company since last May, and I'm very happy to guide you through our sustainability journey from today into tomorrow. Like Kari mentioned before, sustainability is the backbone for all our operations, and as I see it, the only way forward. Sustainability is an integral part of Endomines' strategy, guiding both our current operations and future growth. For us, sustainability is an essential part of our risk management, but it's also a source of trust and a foundation for future competitive advantage. By identifying and addressing environmental and safety-related risks proactively, we aim to reduce business risks, disruptions, incidents, and reputational damage.
By integrating the management of sustainability issues into our strategy and daily operations, we also strengthen our ability to adapt to changing conditions and also the evolving environment, operating environment. We also believe that transparent, measurable, and well-communicated actions build lasting trust among our stakeholders and a continued license to operate, and that's why sustainability is extremely important for the company. We have defined an ambitious sustainability program which is based on so-called double materiality assessment, a term probably known to most of us already. These are the topics that are most material for our business, both from impact and financial perspectives. Where do we focus on? We focus on reducing our impact on climate change, water resources, and biodiversity, as well as improving safety and well-being of our people. Of course, we focus on continuing trust on our local community.
From governance point of view, it is essential that everyone at the company knows what is expected from them. This is the only way that we can succeed. Our sustainability program is progressing well. On climate, we have a clear emissions baseline, and we are preparing our transition plan towards net zero. In water management, we already recycle all processed waters in Pampalo, which of course reduces our discharges to the environment. We focus on improving real-time monitoring of our waters and mapping of new water treatment solution, such as a wood chip-based bioreactor for nitrogen removal. That's something that we are planning on. Our biodiversity work has started. We have done the baseline assessments, giving us a solid foundation for future actions, and we have also worked on updating the Pampalo site closure plan.
As Ilkka already mentioned before, we are planning closure well ahead. For our people, safety has improved significantly. As you can see, the lost time incident frequency has halved since last year, and also the engagement of our people is on a good level. Ilkka already revealed that in the 2026 the results have even improved from what you can see here, so we are improving on year to year on our engagement, employee engagement, which of course makes me very, very happy. In the community, our local impact is visible through active engagement and supporting local businesses. All of this, what you can see here, we don't have time to go through the sustainability results in detail, but all of it is summarized in our newly published sustainability report, which can be found on our website.
Please feel free to take a look at it. As we look ahead, the role of sustainability continues to grow in importance. Business models built merely on minimizing harm will not meet the expectations of the future. We are entering a regenerative era. A regenerative business model goes beyond reducing negative impacts. It actively creates conditions for nature and people to thrive, generating net positive outcomes rather than simply doing less harm. What does this mean for the mining industry? Regenerative mining is the natural next step beyond sustainable mining. In the new era, meeting regulatory requirements and minimizing harm are no longer enough to ensure the acceptability and long-term success of operations. Mining is increasingly understood as a holistic system where environmental impact, social acceptance, and economic viability are deeply interconnected. Instead of focusing only on reducing negative impacts, regenerative mining aims to restore ecosystems.
That means, for example, improving biodiversity and water quality from what is on the baseline. Strengthen communities, for example, providing jobs and infrastructure and supporting local livelihoods, and build long-term resilience. For us, it means, for example, enabling circular material flows and also climate-resilient operations. The overarching goal is renewal and also leaving a positive legacy for future generations. This is the way we want to do our business in the future. Our response to this change is a Alive Mine. This is a living model for regenerative mining built on continuous listening and responding to nature, water systems, and community signals. It frames the mine as an active, perceptive part of its environment, not a static industrial site, but a living system that adapts, learns, and evolves as nature itself.
Rather than trying to control the environment, Alive Mine aligns operations with the needs of local ecosystems and the people who depend on them. This is what we are going to do in the future, how we are going to do our business. In the Alive Mine model, the mine interacts in symbiosis with natural systems, water, energy, materials, and biodiversity. It operates intelligently, guided by real-time data that helps anticipate and manage risks. The mine becomes seamlessly integrated into the local community, creating value for people, communities, and society at large. This is regenerative mining. To succeed in the future, we must recognize that it is the nature that sets the boundaries for our choices. If we exceed nature's limits, our solutions simply cannot remain viable in the long term.
This means that our operations must be planned and executed in ways that avoid degrading ecosystems and instead support their resilience. This is what we aim to accomplish in our new mining operations in the Southern Gold Line. This is our goal. In the next few slides, I will look more closely at the different natural systems that guide our work. After my part of the presentation, my colleague, Sampo Hirvonen, will present concrete examples of actions and practices, how we are going to bring this thinking into life when moving forward with the Southern Gold Line operations. Clean water, as has been mentioned many times here by my colleagues, they are extremely important to us Finns. We are proud of our clean waters, and especially in the North Karelia region where our home is.
That is why water balance is the single most critical factor for our operations, both in the short and long term. Our goal is that mining does not degrade groundwater or surface water and at best support the recovery of aquatic ecosystems. Quite ambitious goal. This is the core element of the Alive Mine model and requires, of course, a deep understanding of the state of the existing water ecosystems as well as the qualities of mine and process waters and effective, innovative solutions for water treatment. Energy use is one of the largest sources of both emissions and operating costs in mining. We are moving step by step towards a fossil-free adaptive energy system that responds to changing environmental and operational needs. We design our energy solutions with regional reliability and resilience in mind. This supports both our climate goals and also local communities.
Mining waste, such as waste rock and tailings, is the largest physical footprint of a mining operation. Our focus is to reduce waste at the source, and we do it through effective mine planning, of course, and with better material recovery. Our goal is to treat waste as a resource, not just something to dispose of. This approach supports the Alive Mine model by reducing our footprint and strengthening long-term environmental resilience during and after active mining operations. Mining affects biodiversity in water systems, landscapes, and species. We work hard to identify, protect, and restore key nature areas, and we also do this together with our local stakeholders. Our aim is to move from no net loss towards net positive impact, which is an ambitious goal. In the Alive Mine model, rehabilitation actions start already during the mine's life cycle, not only at closure.
This is the way we want to do our business in regards to biodiversity. Now I'll move to data, because without data, none of the things I've described so far are possible. Our daily operations are based on continuous monitoring, measurements, and real-time information. This is the foundation for both risk management and for learning how to operate more sustainably. In practice, data gives us insight. It helps us see changes, for example, in water or tailings management and processing, or safety deviations, before they become risks. This enables us to plan further ahead, adjust operations proactively, and continuously improve our performance. This is also central to Alive Mine model. The mine senses what is happening, interprets those signals and adapts accordingly. Data is the key.
Real-time data helps us manage chemical and process safety proactively, and continuous monitoring allows us to detect deviations early and prevent incidents before they occur. With better insights, we can use chemicals as needed, ensure stable controlled conditions, and of course, this approach improves reliability, reduces environmental load, and helps us operate in a consistent and predictable way. Transparency and credible data form the basis of trust among our stakeholders. Reliable information also enables better decision-making also for us and our stakeholders. By translating, for example, complex environmental data into clear and understandable formats, we support learning, foresight, and open dialogue. We engage with people. We listen to their concerns and develop our operations based on the feedback we receive. This all leads to social acceptance, which is ultimately what enables us to operate and the foundation of our long-term future.
Local communities, our working environment, and level of transparency all shape how the operation is perceived and trusted. Without trust, there is no social license to operate, and without well-being people in the mine and in the surrounding communities, there is no sustainable operations. This is why social acceptance guides our vision for tomorrow. It is important that the mining strengthens the long-term vitality of the region where we operate and the people who depend on it, and it forms the ethical backbone of our operations. Because without thriving communities and safe, supportive work environment, mining has no real legitimacy. We must take care of our people. We must work for the benefit of local communities, and in practice, this means, for example, meaningful sustainable employment and local investments for the future.
When you put all this together, the environment, the community, and the people, you start to see the full picture of what Alive Mine is all about. Let me now show you a brief video that captures this vision. We've taken our first steps on our journey toward re-generativity, but the full potential can only be reached through partnerships and shared commitment. This is why we invite the entire mining industry, along with academics and experts, to join us. We want to lead the way, but the real change happens together. Thank you for your attention. Hopefully, you find this Alive Mine thinking as inspirational as I do. Now, let's move on to the concrete development steps. Sampo, the stage is yours.
Thank you. Good day to everybody. My name is Sampo Hirvonen. I'm Chief Development Officer in Endomines. My background is engineer. I have started in Endomines in 2012. Next, we will look how we grow to the next level. We are designing the new production facilities estimated to begin in 2030. There is four potential locations under assessment in environmental impact assessment process. We are scaling gold production to 70,000 oz-100 ,000 oz. The products, they are high value, premium concentrate or responsibly refined gold ore.
In the area, there is tungsten and molybdenum. As additional drivers, we have signed a letter of intent with Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten AG, and it helps for us to development, for example, the process and mining, how would they work with the tungsten, for example. We are utilizing the most advanced and best available environmental technologies. We are keeping the eastern border vibrant. The investment will provide work opportunities and tax revenue for Ilomantsi, Finland. We are growing step by step. As Ilkka showed earlier, the growth comes from Pampalo. From here, 2026 to 2029, we are working in Pampalo about in 25,000 oz level by 2029. In Southern Gold Line, we are entering production to 70,000 oz- 100,000 oz. The tungsten and molybdenum production will begin there.
Later, we have another project in Northern Gold Line and 2032 onwards, they are estimated to begin. Here are some parameters for growth. The future production flows in Pampalo is estimated the production level is 25,000 oz, and in Southern Gold Line, 45,000 oz-75,000 oz. Resources growth are estimated to over 600,000 oz gold in area by 2028, enabling a minimum of 10 years production. In tungsten and molybdenum, at this moment, production is designed for 1 million tons feed to sorting. An estimated production range for tungsten is approximately 1,000 tons per annum. For molybdenum, it's about 600 tons per concentrate tons per annum. In Southern Gold Line, we are designed that growth will come in two phases.
There is first phase, 1.5 million tons of gold ore, and output will be estimated 60,000 oz-65,000 oz of gold with grade 1.5 grams per ton. In second phase, we upgrade plant to 3 million tons per year, and output will be 100,000 oz-130,000 oz of gold with 1.5 grams per ton grade. In permitting, both phases are used. Also additional for this production, there is still Pampalo production supporting in total ounces. Here we have a time schedule how we advance. Our plan includes four deposits in Karelian Gold Line, which are permitted together. There is a lot of indications based on the samples that some parts could be connected.
Southern Gold Line will boost production to 70,000 oz-100,000 oz of gold per annum, and also the tungsten and molybdenum included in plans. We started in 2024 nature surveys and studies, and also we started preparing environmental impact assessment program preparing. We launched program in this February to authorities. 2027, we are estimated to complete pre-feasibility study. Environmental impact assessment report and permit are estimated that application can be launched during in first half. We are expecting that we receive environmental permit decision in second half in 2028, and after that, we can advance in finance and negotiations. 2029, 2030, building and commissioning are designed. In resources, we grow step by step also. As earlier mentioned that we have now little bit over 638 oz resource.
This year will be significant for us in exploration. The drilling in Southern Gold Line is estimated to 40,000 m. First resource is estimated in Ukko later this year. In 2028, investment decision based on targeted 0.6 million oz-0.8 million oz resource in Southern Gold Line. We are targeted to define tungsten and molybdenum resources. In 2030, Endomines' target level is 1.5 million oz-2 million oz gold resource, in total with 50% of that in Southern Gold Line. The drilling program is very historical for us. As Jani mentioned earlier that Kuittila, there is very potential area in base of till samples in that Kuittila area. It can become the significant supplier of tungsten, 0.5%-2.5% of global supply.
This gives us opportunity to strengthen access to European industrial partnership and funding. In assessing eligibility for European Union Critical Raw Materials producer status. We have ongoing design work to define an efficient and scalable production concept. It's very interesting. For example, we have there some kind of sorting phases, for example, to increase that head grade. As earlier in timeline, there was something what we have done, but I will explain here a little bit details. In 2024, we started environmental surveys carried out in Southern Gold Line. 2025, vegetation and habitat survey conducted in Pampalo along the Southern Gold Line. Also they will continue in this year in new areas. In comprehensive scope, surveys cover broad branch species, habitats, environmental indicators across the project area. We are creating a monitoring network.
Approximately there is about 70 groundwater monitoring wells planned to the project area. It includes also that surface and groundwater modeling, then it can be initiated. For infrastructure and technical studies, ore logistics, ore will be transported either by truck or conveyor. Power infrastructure, local utility provider will build a 100 kW power line for the area. The project area doesn't include Natura 2000 sites or nature reserve areas. How we do all this in practice? First, we take care of waterways. We aim to combine traditional technologies with a digital water balance and forecasting models, as well as nature-based treatment solutions, such as constructed wetlands and bioreactors. In area design, we design how we can reduce external waters incoming to mine site, for example.
That way, we can make closed water circuits to reduce fresh water intake, for example. In energy and emissions, in practice, we aim to electrify our mining processes and aim to net zero emission. We aim to use waste heat and hybrid solutions, such as batteries technology for energy production and storage. We aim to develop our energy systems with reliability of the entire surrounding region mine. For that, for example, in that case, conveyor system for ore logistics. Materials and site streams, in practice, we aim to enhance mining efficiency through digital modeling and improve the recovery of minerals. We aim to utilize waste rock and tailings on-site and off-site applications. We place materials safely into underground backfill and explore transition to dry stacking of tailings.
There is plenty of good reasons to look up, for example, dry stacking. For example, the footprint, rehabilitation. You don't need so much water, for example, in that way. Dam structures are much more simple. No risks for the dams, for example. In that way, we can also use that progressive rehabilitations for waste rock areas and also for the tailings areas when there is some data to dry stacking, for example, in practice. The mine closure and rehabilitation measures are planned before the operation start. We aim progressive rehabilitation supporting biodiversity through the early habitat restoration. We work with local stakeholders to identify projects to restore the most important sites. That's our aim. Chemical and process safety and openness data. If you don't have data, you don't know anything.
We minimize the environmental impact identifying the critical risk points, enabling proactive monitoring and rapid response of any deviations. For example, if we do a digital twin, then we can see many other things in another way than normal in nature. We aim to make the key impacts visible in an accessible format. People and place. In practice, we build a safe working environment that supports well-being and career development. We meet the people face to face and involve them in decision-making. The mine brings jobs. That's why we use local people, local suppliers, local services, infrastructure, and the skills are passed on from generation to generation. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Hanne and Sampo. Now it's time to move on to today's final presentation. We are pleased to be joined by Petter Langenskiöld, a Portfolio Manager at Evli. Petter is going to give us an interesting presentation about the inside of the gold market at the moment. Petter, please welcome to the stage.
Thank you very much.
Oh.
How does it work?
Oh, just press here or backwards.
Hello. Thank you for your invitation here. I'm a portfolio manager since a long time and one of the mutual funds that I manage is a precious metals equities fund founded 10 years ago, investing in gold and silver mines globally, exactly like Endomines. There are lots of gold and silver mines out there. Gold and silver mining eventually is, or at least it is, at least very important by the end of the day, whether the price of the metal that they mine, how it develop, and in this case, it's predominantly gold.
This is a huge topic, a super interesting topic, and I'm not sure if I've tried to keep this rather short. It's very easy to take detours and start talking about different things, and so much is happening in the world currently. Let's try to keep this focused. I will start with an example. This country, Finland, got its first currency in 1864. The value of that currency was very clearly defined. You see here it was tied to silver. It then changed, right? It then became another bimetallic standard, I think. Anyway, that's not the point here.
Now let's move 152 years further in time to this today and ask ourself what would have happened if we would have saved some of those first currencies of Finland. We could have chosen two ways of saving them, either as notes, banknotes, or as the amount of silver that every note was entitled to. Here you see if we would have saved 1,000 of those marks, we would have EUR 1.60, half a cup of coffee left. If we would have saved it as silver, we would have roughly EUR 10,000. This is exactly what gold and that or silver, it doesn't matter.
The huge difference between the end value of the silver savings and the banknote savings is not because there would have been a massive increase in the purchasing power of silver. It's fully 100% a consequence of a debasement of the currency or a disproportionate increase in money supply. The value of precious metals, mainly gold, has been something that you have been able throughout time to find a broad enough consensus that gold has an intrinsic value, and very importantly, an independent value.
Furthermore, gold has superior physical properties for this purpose, not the least that is very durable. So you can save your gold forever, basically. There's a great difficulty of obtaining gold, as our hosts know, and everybody knows it's not something you do very easily. Also, the rather small and predictable yearly growth of the stock of gold. These are all properties that are very good for money. Throughout times, as we know, gold has been the basis for money or actually a real gold bug naturally says that gold is money.
This is the reason behind gold has always had, and still has, in fact, although it's not that visible, a very important role in monetary systems. The actual task of gold in monetary systems is to discipline and or make the growth in money supply more difficult. If money is tied to gold, basically, you need to mine more gold in order to print more money. However, at least in theory, this is something you could equally well or at least quite well achieve without gold. You wouldn't need gold or silver for this disciplinary effect for the growth in money supply.
In fact, at least since 1971, which is the starting point of the system that we're living in, currently, we have had currencies that are not at least directly tied to any metallic standard. You could replace the role of gold in monetary systems with a set of rules and principles governing the growth in money supply, basically. Among those rules, these two would for certain be very crucial or are very crucial, and in fact, are rules and principles that we have or should have, currently. So you should not be able to monetary finance your own government. I mean, print money and finance your government debt.
That is the number one rule. Partly the same thing, but also a rule that would help a lot if you would put a minimum of the central bank solvency, because the central bank is the one that issues the currency. Okay. You would come a long way with these two restrictions, in my opinion. Well, but rules change. These are rules that we basically have had in place since after the war, and also since the beginning of 1970 when after the Bretton Woods system.
These rules, if you compare these rules with other rules that, let's say promises that the government give, this is the easiest to break. It is 100 x easier. It's super much easier to print some money. It's much easier than to break a promise to, I mean to your voters or to old people or hospitals or education or anything like that. This has now, since the war. We can divide the era after the war in two, or I do it at least in two eras.
We have one from 1944 to 2009 when we did not monetary finance our own governments, albeit we have done it indirectly, but still. Then we have another era which started after the financial crisis and is still ongoing when we started to indirectly help the government to carry its expenses and its debt. This is what has happened is rather dramatic. This is the Federal Reserve balance sheet, a 100-year graph. On the right-hand side, you see since this is, in fact, the starting point is the inception. The Fed was founded in 1913, if I remember correctly. This is the whole history of it.
What we should pay attention to here are two things, the uncontrollable growth and the point where we stop right here. In December last year, the Fed decided to stop its attempt to shrink its balance sheet because basically the market couldn't absorb the consequences anymore. This is done, if you go back and draw a line here, at the point which is above the historical freak peak in the middle of the war. The root of the problem, we have not increased the money supply or the monetary base. In fact, the real problem is the massive government debt.
The problem to carry finance and absorb the ever-growing amount of government debt in the U.S. and here, equally well here in the Euro area. A crucial question is, in fact, is this debt manageable without help, without money printing help or without help from the central bank? A way of looking at this is that this is a 65-year graph of the long U.S. Treasury yield. The US is currently paying roughly 3% on average of its almost $40 trillion government debt here. If you divide $1.2 trillion by the outstanding government debt, it gives you 3%.
This is the highest ratio ever relative to GDP, despite the fact that the interest rate that they are paying is historically quite low. The message here is that if they would pay the median level in the history of the 10-year yield on their own government debt, the sum would be $2.2 trillion in interest yearly, which is basically, if that would happen overnight, it's not manageable. It's simply too much.
The very big question, at least as far as I can see it, or as I feel, is that have we lost at least a rather big amount of our capacity to defend the value of money? Defending the value of money is to have room to hike interest rates and to decrease the money supply. Okay, we have basically 2 percentage points room to fight inflation. Remember the last inflation wave in the 1970s, they hiked the Fed funds rate to 20%. That is, of course, quite impossible nowadays. When it comes to money supply, we've seen that they already stopped in December.
If you are not able to hike interest rate, and you are not able to cut the money supply, then it doesn't matter if your central bank is institutionally independent. In fact, it is very dependent on the government finances or fiscal dominance as the saying goes. The less capacity we have left, the higher the price of gold. The capacity appears to be smaller than in living memory. All the money printing has led to what can be seen in the balance sheets of the central banks. This is the consolidated balance sheet of the Eurosystem.
The Eurosystem is ECB plus the national central banks of the euro area. The by far largest asset in the central banks' balance sheets and basically all the others in the world is government debt, claims held on itself. Central banks might be institutionally apart, but they are 100% the same economic entity as the government. EUR 4 trillion out of EUR 6 trillions. This was under EUR 1 trillion before all of this started. This is the most important asset and the guarantor of the value of money's balance sheet. This has been like this already.
This position has been here already for 15 years. The real question is, what is the value of a claim that you have on yourself? If at least in a situation when this becomes permanent, well, one would be tempted to say zero because it's not possible to owe to yourself. Let's put this at zero and ask ourselves. Then if we put this at zero, the equity or the capital of our central banking systems will be roughly negative EUR 3 billion. We ask ourselves, how could we restore that capital, let's say, to zero? If you are running government debt to GDP of over 100%, you cannot. You don't have the money to recapitalize it yourself.
You have. What you can do is, particularly in the European case, you could increase a higher price of gold would solve it. Let's go back. You see, you might or you might not know that the euro area is by far the largest owner of physical gold in the world. Clearly larger than the States. The U.S. is the largest single country, but we as a group, euro area as a group is larger and the sum is 10,600 tons. The U.S. is 8,100 tons. And the market value currently of that is $1.3. This is creeping up.
In fact, quite interesting, we already have a rather large gold portion. Gold is backing. Viewed this way currently, gold is one divided by six. So the euro is backed by one divided by six of gold in a way. If, as one could view this as valueless, then the situation, then it's basically the only asset left. This is not an issue which is on the table, so to say, but what is very important here for is that there should not be a new wave of QE.
It will be quite different from the one from the first one, when we went from $0 to $3 trillion, but when we go from $3 trillion to $10 trillion, it's something entirely else. That's one point. Finally, the nominal price of gold has, as we all know, made several new all-time highs during the last one or two years. A lot has happened. Another way of looking at it, this is one of the things that we tend to relate the value of gold to. Here we are looking at the value of the U.S. gold reserve.
U.S. holds 261 million oz of gold or 8,100 tons of gold. They had during these times almost three times more, but then they lost two-thirds until Nixon stopped the gold bleeding with the Bretton Woods decision. Gold price has quadrupled in 10 years or something. The value of the U.S. gold reserve is half of its 100-year average of the monetary base. The increase in the monetary base has still been many fold. I don't know where this would be going.
Relating gold in the U.S. like this to different variables, you can argue for a gold price of everything between $2,000 and $75,000. It's a little bit what you pick. Now, there is one big topic missing here, and that is, of course, everything that has happened in the States after the new administration, which directly or indirectly has to be with the status of the dollar as a global reserve currency. The dollar and gold are, of course, a fighting pair, so to say. That is such a big issue that it's quite difficult to define what is in fact about.
It's very difficult to see that you would ever find a replacement reserve currency, anything else than the dollar. Hard to see that it would be the pound or euro or the yen or whatever, or the renminbi. But of course, if USD would run into, let's say, serious troubles of some sort, which I personally don't think, and I don't see it, but if it would, there would, of course, be no upper limit for gold. Because gold is basically the only is the strongest reserve alternative. A trend which we have seen somewhat, but that. I think that is a question that everybody can think of, and it's quite difficult to get a grip on. Okay.
I think that was it. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Petter, for excellent and insightful presentation.
Very much.
Now we are ready for final Q&A session. I want to invite all the presenters to the stage. Let's start with the questions in the audience again.
Atte Jortikka from Inderes again. Regarding the letter of intent that you agreed upon, how closely will you work with the potential offtaker regarding the development of Southern Gold Line?
We plan to work very, very closely, especially on the technical side so that we have because we have done some preliminary testing and we want to produce a product that is sellable in all conditions. That's something that we want to work closely to get more technical knowledge. As the partner, they have their own mine and they have also processing facilities, so we can gain a lot of knowledge from the partner that how the process should be run. Of course, the goal there is even it's not. This is non-binding and there is no. The goal anyway is that at the end, we would form a partnership with the off-take.
Yeah, how many years you think it will take you from going to 1.5 million tons to 3.0 million tons in the Southern Gold Line regarding the output?
That hasn't been. We haven't estimated that. That sort of depends how what kind of results Jani brings to the table with the drilling and how much we drill next year and so on. As fast as possible. Like, if we have a sufficient resource, then as fast as possible.
Will you be able to finance the Southern Gold Line with only a pre-feasibility study or do you think that you will need a definitive feasibility study to finance that project?
Yes, we need a definite feasibility study. I think here this is not the common way we have done it in a way that we have really focused on to get the resources up and then also for this permitting, we need to know like we have very large areas where we have indications of gold in the base of till. So we need to do a lot also this scouting drilling just to know where are the boundaries and also where we can place the factories and all the infrastructure so that we don't place it on top of the gold deposit as usually happens with the investments.
Therefore, the resource will come with little bit of a delay, and then we need the resource to do the feasibility. Therefore, we will start it next year. Otherwise, we would have started it this year.
Finally, in what phase of pre-feasibility study are you currently?
We are currently in a phase that we are doing test work with Metso. They are our partner on the design process, and then we have several test phases going on with the site rock and with the different rock types, ore types. We are designing the facilities, but we have some preliminary CapEx figures, but we want to define those further. What's still sort of missing is the sort of mining CapEx side. That's something that we need to do.
We are still, because we are operating only 20 km away from the Southern Gold Line, so we know sort of, we have a really good feeling that, what is feasible and what is not and what is the cost level. Those are internal studies, so when you look for financing, then it's not sufficient.
What are the current preliminary estimates for the CapEx, and how will that tungsten part play on that?
It has been now estimated at approximately EUR 200 million, and it's not including the tungsten and molybdenum and those are somewhere. That's something that we still need to define. We don't have even the preliminary estimate. We have Metso working on that part now.
Okay. Thank you.
Do we have another questions in the audience? Maybe not. Let's move on to the questions from the chat. First question is about Alive Mine. You introduced the Alive Mine concept as a regenerative mining model. This is an ambitious and forward-looking vision, but how do you measure regenerative impact in practice? What are the concrete KPIs that will tell investors whether Alive Mine is delivering results versus remaining aspirational? Hanne.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for the question. This is an excellent question, and I was hoping that we would be able to present to you our comprehensive measurement model already today, but it's not ready yet. We want to do it really thoroughly. Next time we are here in the CMD, we will be happy to present you a comprehensive model where you can follow up on our progress and also see how we are currently based against the target state. Yes, please stay tuned. It will follow, but we are not quite ready yet. To be quite honest, I'm excited about it. So far and currently we still follow the current sustainability program, but it will be much wider contexts and also easy to follow where we stand.
Mm.
Okay.
Let's stay with the sustainability.
Mm-hmm.
Mining operations rely heavily on diesel-powered underground equipment, hauling trucks and heating. What is the current share of fossil fuels in your energy mix, and what specific technologies, battery, electric vehicles, electrification, are you planning to deploy?
Okay. I kinda answer some parts of that, and then I rely on my colleagues on some parts. Regarding the electricity mix, from the beginning of this year, we have transferred fully into green energy. Our energy is fully on hydropower electricity. Sorry for that. Of course, like our mill is run on electricity and also some of the mine equipment is run on electricity, but only a small part currently. Ilkka, maybe you can elaborate on that.
Yeah. It's like you said that at the moment we are using lots of diesel when we haulage the ore to the surface, and of course we are using electricity when we do the bolting and putting it to the ground support. We have to do the change step by step to get the CapEx portfolio in a good level.
During the first quarter, we have had quite deep discussions between production and the sustainability team. We have discussed different options as part of our climate transition plan. We are listing concrete examples of concrete projects on how to move towards net zero. We are working on the transition plan, and there will be concrete steps to be taken already in the current operations and of course when looking forward into the Southern Gold Line and the development projects. There, the electrification is the key. Perhaps somebody you want to add something on that?
Yeah. We have been contacted mining equipment suppliers that we have very high level targets for future that how you can help us, and there is a lot of solutions for that at this time. As we go forward this project work goes on and so equipment will develop in a lot of it at that time. For example, mining ore excavation with conveyor is one solution for that.
Okay. Next question is about Southern Gold Line. Actually the CapEx, which we already discussed. How much more do you think you will need to spend to implement all this environmentally friendly processes versus a more traditional setting? Can you give examples of these technologies involved?
Kari, do you want to take that?
I think we have a rough estimate that it will be somewhere between EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million. That's. There are also benefits, like if you think about this, like what Sampo was describing about dry stacking, for example. Like, if you compare traditional mining processes, there is very high CapEx on the flotation sand area, and this can be minimized with the dry stacking and that also decreases, if you think about the financial side, then it decreases the financial and environmental bond requirements significantly and especially if you do the restoration activities continuously, so you don't wait to the finish when you start doing it. That really helps with the financing side.
What about the project? How confident are you that you can keep the planned timeline, which is quite tight? What can cause delays?
It's an ambitious timeline. We are aware. We are confident we can keep it. I think there are parts that are not fully in our control, which is on the permitting side. That's something that we have identified as a risk, like we don't see it as a long, big risk in a way that if there is a small delay, I don't think it changes the big picture. We don't believe it changes the big picture. If it's 2030 or 2031, it doesn't change the picture. We are also applying for this critical project status from the European Union. That really helps also if we get the status. Of course, it's not.
It hasn't been decided, so we will see. If we get it, there is a sort of guaranteed timeline of two years to get the permit from the application phase. I think the best way to get it done quickly is to really do a world-class application. I think that's how it works in Finland, so if you do, like, a world-class application, you get the permit.
The next question is about the Pampalo life of mine. Will cash costs increase as you expand the mine deeper, and if so, by how much?
Well, I have to say that it won't increase. It will be the same or even lower level that it is now.
Okay. We have couple of questions to Petter.
Okay.
Where do you see the gold price is at the end of the year?
I don't know. Higher than now.
Okay, good. Do you think we will get back to the gold standard?
No. I don't think so, but I think you cannot rule out that gold will be at some point in time the last resort of the lender of last resort themselves. I don't think they would like to return to it, but they might need help from it to restore their own finances. I'm speaking about the central bank systems.
Thank you. That was the last question, and I think our Capital Markets Day is going to end, but before we end, Kari Vyhtinen will wrap up the presentations. On my behalf, on our behalf, we want to thank you all for attending, and we hope that you have enjoyed this event. I also want to remind you that there will be a replay of this event available on our website later today. Thank you again. Kari, stage is yours again.
Okay. Thank you. Just a short closing remarks. All right. If you summarize today what you have heard and summarize Endomines, we had a record year last year. However, this year we expect to be significantly better, and there is many reasons for that. The production is expected to grow 10%-20% this year, and we have a solid plan how to do it. We have acquired our underground subcontractor, for example, as Ilkka explained, so it's in our control now. It used to be there was a subcontractor with a different vision. We had a strong vision to grow. Our subcontractor didn't really have the same vision, so we decided to acquire the business last year, and now it's in our control. We have it in. It's a very solid foundation.
The cash flow that we make, we will invest in exploration, and it's the largest ever. Almost same amount of exploration drilling than during the last three years combined. It's a very significant amount. If you have been following with the company closely, we have had during the last three years a lot of excellent results, we expect to get a lot of exciting results this year. Future tells what kind of results. We have a new streamlined structure in the U.S. We sold the three assets, and those were the assets with the highest operation cost. This year we are entering the year with lower cost structure. The global trends, they support the gold market. Of course, there is now...
Now the world is in a very uncertain phase, and during the coming weeks and maybe two, three months, it's very difficult to see where the world is heading. However, the basic fundamentals are there, and we believe anyway that the gold will support and continue to grow later this year. The Southern Gold Line development project is moving to the next phase. We have launched the environmental impact assessment program, and now it's going to the report phase and permit phase. The guidance, as mentioned, is 10%-20% growth. One of the new things is the Alive Mine that Hanne was explaining, and this is really the way that we see that the industry is changing.
It's an ambitious target that what we say, that we wanna change the industry. That's the goal really, that we want to change the industry, because we see that now there has been a change in the global atmosphere that there is more and more countries have realized that they need metals. Like, otherwise it's, it just doesn't work on Earth if you don't have the metals. Now it's becoming more and more crucial to have the metals in your country, as Finnish President Stubb has also emphasized in the newspapers and so on. How to make this really competitive is the
through sustainability, that we understand that the nature brings the limits on the actions that we do. We have AI, we have data that we control the processes. We don't just report what happened yesterday or last week. We are optimizing the processes continuously. We have the social license from the people that live close by, and that's the way. Now of course, with mining, you leave a hole in the ground, but that should be the effect on the environmental side. We should do positive items and really also change the industry. This is a new phase, and it happens together. As Hanne said, we invite everybody to join the journey, join the golden journey. Thank you very much on my behalf, and I hope you enjoyed the presentations.
Thank you all the presenters, and thank you, Anni, for organizing, and thank you technical team. Thank you.