Everyone, thank you very much for, for joining, myself, Riaan Davel, and Jaco Schoeman, for our results presentation for the financial year ending the 30th of June, 2023. I think before we start... All right, I think there's just somebody who needs to go on to mute. Thank you. Before we start, I think, maybe just a moment to, to remember Derek Watts, who passed away yesterday. I think we all remember Derek as a, as a fearless, journalist with integrity, a relentless pursuit of the truth, and I think his, his death is certainly leaving a gap in the, the community, the media community. Moving on to the first page, that is our disclaimer. We are keeping the content of this presentation fairly light.
We're not going to go into a lot of detail, really just the highlights and the events that impacted and contributed to our financial and operating performance this year. We'll obviously deal with everything far more extensively in our integrated report. Just in terms of highlights, the key group features for this year, see that on the back of a very good gold price, our revenue is up 7% for the year, and that also contributed to an 8% increase in operating profit of just over ZAR 1.8 billion. That, in turn, contributed to a very nice increase in headline earnings, a 14% increase of just 14%, or rather 14% to just over ZAR 1.2 billion. That has enabled us to pay our 16th consecutive dividend.
The, we're topping up the interim dividend by another ZAR 0.65 to take the total dividend for the year to ZAR 0.85. I remind myself that, being a shareholder myself, a very large percentage of, of the shares that, that I've purchased and on which I'm now earning dividends, I bought for just over ZAR 2, I think ZAR 2.139. It's been a long, good long-term strategy on my part, and I'm hoping that some other shareholders are finding themselves in a similar position. Moving into the operating trends, we'll deal with both operating segments individually and then move on to the, the group operating features. I think what, what we wanna emphasize here and what this graph is showing are two things really.
The first being, volumes coming under pressure, especially towards the second half of the financial year, but offset to an extent by an increase in yield. Now, obviously, every year, we do anticipate certain things from happening, and we factor that into the, into our thinking, as part of, of what we provide for in terms of contingencies. I think there were one or two additional ones this year in terms of the volume throughput, that we were unable to respond to the way that we, that we would have preferred. That really involved a delay on, on a number of, of new sites. You would have seen in the letter that we also released this morning that we considered this year to be of an in-between year.
That some of the earlier sites, the initial sites, the Elsburg site in particular, that those are coming to an end. They've, they've reached the end of, of their producing life, and, and they need to be replaced. We have a program of sequencing our reclamation sites, and then we work towards a timeline, and there were a number of delays in actually implementing that. You would have seen in the letter, too, that the Crown Mines site, which is the main volume site, the, the replacement site, it's only come online recently and is only now starting to get to a stage of, or a state, rather, of, of steady state. That being the case, a lot of the, the throughput this year was supplemented with material from, we call them cleanup sites.
A few years back, we started a program to start cleaning up some of the legacy sites. There's a fairly large fleet of yellow machines lifting and stockpiling material, and these were activated. A lot of the material that came into the plant, into the Ergo plant, was from these sites, and that helped with recoveries. The head grade from these sites typically is higher because it's coarser material. Therefore, the increase in yield of 0.258 gram per ton compared to where it was in the past. Then you would have seen how that impacted the Ergo production output as well. There's just 1 microphone that needs to go onto mute. That's how you would have seen.
I mean, you could see the impact also on the production throughput right at the end there of, just over two tons per half year to just under two tons per half year. Then these sites are, or these circuits are sensitive both to, to volume and to grade. Grade does help a little. Grade does help quite a bit, higher grade. Moving on to Far West Gold operating trends. There, too, you would have seen in the letter that towards the end of the year, there was a delay in, in the new site that's being, commissioned, the number three dam. The first site, number five dam, which is, really just a few baby steps away from, from the Far West Gold plant. Very neat and simple operation. Let's now move on to the, the second site.
The number three dam has also now come online. That too had its own set of challenges of getting it commissioned on time. And that had to do by and large with the delay in the delivery of componentry that, that we had to import. Logistical issue, and we attribute part of that really to global economy and supply lines that have yet not fully recovered following the lockdown, the COVID pandemic-associated lockdown. Far West Gold also had a direct impact, felt the impact of the load curtailment arrangement that we have with Eskom. And you see that in the production numbers, the yield and also the production numbers. It has to switch off its mills to grind down the coarser material.
It, it runs a, a closed circuit mill, but you've got to switch that off, and the benefit that you have, from the, from the mill is, is lost. And, and you could see some of that also coming through, both in the yield and in the production numbers. On a group basis, a very, very steep decline, which thankfully is only a temporary decline. It will start picking back up again now that both number three dam, Driefontein 3, at Far West Gold and Rooikraal at Ergo, now that they're up and running again, and there are a few others in the pipeline, that will systematically also come online. You will see the, the opposite happening in terms of yield, though.
It's higher volume, lower grade material, and then hopefully these will balance each other out, and we can deliver into the guidance that we give at the end of this presentation. Total production for the two half years or for the financial year, you can see just under three tonnes for the first half and 2.5 tonnes for the second, take us just to below six tonnes for the year. six tonnes really, I think, is where we wanna be, somewhere between 5.5 and six. That gives us the volume throughput, the weight or the scale that can support the overhead structure of the business. I think the next is the financial review. I'll hand you over to Riaan, to take you through some of those numbers. Riaan, thank you.
Thank you very much, Niël. Good morning everyone from my side. As always, a huge privilege for me to take you through the financial results. Always very helpful with the operating context that, that Niël has painted there. Before I do that, just two specific words of thanks from my side. Firstly, to our operational team for delivering these, these results. You all know that we're a 24 hour a day business, and in a sports analogy, that, what that means is we can never take our eye off the ball. The ball is always in play. I wanna recognize the operational team that produces ultimately these results. Then secondly, just the reporting team as well.
I know when we, when we talk, as, as Niël has said, in a, in a summarized way in these presentations, that it may look pretty simple, pretty easy, but I can assure you it's not. A lot of effort and dedication by the team goes in, and I just wanna thank each and every one of them for their support and ultimately coming up with this set of numbers for our year, which I'm very, very proud to present. As Niël said, yes, these are a very summarized presentation. Hopefully, it will give you the key features of our results. Please go and have a look at our condensed financial statements, so that we've released.
We prepared that, that booklet with great care, and I know you will find the information in there very useful. On the financial review side, as Niël has done, to start with Ergo. As, as you would see there, Ergo's revenue overall for the year increased by 11% in comparison to the FY 2022 financial year, which was driven by overall an increase of 16% in the average Rand gold price received. Although gold sold was down 5%, as, as Niël has alluded, in an environment for Ergo, which had a much more difficult tonnes, so lower tonnage, but a, but a higher yield.
Just period on period, if you compare the first six months of the FY 2023 financial year to the second six months, in that time, we saw also a, a steep increase in gold price. If you compare the second six months to the first six months, gold price was up 17%, although gold sold in that period was down 7%. Overall, a very good revenue performance. From a cash operating cost, cost point of view, obviously, overall, if you look at a cash operating cost increase, only 6% increase year-on-year, but obviously that's in a lower tonnage environment where, where volume was down 22%, but yield overall up 21%, sort of offsets that for us in a, in a very, neat way. Yes, the cost pressures are very much there.
We, we, we noted in the, in the booklet as well, reagents, diesel, electricity, security, it's a very large focus for us. Machine hire, that, that Niël alluded to, yellow machines for late stage cleanup, we've experienced very high, well above inflation increases there. All of that contributes to the cost overall. The net of those two, with some inventory adjustments, then get us to, to operating profit. Again, what a, what a very good six months that you had with obviously profitable ounces. As such, where you had high yield, slightly lower tonnages, and a high gold price. Yeah, a wonderful second six months. Year-on-year, the increase was 26%, increase in operating profit for, for Ergo, which is an excellent result.
Just over ZAR 920 million is Ergo's contribution. Excellent performance, I believe, under challenging circumstances, from our mothership, operation, Ergo. Moving on to Far West. A slightly different picture, as Niël mentioned as well. Not many sites there. It was in the late stage, final stages of Driefontein 5. Unfortunately, and that's often how it works on these sites, you cannot choose the grade. We work through those sites in a methodical way. The Driefontein 5 didn't contribute. It was a lower grade part of the dam. Also when Driefontein 3 got online, the parts that we're mining there at the moment is also not close to the average overall of that site.
As everyone knows, those sites aren't homogeneous. The grade isn't spread evenly throughout. Some areas are higher than others. We often look overall at the average grade of that site only. So tonnages impacted that overall, unfortunately, it didn't have the yield impact that Ergo did. If you look at revenue then, year-on-year, overall down by 2%, with gold sold down by 15%, but offset by the 16% increase in the average gold price received. If I look at cash operating costs in that context, up 11% year-on-year. Similar cost pressures as Ergo, that we're experiencing there at this stage of both the Driefontein 5 late stage and the start of the Driefontein 3 site.
Unfortunately not that, that yield, offset that we saw very distinctly in, in Ergo. Leaving us with some energy adjustments. Overall, on the operating profit side, 6% down year-on-year. In this scenario where revenue is slightly down, costs up, obviously that will impact operating profit. Still, look at the number, just below ZAR 900 million contribution by Far West, to the operating profit of the group, which overall, I believe is still an excellent result. If we look at the, the group, then overall, operating margin percentage, again, assisted by the gold price, as I've mentioned, specifically in the second 6 months, increased 17% period-on-period. A very healthy operating margin, and that 36.1% is the highest we've seen over the last 4 half years.
If you can see that, that on the slide. All-in Sustaining Cost margins, similarly, very healthy at 24%. Always taking into account that we've spent ZAR 476 million in sustaining CapEx, and that's very much in line with last year. still, even with that sustaining capital investment, very healthy, 24.1% margin in the second six months, and overall, All-in Sustaining Cost margin of 20.6%. moving on to the Free Cash Flow. it appears, yes, that's true, that the cash flow, Free Cash Flow year-on-year decreased. although when I get to the cash flow statement, I'll talk to that. Cash generated from operations up year-on-year.
What that free cash flow shows us, and we'll talk to that in the cash flow statement as well, is that over ZAR 550 million of capital spent on the growth side, and for me, that is a really wonderful growth story. As with sustaining CapEx, also now more and more with growth CapEx, we invest in a business that works, and we're investing in a purpose that we believe in. For me, it's a wonderful result, and I'll almost summarize that. We've invested over ZAR 1.1 billion of investing activities, activities, and we'll see that in the cash flow later as well, which is almost 90% more than last year's. Last year, we spent ZAR 626 million. Remember, free cash flow is a gold number.
It does not lie. Just take operating cash, less investing cash, and that is the answer. A very positive cash position, but I'll elaborate on that when we get to the cash flow statement. Headline Earnings Per Share. A wonderful result that you already alluded to. Overall, a 13% increase in Headline Earnings Per Share to ZAR 1.482, ZAR 1.482 share. Again, you can see a very solid second six months of ZAR 0.859. Moving on to the statement of profit and loss, income statement. Just at a high level, revenue increased by 7% as a result of the gold price increase, 16% year-on-year, offset by gold sold down year-on-year by 8%.
Cost of sales up 5%. One of the other elements, more than cash operating costs that come in there is depreciation, for example. Depreciation was down period on period, with lower tonnages that we produced, as mentioned, leaving us our gross profit from operating activities up 15% year-on-year, at just under ZAR 1.6 billion. Other income, you'll remember last year that ZAR 91.3, the majority of that was a COVID claim that we successfully then accounted for in, and received, mostly in that period and the last bit in, this year. Administration expenses, 7% year-on-year increase. Finance income up year-on-year. Obviously, in our environment, we're very fortunate to carry cash balances, and obviously in a high interest rate environment, that means that you earn more finance income.
Obviously, if you have debt in that environment, you, you pay high interest charges. We're fortunate to, to earn interest at, at the current high, relatively high interest rates. That line also includes dividends from Rand, and finally, we can see both of those on the cash flow statement. Finance expense, as you know, was a small portion, only ZAR 5 million of that in cash. The rest is an unwinding, mostly an unwinding of discount, on our environmental liabilities. Then income tax, current and deferred, as you know, in that line, leaving us with a profit for the year of ZAR 1.281 million, ZAR 1.2 billion, up by 14% year-on-year.
Looking at our statement of financial position or our, our balance sheet, wonderful, if you look at the property, plant, and equipment line, I've alluded to, there's a healthy increase as we keep on investing in our business, in our assets, which is always the best kind of investment if you can build and maintain through, through capital infrastructure. We've seen in, in other businesses, some of them owned by government, the result if you do not do that. We're committed, as I said, to our purpose, we'll, we'll continue to do that. It's a, it's a healthy increase in property, plant, and equipment. Non-current investments and other assets, mostly our rehab assets, it sits there, also benefit from a, from a high interest rate environment, so, so healthy growth, year-on-year in, in that line.
Cash and cash equivalents, again, I'll talk to in quite some detail on the next page. Overall, what you can see there is only a ZAR 54 million so-called cash burn year-on-year. I'll elaborate that on the cash flow statement. Other, other current assets came up year-on-year, but the positive there is that it includes, and we allude to that in our results booklet as well, a ZAR 185 million pre-payment towards solar project capital, which is, again, all investing activities for us, and very positive that, that we can, can execute also our solar project. Equity, healthy increase, year-on-year, even after the dividends. Again, as you know, the, the profits contribute overall to the equity of the company.
Provision for environmental rehabilitation, fairly stable year-on-year, mostly the, the unwinding, and some other changes that we allude to in the note, in our financial statements. Deferred tax liability, that increased year-on-year. Some property, plant, and equipment items that we've already fully claimed for tax purposes under, under our tax regime. Current liabilities, a slight increase year-on-year, but, but leaving us in a, in a very, very healthy current ratio at 30 June 2023 of 4.5. To the statement of cash flows. Yeah, in my, my personal opinion, the most relevant and useful primary statement of them all, is that, you know, it doesn't deal with fair value versus historical cost, or the pros and cons of both.
It just deals with, with cash, and it, it tells you, the truest, in my view, picture of what the business has generated. For us, a really, really good reading. If you look at the net cash inflow from operating activities, obviously for any business, I believe the most important line is your cash generated from operations. In my thank you at the beginning of what I said, that's what drives the business. The underlying operations, what kind of cash does it generate? For us, a year-on-year increase to just over Rand 1.7 billion in cash generated. Finance income received that I mentioned, obviously increased year-on-year, as, as a result of the, the balance that we, that we carry and the cash that we still generate, then the, the highest interest rate, high interest rate environment...
dividends received, mostly from Rand Refinery. You can see there separately, and there's the ZAR 5 million finance expense paid in cash that I mentioned, relatively small in context of the other numbers. Income tax paid. From, from my viewpoint, is a significant contribution that our business also makes directly in that income tax line, also in other tax lines to the, to the fiscus. We always hope that, that money will be spent in a responsible way. Net cash flow from investing activities, also very happy reading, if you look at acquisition of property, plant, and equipment. That just over ZAR 1.1 billion, almost doubled from, from last year, which is, I believe, an excellent message. We keep on investing in our business, and more and more so also in, in non-sustaining or, or growth capital expenditure.
Environmental rehabilitation payments, we'll continue to do that. I still believe not many other mining companies get that right. We, we continue to spend money, and most of that spend is on our two currently active tailings facilities, Brakpan/Withok and Driefontein 4. Sometimes it's challenging if it's a, as, as it has been, a very high rainfall summer. Sometimes those activities are slightly delayed on the vegetation and some other challenges, that's something we're committed to. And we'll keep on spending, spending money to rehabilitate concurrently. On dividends, as Niël has already mentioned, we paid just over ZAR 500 million in dividends in this financial year in, in cash. That's the, the overall, that 63 netted off by the positive exchange rate vaRiaance.
That gets us to the ZAR 54 million essential cash burn for the year. Overall, from my perspective, we've invested more than ZAR 1.1 billion in property, plant, and equipment, paid over ZAR 500 million in dividends, and our cash position stayed virtually unchanged, which I believe is a really magnificent result. Yeah, this is always the sort of handover slide to Niël Pretorius, so maybe he would like to speak to this, because this is also very, very happy reading. As you can see, we have it there from more or less February, but even if you go slightly back, we've had a really wonderful run in our share price. I believe we're one of the best performing shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for this calendar year.
If you take 1 January to 30 June, our run started slightly earlier, so we were hovering around ZAR 10, or just under ZAR 10 in October, and, and moving to November. If you just look at that, from ZAR 12, obviously, to, to around ZAR 24, it's more than a 100% increase. So a wonderful result, I believe, our shareholder in this, in this period. With that, I will, I will hand over to, to Niël to maybe say something on that, and then, then talk to the ESG and the rest of the presentation. Thanks, Niël.
Thanks, Riaan. Yes, it has been a good period for us in terms of share price performance. I think you could see that the share price is still tracking the gold price, albeit the multiple might be slightly more steep again to the gold price and some of the other companies. Yeah, to Riaan's point on performance, year to date, Markus Blattner, and he basically very kindly emailed me some statistics in July suggesting that year to date, at the time, DRD had gained 58%. I think the one number that I thought I'd also share with performance, gold sector performance or return over 10 years, which is 794%. Yeah, and that's what DRD is all about. It's, it's the long-term performance.
It's the sustainability focus that's hopefully taking us into the future and is setting us up to take full advantage of our ore body, and continue to deliver into the, the multiple value focus areas that we, that we've made part of our strategy. That takes us into sustainable development, the very next slide, what we've been doing in that regard. Moving on to the environmental aspect of that, the drive to reduce potable water usage by relying increasingly on industrial water, recycled water, or water that we harvest, that continues. Again, we saw a 10% decrease this year.
Compared to where it was, 10, 15 years ago, it's come down every year for most years, and we're now at a point where roughly 90%, just more than 90% of all the processed water that we use. In fact, all the water that we use in our process is non-potable, which I believe is an important part in terms of the sustainability drive. We, we're having power issues now. We know that in the not-too-distant future, we're going to be adding to those issues, namely, not enough water because of the, simply the size and the availability of water for, for use, for personal use. So it's, it's a good way to, to set ourselves up to not just from an environmental perspective, but also from a business resilience perspective.
Dust exceedances there, you can see, is 0.87%, and those are by and large not related to tailings, dust from tailings, but more infrastructure. Dust from roads or from where vehicles are moving in terms of reclamation of materials. That also is a number which, which I personally find encouraging. The rehabilitation spend remains high in the circumstances, and remember, these are costs that are directly attributed to rehabilitation categorized in that line. We, we know that our mining process, in essence, is rehabilitation, with the removal of tailings from areas where they, where they shouldn't be, and processing them and storing them elsewhere. That's about ZAR 42 million. Another 25 hectares of permanent storage facilities, tailing storage facilities, have been vegetated during the course of this year.
To a large extent, the dust risk that these facilities pose to surrounding communities, I'm talking about the Crown facility in particular, that has been dealt with fully, which I believe is very important. I remember like it was yesterday, 2006, when we were presented by a budget proposal by the then general manager of Crown. He's still with us, Henry Gouws, saying that he wants ZAR 16 million to start revegetating these tailings. Now, how many years later? 15 years later, we could stand back and reflect on what's been achieved over that period, so that the people of Soweto living around this facility are no longer suffering the inconvenience of dust coming off those facilities. Moving on to the environmental add, which is the, the next slide.
There, too, I think what I wanna focus on here is more what you can expect to be seeing going forward, particularly in terms of the electricity consumption aspect and the carbon emissions aspect. There you can see the trending from the 21, 22 and 23, where it's been going. Of course, with 20 MW of solar power coming online in the not-too-distant future, that consumption from the national grid will reduce. 18 months from now, at the end of the next calendar year, we hope to have an additional 40 MW put in place, together with very significant storage capacity, 160 megawatt storage capacity all tied into the grid. That carbon emission number would look quite differently.
The electricity consumption off the grid would look quite differently. Our risk profile would look differently. The impact on cost would also start flowing through. This is what we like about our model, is that we're really ticking four out of five sustainable development capital stock boxes, integrated value that's very, very elegantly aligned. This is an exciting time for us, and it's a good place to be investing money. I'll reflect a little bit more on that later on in the presentation. Moving on to the next slide, on our social investment aspect. We've long been campaigning for the notion or been supportive of the notion that you cannot run a business. You cannot be an island of stability in an ocean of anarchy.
The stability of societies around your operations is essential to be successful in business. At some stage, frustration boils over, and this could be very disruptive when it comes to, to business. The, the money that we spend in that regard, particularly in terms of community development, the broad-based livelihood part of the business, I think that's really taken off beyond expectation, and it's contributed towards a, a very significant network that we have access to, and a little bit more about that later on. The, the one thing that we do believe we should be cautious of, especially now that the private sector is becoming increasingly involved in some of the gaps that have been left by, by the state, is to become a proxy for delivery in terms of the state.
This company, which is one of the smaller companies on the JSE, paid ZAR 314 million, ZAR 320 million odd in income tax in the last year. I think it's important that we monitor the extent to which some of that is being reinvested by the state in the communities where we operate. This cannot be a situation where private sector pays taxes and then is still expected also to delivering into what essentially is government's responsibility. One of the things that I think we will be increasingly focusing on in the, in the years to come, in the months to come, and the years to come, would be awareness.
To create awareness through our network, that, yes, it's, it does make an impression if you have a protest and, if you disrupt it, in response to lack of services or the absence of services, but there are better ways of doing that. Many of these things that, that form the subject matter of protest action are, services that society is entitled to in terms of constitutional guarantees, and failure on the part of the state to delivering to those is a, is a failure to delivering to a constitutional guarantee. There's a legal process available in terms of which, departments, both local, provincial, and, national, can be held accountable. They can be ordered to delivering to those services, and if they fail to do so, they can be held in contempt. Somehow, I just think that-...
We're at a point where the likelihood of a positive result of an official getting locked up for contempt of court is better than just, you know, burning another tire. We're not going to be causing up uprisings and stuff like that, but we will be, we will be talking to communities to maybe just make them aware of some of the some of the remedies that, that are available, that are legal remedies, that are enforceable, and that are effective in terms of the the the desired result that we want to achieve. Moving on to the next slide, this is the community support aspect. Now, here, too, just on the longer storyline of sustainable development and overlapping value.
It's not always easy to motivate the capital spend in terms of corporate social investment and on assisting communities to empower themselves. It's not always easy to motivate those in terms of Rand and cents or to motivate commercially. What we are finding is that the networks that are being established through these initiatives are increasingly becoming part of the consultancy platform or the consulting platform, rather, that is required on so many levels when it comes to regulatory compliance. You apply for a license, whether it's a water use licence or whether it's an environmental authorisation. Many of these things, or most of these things, have an element of community consultation that's required as part of the process. We believe that there's vast value, and we're actually witnessing that now.
There's vast value in being recognized through this network, and this is increasingly facilitating consultation. I know I harp on about this, but this is once again an instance where there, there, there's multiple integrated value delivery in the notion of sustainable development. Also in terms of social investment, that's now been eight, nine, 10 years in the making. We're finding that there's another level of value that that's being delivered in this regard. The same agency that's been conducting many of these initiatives on our behalf, they've broadened their ser- their service delivery proposal or service delivery ability, to also include the, the type of consultation that's required for regulatory approvals and so forth.
We'll continue with those, and our, our approach remains the, the first step out of poverty, poverty alleviation, through knowledge and match. Very keen focus still on youth education, math, science, and accountancy, and we're, we're starting to actually see some of those candidates finding their way through our bursary scheme and also into employment with our company that we're very pleased about, very thankful for. Those will continue, and, and hopefully we can broaden them in terms of some of the material that's been created over the last few years. The so-called five pillars of sustainable development within a community. Some of those are now finding its way also into our Social and Labour Plans, and I'm really excited about the impact that that could have.
Just gauging by what we've seen, just out of a very modest program otherwise. Moving on to the next slide. This is on the excellence in reporting. There is something I wanted to say about tailings management. Just wanna make sure that I'm still on the right track here. Somehow I seem to have skipped over that, but, so that, that is in the letter, in terms of some of the, the governance steps that we've taken there and, and how that's being dealt with. Moving on to excellence in integrated reporting, we, we're very proud of, of the delivery of this particular team, and also proud of the rest of our colleagues in providing the material that we can report on that is of the sort of quality that supports recognition of, of this kind.
This is a lot of effort. A big part of this is from in-house resources. We want to congratulate our team, and also we want to congratulate our service provider in this regard for assisting and guiding the team in also delivering to this very, very good result. Moving on to the last, the last slide, which is our looking ahead slide. In terms of guidance, we are seeing a nice reversal of trend in terms of volume output. We are in a position to be slightly more ambitious in terms of our production guidance for the year. There also you'll see the cash operating cost guidance of ZAR 770,000 per kilo.
It is up from last year, but you are looking at a slightly more complex circuit at Far West Gold. Then, of course, there's the normal cost pressures as well. We do have our costs firmly under control, though, and hopefully we'll be able to match the previous year's performance in terms of guidance insofar as costs are concerned, and hopefully also in terms of production. We did land in terms of production for the current year. We sort of landed in mid-range of guidance. We're expecting to spend about ZAR 3.5 billion on capital.
I must say that this is still a number that catches the eye, considering where we were a few years ago and what we're tackling now, and just the relative ability to actually venture into these things. I'll spend a bit of time maybe just talking about the environment into which we're investing this. A very big, large chunk of this ZAR 3.5 will go into the solar plant. Just on some of the conversations that we've been having in, in that regard, we believe that this is a very sound investment to make, because it's, strictly speaking, it's, it's not just mining investment. It's not dependent solely on what happens in mining, what happens in the gold price.
This is something for which there is a very significant national requirement, and, and we happen to be very well positioned geographically, also in terms of the national grid. Wheeling or delivering power into the grid is not a challenge to us at all, having gone through the regulatory process, you know, so an Eskom process to actually do that. This is probably something that you're not gonna be stuck with. We will be taking a bit of, of funding in that regard, and Riaan can elaborate on that if required to. We think that it's a solid, responsible investment in current circumstances to be investing in solar power to the extent that we have.
The, the second part is we, we are very-- we're determined to mine as much of our resources we possibly can, and we've been talking about blend and sequencing, dumps for retreatment and so forth now for a long, long time. In the Johannesburg area, we treated more than 138 dumps over the life of this company, cleaning up in excess of 2,000 hectares. A big part of that is now more recently, land that we ourselves own. Sustainable land use and, and how that can contribute also to quality of life in Johannesburg, I think those are going to become topics of conversation going forward. It's a very large area that, well, the RPM, the Brakpan area, that's now in final phase, and it will be cleaned up over the next year or so.
These are areas that are very near or very close to where people actually work. Hopefully where... the areas where development is taking place, where those have been moving further and further away from the economic hub of, of the Johannesburg and surrounding areas. By opening up these areas, that, that will reverse. We're encouraging other landowners, where we've cleaned up land and where we're in a position to hand them over, to do just that. To, to make that contribution, to reduce the, the duration of, of the commute, and to invest it into something that can bring quality to the lives of, of the, the communities who up until recently lived next to a tailings dam.
Now they're living next to an area which has been cleaned to a, to a very, very high specification, and that can now be used for, for something different. We're hoping to see that. We're hoping that those areas, once they're handed over, don't become refuse dump sites or informal settlements, but that they are being put to use, that we can actually see evidence of sustainable land use. But, but that's been, that's been part of what's been driving us, cleaning up these areas, making them available and contributing towards a, a different kind of society in Johannesburg. Less dust, more space, closer to where people work. That, that is dependent on one very important ongoing qualification, and that is to make sure that we have adequate deposition space.
When you look at the money that's being spent at Far West Gold, the ZAR 800 million, a big part of that is tailings dam. In the not-too-distant future, an amount not quite as high, but a similar amount will be spent at Ergo, in order to also expand the size and capacity of the Brakpan backrock tailings capacity, so that we can deliver into this ideal. We're not gonna be running out of resources anytime soon, but we do have to manage tailings deposition quite carefully. We do spend time collaborating on that in the letter to shareholders on the design challenges and the regulatory process and how we're just aligning ourselves closer to what we believe the contemporary thinking on that, what that involves.
In summary, ZAR 3.5 billion for the next year, a big part of which is going into solar, a big part of which is going into long-term sustainability by creating deposition facility. Of course, in the Far West Rand, the drive, the phase two drive of the Far West Rand operations, that involves this lifting a whole range, a whole cluster of tailings from areas where, at the moment, they still built over environmentally sensitive areas and pose a risk to underground water. A big part of the environmental authorisation associated with the Far West Gold operations, a big part of the motivation involves the removal of those tailings to areas where they no longer pose that risk.
There's a societal aspect, there's an environmental aspect, and the nice part of it, about it, is that in doing it, we can contribute to the economy and provide to delivering to the democratic ideals of South Africa. A question obviously that, that one has to ask when looking at these sorts of numbers is: Are you investing it in the sort of environment where it's responsible to invest this kind of money? And we, you switch on the television and maybe you would wonder. You read the Fraser Institute's reporting, and maybe you would wonder. You look at where capital is going, and a lot of it's, it's going away from South Africa. Not much, or less is, is coming into South Africa.
One has to reflect on these things carefully before you commit your shareholders' funding into that. We believe that it is, it is responsible to invest in South Africa. We do believe that South Africa doesn't stand or fall based on the quality of political governance in the country. There's a, there's a private sector and there's a society, which when they join forces, become unstoppable and can really turn things around. Increasingly, in order to assess whether or not it is responsible, one looks not so much at the kind of challenges that we face, but you also look at what has been the response or what is the response to those challenges. The responses to some of those challenges, in fact, I believe, have been remarkable.
seeing-- Well, firstly, what we are seeing is that the face of political leadership is systematically changing. We're seeing a different kind of leader emerging. Younger, dynamic, with lots of energy, very firm values. The, at the moment may be still more at provincial, local and provincial level, but increasingly, I think we'll start seeing those faces and those profiles finding their way into the national leadership as well. People who are externally focused, who are genuinely wanting to deliver into the well-being of their constituencies. So that certainly is changing, and it's gonna take a while before it changes completely, but we are seeing very positive first indications of a changing face of political leadership.
I think the second thing, which is really encouraging, is that it seems as though private capital has found its voice. We're seeing less in the, in the way of nuanced utterances on the part of business leaders, far more direct communication, more and more very prominent leaders are becoming involved in initiatives that can contribute towards some of the very pressing challenges that we are faced with, like crime, like logistics, and so forth. Very recognizable names, very influential people who have command over vast capital, that can activate the, the, the, the capital over which they have custodianship, activate that quite quickly and bring about positive change. I think something which is also very encouraging is, is the way that we're seeing private capital being mobilized with, towards, towards that which is strategically important.
I read a very interesting article just this morning, suggesting that the amount of energy that's being generated from solar rooftop solar panels, has now reached 4.4 GW. It's two phases of load shedding, and it's jumped, almost doubled in the last year. The private sector has come to realize that, you know, sitting around and waiting is not going to be the solution. We've got to jump in. They're jumping at a rate that I think is catching us by surprise. 4.4 GW of electricity already being generated, that's not the conduct or the behavior of somebody who's given up on the country. We're seeing capital at work. We're seeing young people at work. We're seeing a different kind of energy.
People not waiting for government to step in and fix it for them, but, communities doing it for themselves. The same sort of resilience that we've been working hard at as a company to establish, to overcome some of the challenges that we're facing, we are undoubtedly seeing that becoming a feature also of, of society. More and more pockets of society are behaving in this way, and South African people becoming an increasingly resilient people. Yes, what has happened in the recent past, in terms of how we position ourselves? We've positioned ourselves favorably in terms of water, we've positioned ourselves favorably in terms of security, and we're positioning ourselves favorably in terms of power. We're not alone. Much larger sections of society are doing the same thing, either getting involved or doing it for themselves.
We do believe that this is man over spinning and working towards a better, a better future for South Africa. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. Riaan, I don't know if you want to add to that. I don't know, Jaco, if you want to jump in, but I think that's what we wanted to share for purposes of this presentation. I just wanna check. Anything else, guys, or can we go to the questions?
All good. Thank you.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. I just want to ask the, our master of ceremonies, can I move on to the question, for lack of a better description?
Yes, Niël.
We seem to be ready. Okay, good start. We can move on to that. Arnold, from Nedbank, wants a breakdown of the ZAR 3.5. Arnold, I think I've sort of covered that in the looking forward, in terms of the solar and a large part also in terms of tailings, and then, of course, there's the element of sustaining CapEx as well. Riaan, I don't know if you want to elaborate on that.
No, that's, that's right, Niël. The majority of it, as you said, was the solar project at Ergo. Different than 2 RTSF expansion is the ZAR 800 million, and roughly that difference, as I alluded to, around ZAR 500 million for the sustaining CapEx for both operations. Again, it, it sounds quite a number, and it will be a challenge to spend all of that. Again, for something like the battery, I think a lot of that is happening as we speak. We're confident that we will be able to execute that. Yeah. Jaco, I don't know if you wanna add any comments to that.
Riaan, no, you, you are 100% correct there. Can you hear me? The, as you said, the majority of that is on, on Wes and phase two of Far West, and then some reclamation sites at Ergo. There will possibly be some capital from the, the solar room and batteries running over into the next year, but that's a normal cash flow process.
Thanks.
Yeah, and then do you wanna have a look at the next question from Alexander? Your contribution towards decommissioning liabilities have come down. What informs this reduction, and what future contributions can we expect on average going forward?
Yes. Thanks. Thanks, Niël. Thanks, Alexander, for the question. Yes, you, you note well, and maybe just some of the points that we also elaborate on in our results booklet. For example, on Far West, we only spent, we only vegetated five hectares, but we vegetated 17 hectares last year. In this year, that, those were the maximum available hectares that we could vegetate at, at Far West, so it's still a relative, relative good achievement. At Ergo, for Brakpan tailings storage facility, we experienced prolonged wet season, there was some rain damage caused, which avoided us to, to vegetate the tailings and to the extent that we would've liked. There's also some community disruption, sadly, that hindered our vegetation program on the Crown complex.
To give you an indication, though, so that's not the level that we would like to spend at. And we've again committed to up that to at least between $30 million and $40 million for this year and, and hope to achieve. And we'll continue to, to do that. Specifically on our tailings dams to keep on with the concurrent vegetation programs. Hopefully, that gives you a sense of, of what we wanna do. Unfortunately, it's not always possible for us to, to keep that up in, in the way that we would like, but we'll definitely continue to do that.
Thanks, Riaan. Arnold has a question about JSE, and I'll deal with that question, but before, maybe let's approach a strategic issue. Before I do that, there is still a question on some of the numbers, Riaan, which I'm also going to deflect to you. That is Nick asking, Nick Dionisio, asking the discussion around the RTSF and reflecting that it's positive and optimistic, and an early build-up. He has a question about the expected phase I build and also the NPV improvements on the project. I'm not quite sure the extent to which we can delve into the specifics, but if you're in a position to give an indication on sort of the range.
I suppose the one thing before you, you, you get into that, the one thing that we should maybe just point out is the fact that the, the, the Regional Tailings Facility, the, the, the design that we've now submitted, which is an amendment, will enable us to receive tailings in addition to our own resource. Once we've depleted our entire own resource, there will still be sufficient space on this tailings dam to receive very significant quantities of material also from surrounding mines. Everyone in that area who has a tailings dam on dolomite, and who wants to remove it, or is given an undertaking to remove that, because of the impact that this infrastructure is having on underground water, there'll be an opportunity to do that.
I think a a good way of describing that would be a a sustainable solution, environmental solution, but also a collaboration or consolidation of sorts. We're setting it up for the next generation of operators to to bring about an enduring and effective solution environmentally. That is based purely on on the capacity that we're creating in terms of the tailings. It's not gonna be all in one go, and this thing's gonna be built, Jaco, over six or seven years, if I'm not mistaken. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Once it's there, the footprint's there, it it does provide a very significant opportunity to to bring about a wholesale cleanup of the the Far West Rand, right? Riaan, if you want to maybe reflect on on what Nick Dionisio is asking then.
Yeah. Specifically, and, and I agree with Niël, it is, it is very, exciting around the route that you also allude to in the letter to shareholders , Niël, around, the route that we're taking for, for the RTSF. We're not pursuing the interim solution, that we, indicated last year, but going for that, for that build, of the RTSF. As we've indicated, that has always been our objective from a, from a Far West Rand consolidation point of view. We're planning, for much more resources than what we currently own, but we know those resources, are in that, that area.
A lot of work has, has gone into that, that design, I know, over the last year, and, and we, we, we're very optimistic about the, about the next steps. Yes, Niël, and maybe on, on the detail of that, as everyone knows, we- this is our just condensed financials that we, that we give out. No reserve changes that we're anticipating, but more detail obviously spelled out in our integrated report and other reporting that we, that we do towards the end of October, around the 20-F filing and, and each related documents. We, we, we're very we, we, we're very enthusiastic about this, our Far West project, which is hopefully coming to, to fruition. I'll maybe ask Jaco if he wants to add anything to that.
No, Riaan, I think you've, you've covered it well.
Thanks, Riaan. Then I'm going to go to Johan Steyn's question on, on guidance. His comment is that is the, the guide for higher production, but the mid-guidance range is around this year's gold production. Does this mean you guide for an unchanged gold production? I think if we do hit mid-range, then yes, it's in essence, we, we are guiding the same, but I think we're guiding within a tighter range because of. You know, hopefully, we, we pass this, what I refer to as an interim phase or a changeover year, with some of the higher volume sites now coming on stream.
If that which we're assuming, and that which we're anticipating and that which we're factoring into our planning for the time being, if that were to play out, then hopefully the range, the volume range, will be tighter than last year. We'll get closer to that. Of course, if, if we sort of hit the, the higher, end of, of that range, and if we can maintain plant efficiencies, then, then hopefully we do, we will do better than, than, than mid-guidance. We're not guiding in order to meet, to, to hit mid-range. We're sort of guiding, hopefully, to, to, to test the, the, the higher range of, of guidance. Yeah, I think it's a valid comment. It's a tighter range and hopefully, less uncertainty in, based on current assumptions in terms of volume throughput.
With higher CapEx, the interest income will be less, and with higher cash operating costs and unchanged production, does this mean that net income will be negative, affected by the higher CapEx? Yes, I'm pretty sure that we'll see less in net cash flow. The 20 MW solar plant will be online during next year. How come we do not see positive effect on the cash operating costs? We're sort of talking about that internally, but I think we want to see exactly what the actual reduction is going to be, and then we might want to factor that into the guidance as well. The guidance that you see, you're absolutely right, does not take into account the potential flow-through benefit from the solar in terms of power costs. I'm correct in saying that, Riaan?
That's right, Niël. Maybe I can. You, you alluded to it. That's something, although we're, we're executing it flat out, the, the solar and, and battery project at Ergo. We, we're busy fine-tuning, let's say, the, the structuring. We have many possibilities there because it's under our control to optimally structure for, as, as you mentioned, Niël, to make sure that we do not only benefit Ergo, but, but also because it's, it's not only a, an asset that will contribute to Ergo. That, that's why we planned it. There's also other possibilities. We're setting that up to ultimately with the capital that we're spending.
Clearly, it's, it's clear from our cash balance now, what we're spending, what we'll generate, that it is that far towards the end of the financial year, that we, that we need refinancing in place for that solar project. I mean, it's ideally suited. It's, it's a, a wonderful project, and, and we're doing it almost the other way around. We're taking our cash, building it, and then, and then refinancing it, hopefully, at the best terms possible. And those benefits, and what Johan Steyn is asking, will then optimize around how do we account and how do, how do we allocate to show the benefit in Ergo, Far West, definitely for the group, and then very precisely say how we, how we measure that.
So that's an exciting development, but like I say, the most important that is to go and build it, and we know it. We're busy doing that, and then to, to update the market, as and when we've, we've, we've progressed on that funding solution. Ultimately, we're aiming for that to be in place, nothing later than the, than the end of our financial year 2024.
Thank you, Riaan, and I think that, that also deals with the question that Nick asked on the flow-through on the solar project and how we'll see that in the numbers. Also in terms of its sort of, let's call it standalone valuation. We have a few questions from the floor from Bruce Williamson. Before I take Bruce's question, I just want to answer Arnold's question, which was: Do you still see any value in being listed on the JSE? The answer is yes, we do. The reason why we do is if you look at our register, then we're certainly seeing some names popping up in the register, which we find encouraging.
Local names, local funds, some managed money that's finding its way into the register, which, which we've been hoping to, to happen, that is finally starting to happen. We don't consider it to be particularly onerous, we don't see any downside in being listed on the JSE. Yes, Arnold, we do see that as a, as a benefit. Remembering also that we are the, the oldest listing in Johannesburg that's still in business. Maybe there's a bit of tradition there as well, we are looking at the, the value proposition. Bruce, Bruce Williamson has his hand up. Happy to take your question, Bruce.
Yeah, Niël, hi, good day, and good day to Riaan and Jaco. Thanks very much for the update. It's been great. Also, your, your closing remarks on in the interaction between this additional private expenditure and, some pretty positive, outcomes with society, and that's, that's, that's great to hear. Can you maybe just tell us whether that has spilled over and that the security side of things has improved? Then secondly, could you sort of look a little bit further out and say, let's say, over the next 5 years, your confidence in continuing to convert resources to reserves, and possibly just a, a wild guess of how much more CapEx would you spend over 5 years on infrastructure, tailing, storage, et cetera? Then finally, third one is, any progress on the PGM recycling opportunities?
Well, let me deal with the second question first on, on, on the wild guess of, of CapEx going forward. Since we've been required to file a technical summary report for the SEC, we no longer take wild guesses. We're very careful about what we put in there, and, and this is also to a question that Nick Dionisio's asking of a contradiction between the S-K 1300 and production cost guidance and his guidance, and for us to explain the reason for that. You know, in as much as the, we do qualify the, the numbers that we publish, we do list the, the assumptions on which we rely, and we, we try to be very thorough in listing the contingencies associated with those.
We, we reassess them from time to time, and in as much as those assumptions have changed, we, we apply them. Hopefully, it's not seen as, as, as a, as a contradiction because of an oversight or because of anything that we got wrong. It will be seen as a number that's been adjusted because the assumption on which it was based, which at the time was, was a responsible assumption, but some of those assumptions have changed. To, to give these forecasts in, in the sort of environment that we're in and with the volatilities and contingencies associated with that environment, there are a lot of things over which we do have control, but then there are also a whole lot of things over which you do not have control.
You need to take a view on the things over which you have not control. In fact, you've got to take a view on both. Sometimes, you, you don't get it right. If you don't get it right, you've got to say why. You've got to explain why, and then explain what the, the basis is for whatever the, the new assumption is. I foresee. This is based on my experience of the last, I don't know how many years of looking at life of mine plans year after year after year, looking at the sequence at which we want to bring certain resources in and others out, that you will see an adjustment on these numbers every year.
Sometimes they will be material to the point where you actually have to file an amendment, and sometimes they will not be material. But there's zero chance that you will get your life of mine plan 100% correct going forward. There are just too many moving parts. That's part of, that's part of the industry. I think we do explain that very, very clearly, both in our 20-F filing and also in the, in the, the technical summary report. That's the nature of mining. That's the nature of investing in this industry. There are other industries that are less volatile, like fixed income. This is not fixed income.
We have we file a 20-F of I don't know how many pages, and a very large portion of those pages deal with contingencies, risks and so forth. Read those, and I think that will then also give perspective as to why, from time to time, you will see changes. We do our best to forecast these. We do our best to interpret them and to form a view, but it's, it's not an exact science. Sorry, the, the, the other question that you asked, and I will come back, the other question that you asked was the impact of the investment in society on, on crime, and crime patterns, and crime tendencies. The society- the societies where we operate, to a large extent, they're not the criminals.
They suffer at the hands of the same criminals that pose a threat to our operations. Whilst you might have community protests from time to time, while you might have angry community members from time to time demanding to be accommodated in employment and that sort of thing, that's not crime. Crime is a group of people showing up with a heavily armed group of people cutting through your cables, your cable network, or hijacking your vehicle, or shooting a security guard on their way to a threat. That's crime, and no degree of investment into society is going to alleviate that. That's where the authorities have to step up and step in and start dealing with it.
We're hoping that the initiative that's now been launched between the private sector and, and the president will start bearing fruit, because these are behaviors that need to be categorized as special crimes. We are canvassing for, for a regime in terms of which they are dealt with in a very particular way procedurally. Without violating the principles of our constitution, it's becoming apparent that the criminals who perpetrate these crimes need to be removed from society for an extended period of time, and then, and not be allowed to, to find their way back into these domains where, where they perpetrate these crimes.
There are certain areas where there's been a loss of sovereignty, where cartels, and I'm talking about illegal mining in particular, where it's simply too dangerous for the police to go there, considering their current resources and the current capacity and training that, that, that they have at their disposal. That needs to be restored. That is a problem that all of South Africa face. But the communities where we operate, they're really at the, at the sharp end of, of this neglect to maintain law and order and, and to look after them. There's just a whole host of, of factors that combine to make life in those areas quite tough. We're trying obviously to, to do our part in enabling these communities to, to self-mobilize and to become self-sustainable.
An intervention is required. We can certainly no longer have these gangs of people ripping apart our infrastructure, stealing electricity infrastructure, mining below the streets of Johannesburg, maybe even potentially contributing to, to, to a street getting blown up. And at the same time, also, you know, mining illegally in areas and, you know, having shootouts and bringing, bringing terror to the communities where they operate. That is something that, that requires a national response. We've, we've got means to protect our staff, and we're very serious about that, where they go, how they get escorted, et cetera, et cetera. We make use of technology. We're a private company, and I do not believe in private armies. There are private armies in South Africa.
Some of our staff were held up by one of them not too long ago when they were violating a taxi route, and they were pulled out of their cars by people wielding AK-47s. Very disappointingly, the police didn't do anything about it and refused to prosecute them, because maybe, too, they are being held ransom by this. That, that's what a private army does. That's what it can turn into, and the private sector has no business having private armies. The government, the police, and the army need to step up in that regard. Sorry, Bruce, I forgot. Just repeat your last question, the third one, if you don't mind. Should have written it down.
It was on the, on the possibility of the PGM tailings project.
Yes, yes. It's been a project that we've been involved in, as, let's, let's call it almost, in a consultancy capacity, in, in providing and collaborating, in defining what could potentially become a project. The plans have been finalized, and I think what we're waiting for now is to see whether we could sort of transition from being a, a so called consultant into being an operator. Remember, it's Sibanye's asset. It is Sibanye's choice as to whether or not they want, one of their subsidiaries to operate that or whether they want to do that in-house. We remain keen, and we think that we can make that contribution, but it's a, it's a decision that will be made on the basis of, of where the best value contribution is.
Obviously, we have a responsibility to all of our shareholders, so we need to make sure that whatever structure is decided upon is for the benefit of, of all of our shareholders. The opportunity is certainly there, and, and we're certainly keen to be part of that. But it's going to be, it's a decision that's gonna be taken at a different level. What I have to say, though, which is very important to appreciate, and I think this is something that we only appreciated the deeper we got into this study, is that, this particular, the layout is very complex, and it is extensively integrated in existing operations. There are also. It's a very complex legal structure.
They're minorities that own different parts of the whole, let's call it the PGM footprint. Remember, that entire footprint, that Rustenburg footprint, is made up of several companies that have been acquired over time. They've been acquired over time, and they have different empowerment structures, et cetera, et cetera. The one thing that I never knew, but that's become, I find confusing, but also that it's, it's been explained to me, is that it would seem that different entities have conflicting or competing interests in different parts of the, of the, of the basket of minerals that come out of a, you know, what we refer to as a, as a PGM resource. That also needs to be sorted out.
It's not easy to sort of just wander in. You don't just open a plant and say, "Hey, I'm here, and I'm gonna be mining PGMs." It's, it's a little bit more complicated than that. Having said that, though, it's an exciting project. It's got exciting prospects. It's certainly doable, and we'd be dead keen to be part of it if given a chance, if given half a chance.
Thank, thanks very much, Niël. Thank you.
Okay. I think that covers it. I don't see any more hands, and I think we.
Niël?
Last questions.
There was, there was, there was one earlier question, Niël, by Alexander Hogg, asking about potable water. If you're comfortable, can I answer that?
Yes, please do that. Sorry, I saw one question by Alexander. I didn't see the second. Thank you, Jaco, for pointing that out. Please go ahead.
Just on optimization of the potable water, we specifically look at optimizing the usage and reusing of our water from the tailings dam by investing in infrastructure and distribution and collection infrastructure, making sure that we take the water back to the, to the mining sites. Secondly, we utilize additional water from TCTA, treated acid mine drainage. The third source is dams that were created to accumulate rainwater. We also utilize that in the circuit, and only once all of that has been depleted do we actually look at the potable water circuit itself. That's the way that we reduce the amount of water intake, potable water intake into the operation. Second section of your question was just around the radioactivity.
All of the resources that we are currently treating are below the exposure limits, so, so that's not, not a problem for us. As mentioned, the third section, the third question you had is on grades. How do we intend maintaining the grade at Far West operations? We've moved over from Driefontein 5 tailings dam to Driefontein 3 tailings dam. Both tailings dams have got very similar head grades, but Driefontein 3 being a much larger resource than Driefontein 5. Going forward, as part of phase II, we will obviously look at bringing in additional resources, as Niël has said. That will look at. Those resources will be at lower grades, but for obvious reasons, then, higher tonnages and therefore unit costs also comes down. I hope I've answered that question now.
Thanks, Jaco. All right, I think that covers it. I don't see anything else, so, I think we can call it a day. Thank you very much, everyone, for, for listening in. We'll obviously update as we go along from time to time. Thank you for, for dialing in. We appreciate it.