Thank you, Dave. Good morning, everyone. So, yes, we're going to start with some geology, some exploration, as everything in mining starts with geology. Everybody knows that. So we're very excited to announce our new discovery in Chelopech. Probably some of you know that these systems are quite constrained in space, so that's what we were thinking as well. After long thinking over the structural context of the deposit, we decided to drill into a zone that was considered as a no-go, very deep, and below the level of economic mineralization. So finally, we're successful and proud to say that we hit a zone that is having a significant material impact, I hope, in the near future for the mine.
We're talking about a similar style of mineralization, massive sulfides, very good grades that you can see on the screen, about 300 m below the level of the nearest block that is under mining in the moment. So we have a strong potential not to expand only this zone, but now we're looking on the deposit on a different approach, different angle. And we're planning extensive exploration at that level around the mine for similar ore bodies, very concentrated, massive to semi-massive sulfides, very good gold credit, a bit less copper. But at the moment, this is perfectly fitting our strategy for going forward. I'll move forward. You can interrupt me anytime if you have any questions. The zone has been intersected so far with four drill holes.
We have two more ongoing right now, and we're dedicating about 10,000 m in the next quarter or two quarters to keep drilling. And meanwhile, we're already planning, ideally, infrastructure to reach the ore body and put it in production, hopefully, in the next year or so. We hope that we have no constraints and no limitations on the drilling, technically speaking. So in the next quarter, three to four months, we're able to provide more details on the volume and the grade of this ore body. On the CAM scale, outside of the mining concession, we have one pending mining concession that you can see in gray polygon. Outside of the magenta one that is the ongoing concession, we have expectation to get additional concession rights for this ground in 2026, where we already have contained very good resource.
We'll be back to this ground with additional drilling, considering the good high metal prices at the moment, so Chelopech is ever about to come in 2026. Meanwhile, we have the bigger license around called Brevene that is over 27 sq km. We have multiple targets, different style of mineralization. We're drilling right now there with eight rigs at the moment, ramping up probably to 12-13 rigs in the next month. We have, again, high-sulfidation porphyry targets. Our main goal is Vozdol that is just north of the concession, where we have multiple intermediate sulfidation veins, base metal and gold. The mine itself is in a strong position, still in very good shape. As you can see, we have over one million ounces of gold, four million ounces of silver, and 240 million pounds of copper as a reserve. Moving to Čoka Rakita and Serbia.
Sorry, Stefan. Sorry. We had one question come in over the webcast, which is, what led us to decide to drill in that area to discover the Wedge Zone?
Yeah, I was expecting that one. Well, as I said, most of the attention that has been paid to this deposit, geologically speaking, was focused on the geochemistry and petrology, petrography. We start rethinking the structural context here. We know that the basin that hosts the deposits of Chelopech has a significant drop down over this normal fault that you can see on the left-hand side of the slice, the so-called Petrovden fault. So we know that this normal faulting is dropping down significantly the whole basin to the south. So thinking about this and knowing that on top in Sveta Petka license, or this so-called Chelopech North mining concession, we have the Wedge Zone target that very well demonstrates the drop down of a whole block. We were thinking how much we can extrapolate down going further, and if we have another block that has been dropped down significantly.
Really overthinking again and again on the structural context, we decide that there is a significant potential around this regional fault to have a normal movement and a drop of ore bodies down. There is a second geological concept that we might have a telescoping of the system, and we have a second or later impulse that can produce fertile hydrothermal event, or could be a combination of both. But right now, we are sticking to the structural mostly. Okay?
Oh, there's a question at the back.
Sure.
So I see that it's fairly close to existing reserves. Can you comment on the development that might be involved in the timelines? Or you might just a question on the development and timeline in order to get this into production?
Yes. Well, we have a conceptual internal decline that is under consideration. I cannot speak exactly on the timelines. It will take the mining crew to project properly, think about ventilation. We're already talking about 300 m deeper, so it's getting a bit warmer. And I think some of my colleagues can reply on that on the mining side.
Sorry.
Okay. What we are planning, the first quarter of next year, we're to have a targeted, how to call, workshop about how to mine in this area on that depth. We're looking around 2029, we're to be in position to start production from there because that is in current mining license. When I say production, that means to have a first stope established and start half of the blasting tests.
Is that answer?
Yeah. And then another question coming from the webcast is, for the Wedge Zone deep discovery, is there any early interpretation on what's driving the potentially higher grade?
What's driving?
Yeah.
If we're speaking about the same impulse of hydrothermal activity, I think it's the same source. What my believing is, as a geologist, is the porphyry that we know that exists between the hanging wall and the foot wall of this major fault is too tiny and too shiny to be driving the whole system. So we keep exploring in the area to find the real source of that. And knowing other deposits on the Tethyan in the near neighborhood, there should be a bigger driver, bigger magmatic center. I would say a bigger porphyry that we hope that we get into really soon. We have some indications, but it's too early to speak about. We're looking actively for not only one, but multiple sources for this system. Okay. Okay, going to Serbia.
So first, to say a few words about the district scale of the geology around and how we went to the discovery of Čoka Rakita. Maybe some of you have already heard the story, and I won't go into much details, but we're speaking about the western flank of the Timok Magmatic Complex that was considered as unfertile broadly just until our original discovery of Čoka Rakita. So we're talking about a km scale multiple targets district, I'll call it. So the deposits that I'll mention here and the new announcements that we have, not only on Čoka Rakita, but Dumitru Potok and Frasen as well, just speak about the scale of this magmatic hydrothermal cell. We're talking about a few cubic kilometers of very intense alteration, multiple stocks. And as it's mentioned here, we have several styles of different alteration and mineralization.
This is really a huge chance and honor to work in such an environment. And I do believe that we're on the gate of a flip of the geology there. That's how we discovered Čoka Rakita. After a long conceptual thinking and after the discovery of Čoka Rakita, we start thinking what else could be there. So first holes that we decide to go deeper, start seeing mineralization exactly where we were expecting it. We're talking about porphyry, currents, carbonate replacement, sediment hosted, everything just in a few square kilometers. And we have a huge land package that we continue drilling right now with 10 rigs, hopefully expanding in the next three months up to 15, 16 rigs. So it's a discovery that we should not speak only for the Timok zone, but for the whole Tethyan Belt. Čoka Rakita itself doesn't have many equivalents, globally speaking.
We know about one similar deposit in Ecuador, and me personally, I've heard for another one in China, but not too much details can be found for that one. We're talking for gold-bearing exoskarns hosted in the sandstone unit that you can see in yellow on the section to the right. Most of the ore is hosted in the sandstones. Very limited is an endoskarns in the green unit that is diorite, sill-like body. Very small copper credits there. What's interesting and makes Čoka Rakita unique is the very lumpy nugget gold. We have a few millimeters grain size of the gold that comes mostly as a free gold native or attached with some sulfides, but the sulfide content is very, very low. That makes the deposit even more attractive. We have very good results on the flowsheet.
So here, I'm going to ask Ross to continue with the resources. Thank you.
Hi, everyone. Ross Overall, Corporate Director, Technical Services. So just a quick walkthrough of what we did for the lead-up to the FS in terms of resources and reserves. So in the lead-up to the FS, we looked at drilling and targeting the high-grade core. So drill hole spacing is around 30 m consistently across the deposit, but where we anticipate the first years of mining, we're actually getting down to about 15 m spacing. So very good control, very good understanding of the deposit geology, and that speaks to the models that we've generated. The resource itself, you can see the table there, exclusive of reserves, indicated and inferred, constrained to DSO shapes at a 2 g cutoff. So the resource, consistent, hangs together. We understand it well.
The reserve coming out of the PFS, we saw a few optimizations and a few opportunities we wanted to look at in more detail. First was the geotech drilling. So we did about seven geotech holes across the deposit and another half a dozen along the decline. We improved the engineering model. We understood the geotech ground conditions better. That fed into the stope design assumptions. So the stopes slightly enlarged versus the PFS. And also, we took a bit more time during this estimate to actually refine some of the stopes. The previous PFS was using more straight DSO outputs, but we actually took those outputs this time and did some manual corrections. End result is that we improved our conversion from resource to reserves, increasing some of the tonnage, as you can see. One of the other things we did was look at the cutoff grade.
So we optimized that by adding an additional marginal cutoff for stopes that are accessible. And we also looked at, again, adding a bit more definition to the marginal cutoff for development. End result is we increased the reserves, tonnage, and contained gold by 10% and 11%, respectively. Okay. There's no questions. Tsvetomir ?
Morning, everybody. Tsvetomir Velkov, Vice President, Technical Services. Thank you for joining us. On the mining side, what I can share in this stage of our project, we continue to improve all the aspects of our mine design. Improvement into the development while having multiple aspects. We put significant effort adding auxiliary infrastructure at this phase to ensure that our future mining plan will be done in terms of the some critical infrastructure like explosive underground store. Maintenance workshop was relocating the battery zone of the mine. Talking for the ground condition, we complete our geotechnical drilling program on time. What the results show that around 90% from overall infrastructure of the project are located in rock mass with good params, which is giving floor future when the operation are in production phase, observing the ground behaviors to add additional improvement.
Based on the results, we also revise our ground support regime and optimize them and also relocate some of the critical infrastructure like ventilation shaft and the main ventilation zone into the better ground conditions, taking into consideration results of our geotechnical drilling program. Also, we put effort and improve our ventilation system, as I mentioned, revising the exhaust vent rise systems, moving near to the ore bodies, and as I mentioned, ventilation shaft and main ventilation rise are also moved into the better ground. In terms of the stopes, what I can share, all of them was refined and adjusted manually, so this significant exercise added additional ounces into our inventory. The watering system also was improved, aiming to achieve the estimated water levels, and the main pump station also was relocated into the bottom of the mine.
We also have improved recoveries based on the additional metallurgical test work, and all this exercise actually resulting, end of the day, to increased ounces in the first years of our project. This is on high level on the mining side. As I said, we continue to improve in very deep details all aspects of our mine design. If there is no question, I'll give it to Mirco to continue with our project.
Thanks, Tsvetomir . Morning, all. Mirco Nolte, VP Projects. Give you a bit more information about the Čoka Rakita project and the feasibility study results that we released a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure you would have seen. So Tsvetomir and Ross took you through the reserves, the resources in terms of processing. It's designed. We have an 850,000-ton per year processing plant. It's a very standard comminution gravity flotation circuit with overall recoveries close to 90%. We're fairly comfortable with this flow sheet. It's the same size as our Ada Tepe process plant, which allows us to use some of the infrastructure, some of the refurbished equipment. Once Ada Tepe is closed down, middle of next year, we'll use some of that for the Čoka Rakita processing facility. A note on the tailings.
The tailings that's not used underground will be stored in a dry stack tailings facility, which minimizes the footprint, but it also de-risks the permitting timeline for us in Serbia. Just a quick overview of what the site looks like. During the feasibility study, we've really looked to optimize the layout and make sure it's optimized not just for construction, but for operation as well. Use the natural topography wherever possible, and basically, sorry, have the ore flow sort of via gravity from the crushing circuit all the way down to tailings. In the background there, you'll see the dry stack tailings facility towards the end of life of mine. As Tsvetomir mentioned, all the mine design optimization and schedule optimization has resulted in a really favorable grade profile for us.
So you'll see we're seeing 10 g a ton for the first couple of years, which results in more than 200,000 ounces per year in the first couple of years and averaging out at around 190,000 ounces per year for the first five years of the project. Our on-site operating costs are around $80 a ton, which puts the project in the top decile in terms of low-cost operators, gold producers, with all in sustaining costs over the life of mine less than $650 per ounce. Initial capital estimate is at around $450 million and well within DPM's capability to fund with existing cash and cash flow generation. We did see an increase of around 18% from the PFS estimate to the FS estimate. It's mainly driven by a weaker U.S. dollar, inflation, some scope and design changes specifically around the mining and the earthworks volumes and imported material.
There's a question from the front.
The current circuit has a gravity circuit, and it's around 40%-45%. And within that gravity circuit, we're producing a high-grade gravity cone and a Doré. Thanks. All right. We've developed the project from discovery through to feasibility in under three years. And we envisage where the target is to be in production and producing first concentrate in the first half of 2029. Now that we've gotten the go-ahead to commence the spatial planning process in Serbia, we have more certainty on the permitting timeline. And if we look ahead, basically for the next year, it's all around moving the permitting along and getting execution ready for when we receive the construction permit in early 2027 to be ready for that FID, final investment decision in early 2027. DPM has been present in the local community for more than 20 years.
We continue the positive engagement, the community investment that's earned us the trust of the local community. We continue to engage both at a regional and at a national level with authorities, making sure they understand the project, making sure they understand the impact of the project. And it's this social acceptance and also this proactive engagement of the various stakeholders, local, regional, and national level that really de-risks the permitting timeline for us for the project. So lastly, just to wrap up, Čoka Rakita, a low-cost, high-margin project with a $2.2 billion NPV at $3,500 gold. At that gold price, it's a year payback on the initial capital and IRR close to 70%. And DPM is in a position financially, technically, and execution-wise to execute this successfully over the next few years. Thank you.
Question from the webcast. And we'll likely also touch on this topic when we move into the broader Rakita camp. But the question is, the Rakita camp resource update was great to see in terms of adding additional scale for the Čoka Rakita project. Can you please comment on what it means for future development of some of these deposits? Will it be possible to access for Dumitru Potok from existing Čoka Rakita underground infrastructure? And also from a processing standpoint, given the seemingly different mineralogy and lower grades, would it be efficient to use the same processing circuit?
Thanks for the question. So yes, the Dumitru Potok discovery's early days, the technical work around that has kicked off and is ongoing. Yes, there are certain synergies in terms of utilizing certain infrastructure. At the same time, it's a different scale deposit. We're talking quite a different scale. So at this stage, we probably don't see the Čoka Rakita processing facility being suitable for what we envisage for Dumitru Potok. Having said that, there would be other synergies beyond our local presence there. The infrastructure that we have in terms of administration, potentially some of the portion of the decline could be used for that, absolutely. So we're considering that. At the same time, the Čoka Rakita project studies permitting is not being distracted by that. So that's ongoing in parallel to what we're focusing on at Čoka Rakita.
Perfect. And the next question actually relates to the permitting timeline for Čoka Rakita. Can you provide a little bit more detail in terms of next steps and what are the key milestones investors should be expecting for 2026?
Sure. So like I said, the Spatial Plan process has just kicked off. It was voted in government on the 14th of November and then got into force on the 22nd of November. So that gets the permitting process going, if you want to call it that. We envisage going through that process and receiving the approved Spatial Plan towards the middle of next year, early Q3. The next big milestone after that to look out for would be our exploitation permit. Using the Spatial Plan information and our Serbian feasibility study, we foresee receiving the approval of the exploitation field in Q4 next year. And that allows us to submit the environmental impact assessment, which is run in parallel over the next 15 months and get approval for that in early 2027. And that all pulls together to get the construction permit in Q1 2027.
Perfect. I have another question from the webcast, but if there's anyone in the room, that's over here at the front.
Can I ask you about the cost, the cost that you use for your feasibility study? In terms of benchmarking, did you benchmark it to Chelopech? Did you benchmark it to Ada Tepe? How much conservatism have you factored into your cost estimates for your FS?
Specifically CapEx, OpEx, or both?
I guess everything. Whatever you might think is important.
Sure. All right. So first of all, I guess as most of you know, benchmarking CapEx is always tough. Every project has certain aspects. You are able to benchmark the processing facility. That's fair enough. That's apples to apples. Certain things that it's harder to benchmark are your earthworks, the volumes there that really are different for every project. So yes, we've benchmarked in terms of productivity, unit rates, commodity prices. All of that's been benchmarked for the region. We have the regional presence both in Bulgaria and now Bosnia. So we're comfortable on the CapEx side of things. On the OpEx, that's, let's say, easier to benchmark. There we've got an underground operating mine at 2.2 million tons. This is sort of half the throughput. So yes, we can benchmark a few things there and have and then we've aligned with that.
On the processing side, again, the processing flow sheet and what we're going to be running at Čoka Rakita is basically the Ada Tepe flow sheet with the gravity circuit stuck onto it up the front with a few details at the back end that are different in terms of paste plant and so on. So once again, a very good data point for us to benchmark. And what we've seen in terms of both CapEx, sustaining CapEx, and OpEx is a very reasonable assumption. I don't think we've baked in too much conservatism. I think we've baked a realistic executable estimate there.
Looking at how much inflation have you factored into your numbers?
Our base estimate is a Q2 estimate, a Q2 2025 estimate. We've not factored in inflation beyond what we foresee the labor costs being next year. So no, we've not factored in inflation at this stage.
Question right here.
If I remember correctly, I think you've used $1,900 gold for your resource and $1,600 gold for your reserves. And I'm wondering if the applicability of those numbers to the current environment, but also if you run a scenario or sensitivity analysis, what sort of difference would it make to your current mine plan?
Sure. So thanks for the question. That's an exercise we do as getting out of the gate into the new year is just refining the cut-off grade with the latest metal price assumptions, costs, etc. We've looked at the sensitivity. So at the moment, the average cut-off grade for the reserves is about 2 g a ton at the $1,600. If we were to use a price closer to, call it, $2,500, that would add at least one more year of life of mine. So call it around a million tons to the reserve. Having said that, that only considers your measured and indicated resources. There's obviously quite a bit of inferred, which doesn't fall into the reserve at this stage. So overall, though, it wouldn't drastically change the mine infrastructure. We sort of understand where these areas are that could be added into the reserve.
We see that as an opportunity that we'll pursue over the next year in terms of detailed engineering.
If I should follow up, if you'd leave material behind, would it be easily accessible afterwards if you wanted to add to life of mine, let's say, for instance?
Yes. Well, we wouldn't leave material behind, first of all. So you always have your long-term plan. And in the short-term planning, you do consider more recent, more relevant metal prices. So we make sure we don't sterilize material and leave it behind. So I hope that addresses the question. And then the things that when you do change your metal price or drop your cut-off grade, the material that comes in is sort of around the edge of the ore body, sort of your lower-grade material that then falls into it. So at the core of the ore body, where we mine the first few years, that's all 10 g, 7 + g a ton. So there's not a big risk there of leaving material behind that is deemed uneconomical.
Hi. The exploration at Čoka Rakita, can you just talk about whether it's happening or is it focused more on the Rakita camp? Just given the grade difference between the two, right? You would think there would be a prioritization of Čoka Rakita, but just curious.
We'll speak a bit later on the camp scale exploration. But Čoka Rakita, we have targets related with extension to the north in a different host. They're more related with Dumitru Potok style of mineralization in the marbles. But we're going to speak a bit later. We're planning about 20,000 m of drilling just around Čoka Rakita and Dumitru Potok in these 2 sq km and another 20,000 m going further afield.
We got a question at the back.
Thank you. Maybe my question follows the last one in some way. You've got the mill nameplate at 850. Is that the right size? I mean, it sounds like there's some synergies with Ada Tepe. But in the event that you find additional resources, is it easy to scale that mill up a little bit bigger?
Yes. So I mean, it depends when you talk scale, but I would say there's at least a 30%-50% scale capability. And the reason we're fairly confident about that is that we're taking a SAG mill from Ada Tepe with a 3 MW motor. This ore is quite a bit softer, less abrasive. And we're converting it into an AG mill for OpEX savings, etc. So the way you increase throughput there is then add steel balls and go from AG mill to SAG mill and go up from 850 to north of a million tons a year on the grinding circuit. The crushing circuit is sized for only running half a day. And then we have space in the plant to add another flotation train. So all in all, the short answer is yes, it'll need a bit of work.
And then we're talking expansion in terms of your 20%-40% increased throughput, where we're not talking doubling throughput at this stage for the Čoka Rakita circuit.
Okay. We've got two questions from the webcast. The first one is, what is the square m footprint of the tailings facility?
I'll need to get back to you on that, Jennifer, or the person, so take that down and then we can get to it.
Perhaps you could talk about the capacity that we've envisioned for it and how it relates to Čoka Rakita.
Sure. So the capacity is 3.2 million tons, if I'm not mistaken, of the dry stack tailings facility. And once again, working with our engineer of record and the consultants there, we have capacity to more than double the size, basically. So we've got a 100% capacity increase on that tailings facility for more reserves that we might find or might bring into the life of mine plan.
Perfect. And this one may actually go to Ross, but in terms of the, sorry, pardon me, looking at the actual drill results for Čoka Rakita, there's a number of very high-grade intervals. Are the top cuts used in the resource estimate too conservative? And how would you expect the resource to reconcile when the deposit is actually mined?
Yeah. Thank you. We actually did a resource optimization sensitivity review. We ran about 50 different resource estimation params, and we basically weighted them and chose the optimum params. The cutoff, I think we've used around 86, I think, for Čoka Rakita. That seemed like a not too optimistic, yet not too conservative somewhere in the middle, and we've been using that consistently, and it seems to be a good, sensible top cut to use for the project. In terms of the deposit itself, the grade continuity is very good, and you can see from the results that we published the grades, high grades, continuous, and the model is not too difficult to capture that because I think the continuity is there. In terms of reconciliation, we've done something different in that we've done screen fire assays consistently throughout the deposit. So not every company does this.
We've done screen fire assays consistently all across the mineralized footprint above, I think it's a 1 g or 0.8 g threshold. So that's the optimum assaying approach for that mineralization style. And I think it gives us confidence that when we come to reconcile, we're going to be getting good numbers from that.
Great. Any other questions from the room before we move on to the next topic?
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay. So we're going to move on to talk about the Rakita camp, which I think some of those questions we can revisit in these topics, starting with Stefan.
Sure. I hope I'm able to answer the questions that were given just a few minutes ago on the camp scale exploration. So you can see on the map here, we have three major licenses. One is Čoka Rakita, where the deposit of Čoka Rakita is hosted, and Dumitru Potok partially Frasen as well. And then we have Potaj Čuka, the license to the north, quite a big land package that hosts our main targets for the next, I would say, year. So we're going to split the work between these two licenses and a bit to Pešter Jug, that is the license to the south, where we have similar geological environments on the western boundary of this big monzonite intrusion that you see in purple. We're talking about really following up on known targets like Valja Saka. It's a target north of Dumitru Potok.
We believe that it represents the same geological environment, just another fertile magmatic stock. We have eight drill rigs drilling on this target at the moment. We're looking for shallow sandstone and marble-hosted gold and gold-silver skarn mineralization, but also we're looking for deep targets. The host stratigraphy is such that it dips to the east with about 40 degrees. So as far as we step further east, we're going undercover deeper and deeper. We're already testing targets at kilom-plus depth under the epiclastic cover. We did lots of geophysics. We did including seismic survey, very extensive. We're continuing with MT survey to the north. And we're going to step, building up the geological understanding, stepping to the north and to the east. On all the targets there, like Korkan East, Umjari, and Visuri, these are very further.
The Visuri is the yellow circle to the very north, where you can see we have one drill rig operating at the moment, trying to figure out the stratigraphy. We have confirmation that stratigraphy is there, so we just need to find the next fertile intrusion that we have good science on the geophysics about. We have to be moving, as I said, to the south as well. We know that the geological environment on Pešter Jug is very similar. We have the same sandstones, and therefore we are looking for targets of Čoka Rakita style, and MT is helping quite a lot. We can see conductive domains and alteration and mineralization of the style of Dumitru Potok is very contrasting on that. We can see very good contrast between conductive and resistive domains, so we're testing everywhere where we can see the shadow and a very sharp boundary.
That's a cross-section along the magmatic hydrothermal cell of Čoka Rakita, Dumitru Potok, and Frasen, I would call it. It's, I would say, in a way, classic domain of porphyry, proximal skarns, and stratabound deposits in a very confined space. If we look on a broader scale, all the discoveries that we had in the past, sediment-hosted to the north, we consider them now just as a signature of what's happening around. We have several intrusions. In the context of one of them, called Dumitru Potok, we have this outstanding copper mineralization, copper-gold mineralization, with some good silver credit. Going more shallow, we see stratabound-hosted again in the marbles, a bit different style and different sulfur ratios, a bit more sulfides.
And then we transitioned in towards another porphyry that you see in the center of this section called Frasen, that I do believe is causing the difference in the metal endowment in the marbles going further close to surface. So we go from more copper-rich towards more gold-rich events. And right now, we're pending just a couple of months to renew the license here and bring back for this drilling only on Frasen porphyry because we see this very confined pencil-like magmatic body that is running good gold grades. Looking on 3D and the camp scale potential I just mentioned, most of the ore bodies are open in multiple directions. So the subvertical contact of Dumitru Potok could be very challenging in technical perspective, but I do believe that we found a way to drill from the intrusion outside towards the contact currents.
And that's the plan for the first 10,000 m once we have the rigs back on surface there. The ore body is open to the north and to the south. We have a constraint only to the east, where we have this big magmatic breccia. Then going further up in the section, as I said, the stratigraphy is dipping to the east. So when we move towards Čoka Rakita, that is west-southwest of Dumitru Potok, we have stratabound mineralization hosted in the marbles. Quite significant footprint. We're talking about maybe 1.5 sq km of a strata that has been confirmed to be mineralized at a different scale. So that's the target that we called Rakita North. Going further north, the Frasen porphyry with the Frasen stratabound mineralization that transitions from copper, copper, gold, gold, and to some base metals at surface.
I have no reason to believe that there is no other ore body nearby. We're looking just for step-by-step exploration to find the next host, the next good fertile intrusion that we have good signature about in all the geophysics that we have done in the last couple of years. I hope you're able to see the picture here for the geologists in the room and online. It's a huge variety in the style of mineralization that we see. There is a transition coming from west to east of more oxide to more sulfide mineralization. What has to be highlighted here is the incredible grade that we are facing. We're facing 5%-7% copper with up to 10 g-12 g of gold. We have some good native copper intervals that are so far showing very good recoveries on simple flotation.
The stratabound mantle-like skarn and carbonate replacement are on the contact between marble and conglomerate. This is something that is already proven, so we know where to search for them. We know that this stratigraphy continues to the north as well and to the east. So we're brave enough to go deep and find more of that. About the footprint, it was already mentioned. Dumitru Potok is significant as a size, and it's still open in two directions. We're talking for a relatively narrow but extremely high-grade copper-gold mineralization at the contact that is transitioning in towards more bornite, chalcopyrite, copper-gold going further out in the distance. Here we have only one of the drill holes mentioned, but it's very representative for Dumitru Potok mineralization. You see over 100 m with 1.5% copper and 2.7 g of gold with significant grade of silver now.
I won't stop more on the mineralization style and move to.
Sorry. But before we move on to the met testing, just a couple of questions that we've gotten focused on the exploration piece. So one question is about the Dumitru Potok intrusion and where we're seeing the higher concentrations of grade and width. Can you talk a little bit about what is the potential for further exploration around that intrusion, and what is the approach we're taking in 2026 in terms of drilling out that section more?
Yes, sure. You can see the intrusion here on the right-hand side of the section. Really, the ultra-high-grade contact skarn are like a zone that is not thicker than 200 m-250 m around the intrusion. We do have open space to the north where we're planning to put drill holes, maybe first thing once we have all the permitting for drilling. I cannot say what is the volume. I would say that we know that only even in that section, we see two intrusions, and both of them have mineralization in the intrusion and outside of it. So open to the north, open to the south, and moving to the next intrusion to the northeast, northwest of it. So I hope this answers the question.
At scale, I wouldn't say a volume, but I know that right now, even in the published resource that we did a few days ago, we still don't reach the drill density that the resource guys are requiring. So just in filling in between holes that we have good intercepts should increase our volumes, I would say significantly.
Okay. And then the next question, just in terms of stepping back and thinking more broadly about the system, what do we think is driving the source of the system, and what are we thinking in terms of the overall scale stepping out from the immediate Čoka Rakita area?
Timok Magmatic Complex consists of at least three phases of magmatic activities. In the past, it was considered that only first and second phase are productive where the big porphyries from the Soviet time are hosted. The magmatic phase third, the one in pinkish here, the big monzonite, was considered barren because the monzonite is barren itself so far. We managed to prove that this western boundary of the whole basin is productive in an incredible way. Actually, if you think backwards, the porphyries of Bor and Majdanpek, the big ones, they historically are recording this high-grade contact skarns. Nobody was thinking that actually these skarns can exist in phase three because phase three was considered to be unfertile. On the camp scale, I just think that we have to continue drilling north and stepping to the east.
We prove that these porphyries, being low-grade or high-grade, they exist on every few kilometers, I would say even more denser. So it doesn't mean that we'll continue finding every kilom porphyry, but we know that the whole system here and the one that you see on the map couldn't be driven by only one single intrusion. So I would say that between Korkan and Valja Saka drill holes, we know that there is another intrusion. We see it on the surface, and we have to drill at the right spot, at the right depth to see where it contacts with the marbles. If we find that, I have a strong belief that we'll find another mineralization body there.
Okay. I've got one more question from the webcast, but if there's anyone in the room, please feel free. But the question is just in terms of our step-up targets. How are we prioritizing that? How are we identifying the next set of exploration targets that we'll be drilling?
We're trying to not be overexcited. We cannot put 30 rigs at a time, but we're probably going to aim anything between 15 and 20 in a few months. We're stepping slowly, making sure that we understand the geology. The structural complication, the post-mineral and pre-mineral structural complication is a big thing in this camp. Understanding structures here is of high importance. We already see that even in Dumitru Potok, we have a, on the recent drilling between Valja Saka and Dumitru Potok, we have a significant step down in the stratigraphy. We have to be step by step moving in order to be successful. For example, if we just put all the rigs all over, it will be very hard to get a constant geological model, it's essential.
That's the reason why we have these two discoveries just in less than three years, because we were stepping slowly and at the same time being aggressive enough once we find something that makes sense for us. That's the reason we have eight rigs on Valja Saka right now. We know that it's worth it. We see some good results, and we have to go step by step. Yes, we have a question over there.
Great. Thanks very much. So you're calling this a camp now, which is obvious given the number of discoveries here, and the pace of discovery seems to be accelerating. I know the resource you mentioned, possibility of additional infrastructure here to target some of these new areas. And so it's still early days, but just wondering how you see this ultimately envisioning and how you can leverage the synergies here from Čoka Rakita going forward.
Geologically speaking, we see lots of synergy. And I honestly, as being the most positive in the room, I guess, I would expect another ore body like Čoka Rakita somewhere nearby. We know that these calcareous sandstones are a very confined strata. So it's about what kind of intrusion is nearby and if it goes to exoskarns, gold-rich, or it turns into something that is more copper-rich. On the production side, I would leave my colleagues to speak about how we see the synergy because as there was a question before that, how we accelerate that, this will take us time to find out. But on the exploration side, I have no problems with that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Thanks. So we touched on sort of what synergies they are and how we potentially see this going forward. I think one near-term synergy that we see, practically speaking, is some of these targets are quite deep. Drilling them from surface is not technically difficult and expensive, costly. So once the Čoka Rakita decline starts in 15 months from now, there's a good opportunity to use that infrastructure to get closer and drill this from underground, drill this out from underground. So that's something quite near-term that we see could be a synergy.
Riley Henneberry.
I could be missing it, but I don't see an obvious source of the mineralization for Čoka Rakita in terms of an intrusion and where it's placed stratigraphy-wise relative to the other intrusions and this one being in the sandstones as opposed to the limestones and marbles. Do you know where that mineralization has been driven from or are the causative intrusion the same one that is within the Dumitru Potok? And if that's the case, which way do you go for your next target?
Yeah, that's a good question. Thank you. The green unit here is a diorite, monzonite diorite. We have multiple phases of magmatic activity there that we believe are driving the system. One targeting perspective is how far east we can step and drill in the sandstones on top of this monzonite diorite as well. So we know that the source of Rakita is this intrusion with the hydrothermal activity that's being caused later. How we found Čoka Rakita north and it made us think about Dumitru Potok is that we knew that in stratigraphy we have limestones/marbles in between. So one of the first holes that we stick from Čoka Rakita going through the ore body of Čoka Rakita but continuing 1.2 km to reach the limestones, the first hole starts showing some bornite in the limestone. So if we step on the camp scale, it's really nearby marbles from Čoka Rakita.
This bluish contour on the map on the left-hand side, this is the footprint of the marble confirmed mineralization stratabound-like. So back to your question, I think that these marbles should be chasing all the way to the basement contact that is 15 km to the north. It's about how we find the intrusions. And I think that in seismic data, we start seeing good signs for the intrusion themselves. And as I mentioned, the EM survey is showing us a good contrast of conductivity. So once we have these two params, we're ready to stick a hole there. It could be just a stratigraphic confirmation, but in one or two attempts and with all the Navi techniques that we're using, we're able to achieve an exact point of penetration where we want to be. So yes, the magmas are driving everything here.
We have three or four generations of magmatic activity. We're trying to date them. They're very close in timing, but more or less, we start understanding which one is the fertile, and it's very common now to start making our geological conceptual thinking where this fertile phase is.
Can I ask quickly about permitting again? How does this kind of regional exploration, how is it getting permitted? How is it getting integrated into the permitting of Čoka Rakita? As you mentioned, some of that decline could be used to target some of the deeper drilling. So again, how does this fit into the bigger picture? Maybe it's too early, and when you do decide to go ahead with some of this regional upside, would that need additional permitting later on? Or have you started thinking about that upfront so that when the time comes, it's more incremental versus something completely brand new?
I will answer this couple of questions because I see here are two questions. The first one about the permitting of the exploration permitting. There is a very well-established process, 3 years + 2 years + 2 years. For Čoka Rakita, we just finished the first three years exploration. We submit the report to the government. And after that, within two to three months, we will receive the extension for the next two years. It's a pretty similar process in Bulgaria. In all these parts of the world, it's pretty similar processes. So far, we didn't have any delays on the permits with the entire camp there about how that will work together with Čoka Rakita, Dumitru Potok, and etc. What are our current plans from one of the bottom decline of Čoka Rakita axis?
We do have access on the right, say, northeast to accessing Dumitru Potok to be able to make the next drilling campaign from underground, much more faster, much more efficient, and cost-effective. Is that answer your questions?
Thank you. Just to add on the exploration, Iliya was speaking for the overall exploration process. For permitting, a drill pattern survey is very easy. We're dealing mostly with private land, taking just a couple of weeks to put the rig on position where we want. This is a significant improvement on the legislation, and globally, right now, you might be waiting for years for a drill pattern survey. It's very, very flexible. Yes, there was another question.
Yeah. Thinking at a high level strategically, Čoka Rakita gets you guys above the 500,000-ounce gold equivalent mark. Chelopech, you could extend mine life there. That could sustain that level for longer term. With these prospects here, are you thinking that you'll be able to sustain that level for longer, or is there a potential additional upside to the production profile, potentially to, I would think, 700,000-ounce gold equivalent, that sort of range?
Yes, we are definitely looking to step up. We are looking by 2029 to be a bit different company.
Perhaps we can talk about just in terms of what next steps we're going to have. We'll dive into it on the Dumitru Potok mineral resource estimate, but in terms of how we're thinking about developing that resource and how that can translate in terms of timing.
By first half of 2029, Čoka Rakita will be in production. The Chelopech, what we're looking at the moment is to sustain for the next few years the same 2.2 million tons, also to ramp up in Vareš to achieve the or to meet the design production rates there. For Dumitru Potok, that definitely will up more years, but also as production. What we're looking for that high level, if I can say, that definitely will be another long-haul stoping mine. At this stage, we just can't predict how much that will be, but we're looking to achieve from there, say, by 2032, 2033 to be in early production stage.
Conceptually.
Conceptually, yeah.
A question from the webcast. Can you walk us through the metallurgical risk at Čoka Rakita? Given the complex mineralogy, how confident are you in your concentrated subjects?
Mirco will speak about concentrates.
Thanks for the question. The metallurgy isn't too complex. We've done extensive test work through all the phases. We've done gravity recovery, gravity recoverable gold, extended tests on that. We've done all the flotation work. So we don't see that as a risk. Like I said, at this stage, I believe the assumptions are very reasonable. In fact, in the early stage of life, when we're seeing the 10 g a ton feed, those recoveries should be north of 90%. And then as the grade drops closer to 5 and 4 g a ton towards the end of life of mine, obviously that drops down a bit. So we're confident about the 88% that we have in our models. And if we have this extensive test work, both gravity and flotation, that backs that up.
Perfect. That's actually a good segue into the next section of the presentation as we move into the met test work that we've done for the Dumitru Potok mineral reserve estimate, so let's move forward with that piece.
Hi everyone. So going into the Dumitru Potok resource work, we actually kicked off the met test work earlier this year. We basically tried to map out as best we could the key mineralization assemblages using different geochemical ratios. And we mapped out basically different sulfide assemblages, the Frasen zone, which is more polymetallic. That's the carbonate replacement zone. The Rakita north, which is more marble-hosted, skarn-type mineralization. And then you're not seeing it on the map, but we also did some testing on the Frasen porphyry as well. That test work is just a bit late. We couldn't use it for any of our modeling, but we'll look at that, I think, when it comes later this year, early next year. Initial results positive.
Some of the characteristics we can talk about would be the Bond work index, very similar to Čoka Rakita in that same sort of energy requirements, grindability requirements. The rougher cleaner test work we did, we consistently saw very fast float kinetics, which is very positive. When you have so much native copper and complex sulfide assemblages, they float quite quickly based on the test work we were seeing. So producing very high concentrate grades in minutes of float test work, which is quite an attractive property. The testing generated sellable concentrate grades, so we're not seeing any issues with that. No real deleterious elements to talk about, even though there's more work to do, but our initial screening doesn't show that. There's numerous areas for optimization. I think firstly, geometric is probably the one we're going to focus on.
There is some variability in test work, but for copper-rich, for copper-gold skarns, it comes with the territory. This is not unexpected. We know there'll be variability in mineralogy, metallurgical performance. We've got the team who are going to be able to drive this. So that'll be a big focus in the next phase of test work. For the test plan itself, there's a lot of optimization we could do. So just one point there we wanted to highlight was looking at trade-offs between rougher versus cleaner stages. So it was quite exceptional. Some of the rougher recoveries and rougher concentrate grades we got. So do we need the extra cleaning stage? That's a question we'll be looking at later on that could save on costs and also make operational life a lot easier if we just have that single stage.
So lots of optimization, and we'll be looking at that later as we continue. So the initial inferred mineral resource. So I think the numbers are there, 2.6 million ounces, just under two billion pounds of copper. I guess Dumitru Potok, as you've seen following the drill results, that's where the grade is, that's where the width is, and the tons as well. So a significant higher grade, higher tonnage core within the deposits that we've modeled. I think I like to highlight how good our understanding of the geology is. And Stefan, he's got an exceptional team, but it's backed up by over 20 years of exploring on this camp. So the stratigraphy is well understood, the relationships, the timing, we've got a good handle of that. So even though it's an inferred resource, we've got a solid geological understanding beneath that.
The resource itself, we did a bit of work on the net smelter return calculation, so we developed our own recovery models. We've also got good cost data we can draw on from Chelopech, from our smelter contracts, and we've used an initial $50 per ton cutoff just basically by benchmarking different underground sub-level stoping operations between 2 to 5 million tons per annum production rates. 50 was sort of in the middle. It seemed like a good cutoff to start with, but obviously there's more work to do on that. Just one other point. For Dundee, if you look at Čoka Rakita, we drilled that out and we sort of knew the footprint, and then we went to the market with an initial resource, but we're doing something different here in that we don't have the deposit footprint really covered yet.
We've drilled out and we found these significant results, and we want to show the potential early on. So this is an initial estimate. There's potential to grow. And we're really confident with the next phase of drilling, we'll be able to grow this thing. We're not really thinking about PEA or any scoping study yet. I think it's too early. We just need more drilling. We need to sort of bolster the models, understand the continuity, work on the geometry, things like that. And then I think once we've done the drilling later next year, we might be able to come back and look at the resource and decide what we're going to do with it. You can see the resource there. Yeah. So it's very exciting, significant result, and yeah, a testament to how productive the Rakita and Timok camp is.
A question from the webcast, just picking up pretty much what you just said, but the maiden resource is very exciting, but it's limited by the amount of current drilling. How do you think the grades and tonnage might evolve versus the estimate as more drilling and data becomes available? And then the follow-up to that is, what are the areas of the highest potential in terms of increasing the resource around Dumitru Potok?
Yeah, I think the Dumitru Potok contact skarns, you see the two skarns on the cross-section there and the manto-like skarn. That's where we see the grade. That's where we see the very favorable recoveries. And I think that's where we'll be focusing, looking at infilling and extending that. My guess is we'll be able to grow that, but ultimately we'll probably be looking at cut-off. We'll be looking at some of the other operational constraints. So we'll probably see tonnage increase, but hopefully grade increase as well. But I guess that's kind of something we'll be looking at. We can't really give you a straight answer just yet.
Okay. Question in the front?
I think Iliya just mentioned that the potential of Dumitru Potok adding to life of mine or also increasing production, and if I understand that correctly, how would you increase production in the sense that you're limited by how much tonnage you can process, 850,000 tons, and if you displace material, say, from Dumitru Potok, which is about one gram gold and one gram copper, wouldn't you be displacing higher grade gold stuff to process this? And given its size, naturally you can increase life of mine, but given its size, doesn't it look like it's especially risky, right? As Ross said, if you're going to increase the tonnage here, wouldn't you rather contemplate a standalone production as opposed to increasing life of mine?
Dumitru Potok will be a different mine. That will be not additional to Čoka Rakita. Yeah. Yeah. So any more questions?
Just to clarify the timeline.
If I may, I think you had said that first development in 2029, but first production in 2032 or something like that. For Dumitru Potok, what would be a conceptual potential timeline?
For Čoka Rakita, production is first half of 2029. For Dumitru Potok, conceptually, now we are looking 2032, 2033 to be in production.
Thank you.
But we need more work to do on that.
If I can just add one thing, I think we're assuming that Čoka Rakita is well defined and that's it. What I think is a reasonable assumption is there's going to be materials more similar to Čoka Rakita than to Dumitru Potok. So the concept is that you can see the grade profile at Čoka Rakita that we have a couple of early years, more than 200,000 ounces. Clearly, as we're looking, we're going to be looking to find other things like that that we can bring into that profile. So you extend the life of mine, but you also extend out that higher grade portion, which will be produced through the facility we're bringing from Ada Tepe and building it to Čoka Rakita. So with Dumitru Potok, we are thinking about that as a separate stream.
I've sort of said this before, really, if you look at Čoka Rakita, that's a pilot plant compared to what we need for Dumitru Potok. These are significantly different scales.
Another question just in terms of what is the drill grid that you'll be targeting in terms of the next phase of drilling and resource upgrades?
Yeah, I think right now it's quite variable. We had a lot of challenges drilling at that depth. So the drill holes you can see on the cross-sectional navigational holes, we really tried to make sure we hit the point as best as possible, but it was challenging. I think we'll be looking for sub-180 meters spacing, at least on the contact skarns. We're probably not going to get to an indicated resource next, but we'll have a much more higher confidence in inferred resource that we might be able to look for a scoping study or something like that.
What's the timing for that?
The timing, I think this year we'll do the 20,000 m that Stefan's spoken about. That'll be done, I think, by Q3, I'd imagine. We'll look at the resource, we'll review it, and then we'll make a call on the next steps, and if it'll be a resource update and then leading into a PEA, or it'll be a resource and we'll continue drilling. We just don't know the footprint. We don't know the size yet. I think we really have to understand how big the system is before we start getting into too detailed a mining study.
Just to add on that, with this first phase after the discovery of, after I would say confirmation of our geological understanding and model, the first phase was aiming to have a good constraint and very good control on the geology. So we achieved that. There are holes that are not included in the resource because of the distance, but we're quite confident that by infilling, we won't have serious interruptions. We might have displacements because of structures, but next phase will aim that we have to fill the gaps in between and try to extend to north and south. Not try. I think we'll extend it. It's a matter of technical challenges that Ross is speaking, but I think we are improving on that as well. And every next hole is getting more successful. First few holes were taking two to three months each hole.
Right now, we're able to achieve one hole per month, month and a half, and I think we can get better on that.
Okay. Question in front.
Thank you. Two questions. What are the logistics or what would you have to do to do an exploration decline?
Is that a question?
Yeah.
For Iliya, maybe?
Iliya.
Logistics.
Yeah.
I mean, where are the barriers for doing that?
Logistics box.
Yeah.
What do you need to do to get an exploration decline?
Okay. I just didn't pick up the first part. Okay. Thank you for the question. The exploration decline, what are our current plans actually? That's to start from the bottom Čoka Rakita access decline, in a few hundred meters to turn in northeast and from there, actually, what we are looking to have a one permit for construction of the decline and from this to start the other exploration because that is under one and the same, say, camp. As permitting, we are looking, say, by the end of the next year, we to be able to start our latest, it's beginning of 2027, to start the decline next year we to do the prep work.
The permitting is about a year process for decline?
More or less, yeah. Yeah, more or less.
Okay. Thank you. Second question, not too worried about building Čoka Rakita because it's a small operation, fairly compact, but it's Skouries and even Olympias for we thought there was a lot of slack in the labor force in Greece and there wouldn't be a problem for skills and it turned out there was one. Okay. And then they started taking workers from different countries for Eldorado. What is your—I know this is a mining area. What is your anticipation just in terms of the build? Is there getting the right skills, etc.? Is there any problems with unions as there was at Skouries and Olympias? Any barriers like that that you worry about in building a mine?
Which unions there?
Yeah.
Yeah. Actually, we don't expect to have because so far we have a really good okay, the unions. That's our employees even now. Now we have there around 250+ people around 150 contractors, and we don't have issues. We don't have challenges. We have well-established relationships and good level of trust. That's why we don't expect. Actually, what we find now for us is not that difficult to attract people, very well-qualified people in this region. For six, seven general laborer positions, actually, we have more than 50 applications with very well-qualified and with underground experience miners.
Okay. Thank you.
Question at the back.
Yeah. Recognizing it's still early days here, Dumitru Potok and some of the other targets, but just confirming here, you're thinking access would be basically through the bottom of Čoka Rakita or would you develop separate access? And then I guess separately, are you considering sublevel cave at this point or something more productive? And maybe another way I could phrase and it's hard to tell, but would that be more of an open pit target? Can you permit open pits or are these all underground?
That's what we are targeting now is we to have this development, this exploration decline to be able to define really the our body is there. And based on that, we'll have a different access and different ventilation system, which will be separated from Čoka Rakita system. That will be two different mines. For the mining methods, the most preferable from social perspective is open stoping with backfill, sub-level stoping with backfill. That's from the social perspective, that is the most acceptable. We didn't discount any mining methods at the moment. However, it's a bit earlier we to say exactly in which mining method we'll go to use.
And just one more, if I could, on the milling side, they're just confirming you are thinking about a separate mill and separate tailings?
Yes. Yes.
Great. Thank you.
Okay. There's any other questions on the Čoka Rakita or the Rakita camp? I think we'll ask them now. Otherwise, we will move forward and take a quick break. It says 11:10 A.M. on the slide, but we're moving a little quickly. So we'll ask everyone to be back at 10:40 A.M. Eastern.
Okay. Thank you, everyone.
All right, everyone, we're going to pick right back up after the break. If you guys could please retake your seats. All right, welcome back. We're now going to move into Vareš, and so I'd like to invite Iliya, our Chief Operating Officer, to kick us off in that section.
Okay, welcome to Vareš Operation. Very high level. The initial operational life is around 15 years. Mill throughput capacity 850,000 tons per annum. I will not go to read all those, but just the most important, the all-in sustaining cost, how we see this at this moment and how we evaluate is around $900 per ounce. Since we took over, we take one decision. Let's stop it and rewrap everything, reshape the mine, and start mining like mining guys.
That means that the deposit, the design, and everything was for sub-level stoping with backfilling, with no backfill paste fill plant constructed, and starting from top down. Or if I can take this bottle, the things being like that, we said, "Okay, let's stop it," and for those four months, put the things back how should be. We prioritize the decline and vent raises. I may come back to this later on, just to use this light. We start pushing the declines to go to the bottom of the mine, of the Block 2, what you can see. We will be there by the end of November 2026.
We are planning to restart the production from January 2026 and split the main ore body in two ore blocks, like block one and block two, and at the same time, the developed axis is to block four and block three in Rupice northwest part. Why we're doing this? First, to put the things right there where they need to be. The open stoping, sub-level stoping with backfilling, the required bottom-up. Second, to utilize the mine waste which we will produce for backfill and to give time to construct the backfill paste plant, which now is under construction. In between those two blocks, block one and block two, and as well block three and block four, we're planning to leave seal pillars, same as in Chelopech.
We already learned there how we do very efficiently to extract those pillars without any significant challenges related to ground stability or dilution and ore losses. Exactly the same knowledge we will apply there. I will go back now to infill drilling. We're busy to increase the density of the drilling. At the moment, the mesh is 40 by 40. We're looking to, with infill drilling, to be able to achieve 15 by 15 or maximum 20 by 20. At the moment, we have one drill rig. The second one is in mobilization. Beginning of January, that also will start January 2026. In total, we are looking to drill between 50,000 m- 55,000 m for the next three years. However, we're looking to accelerate this program. At the moment, we completed the drilling, which is needed to cover the first half of production of next year.
We're planning the production rates by the end of the Q3; we'll be on 850,000 tons on an annual basis. By the end of the Q3 and all Q4, we'll be on that design production levels. What makes us sure we will be able to achieve this? We already accelerate the development rates. We already are over 415 m per month only on the declines. At the same time, the sub-level development for the next year production is already completed from January. Where we will start blasting, that's the stope. I don't know how that works, the laser. With this one. Yeah, you can see. That's where we will start from January, February, March next year, from bottom-up of this.
Just as benchmarking in Chelopech, our cost per m for 25 sq m waste development fully supported with mesh, shotcrete , and split sets, including the labor costs, is around $2,200 per m. In Vareš, at the moment, we are targeting that. We're around $4,500. Where is coming this big difference? It's predominantly from drilling, blasting patterns, and efficiency. When you drill 4 m and you have a 2.5 m advance, actually, you have 1.5 m wasted. We already have great, great results with the optimization of the drilling and blasting patterns. We're working directly with our blasting suppliers there, with Maxam, to train the local workforce and improve their skills. For December, actually, next week, we'll start the blasting tests for the production rings with the same aim to optimize the drilling blasting patterns and to be able to secure the ground stability.
Not because we have concerns. We don't have concerns about that, but the aim is if we need to pre-support something, that's to be pre-supported before we start production, even during the development rates. You already can see how it's looking now. At the moment, different kind of fill backfill was tested there, cemented rock fill, cemented aggregate fill, and also the paste backfill, but paste backfill was not done in the industrial scale. When I talk about the ventilation, all those, which is the red, that's what we are looking to be, or that's what is our ventilation design. We're busy to develop this vent decline as well. That is the access to Rupice northwest for those blocks here, and also you can see the system of the return air raises. How we are planning to do that?
We are already in the discussions with our contractors from Chelopech for raise boring, and we are expecting within the end of January to have a finalized contract with them to cover all our needs there as well. The first slot raise with the optimized pattern was blasted, and the difference is less than 5% between design and the actual, which is close to perfect. Any questions about infill drilling, mineral resources improvement?
Yeah, thank you very much for the update. Just confirming what you said was going to be ready by November 2029. And in terms of next year, any sort of guidance in terms of how we could think about the year, like first half, back half, weighted production by tons?
By 2029, we will complete the entire infill drilling program.
For the next year, for the first half of the year, we already cover with the drilling, and within December, January, February, we'll cover the second half of the year with infill drilling. Okay, just a moment. I will go there. Okay. From here, the mine looks very twisted. Okay, with the decline, we're here. We're passing the Rupice northwest access, and we're planning to start the production from here at all that is developed, and we're ready there. That will come from this sub-level, and in the end of the year, two stops from here. November, December, we'll be here, 835 level,
and then as we ramp production throughout the year to reach the targeted throughput rate by Q4, can you talk about how that throughput will be ramping up?
Yeah. Okay. Quarter by quarter, we're looking to ramp up.
In September next year, we're looking on monthly production rates to be equal to 850,000 tons per annum, which is 70,000-75,000 tons per month. September, October, November, December.
Okay. Jeremy, you have a question?
Yeah. Just a quick confirmation. That 50 km-55 km of drilling you're planning to do, that's all infill? Whole?
One back. Yep.
Okay. So that's just infill to be carried out over the next three years. I'm assuming we'll talk about exploration a bit later.
That is not the original exploration. That is just infill drilling. Or say grade control plus resource development drilling.
Okay. Clear. Thank you.
All right. The question was about what do we expect to be the ramp rate.
So what we said is that we're going to, given we've only had the asset now for three months, we're going to update the 2026 outlook at the end of February. So this is with the Q4 results. And we'll also give the three-year outlook. But just in principle, we're basically at the bottom of block one. 90% of the production comes from block one next year. So basically, what we'll be doing sort of at that activity is we'll ramp up. So the first quarter will be significantly less than the second quarter, and at the end of the third quarter, we'll be at a full production rate at 850,000 tons per year annual equivalent. Fourth quarter is fully at that rate. So excuse me. We'll give more clarity about what that is with the 2026 update. So at this point, we have those plans in place.
We've developed to the point we need. We'll start mining early in the new year. We're already testing the blasting patterns and with the explosives provider and the support that will go into that. All of this is intended to be able to give us what we're looking for in these blasts at the right efficiency with the right fragmentation. It's cold as crazy. All right, so with the right dilution and so on, so we're pretty confident about where we've got to three months in. We completely refocused the activities at the mine, focused on decline development rather than it was more lateral development, and secondary consideration was decline development. We've done that successfully. We're working with the teams to be able to make the change from an expat labor force to a local labor force, so we've been recruiting in order to make that happen.
And where we have people already in place, basically working through the process to have people competent and capable of doing this. And we're doing that with a mix of different teams. So we brought people in from Chelopech. And you might look at this in consideration of what's going to be happening with Čoka Rakita as well. So what we're doing here is we're testing the operational readiness that we prepared for Čoka Rakita. And the lead of operational readiness and the former general manager of Ada Tepe, previously the maintenance lead for Chelopech. So we've got this broad background of expertise. That person is actually there at the moment working with Iliya and the team in order to support the development of these skills.
What I'm saying is that between the teams that we brought in from Chelopech, some external support in terms of professional services, we're very happy with the way we've been progressing the different elements of this work such that we'll be able to do two things. One is to achieve the expected levels of efficiency in terms of both development and mining and also transfer those skills. It's largely going to be a local labor force able to do this. At the moment, we've got around 85 expats at site. We anticipate that reducing dramatically during the course of next year, which has two benefits.
One is better local ownership, of course, as people start to feel the benefit of our mining in this area, but also making sure that we're bringing down the costs associated with this initial commissioning and development of the mine that is associated with bringing experienced people as expats. So I would say overall, there was one slide in there that you skipped through that I think is really important in all of this. Everything that we're doing has been very clearly focused on making sure that not just our employees, but our stakeholders are very engaged in this future. So we've been reaching out actively to the communities and the leadership and looking to make sure that we develop constructive relationships for the future of this asset. That has a number of impacts, but one of them is what was just touched on a few moments ago.
That's making sure we got the right exploration opportunities where we feel there's real potential. Northwest of this asset is certainly one area where we feel there's good opportunity, and that's associated with Kakanj. What you see here is the opening of a new information center that we did in the course of the last quarter in the original engagements that we've had there. David, any questions?
Dave, we have one from the webcast. Just in terms of what are we thinking in terms of optimizations beyond reaching nameplate throughput? There was talk at one point from the previous owner about expanding up to 1.3 million tons per annum. How are we thinking about that in terms of how we're prioritizing the work? Do we think there is that opportunity to increase throughput beyond 850 tons?
Yeah.
So the first thing that we do is make sure that we're fully utilizing what we've got. So if you think about it, when we first arrived, there were a few different things that were constraints that we need to make sure that we released. So the first one was tailings. So getting in place a tailings facility for the first five years and preparing for the second five years of operation was a priority. The other thing is making sure that we're utilizing the metallurgical facility, which has been a constraint to date, and also the haulage, making sure we're using this effectively. So it's not just the mine, it's also the haulage, it's also the metallurgical facility and the tailings.
So the way to fully optimize that is not to start by thinking you're going to expand, but to figure out what you can actually do with what you've got. We're pretty good at this in terms of an operating company. We pride ourselves on our ability to optimize. So what we've done first is by going to bottom up rather than top down, that straightaway gives you some efficiencies in terms of costs. So if you ever look at the PFS, we talked about moving from $130 a ton to $100 a ton. And with that, you also get two things. You get better ore body recovery and you get reduced dilution. So now think about what that means when you come out of the mine using the haul road. For the same amount of transportation, you're getting more ounces moved across to the mill.
Similarly, if the mill is constrained, you're better utilizing the capacity of the mill and the same with the tailings facility. So the first thing for us is let's get everything working the way it should. Now, by moving into zone one, zone one is actually a little higher in grade than what is the overall resource grade for the ore body. So we've already said, because we'd sort of heard comments that people may be a little worried about whether we're going to achieve the PFS. It's one of the reasons why we came out and not giving numbers, but we said, "We're going to beat on tonnage, we will beat on grades." And the bottom line of that is that's going to mean there's going to be more ounces coming out next year.
But just to be clear, we'll clarify exactly what that's going to be in the information that will come out at the end of February. But we're very confident about our ability to do this. And everything so far in terms of the work that we've done is supporting this. So now to get to the idea of, well, what do you do after? Do you consider opportunities to expand? I think, first of all, we've got our focus fully set on let's get efficiency where we are. That's, like I said, going to decrease costs by about 30%. So that's already a pretty significant change if you can make that happen. But on top of that, we'll also realize there'll be other opportunities for efficiencies. So from that, then we'll determine the next steps. So during the course of next year, we're putting in an additional tailings filter.
It's already been expanded from 50 to 55 place before we took over. That should get close to the full capacity requirement of the mill. And this previously was a constraint. In addition to that, we've got a second mill going, sorry, second tailings filter going in in the second half of the year. So they'll totally release that constraint. In terms of milling, there are some constraints, but we can have a look at what we can potentially do in terms of comminution between blasting, fragmentation, crushing, and milling in order to optimize that in terms of both costs and efficiencies. So the bottom line is that very much a work in progress.
But as you've seen where we built Chelopech to 2 million tons, and then within two years, we're at 2.2 million tons, I think that's more what you might expect from our activities as opposed to just jumping to something that's bigger. Now, having said that, we are going to be looking at exploration, looking to develop our understanding of the ore body, looking to extend beyond the 15 years that we have in the PFS. And obviously, as we do that, we'll look at how we debottle and how we look to create future value. So I'll pause there. Other questions?
Okay. There's a question about one slide we haven't touched on yet, which is about the paste backfill plant. Just in terms of timing and how does that factor into the ramp-up that we expect in 2026?
The plan is the paste backfill plant to be commissioned and fully operational by the end of the Q2. We will need this from a production point of view in the middle of Q3. So far, everything is on track. The stalls, which will be opened the first quarter and the second quarter, will fill with cemented rockfill from the waste which we produce from the declines. Is that answered?
Yeah. Okay.
And as David said, our focus now is to fix the base, then to optimize, and then to look for the opportunities to make the next step of the increasing of the production and productivity.
Excellent. Another question, just in terms of one of the things that DPM highlighted in the initial phases when we talked about the acquisition was the strategy around expats and bringing in and developing the local labor.
Can you talk a little bit about how that has progressed over the past three months and what are our plans in respect of talent development?
Okay. Thank you for the question. Yes, we started with 85 expats. At the moment, we are 77. We are looking by mid-next year to be on half of those. And by the end of the next year, we will have around 10 to 12 expats, which are the future trainers for Čoka Rakita. That's what we are looking for. Where we are with the training, so far at the moment, all frontline supervisors, the chief bosses, and my captains, all of them are locals. The superintendents level, all of them, excluding one, are local. At the moment, we have a training program, which we take people from Čoka Rakita to Chelopech. And also, we have trainers from Chelopech to Čoka Rakita, sorry, to Vareš.
We have from Chelopech to Vareš, the trainers. Just again, I will go to the development rates on the declines. Six months ago, the rate was around 15 m-20 m per month. Our last month, November, finished with 415 m. I will say we are well on track with training local people. That was 450 now versus what was the first number? Around 15 m-18 m in the decline, five, six months. Yeah. 12 months ago. I usually leave this kind of for almost the end of the presentation because for us, that is the base, but also the future of the base of the current and the future of the company everywhere where we are. The stakeholder engagement, I will translate to the mining worlds. Those stakeholders are our employees. Those employees are our best agents of influence.
They are our best representatives. We've been able to open the information center in Kakanj, and why that is very important for us? If you see here on the right side where the block three is written, that's where is the border to Kakanj municipality. With establishing and developing trustful relationships, we are looking to unlock for exploration activities this part. What is the difference between Bosnia and the rest of the Balkan countries? Actually, a lot of things depend on municipalities. They give permits, not from the upper levels in the government, and there is a great potential to increase the life of mine. If you look from this, that is right side. In reality, that is northwest. Let me show. Yeah, the Vareš is the operation is here.
We have a potential to increase here, but also a great camp, which in a few minutes, I will give a chance to my colleague Stefan to talk a little bit more about that. At the moment, we had several meetings with the local authorities. Each one of those meetings been very positive. During those meetings, we invite authorities to come and to visit Chelopech. They to understand what we are looking for and what kind of standards we are operating. Just two days ago, they've been deputy ministers level, plus the lead persons from different directorates, different inspectorates from Bosnia, six people in total, including mining, including environmental, and including the geology. Of course, they've been surprised what they saw in Chelopech. But what was the most important thing? They said, "We're pretty sure you will have the same standards there.
Otherwise, you will not invite us here." Now we have a base to hold you accountable on. And again, what they said, "You have our full support to modernize the mining industry in Bosnia and to attract more investors."
Okay. Okay. Should we move to exploration?
If there are no more questions about that, I will ask Stefan just to step up to talk about. Oops. Sorry, too fast. If you went from there, you can.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Leah. Well, a few things to say on the exploration potential here. We have a very significant land package. We're talking for over 40 sq km of exploration ground. The people before us were good in acquiring land. So the permitting regime in the country is quite favorable. Getting permits for drilling takes just, again, similar to Serbia, just a couple of weeks or a month.
What we are planning, and it's already going on, is really to relook on the model of what this deposit means. I'm not a fan of drilling for the sake of drilling. Filling gaps with drill holes is costly and doesn't bring much success except if you're very, very lucky. We want to continue the effort, and the team is quite competent on that and confident to build up a model, and we explore based on the model. So far, the Rupice mine, it's considered as aesthetics. What I see there on the very first look is that we have an overprint of something that looks like VMS, and for those of you that have exploration experience, should understand that the exploration potential and the way we look on exploration is completely different, so we're stepping back now. It doesn't mean that we won't be drilling.
You see that we have 20,000 m for next year planned. But we have to spend this money and mine it smart. So we're going to start from brownfield exploration, near mine. As Leah was saying, expand to the northwest when we have the permits. But meanwhile, do all the testing that we have in this Rupice West license that you see. We have some very good geophysical signatures. We believe that there might be some deeper potential as well. So we're going to start from the known towards the unknown, expand all over the belt that you can see it's spreading almost 15 km along this northwest-southeast track. One important thing to highlight here is that in this belt, we have multiple deposits of different styles. We have a siderite iron ore mine in the middle. We have several occurrences that have been mined in Saxon time, I think.
And they've never been followed up. We start seeing some zonation on the metal endowment. We see more copper going south, but it's still to come. We have to build up the concept. We have to build a model and start thinking based on that, what else is there. We see already some copper endowment structures at surface. There is a mapping crew doing that basic work now. So if I have to use Iliya's rhetoric, I would say that we are trying to, let's stop and do the exploration the way that exploration people do it. We have to be really smart and develop a concept, and then the company is quite keen to fund any next step. So this 20,000 m, I see them just as touching the ground. And if we find something of significance next year, we'll increase that budget as much as it's needed.
Stefan, where do you think the greatest potential in terms of resource expansion will be for the various land package?
Yeah, of course, we'll be looking for the near-mine opportunities first. We have a high-contrast geophysical anomaly just southeast of the known deposit. Of course, once we have the permits to go northwest, we'll do that as well. But expanding the resource of near-mine is our high priority. We'll continue going further southeast. Of course, depending on distance and infrastructure, we might be talking for a completely different mine in the future. But for now, exploration potential is all over this Dinarides belt. The geology is there. It's complicated. It will take time to realize structures and all that. But we're planning some geophysics in that respect as well.
So potential, I would say, if I have to answer shortly, it's all the way in this white polygons that you see. But we'll start from the northwest. Next year will be focused to expand along the belt.
All right. Is there any questions in the room regarding Vareš? Yeah. Yeah. So the question was, what was the historical problems with Kakanj and why hasn't the previous owner been able to drill?
I will say they had a different approach to the local communities. And for me, that was a strange way to build a trust. I will not go to comment their actions. They did it what they did it. That's why they didn't be able to go and explore or do whatever they. Our approach is, I will say, quite opposite.
First, we build a trust, then we start educating people what we're looking for, and then we go and do it. If I recall now, for three and a half months already, we presented there, we have a good progress with building the trust. And the recent visit is just one of the examples. We were planning to organize a visit for local municipalities leaders in Q1 next year to Chelopech again. They to come and to see. They have a great experience with the coal mining. They don't have, I will say, almost any experience with the hard rock underground, hard rock mining. They used to have a lot of open pits, hard rock open pits like iron and lead and zinc, but not underground. For underground, for them, means coal mining.
What are the key issues that the community is concerned with?
I will say like everywhere else, water, air pollution, and the employment. That's what is.
Okay. So nothing in particular that sticks out or you could say at Loma Larga, it's the water. There's no overarching concern that.
I will say that is not concerns about us. That's been concerns about the whole mining industry, how during the communist time, how the mining companies used to operate without not that much care, what will be after them or when production is completed. That's why we pay attention a lot to invite it to not to tell them we will do this or the other. We say, "Come and see how we operate.
Come and talk with our guys over there, not just with our guys like our employees, but also with our stakeholders because our languages are not that different and they can talk in between." By the way, three years ago, we organized similar visit from Žagubica municipality to Chelopech and the people. We just let them for almost half day to go to speak with the local guys outside of us. Then what can be more open and more transparent than that?
For anyone who's not aware, Žagubica is a community located close to the Čoka Rakita project.
Čoka Rakita. Yeah. Thanks for that.
Got it. Thank you.
All right. All right.
Realizing you've only had the asset for three months, but has there been any surprises to the positive or on the other side to the negative or anything that you can see maybe taking longer than you had originally kind of expected?
That is like you buy a house, you always will find something there. Yes, we did it very deep, very detailed due diligence. That's why I will say surprises, not. But yes, we find different things after we took over because one thing is you to be there for two, three days, completely different thing is you to be every day, 24 hours. If I can say surprise, that will be more on this perspective, the willingness of locals to take they to take the lead. They've been, if I can classify or if I can reword like that, somehow they've been negligent, neglected, not negligent.
They've been neglected. I had some kind of doubts because the change when the local superintendents took over, the date was the 6th of October. Actually, since then, you can see a lot of progress on the ISO implementation of the standards, any kind of standards, safety, even the working relationships, how people interacting between them. One symbol now, which is easy, when you go there, you rarely will see somebody stay on surface. Then previously, that what was the common. To blast a face, the decline face, and to wait 36 hours for ventilation, that means something. Your ventilation is not sufficient. They had a great, even much more vent capacity, but when you don't regulate those, we can put in a big fan here, close all windows and doors, will not do anything, just will burn power. It just will run.
That's why I will say that was a really good surprise if we can talk about the surprises, how people been ready to step up and how honest they are when they say, "I don't know that, but I like to learn."
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
Just related to some of the other questions. This is a historic mining area with a lot of pits. What legacy issues are there for the area, if there is any, whether it's water or any other contamination? And how, if at all, does that impact what's been done so far in terms of building this mine?
If we can talk about the legacy, there are two kinds of legacies. One of the legacies during the communist time, how the mining industry used to operate in all this part of the world. In this legacy, we have a great support from any authority.
They understand that that is not created by us. And that's the things which are 60, 70, or 80 years old. They're far away from the mine. However, they're looking from us to implement high-level standards and they to be able to learn from these standards and to apply even in their own operating mines. The second kind of legacy is from the previous owner from Adriatic. Again, if I can classify this legacy, they miss one very significant, very important step during development of the project, and that is the operational readiness. And as legacy, been built something like that, okay, if you have this. Operational readiness. Readiness, yeah. Or you just need to build something and that will start to operate itself just like that. Then so far, I think we've been very successful to explain and educate people. You need this.
You don't get even if you buy a new car for the first two, three, four, five days, even a week, you drive this little bit careful until you learn how to drive. That's what is the operational readiness, and that's what was made. That's why I don't classify this like legacy. Of course, there are things which didn't be looked from the operational point of view, and that's why we redesign or reorganize the things. That's what is done. One of the things is with the asphalt, put the asphalt on the roads. Of course, that's manage the dust, manage the water, and also increase the efficiency of the trucking. So far, all these which are to the local villages, all that was asphalted. People been really, really happy when they see this. You come and the good things start happened. That's what was the feedback.
The other road between Rupice mine and the Veovača process plant, around 70% we've been able to complete the asphalt. Because now there is already winter, when is the spring come, when the snow is melted, we'll finish, let's say, by mid next year, all that will be completed. There was also one temporary tailings facility which we need to remove. We started around 40% of that is removed. That's what was the critical part. The rest, March-April, we'll remove for the same reason because it's snow.
The water quality in the surrounding communities, in the whole areas, is reasonably good.
Water quality is good. It's drinking. It's drinking water. Again, our approach is the same like in Chelopech and Ada Tepe. The water is a very, very key resource, not just for us. That is for everybody. Everybody needs drinking water.
Thank you.
As we've kind of dived in more on Q&A, we did get a broader question over the webcast. Just looking at our Loma Larga project, has there been any progress on government talks or an arbitration decision regarding the canceled environmental permit for Loma Larga? I think we'll have Nikolay Hristov, our SVP of Sustainable Development, who is leading the Loma Larga project, will take that question.
Yeah. Thanks, Jennifer. Thanks for the question. We maintain all the options open for now, and what I'm going to say is that it's important for now to let the situation depoliticize, and we're looking, obviously, not only on the next step that we need to take on, but also for the whole journey until this mine is actually put in operation, so not in a hurry to get into and making a decision for now.
It's important for the emotions to calm down, where after that, we can engage with stakeholders and have a constructive dialogue.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? Yeah, Eric.
Just a quick question on Vareš and the tailings. Can you remind me you built a new road, I think? Is that correct? And how's the tailings capacity there? And I guess that road's in service now. I guess you're trucking, are you? Is that right?
At the moment, the current tailings facility which is permitted, the first stage is permitted, which secures five years of production. And we're busy to design, actually to review the design and complete the permit for the second stage, which will give another five years.
And then can you just remind me with Ada Tepe winding down next year, can you just remind me of what sort of the remediation sort of cost, timing, and plans are there?
Okay. The mining operation will be completed by middle of April. First week of July, the whole mining material will be processed. And since then, we'll start the final closure and rehabilitation, which is planned for in total for 18 months, say, till end of 2027. And after that, have a period of three years post-closure monitoring. Post-closure monitoring of the water quality.
What's the estimated sort of cost over that period?
I will come back to you.
Yeah. It's EUR 14.5 million.
For the closure?
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that was EUR 14.5 million total closure liability. Okay.
If there are no further questions, just a reminder for those of us in the room, we'll be serving lunch shortly after the close of the formal presentation. But for now, I'd like to invite Dave to come back up and provide some closing remarks.
Thank you. Thanks very much, everybody. So we've had a chance to walk through some of the details of what it is that we're doing, but maybe let's just step back for a moment. So if we have a look at the acquisition of Vareš and we look at the add-on to what we got with Chelopech, there's a couple of things to know. So the first of all, next year, you can see that we've got the groundwork in order to extend the reserve life at Chelopech beyond 10 years. Historically, this has been eight years.
And then if you look at the resources with a typical conversion rate, you're looking at 15 years in total. So we're looking to really push that out. And we're doing that by virtue of increasing the real estate and the opportunities by getting these additional licenses moved through to concessions. And we're also looking a little more creatively at what have been the previous lines of thought that you might test in order to be able to find additional material, which is a good example of how something that previously we thought was not an opportunity has now turned out to be an opportunity. So bringing together Chelopech plus Vareš is our two operations in 2027 when we're on full production with both. We'll be at 425,000 equivalent ounces per year, gold equivalent ounces. And then with Čoka Rakita on top of that, we're anticipating commencing in 2029.
That's going to be in the first few years at a rate, depending on when we start up in the year, closer to 200,000 ounces per year over and above the equivalent ounces at 600. So we're starting ahead now towards the 800,000 ounces per year. Then you've got Dumitru Potok, and it's very early yet. But I think the idea that by 2032, 2033, we'll have something coming in from that at this point, early days, but that's the type of thing that I think is realistic. Let's talk about some of the other things that we're doing. So at the same time that we're looking at using our current plans, and basically, if you look at Vareš, we're lifting and shifting what it is that we've learned in the operation in terms of both the preparation for Ada Tepe and the routine operation at Chelopech.
We're taking that across to Vareš and building on the work that's been done by Adriatic. Some of that work, by the way, has been very good. Some of it leaves room for optimization. Of course, that's exactly what we're doing. Bringing in things like short interval controls, basically the practices that we have, that's been something we've been able to recognize and prepare for. Keep in mind, we're preparing for Čoka Rakita. We're now basically having a chance to refine that with Vareš to once again pass on to Čoka Rakita after this. We're pretty excited about the way all this is working together. It's building out a high-margin portfolio, not just ounces, but high margin, similar to what we've had at Chelopech and Ada Tepe historically.
So we're pretty excited about the ability to generate a free cash flow that supports our growth ambitions going forward. So if we come back then, and unless there are any other questions, as we bring today's events to a close, I just want to reiterate that we're really excited about the way it is that we've managed to translate some of these opportunities into this future outlook in terms of production. The progress we've shared with you today reflects the dedication and expertise of our team. And I just want to reiterate what Iliya has been saying and others have been saying.
Our team, we see, and the ability to do what we do is very much down to how we integrate and we actually talk to our shareholders and we take them along on the journey so that they're excited to see this impact on their future as much as we're interested in seeing it impact on ours. We're very confident in the foundation that we've built and combined with our existing growth prospects and financial position. We do believe this will allow us to deliver our growth ambitions and generate strong returns for our investors. Something that I would like to do before we conclude is I'd like to take a moment to recognize two of our team members that we sadly lost this year. So one is Peter Gillin, our Chair, and I'm happy to see Andrew join us today. Thank you for making the time.
And also Paul Ivascanu, who we lost unexpectedly recently, who was our VP of exploration. Both played important roles in shaping the achievements we're discussing today, and we're deeply grateful for their contributions, and they will always remain a part of our success story. Other than that, what I would like to do is thank you again for joining us today, both in person and online, and we look forward to sharing more milestones with you in the months ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.