Good afternoon. My name is Pam, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the B2Gold second quarter 2022 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. Mr. Johnson, you may begin your conference.
Thank you, operator. Welcome everyone to the B2Gold conference call to discuss the results of the second quarter of 2022. As you can see from the news release we put out, we had another very strong quarter. We beat our budgets in a number of areas, and very importantly, we were able to maintain our guidance for 2022, even in this current environment of inflation, what we're seeing in the world. A very good first half. We have guided that we're going to see some higher costs due to inflation, primarily in the second half of the year, but because of the strong first half of the year, we remain on our guidance for 2022.
I'm gonna talk a little bit about the details of the quarter financial results, but I just want to give a little summary before that. As we said, very happy with the results. The other significant announcement we made today was that we are not going to proceed at this time with the development of the Gramalote Project, our 50/50 joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti. Both parties have agreed at this time that it does not meet our economic thresholds to go ahead and develop the project. We are in the process of doing an updated feasibility study, which will be completed in the third quarter of the year. We had some hopes that we could improve the economics of Gramalote from what we had the previous study, which had indicated that $1,500 gold, about a 15% IRR. We thought there was potential to improve the economics in two ways.
One was to look at some of the different engineering approaches and design approaches to try and bring that capital cost down through some high-quality engineering work. Some good work was done to actually reduce the footprint of the project as well. The good news was that we knocked well over $100 million off the original projected capital cost, which was over $900 million. We actually managed by doing this different approach to the project technically to bring that cost down, as I said, by over $100 million. The inflation really bit us at this time, not surprisingly, looking at the construction project of this magnitude. Most of the gains from the reduction in capital were wiped out by the effect of inflation.
The second thing that happened was we were hoping that with some additional infill drilling, we could perhaps improve on the resource in the sense of increasing the number of ounces so we could divide the capital cost by more ounces, which made sense. Unfortunately, drilling is hard to predict, so we didn't get the additional ounces we hoped for, and we had a bit of a drop in grade with infill drilling. For now, the good news about the Gramalote Project is the projected operating and all sustaining costs have always been low, and they remain quite low. The biggest issue is that a big capital cost upfront. We're gonna now look at our alternatives. AGA and ourselves have signaled that we're each gonna look at our alternatives going forward.
Clearly, they would be to go on and maintain our permit and continue with some of our resettlement planning and things that we've been doing there. We've done a lot of the work there, continue with that work while we evaluate the alternatives going forward. Clearly, the alternatives would be, is there a smaller project? We've played around with that a bit before in the past. Is there a smaller project that makes sense from the large scale we were approaching it with? Or does it make sense to look to sell the Gramalote Project?
Both companies or each company has to make its determination, and we're reviewing all the various alternatives. We do have a permit in place, and this decision was based on really the using our capital, our very strong financial position and how we wanna utilize that capital. Part of that focus going forward now in terms of use of capital will be to consider even increasing the amount of drilling that we're doing, what we call, now call the Fekola Complex, as the engineers like to call it, which includes Fekola by itself and then this vast stretch of land that goes all the way up to Anaconda North and many targets in between.
We've continued to get really good drill results that suggest we're significantly increasing the 3 ,000,000 oz resource that we had placed before for the Anaconda Area in the farther north area of the Fekola Complex. We continue to get good results and most importantly, not only in the leach and saprolite material down to 50 m, but below that, we continue to get some very good intercepts, some good grade, good widths in the sulfide below. We do believe that there's tremendous exploration potential here. We've seen some of it, but we're very much at the early stages in the Fekola Complex with the drilling we've done when we look at the multiple targets.
The Mamba Zone itself in Anaconda is really getting our attention in terms of the short term. It shows the potential with the drilling we've done so far to be another Fekola type deposit and maybe have that sort of size implication and potential. In addition to that, the drill programs could be a lot of rigs focused on Mamba to see how big that gets, but also drilling of the many other targets and other deposits that we now have in this belt. We're very focused on that because we can, in the short term, we're planning, as we said before, Stage 1 at exploiting the Anaconda Area is to truck the ore from Anaconda, also from Cardinal and potentially other sources like the recent project we acquired through Oklo Resources.
We have almost an embarrassment of riches and opportunities to truck ore from various sites down to the Fekola mill. We're going to be moving some of that material a little later on this year, and from some of these sources of mineralization or deposits, and we will be able to increase production simply by trucking good grade material by 8,200,000 oz a year for Fekola. It's a real positive, and it really, really improves the life of mine, which will be coming out soon with new life of mines. That significantly improves what was already a strong life of mine for Fekola. Lots of news to come out. We'll be coming out soon with additional drill holes from this area and let you know why we're very excited about it as a significant project.
Not only the first stage of trucking, sampling material, but the second stage of which would involve building a second mill, somewhere in the Anaconda Area. That's something we're having a hard look at right now. Obviously, it's subject to further successful drilling results, but what we're seeing, we're very confident that there's gonna be a Stage 2 here, which would entail subject to further drilling and feasibility, etc., building a second mill. The Fekola Complex in our mind, from what we're seeing so far, clearly has the potential to significantly increase gold production in Phase Stage 1, but also in Stage 2. Could the Fekola Complex one day produce 1 ,000,000 oz of gold a year? We think that's the kind of potential that we're seeing. We'll be really focused on that.
In terms of other things, we've been getting some very encouraging drill results in Finland as well in our project there that is adjacent to Rupert Resources' exciting new discovery in Finland. More news to come from that. Beyond that, we are, I think as everyone knows, and everyone in our sector is looking at M&A alternatives or opportunities. We're looking at a few things right now. We're in an enviable position because we've a very strong cash position. We've decided not to go ahead with Gramalote, we're in an extremely strong cash position with no debt and are able to continue to pay one of the leading dividends on a yield basis in our sector, but also have a significant amount of money to devote to exploration and potentially the next development projects at Anaconda.
Also, if we find something we like, we also can use our strong cash position when we look at M&A, without the need to significantly dilute our shareholders. We're looking for opportunities. There aren't many projects we're in love with out there. There's a few, and sometimes it's hard to find a dance partner, a willing dance partner in terms of looking to grow in our sector these days. We continue to look, and if we do a deal, it won't be because we view ourselves as needing it. It's because we will have found something that we like, and we think is accretive for our shareholders.
We'll do what we've always done, which is bring our great tech, technical team to bear, not only to build these projects, but also our exploration team, which had tremendous success in every acquisition we've done in the last 15 years at finding additional gold, which we don't pay for in acquisition, but we've had a great track record of doing that. That's where we sit. We're very, very happy with the quarter, as Mike's gonna tell you why. We think we're very well positioned for continued growth from our existing assets, and also looking at the potential for responsible, sensible, accretive M&A. With that, I'll pass it over to Mike, and then we'll open it up after Mike for questions.
Thanks, Clive. I'll just run us quickly through the second quarter, some of the main results. Firstly, on the revenue side, we had a good revenue quarter. We sold 205,000 oz at an average realized price of $1,861 per ounce for revenues of $382 million. That's a bit higher than we thought we were gonna have. Obviously, we sold a bit more than we thought with positive production. Revenue was higher than we'd forecast. On the production side, total from our operating mines, 209,000 oz from our three mines for the quarter. If we include our share of Calibre's results, the total production reported was 224,000 oz.
Both of those totals are broadly in line with budget. Fekola had another strong quarter, 123,000 oz in line with budget. Fekola's processing facilities actually achieved record quarterly throughput of 2.42 million tons in the quarter, which is very impressive. The higher than budgeted throughput, though, was offset by lower than budgeted mill feed grade as we used the ganging of low-grade stockpiles to feed that additional budgeted feed. Reminder, too, that Fekola's production is expected to be significantly weighted to the second half of 2022 when mining reaches the higher grade portions of Phase 6 in the Fekola pit. Should also comment on the recoveries in the quarter were slightly lower, 92.4% than the budget of 94%.
That's mainly because we had lower availability of lime because of some of the sanctions that were in place in Mali. That led us to rejig some of what we were doing and reduced recoveries in the quarter. However, with the sanctions now lifted, all reagents are now available, so that shouldn't be an issue going forward. Masbate production in the quarter, 54,000 oz, slightly above budget by about 1,000 oz. With processed tonnage, which about 6% above budget, but was offset by lower than budgeted process grade. The higher than budgeted throughput really came from continuous optimization of the grinding circuit, and the lower than budgeted process grade came mainly from lower than budgeted mine grades at the bottom of Montana pit, which is now effectively mined out.
For Otjikoto, 31,000 oz, slightly below budget, 2,000 oz below budget. That was really due to slower than planned ramp up in development at the Wolfshag underground mine. We did replace the underground mining contractor, and those development rates at Wolfshag underground have improved. We now expect that we'll hit development ore in the third quarter of this current quarter and then stope ore production sometime in the fourth quarter. It's basically we've pushed that out one quarter from where we thought we'd be before. We did see lower grades as well because we're not getting into that Wolfshag higher grade as quickly as we thought. When we take all that into account, we did re-guide production in Wolfshag when we put out a production release a little earlier in the month.
It was 175,000 oz-185,000 oz. We re-guided down by 10 to between 165,000 oz and 175,000 oz for the year. We did have an offset at Masbate because Masbate was already year to date at 7,000 oz ahead of budget. We re-guided Masbate upwards by 10,000 oz. Total production guidance for the full year remains unchanged. Clive alluded to or mentioned the positive cost results for the period, so we definitely saw some good results. On the cash cost side, including all operations, including our share at Calibre, total cash costs are $781 per ounce, compared to budget $795. We're actually under budget or broadly on budget, I guess we could say.
And that's. When you look at that, it's really as a result, we did have lower than budgeted mining tonnage at some operations, but this was offset at all operations by higher than budgeted realized fuel prices. When we took those two main factors into account, we ended up broadly on budget for the quarter. Fekola has always led the way, $639 per ounce. That was $64 under budget. It was a result of lower than budgeted total mining, processing, and site general costs. Total mining costs were lower due to lower overall tons being mined, and that was partially offset by higher than budgeted fuel prices, as I mentioned. The mine tons were lower than budget due to a temporary change in mine sequencing, and again, relates back to those ECOWAS sanctions.
The availability of some reagents and other supplies meant that we temporarily changed our mine sequencing. We expect it to regain that and put it back on track for the full year. Otjikoto. Otjikoto was $1,136 per ounce, which is $24 under budget. In total under budget as a result of a weaker Namibian dollar and delays in incurring the Wolfshag underground mining costs, but again, partially offset by higher fuel prices. Masbate was maybe the outlier for the quarter in the sense that cash cost for the quarter were $840 per ounce, which was actually more than $100 over budget, and that's almost exclusively due to higher than budgeted diesel and fuel costs in the Philippines.
On the all-in sustaining cost side, we really saw that mirror again, that the consolidated all-in sustaining costs, including our share at Calibre, were $1,111, which was $78 under budget. That beat against budget was mirrored at all sites apart from Masbate. Really, it's a function of, again, lower than budgeted cash costs, higher gains on fuel derivatives, and lower sustaining CapEx. The lower sustained CapEx, as we've seen quarter-over-quarter, is just a function of timing. We think that the full CapEx that we expect to incur for the year will be incurred later in 2022, and we will catch up.
Masbate, it was $1,082 per ounce or $28 over budget, and that really mirrors the fact that we were over budget on the cash cost side, partially offset by lower budgeted CapEx in the Q. Again, we think those will be caught up. Year to date, just a couple of comments on year to date, where we are for the six months. We're 12,000 oz ahead of budget overall, total including all operations, our share of Calibre. That's positive. Like I said, we've retained our overall budgeted production guidance for the year.
On the cash cost side, including all operations on our share of Calibre, we were $52 under budget on the cash cost side and $193 under budget year to date on the all-in sustaining cost side. As I mentioned, the cash cost side, we just we've just seen some gains there in Q1, offset by some fuel price increases that we've seen coming in mainly in Q2. The all-in sustaining cost side, we're well under budget, and that is a function, as you mentioned, of those lower cash costs, timing of CapEx, all of which we expect to see reverse later in the year, and also some higher derivative gains. Overall, very positive first half of the year performance.
What we've seen overall, though, is that we did see fuel prices increase through the Q. As we look forward and reforecast for the year, we did forecast higher than budgeted fuel prices across our operations. That led us to revise the second half cost guidance for each operation. We revised that upwards. But because we had such a positive first half, when you put it all together, we've still guided on an overall consolidated basis that our cost guidance is maintained. For cash costs, we think we'll come in at the upper end of our consolidated range of $600-$640 per ounce. And on the all-in sustaining cost side, we still think we'll be in that overall consolidated range of $1,000-$1,040 per ounce.
Very positive, I think, on the overall operating results as they are. In terms of other things that are happening in the operation, I think Clive kind of mentioned most of them. Obviously, Fekola and Mali regional development is a big thing for us, and Clive touched on all of those things. We do expect to see Oklo that deal close sometime mid-September. As part of that and part of what we disclosed in the releases, we are looking at how best to optimize that Fekola Complex regional development. We've got four licenses there now, including Medinandi, Bakolobi, Menankoto, Bantako, and now we've got Oklo coming expected mid-September. We're really.
We've just been looking at those, just trying to decide what's the optimal way to feed Fekola mill with high-grade saprolite in the short term, and then also looking at that bigger picture of what we want to do maybe longer term with potentially a second mill, maybe at Menankoto. That's a big focus for us. Studies are underway. I think we expect to have them by year-end, and then I think we now see that saprolite truck could maybe start sometime in second quarter of 2023. Clive, I think the other main thing we focused on in the quarterly results was looking at Gramalote and evaluating our options there. I think Clive already touched on that. A couple of things to highlight on the earnings side. We did see some volatility on foreign exchange.
We saw some foreign exchange gains and losses there, mainly due to cash holdings that we hold in each country and some of the payables that we have locally. On the tax side, we did see higher taxes than we expected in the second quarter, and we tried to highlight that in the release. Those are really related to two things. One was, again, fluctuations in foreign exchange led us to some hits on the future income tax side due to that. On the withholding tax side, we had approximately $22 million of withholding taxes that we had to pay in the second quarter related to dividends, intercompany dividends that we declared in Mali, which are a little higher than we thought they were.
We had to pay the taxes up front, and that impacted the overall tax charge. One other item to note, on the derivative side, we are still seeing the gains and the benefits of our fuel hedging program. We had just under $8 million of gains on fuel hedges in the Q. Year to date, we've seen $27 million. We took a look back at how that's done since really the inception of COVID, March 2020, when it came on and we really started seeing fuel prices start to fluctuate. Since March 2020, we've either realized or recorded gains of approximately $50 million since that started.
We've got about $20 million of that still on the books that we expect to unwind over the course of the next year and a half. I will say also on the fuel side that, you know, we had a rolling program where we were trying to put on 50% of one year's needs and 25% of the next year's needs. As we've seen fuel peak and become so high, we've stepped back from putting on new hedges because it's very hard to tell exactly what the volatility of that is. We still have 30% of our needs hedged for the balance of 2022 and 18% in 2023. A couple of comments on the earnings side.
Earnings, EPS, GAAP EPS, $0.04 per share and adjusted EPS, also $0.04 per share. Year to date, EPS was $0.11 per share and adjusted EPS was $0.10 per share. Maybe just a couple of comments on the cash flow side. Cash provided by operating activities for the quarter, and this is after changes in working capital, was $125 million, or approximately $0.12 per share on non-GAAP basis. Year to date, operating cash flows after working capital changes were $232 million, approximately $0.22 per share. Remind everyone as well, just like we guided on the production side, production is definitely weighted to the second half. It's presently 40% half one, 60% half two.
Cash flow is also weighted much more significantly the second half of the year. We had guided operating cash flow initially at $625 million for the year. That assumed an $1,800 gold price for fiscal 2022. We've re-guided now slightly downwards to $575 million for the year, and that reflects the fact that we're now using $1,700 for the second half of the year. Like we showed in our cost guidance, we do expect there to be some higher costs due to inflation, mainly fuel, in the second half, and also just the timing of some working capital items. Operating cash flow for the year currently forecast, assuming $1,700 gold for the balance of 2022 to be $575 million.
We ended the period, though, with $587 million in the bank, $600 million undrawn on the line and in great shape liquidity-wise. We continue to pay, you know, as Clive mentioned, one of the highest dividends in the sector, $0.04 per share per quarter, approximately $170 million annualized for the year. Very good shape there. That rounds out, I think, what I was gonna mention on the financial results.
Thanks, Mike. Just a couple of things I want to talk about before we open up for questions. Let's talk politics. There has been some positive developments in Mali recently with the ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, reaching an agreement with the current government of Mali about elections and having democratic elections to be held within two years, we expect around March of 2024. Now, that agreement, which we welcome, caused ECOWAS to drop the sanctions that had really been hurting the economy of Mali. I mean, everyone has challenges around the world today.
In Africa, everyone is aware, has been hit with things like the Russian invasion and war in Ukraine has obviously hurt many countries around the world, including Africa, in terms of supply of wheat, those sorts of things. It's good to see the sanctions are removed and the Mali economy has a chance to start recovering here. Gold production remains a very important part of the Mali economy. We remain with a very good relationship with the current government as we had with the previous governments, and we're confident we will have going forward. Not only ourselves, but many other Western companies that have successfully explored and developed over many years, if you go back and look at Randgold, et cetera, various decades of successful gold production. Government is our partner.
We're a major taxpayer in the gold space, and gold is a very important part of the economy of Mali and will remain so going forward. Our partner, the government, is a 20% partner in Fekola and will be, we anticipate, will be a 20% partner as well in the rest of the licenses as we move them towards development. We've seen an improved environment in Mali, which is nice to see for the local people, for the economy. Also, it makes it easier for us. We've done an excellent job of staying on or beating budget during a difficult time of getting supplies in, as Mike alluded to. That's eased up now and we're very positive about development.
In terms of Colombian politics, some people have already speculated that part of our decision to not go forward with Gramalote was based on the politics and the recently elected government. That's not the case at all. This is an economic decision based on the economic results of the study that we've been working on, that those results are not strong enough, as I said, for us to want to spend huge amounts of capital to build Gramalote at this time. As I mentioned, inflation hurt it, et cetera. At the end of the day, it's not a political decision at all. We're waiting to see the new Minister of Mines appointed and other ministers in the Colombian government.
Everything we've seen so far suggests to us that Colombia wants to continue to grow their economy, and a good way of doing that is responsible mining. From everything we've heard so far, the government, we expect the new government to honor the permits that people have for mining, and we have a permit to mine Gramalote. Not a political decision at all, based on the economic factors and the utilization of capital today, what's the best use of capital. I can't speak for AGA, but I've heard that they're going to continue to pursue the Quebradona Project, which is a large copper gold project that would be exploited by block cave mining. I understand they're continuing to be positive looking at that project going forward.
I can't speak for them, but I believe they're going to continue with that project in Colombia. I just wanted to make those two comments on the political situation that we find ourselves in is looking improved for sure in Mali and Colombia, not a political decision. With that, I'll open it up for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before pressing any keys. One moment for your first question. Your first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Hi, Clive and B2Gold team. Congrats on a strong first half, and really great to see full year production and especially cost guidance unchanged. Clive, couple of questions from me, maybe starting off with the fact that you mentioned earlier on the call that with Gramalote being put on hold, the focus of B2 will now be on exploration, advancing Anaconda, as well as M&A. Maybe a little bit more clarity on the M&A side. Is the focus to look at late-stage development projects still, or would you consider producing operations as well? Also, some color on any jurisdictions that you would focus on.
Yeah, I think, Ovais, we are, as we've been in our history, really looking across the whole spectrum of potential acquisitions in terms of stage of development. We are looking at some junior exploration companies where perhaps there's some kind of a strategic investment, but also joint ventures or potential, as we've done in the past, mergers. So we're looking at that. We're definitely looking at development projects with our construction team and who are going to be working at Anaconda here shortly in terms of road construction, et cetera. We have the team that can take on anything we've, as we've shown virtually anywhere in the world.
We're looking at development stage projects as well, and we're also open to the potential of friendly merger or acquisition of a producing company as well. Right across the whole spectrum. I think in terms of jurisdictions, we really don't tend to limit ourselves, but of course, we would like to see some opportunities in good jurisdictions. North America, we'd love to do something if we found the right fit. But we're pretty open. I wouldn't understate the potential significance of the Finland exploration drilling as well. There's a major discovery there that was made, and we are not just an area play by any means. We're getting some good mineralization and some new zones there that we're seeing.
That's gonna be a focus as well. Right across the spectrum in terms of M&A, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we're in extremely strong financial position to utilize cash as well as potentially some shares in terms of M&A activity, but we're gonna maintain the discipline that we've shown for 15 years and before that at Bema Gold in the acquisitions we do. They have to be accretive, and they have to be based on realistic gold prices going forward, and we're just gonna continue the habit of a lifetime, which is to do accretive acquisitions, that have upside potential, so we'll continue to pursue them.
Thanks for that, Clive. Then just switching gears to Anaconda, in terms of tracking of the satellite material, you know, Mike mentioned that, you know, that's been pushed on to Q2 of next year. Is this a function of your expectations on the permit, additional exploration and development work required? Any more color you can provide on that?
Yeah. I think I'll pass that to Bill, but I think yeah, well, I'll just pass it over to Bill in terms of it's important to understand what we're gonna be doing and when we're gonna start to see material, whether it be Cardinal or these other deposits being tracked down.
Yeah. Ovais, it's a good question and one that we probably should have been clarifying the whole way. We always talk about this, kind of, end of 2022 as a time period where we could do it if we so chose. You have to remember, we're trying to optimize the whole district, and we're looking at not just getting material from Bantako, but what does it look like for a whole optimized area. Yes, there are some permitting things that we have to go through, but we're also trying to find out where the best ore is to get to the mill first. It's not just looking at Bantako by itself.
We picked Q2 as a way that we feel like all the permits can be in place, get our equipment in, put the road in, and get ore down there. I would argue that from your side, you shouldn't really focus on that because those ounces have already been replaced with ounces from other places like Cardinal and Fekola.
I think just to be clear, the Bantako is part of the Fekola Complex, which is part of what's been called the Anaconda zone or Anaconda Area, which Mamba's been within that has been a very exciting target where we've been getting some of these really good results in the zone. That's just so we're on the same page. When we talk about Bantako, put that in perspective.
Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Clive. Just kind of just follow up on that. Essentially, you're looking to come out with a kind of a master plan for the district, and that's expected by the end of this year?
Yeah. Remember, we've kinda got four studies going on, and two of them are kind of lumped together, right? Let's first, we got the underground, right, which we didn't really talk about. We got the underground study, which has shown really good economics. We're actually now looking at, you know, contractor bids and how does that all work to try and move that forward. That'll be coming out this year, an update on that. You've got the Phase 1, which is what you're talking about, which is kinda like the regional play, whether it's Oklo or whether it's Bantako or Menankoto. We've been very open talking about this high-level Phase 2, which would be a standalone mill. You know, what would it take to do that?
We're looking at, you know, what would the cost be and the ounce profile, which would exceed the NPV of trucking and when would that come in. Then the whole thing's being optimized by Whittle, looking at all of our sources to include Fekola and Cardinal and really trying to put the best ounces in. That'll definitely come out by the end of this year.
Got it. Okay. That's it for me, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, Ovais.
Your next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to follow up on what you just said, Clive. I just wanna make sure I heard correctly. Did you say that you would be open to a friendly merger of a producing company?
Sure. We've always maintained that if there's a growth opportunity for the company to pair up with another producer, that's obviously something we're here to build shareholder value, and we'll look at every opportunity to do that. I think we like where we are today in the sense of our ability to take on additional projects and grow the company, but also our ability potentially to add some additional production to what we're doing. You know, we just had a very strong ringing endorsement from our shareholders not that long, a couple of months ago now or less, at our AGM, where somewhere close to 80% of the shares that are outstanding were voted, which is really extraordinary.
Over 90% of the shares voted for the board of directors, which therefore is for the strategy of the company and for management. Paying the, you know, the industry-leading dividend, maintaining a strong cash position, being debt-free with the technical teams that we have, the financial teams, and all the things that we have on our responsible mining team, and you'll see our new responsible mining report just came out, continuing to be an industry leader. We feel we have a strong mandate from our shareholders to continue to grow the company, and that's our focus. We'll look at various alternatives, how to best do that.
Okay, thanks. I just wanted to say that actually my questions were with regards to whether or not you had considered Senegal, and specifically thinking about IAMGOLD's Boto asset in light of their updates this morning. Just want maybe get an idea of some of the assets that might be up for sale or available for sale, some of the regions other than, you know, friendly merger that you might be interested in.
Yeah. I mean, I can't comment on specific opportunities, but suffice to say that in our looking at opportunities, of course, one of the areas that you look for opportunities in is around where you are because you've proven your ability to do it in that part of the world, et cetera, and there are some interesting opportunities. We're looking at a whole lot of different things as well. As you saw the Oklo deal, we're looking to see if there is value to be added because we have a mill or maybe a second mill on the way to add further value in the Mali area, where we could traditionally add ounces to feed the Fekola mill.
Not a need for sure when you look at all the targets we have and the results we've had so far within the Fekola Complex. Clearly, if there's something that makes sense, we'll be looking at it. Also, as I mentioned earlier, you know, other jurisdictions around the world. We think we're in a very strong position right now to do the right kind of M&A to continue to complement growth from existing projects with other opportunities.
Okay. I just wanted to close up by commending you for being disciplined. I've seen a lot of companies just, you know, rush headlong into projects whether or not they make sense. I know your share price is down a little bit today, but, I think, you know, pausing the Gramalote Project is the right decision, and I'll leave it at that.
Great. Thanks. Thanks for your good questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you do have any questions, please press star one. Your next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, operator. Thank you for that, and congratulations, Clive and team, on another strong quarter. My question has to do with the Oklo acquisition and Dandoko. Is the opportunity here something that is relatively near term? Like, for example, are the permits in place? Is there potentially near surface mineralization, whether for trucking or standalone? Just if you could provide a little bit more color on what you see as the opportunity here. I recognize that we'll wait for the master plan at the year-end, and we'll find out more then. But what were some of the things about Dandoko that attracted you, and what's the near-term opportunity here?
Sure. I mean, Don DeMarco would know that Oklo's a pretty exciting acquisition for us, because of just what you talked about, the potential for some good grade material near surface. Bill, you wanna talk about it a bit more?
Yeah, sure. I mean, we saw it really as fighting both the whole Anaconda complex, that being Bantako and Menankoto, as to what place it comes into the sequencing. It's got some high-grade material relatively close to surface. They'd actually done a very good job of bringing their permit forward. They've got a lot of their environmental baseline work done. They had a mining plan which showed it trucking somewhere at some point. So that made it very easy for us to think about what it meant for us. We've been out in the field. We see, certainly, an easy trucking route to Fekola. The answer is it's got all the things that we would look for to really fight for one of the first positions that we would bring it in trucking into Fekola for sure.
Also has a very strong exploration potential. There's the story is partly told there through some good.
Will you be setting up any rigs on Dandoko anytime in the near future?
Any what, sorry?
Any exploration rigs.
Right. Gotcha. Vic?
Yes, indeed. As soon as it closes in September, we were on standby ready to get stuck in straight away. Okay, great.
We will-
That's all for me. Thank you.
On that topic, we will, I would say about within a month, we'll be coming out with additional, news release on some of the exploration results we're seeing from the Fekola Complex. We're seeing some great results, and we'll share those, soon, I would say by early September.
Okay, thanks again.
Thanks.
There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
Okay. Well, thank you, operator. Thank you all for your attention, and thanks, guys for the good question and the good answers. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.