Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our presentation of the results, 2024 results. Let me begin with a sentence, with an English sentence that is, that we walk the talk, yeah? That's what we do as management. I would like to begin the presentation remembering our strategy. We said, back in November 2023, that we will have a strategy to deliver growth, basically, based on four pillars. I mean, the first pillar was brownfields, generating long-term value, extending life of mines, and also, very focused on minable resources. I mean, it's, it's not worthy to bring resources that they are not going to be minable. Also, we were, we will, we will be focusing on operational efficiency, on site leadership, you know, to be close to the sites. I think it's very important. I've been six times on the site this year, I mean, 2024.
Implementing a lean philosophy across the company, cost optimization projects, and also, our proven development record, that has been demonstrated in Mara Rosa. ESG is very important for us, especially safety, the safety of our workers, water management, which is on top of the table, a new community approach, a new talent approach, and also all our KPIs in place for 2030. In terms of disciplining capital allocation, of course, through our balance sheet, to fund the organic growth and our projects, debt repayment, capital return through dividends, and of course, if we do any M&A, as we have done in Monte Do Carmo, it has to be M&A value accretive. Also, we said that we will be focusing on core assets, and that's what we have done. The latest news is that, in December, we have closed Crespo, Azuca, and Arcata.
We sold those projects. Today, we are focusing on our core assets in Inmaculada and Royropata in Peru, Mara Rosa, Monte Do Carmo in Brazil, and San Jose in Argentina. Going to the results, we are presenting today the best result in the last 13 years. We have produced nearly 350,000 oz. Our revenues went up nearly to $1 billion . Our EBITDA went up 54%. Also, the cash at the end of the year was $97 million. We repaid $40 million of debt. Our net debt finished on $216 million, and we reestablished our dividends. Something which is very impressive and is based on our, one of our main pillars is that we have been able to bring 2.8 million oz of gold.
If you multiply that value by $3,000, I mean, you imagine the amount of money that we are bringing to the company. What we expect for 2025 is, we will have the first year of Mara Rosa in full production. Royropata, we have been able to close the easement with the communities, and that's the first step. I just had a conversation. Somebody told me that we said that we'll get the permit on 2026. I mean, the permit is, it will start right now, once we have the easements with the communities. Imagine the expectation of the communities, for the, the payments, with $3,000, gold price. I mean, it's been very, very difficult, but we have a great community team now in place. We have already the key installation license for Monte Do Carmo, so it's ready for construction. On 2025, we'll be producing between 350,000 oz - 378,000 oz.
Of course, we'll maintain our strong ESG metrics. With that, I would like to pass the presentation to Eduardo Noriega to go through the P&L and the financial numbers. Thank you.
Thank you, Eduardo. Good morning. We're happy to announce a very strong set of results, with revenue at around $950 million, our achievable net profit at around $117 million, an EPS of $0.23 , and an adjusted EBITDA of $421 million. Our revenue, as you can see, is up in line with our strong metal prices, but also in line with the stronger production that we achieved mainly in Mara Rosa and also in Inmaculada. Our cost increased by 19%, mainly aligned with the increased production volume, but also, as you know, we had a net inflation in Argentina that contributed to that factor. Adding expenses slightly increased, but in line with increased gold and silver prices, impacting workers' profit sharing, LTIP, and other performance compensations.
Exploration was also up, aligned with the investments that we're making in our mines, as well as in our projects, Monte Do Carmo and Royropata. We recorded an FX loss mainly associated to the devaluation of the Argentine peso and the Brazilian real. Our effective income tax rate was 33%, and in the period, we recognized exceptional items with a net effect of $19 million, mainly impairments in our projects Arcata and Azuca, that were both sold in Q1 2025, and other minor impairments. In terms of cash generation, as you can see on slide eight, we had strong cash generation from our operations in the first four columns of this slide. I would like to highlight Inmaculada generating around $192 million alone.
We also paid taxes for $24 million, executed on our closure plans and current maintenance programs of $25 million. We had net interest payments of $22 million. We reduced debt by $29 million, and we had changes in working capitals of around $26 million, mainly associated to the construction of Mara Rosa and products in processes and spare parts on the site. We sold Crespo in 2024 and received $15 million of cash proceeds. In the last three columns of this chart, we have the investments we did to complete the construction of Mara Rosa: $17 million. We invested $51 million in Monte Do Carmo, from which $45 million were the cash consideration paid to Cerrado. We also invested $33 million associated to Royropata, mainly payments associated to the easement agreements.
Cost, as reported in our Q4 production report, we had slightly higher all-in sustaining costs. As you can see in this slide, that increase was mainly associated to the ramp-up of Mara Rosa, which was slower versus what we originally considered. We also had inflation in Argentina. We had the impact of higher prices in our royalties, workers, legal workers' profit sharing in Peru, as well as commercial discounts. Finally, we had some incremental cost in community and other expenses. Those variances were partially offset by cost efficiencies and CapEx carryover from 2024 to 2025.
In terms of capital expenditures, our CapEx was aligned with guidance, and Inmaculada, in line with guidance, and just to highlight that we had more, higher cost of mine developments due to raw quality, but also, more importantly, mine developments to access new resources discovered during the year. Those effects were partially offset by the carryovers that I mentioned from 2024 to 2025 that were around $8 million, not, not more than that. In the case of San Jose, we, in addition to being aligned with budget, executed our plant capacity increase that we have informed before, and some water management projects that we had on site, and we invested $11 million for those projects. In Mara Rosa, again, construction of the new mine was on time and on budget, and the total CapEx, construction CapEx for Mara Rosa was $205 million.
In terms of balance sheet, we had a strong cash balance of $97 million and total debt of $312 million, bringing our net debt to $216 million, $40 million lower than what we recorded in 2023. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio was at 0.5 x in the lower part of our range that we communicated in November, as you can see in our chart on the right. We also announced that we secured a new financing facility for $300 million at very competitive terms, as you can see here. This is a green loan with three KPIs that we are monitoring. This committed facility gives us the flexibility to repay debt, but also to execute on our growth projects and our strategic plans.
We have hedges in place, as you are aware, for 2025, 2026, and 2027, but only represent 30% of our production for 2025. For the rest, for the other two years, it's below 13%. We are pretty much exposed to the upside of gold and silver price. This is a very important announcement. We have restored our dividend. We have implemented a dividend policy, as already mentioned by Eduardo Landin. This dividend policy will calculate dividends, applying at 20%-30% to the accrual of free cash flow of the company in the year. We have also provided a base dividend or minimum dividend of $10 million per year. The dividend will be paid in two installments.
No, we believe that it will be around 30%, the preliminary, or the interim dividend, and a final dividend of 70% based on final free cash flow calculations. Dividends will be paid if we are below 1.5 x net debt to EBITDA, which, as you could have seen, we are very comfortably below that level today. For 2024, we have announced a $10 million dividend, also based on the calculations that I mentioned before. Please keep in mind that in 2024, we invested around $100 million within Monte Do Carmo, the construction of Mara Rosa, but also Royropata. Finally, in our financial results section, I have this chart that I think clearly shows the discipline that we have been applying to capital allocation. As Eduardo mentioned before, we're walking the talk.
We are executing on what we said in 2023. As you can see in this chart, in terms of brownfield exploration, priority number one, we added 2.8 million gold oz of resources, and for that, we invested $34 million. Number two, we completed the investment projects that we had in our portfolio, completing the construction of Mara Rosa, where we invested $17 million of construction CapEx. We also advanced on our Royropata project, and as I said before, security easements, advanced on some engineering fronts, and for that, we invested $33 million. In terms of debt repayment, net debt was reduced by $40 million, and we have a new financing facility that gives very good flexibility and allows us to execute on our growth.
Capital returns, already mentioned that we announced a dividend, new dividend, and a dividend policy. Finally, on M&A, which is pretty much following what we have, what we mentioned in our 2023 strategy, we executed on the acquisition of Monte Do Carmo. It's a very good acquisition on our projects, very similar to Mara Rosa. Also, very importantly, we executed on the divestment of three non-core assets: Crespo in 2024, and at the beginning of 2025, Arcata and Azuca. For that, we received a cash consideration of $16 million. We're going to receive royalties. Of course, this also brings savings in care and maintenance and other expenses. Again, very strong set of results for 2024. I'll now like to return to Eduardo to cover the strategy plan.
Thank you. Thank you, Eduardo. Everybody name Eduardo in this company. Okay.
Going to strategy, I have already mentioned our strategy is clear. It was presented, and we are following this strategy. Going to ESG, I think it's very important that we have been able to keep our frequency rate around one, which is, for underground mine, is a world-class level. Also our ECO S core, as you can see, we maintain above five, five, which is also world-class. If we go to the record resource addition, you can see that we present a plan, I mean, we said in November 2023 that we would add this level of resources in from 2023 - 2030. Just to see the importance of the addition in 2024 is that we have accomplished nearly more than 50% of any, you know, of any scenario that we present for the six, I mean, for six, seven years, yeah?
In Inmaculada, we had 1 million oz. In Royropata, we had nearly 1.3 million oz, and San Jose, we had 256,000 oz of gold. I mentioned that it's very important for us to reduce cost, yeah? Based on 2024 results and looking at the pressures that we receive from the markets and the suppliers, we have put in place a very comprehensive plan to reduce costs. Just to mention some of them, we have a mine plan to develop high grade areas in Inmaculada. We have some plans to increase recoveries also in Inmaculada. We have some initiatives to optimize the use of shotcrete consumption. As you can see in San Jose, we are repeating the SWAT project that we did in Inmaculada last year that had given us a lot of results.
We are also analyzing the possibility of doing heap leaching for the oxide next to surface in San Jose. In Mara Rosa, we are increasing the size of the fleet, you know, to see, to have more productive cycles. We are also trying to increase recoveries. Not only at the site, at the operations, on corporate, you know, on the corporate expenses, we are doing some supply chain initiatives to try to get, I mean, the synergies between the three countries. We are doing some improvement in the process of corporate expenses. Eduardo Noriega has a very important objective this year, which is bringing artificial intelligence to the company. We are going to do an assessment on all the processes that we have at the company and see how we can apply artificial intelligence.
Inmaculada, I mean, has been in the guidance since commissioning. It's a, it's a great site. As you know, we have a 20 years permit now, that we got in August 2023. And the idea in Inmaculada is once we are increasing resources, it's just to keep producing above 200,000 oz with a very competitive all-in sustaining cash cost. In terms of, I mean, 2024 produced 220,000 oz. We did a lot of initiatives to reduce costs, and it's, I mean, it's shown on the results. It's true that we have some CapEx deferrals from 2022 and 2023. There is an important one, which is the main development from resource addition.
That's something that we need to, I mean, you need to take into consideration that every single time we add new resources, we need to develop the new areas. That's something that is coming in the all-in sustaining cash cost. In terms of the guidance, as I said, we'll be producing about 200,000 oz. In terms of the potential, I mean, brownfield potential, the plan for this year is to drill 35,000 meters, which is similar to the one that we did in 2024. We'll continue trying to add resources at the Eduardo Belt and also near areas like Minasc ucho, potential areas that we want to start exploring to see new areas to add resources. Royropata, as I said, I mean, we have a major brownfield addition at Royropata, 1.3 million oz. That has doubled the size of Royropata.
I mean, Royropata could become a new Inmaculada. We have a plan of 3,000 tons. The most important step of 2024 is that we were able to achieve the agreement with our communities. To give you some ideas of the timeline of the permit today is that this year we are going to finish in August. I would say that we'll finish the wet season and the dry season baseline studies. From August until a year after, we'll do the document, working with two consultants, Ausenco and a peer reviewer. Once we finish that document, let's say August 2026, we'll present this document to the government. We believe that that document is going to be very robust because it's been done with very good engineering firms.
The government has 90 days to approve it, but in real, I mean, the reality is that it's going to take a year. We expect to get these permits sometime in 2027. As I said, it's a very, very impressive deposit. The level of CapEx that we have to put to develop this new mine is very low. It could have very impressive all-in sustaining cash costs since the grades are very high. Also, the width of the resource is very impressive. It's like more than 5 meters, which will, as you know, allow us to implement very productive mining methods. In terms of the potential, we'll continue exploring the Pablo Belt, which is this area, and we know we have evidence that, I mean, the mineralization continues this way.
That's the reason we are implementing this year 14,000 meters of drilling. Going to Mara Rosa, as we said, we have a slower ramp-up that we expect. We made a mistake on the assumptions at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, I mean, the project was done on time on budget. It produced 63,000 oz. The guidance for 2025 is to produce around 100,000 oz with good all-in sustaining cash costs. In terms of exploration potential, Posse is here, this Mara Rosa. As you can see, there is a lot of areas where we can add resources. That's the reason we are implementing a program in Pastinho, Estrella, Morro Redondo, all around this trend, you know, to try to incorporate as many resources as possible. This year, 2024, we have 200,000 oz, which is nearly doubling the production of one year.
We are doing quite well. The main objective is to double the resource, the initial resource, from now until 2030. Monte Do Carmo, as you can see, is very close to Mara Rosa. There is a lot of synergies between these two sites. We acquired this project by $60 million through the option. Today it is fully permitted. I mean, we could start building Monte Do Carmo today. We want to continue drilling. We want to finish the detail engineering. As you know, we like to go by the book. We want to do detail engineering. At the end of this year, I will present new financial numbers, you know, for the project. On top of doing the detail engineering, we will buy the long lead time equipment to make sure that it is part of the project.
We have a budget of $19 million. As I said, we will update the economics of the project at the end of 2025. San Jose, Argentina. We have been extremely successful implementing, by only $9 million, a very important increase of plant capacity with a Vertimill. That was done on time, on budget in Argentina, which is a very good objective achieved. As I said, on 2025, since we have been very conservative in terms of the budget and the devaluation, we are implementing a lot of efficiency projects to make sure that we reduce costs as much as possible. The good thing about San Jose is that all this yellow area is, I mean, our properties or our mining properties. You see Cerro Negro there, and we have San Jose here.
Our exploration team will continue drilling 11,000 meters in this area and also around Cerro Negro to see all the potential exploration of this area. In 2024, we have been able to bring 300,000 oz, which is nearly three years life of mine, which is very good for San Jose. As you can see from these four graphs, our valuation is still very low, compared with our peers. Despite that, we have a record brownfield resource addition. Despite that, 2025 will be the first time, I mean, the first full year of production on Mara Rosa. Also despite that, we have Royropata as a big new project, and we have Monte Do Carmo, both great opportunities. What I can see is a company that today produced 370,000 oz.
In three years, it could be producing more than 500,000 oz of gold with very competitive all-in sustaining cash costs. I believe that there is a space for the market to recognize that this company could have a much bigger value. As a conclusion, we'll continue to be very coherent with our strategy, and in 2025, we'll continue being very coherent with our strategy. We have a world-class ESG performance. In 2025, it will be the first full year production of Mara Rosa. Inmaculada is doing extremely well. Monte Do Carmo project is already added to our portfolio, and we are working to put on production very soon. Record brownfield resource addition in 2024. Royropata to deliver more than 100,000 oz per year from 2028. Disciplining capital allocation, dividend restore.
Of course, we would like to announce that in June 2025, together with our strategic board, we will have a public presentation on brownfields, done by Oscar Garcia. That is it. Thank you very much. Of course, we can open the session on Q&A. Thank you.
Morning, it is Ian Rossouw from Barclays. Just a question on your medium-term profile. On slide 33, you provide a bridge, I guess, for the guidance you have given previously versus 2025 guidance. How should we think about this over the medium term? I mean, if you look at some of those buckets of CapEx, one-off CapEx, what is recurring? How should we think about how that progresses into 2026 and 2027?
Eduardo.
Thank you very much. We are not providing specific guidance for 2026 and 2027.
If we look at our 2025 guidance, in that guidance, as I said before, we have around $30 million of projects that are not executed every year that are one-offs, if you may. Those are related to the expansion of our tailings and capacity, the reverse osmosis planting in Inmaculada, as well as some mine development. I mean, that is, and of course, our all-in sustaining costs in those years will also depend on where prices are, as well as on our mine plans and the new resources that we may have to add. No, so far, our exploration program is working fantastically. No, and we are seeing some incremental costs from mine developments, but precisely to access those new areas, which are high-quality resources.
Net, net incremental value, but with the impact on all-in sustaining costs.
Thanks. Just, follow up on, it's something I've asked previously, just, in the cash flow statement, still seems like you're losing about half of the money in Argentina that you repatriate. Has there been any update on, I mean, obviously there's the RIGI Bill, and on the fiscal terms there, is there any expectation that that should improve?
In terms of macroeconomic expectations, I think the market, different from what they believe a year ago or a couple of years ago, the market is not expecting any further devaluation. The government is pretty much focused on controlling inflation. No, and for a country that thinks in U.S. dollar terms, no, controlling inflation also means not devaluating the currency, at least not, not now.
I think what the market is expecting is to see a, to wait for the midterm elections and then unify the FX markets and eventually that should take care of the competitiveness in Argentina and eventually a devaluation. We are prepared for any scenario. No, we have a fantastic asset there with high rates and we're pretty much focused on controlling costs.
No, but do you, obviously last year you had the $9 million you spent on the expansion. I mean, is there opportunity to reinvest in the asset or will you pay more cash out to the parent and have that cash leakage?
I mean, the best opportunity, the best opportunity that we have in Argentina are now exploration.
In exploration, the potential of the properties is immense and we are aiming to uncover that potential through exploration. The excess of cash will be sent, paid by dividends, but we have plenty of growth opportunities locally with the cash that we're generating in Argentina.
Okay, thanks. Sorry. Final question, just on the dividends. I mean, you mentioned 30%-70% sort of interim final split, but how should we think about it mechanically, at the interims? Obviously, you don't know what the full year forecast will be. Should we apply that similar sort of 20%-30% on the half year cash flows?
We will have to make a call at that time. We need to declare our interim dividends based on how we're seeing the forecast for the year.
And if there is uncertainty in terms of prices, then we'll probably be more conservative in the interim front. No, but in theory, no, theoretically, we should be paying 30% of the estimated free cash flow, of the estimated dividends in the, in, in as an interim and then the final one, once we close the results.
Okay, thank you.
Morning, morning, Rich Hatch from Berenberg. Eduardo, can I push you a bit more on this CapEx? In January, when you came out with the guidance, clearly the market reaction wasn't great because of the CapEx number. Looking at it, you know, is $180 million-$200 million a sensible long-term number for the existing assets you've got plus brownfield exploration?
I'm kind of thinking, you know, once $69 million to $180 million for 2025, you said $30 million of that is one-off CapEx. So that's got to come away. You've got exploration of $36 million and, you know, based on what you're suggesting, there's a lot of exploration you can do to create value here. But, but long-term, is a sensible kind of number for brownfield exploration plus sustaining CapEx, you know, that $180 million -$200 million, is that a right number to think about?
You mean overall or for Argentina?
No, no, for the whole business.
For the whole business?
Yeah.
No, this, I mean, we're not providing guidance, not because we don't want to provide it, but because that guidance will be based on, or our estimates will be based on the life of mine plan that we typically produce in May.
We do not have more information that we are providing here for that purpose. I think you are looking at it, right. You should take the 2025 all-in sustaining costs, adjust for non-recurring CapEx, and then take out, on top of that, all the efficiencies that we are looking to achieve. If we have higher all-in sustaining costs in one particular year because of a project or the development of a new area, to us management, that is something we will execute for sure because we know we are adding value. That is, I do not know if I have answered your questions.
Yeah, that is helpful. Clear.
Thank you, Richard.
Thank you. Seconds, just on Royropata. Congrats on the resource addition. Excellent. Are you in a position to start to give us a steer as to what kind of life we should be thinking about modeling? Clearly, it should be longer than what we had yesterday, perhaps.
Go, go, go.
I think, I mean, similar to what I said before, we have not completed our life of mine plan for Royropata yet. We have an idea. We know that the quality of our resources is amazing, with around 600 grams per ton of gold equivalent and width of around six meters. This is a super high quality resource and we expect strong cash generation from it, and strong production as well. We do not know yet exactly what would be the number per year and how many years.
No, but we need to complete that exercise and, for sure, what we know is this is a great, great asset that will add value to the company.
Thank you.
Marina Calero from RBC. You presented us a lot of measures that you're working on in terms of cost efficiencies. Can you clarify on the timeline for those and if everything goes according to plan, how much cost do you think you'll be able to take out of the business?
It's something that is ongoing. I would expect to get some results in the second semester because all the projects are ongoing at the moment. Our idea is to beat our guidance, you know, instead of not, I mean, like last year that we were not in the guidance, I mean, try to be lower than the guidance.
I mean, that's our idea. Yeah. And believe me that the company and everybody in the company knows that that's the objective. Yeah. I would be very proud, you know, if we are, you know, close to the lowest range of the guidance.
Understood. A follow-up on San Jose, you are exploring the area close to Cerro Negro. San Jose is roughly 20% of your EBITDA, but it's a much higher share of your cost. Would you be open to selling this asset if it was an attractive offer on the table?
I mean, we don't have any plans to sell the asset at the moment. I mean, we want to explore. We believe that we have a lot of potential.
Of course, I mean, if we find big resources around Cerro Negro, I mean, it would be a very attractive asset for Cerro Negro. That does not mean that we will be willing to sell this asset. You know, we have been in Argentina for many years and we believe that Argentina is getting in a time that it will be very positive. You know, for the moment, we do not have any plans to sell the asset.
Thank you.
Thank you. Yep.
Thank you. Just a couple of questions, just following up on what Marina was asking. On the cost savings, it is quite clear you guys are heavily focused on this for 2025 and trying to come in towards the bottom end of that range. Are you sort of looking at the cost instead of putting numbers on things?
Are you looking at it very similarly to 2024, which is you're expecting inflation to come, you hope it doesn't, but you've got enough cost savings programs in place to offset that. Although you don't want to quantify it, there are quite a few levers you could pull sooner rather than later by 2025 rather than 2026, and therefore just offset cost inflation, try and keep costs as flat as possible year- on- year. Is that sort of the aim here with all of those cost savings initiatives?
Totally. I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, this industry is cost efficiency. It depends on two things, the way you explode the mines and the quality of your assets. I believe that we have very good quality assets.
We need to be very strict, you know, with a lean philosophy across the company to try to maintain costs as low as possible.
Fair enough. Yeah. I know there are two follow-ups on Royropata. First of all, thank you for the guidance. That's actually pretty helpful talking about how you see this going forward from mid-2026, possibly getting the permit by mid-2027-ish, roughly. If that were to take place, are there any early works that you can conduct to just get going pre-permit, or do you have to wait for the permit to, I mean, it's not a huge greenfield that you're building here. There is a shorter timeline that we're expecting anyway, but are there any early works that you can conduct pre-permit?
Yeah, I mean, there is some early works that we need to do in the plant, you know, because we need to maintain the plant, and take it to a state of the art at the moment that production starts. Another thing that we are talking with the government is to get some exploring permits during the time, you know, to see if we can develop the mine, you know, trying to look for new resources. That could help. Yeah. At the end of the day, I mean, the truth is that we are not going to be able to produce until we get the permit.
Yeah, exactly. Okay. On Royropata, I guess what do you, I mean, obviously the permit is the biggest hurdle here, but outside the permit, are there any other major hurdles that you see?
Because it seems not quite straightforward. You guys are doing a great job and you've been working on it for a long time. Still have a few more years to come, but what's the, the biggest hurdle outside or hurdles outside the permit?
No, I would say that the most difficult thing has been, you know, the easement with, with the communities. And today, I mean, based on the fact that we are using very professional consultants, I believe that we are going to, I mean, present the government a very robust document. I mean, I don't see, I mean, of course, it could be any political risk that is not in our hands because we will have elections, you know, in 2026. At the end of the day, I mean, we have been doing mining in Peru for a hundred years.
I mean, we have been working with any government in Peru.
Fair enough. Okay. Thank you.
Welcome.
Hi, Patrick Jones, JP Morgan. Just a quick one. You mentioned the heap leach trials at San Jose. Could you just give a little bit of color as to when you think that could either you could get results from that and what that could look like in terms of production upside?
Could you repeat the question, please?
You mentioned that, San Jose, you have some heap leach trials going on. Could you just talk a little bit about
Heap leach?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Could you talk a little bit about what you think is the potential out of that, when that could yield some upside?
I mean, basically, as you know, we have been underground in San Jose for many years. Yeah.
We have these pillars on surface that is like 50 meters, 60 meters, 70 meters. Yeah. What we have done at the moment is to open pit those areas. Yeah. We have today, we had two pits. Then you have two opportunities. Take that material to the plant, but normally it's not that high grade and it does not have very good recovery based on flotation process. Yeah. We were thinking to do ROM mining, you know, and do heap leaching. For that, we need some permits. In Argentina, it's much easier. I mean, we expect to get a permit for the next between three and six months. At the moment, we are doing some metallurgic tests to see how much is the recovery. We are doing the trade-off between taking the material to the plant or doing the heap leach.
It is something that we will implement, we will be implementing this year for sure.
Great. Any numbers you could give around that in terms of what you think that could be in terms of production upside?
No, I mean, it is not an excess of production. I mean, the fact is that if we heap leach that material, it is going to have a lower, lower recovery, but much lower cost.
Great. Thank you.
Okay. It can, it will help to reduce the all-in sustaining cost, cost of the unit.
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
We have a question from the webcast. This question is, with the strong cash generation and cheap stock price, would you consider share buybacks in addition to the dividend payout?
It is something that we are not considering at the moment.
Okay. Thank you. Let's just check the phone lines just in case there's a question there.
To ask a question over the telephone, please signal by pressing star one. That is star one for telephone questions. There appears to be no telephone questions at the moment.
Sorry, just one last follow-up. Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Just looking at your cost guidance for the year, $1,587/oz-$1,687/oz. If I think about those $30 million of one-offs and kind of back them out, that's about $90 /oz , something like that. Just trying to think, what is the right long-term all-in sustaining cost for this business? I'm not trying to catch you out on the CapEx number. It's just more to think, should this business be a $1,500/oz all-in sustaining cost business? Should it be lower?
You know, I, I suspect not higher, but like where is the right kind of long-term forecast for this to shake out?
We, we are, we are for the, in the long term for these assets, we're aiming to be below the guidance. No, that, that is, that is what we're working on, you know, last long term. But then if you take into consideration Monte Do Carmo and Royropata, diluting the cost that you currently have, let's say in Argentina, and replacing it with, with much, much lower cost ounces from those two mines, our all-in sustaining cost in the long term for the company should be significantly lower.
Okay. Helpful. Thanks.
Thank you, Richard.
Hi, it's Ian Rossouw from Barclays. Just a follow-up, on your hedging policy. I mean, obviously there's strong cash flows this year. Do you consider, well, will you continue sort of, opportunistic hedging?
When we get into 2026, 2027 with Monte Do Carmo, would you consider increasing that? Yeah.
Thank you. At this point, we're not considering it. When we execute on those hedges, you should keep in mind that the debt of the company was higher. We're using our balance sheet to buy and build Mara Rosa with the cash generation capacity that we have today. We are confident with that and are capable to finance our short-term growth without needing the hedges. Nope. At this point, we're not considering taking any hedges.
Thanks. On the $2.8 million increase in the resources, how much of that was driven by changes in the gold and silver pricing?
Very, very low. Very low.
I mean, I can give you some, let me take some pictures to the, 17. Here we go. I mean, cut-off grades in Inmaculada was 64,000 oz. At Royropata, 44,000 oz. At San Jose, 87,000 oz based on the price effect. At the end of the day, I would say more than 90% is being real discovery.
Okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you.
Yeah.
There is nothing further online. Eduardo, over to you for closing remarks.
Thank you very much for being here today. I just leave you with our purposes, responsible and innovative mining committed to a better world." As I said, we will walk the talk, you know, we will stick to our strategy to see how we are going to develop this company to the next level. Thank you very much. Thank you.