Hello, and welcome to Endeavour's Capital Markets event. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Martino De Chichio, and I am Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations. The past few years have been transformational for our business and we're now about to take another important step forward. Over the coming days, we will obtain our listing on the London Stock Exchange.
We expect this will be a strong catalyst as we will be able to appeal to a wider group of investors with a deeper pool of capital. This will see us become the largest pure gold producer on the Primus segment of the LSC. Today's agenda has been put together with the goal of explaining how our business is poised to deliver strong shareholder returns across the cycles. We have made this event as engaging as possible with virtual site visits to operations, 3 d tours, videos and guest appearances. For those who are new to the story, we'll be presenting our unmatched competitive advantage, our high quality portfolio and our exciting growth pipeline as well as our ESG strategy.
For those who are more familiar with the Endeavour story, We'll be providing an update of our integration of our recently acquired assets, our 5 years outlook, as well as presenting our new capital allocation framework, which will highlight our enhanced focus on rewarding shareholders. Before we get started, I'd like to draw your attention to the disclaimer and forward looking statements. And now I'd like to welcome Sebastien.
Thank you, Martino. Pleasure to be with you today on the cusp of our U. K. Listing. This moment is the culmination of several years of hard work and marks the full turnaround of our business.
Given that our business has significantly changed over the last few years, I thought the best place to start would be to look at our footprint across West Africa, where we've put together a great portfolio of assets. We now have 7 operating mines, Six development projects and one of the largest land positions in the underexplored West African Berimian Greenstone Belt. Our growth has elevated us to senior gold producer status globally. But most importantly, It makes us the largest gold producer in West Africa, which has now become the 2nd largest global gold producing region. As we will cover in the next section, this gives us unmatched competitive advantage.
Given the rapid change in our business, I thought it would be interesting with the next few slides to give you a brief overview of our positioning against peers. While we are a senior producer based on production size, we're particularly proud of our cost structure relative to our peers. Our position on the cost curves ensures that we are resilient across cycles with the ability to self fund our organic growth while maintaining a strong shareholder returns program. Our cost structure is helped by our strategic focus in the region, which allows us to save costs and realize material synergies, including on supply chain and people. We are proud of the company we have built, and we believe that we are very attractively positioned within the sector.
Our capacity to produce at low cost It's supported by the geological potential of West Africa. We have focused ourselves on building high grade mine and discovering high grade resources, which has led to an increase in our group average reserve grade. At 1.87 grams per tonne, Our grades are more than 30% higher than the global average reserve grade. This enhances our profitability To a lower environmental intensity, our business is underpinned by access to renewable energy sources and relatively green grid power sources And operational efficiency. The chart indicates our relative position on emissions intensity, which we are focused on improving.
Our operations already outperformed many in the sector, but being good isn't good enough. We're currently exploring several alternatives For further reducing our environmental impact, including investments in solar power. Our target is to continue to reduce our emissions intensity and keep our position among the industry leaders. Next, let's move on to our relative valuation benchmarked against other senior gold companies. We're trading at an attractive price to cash flow multiple and have the highest free cash flow yield in the sector, which we believe is because the market has yet to factor in the free cash flow generation of the new company we've created in such a short period.
Also, as we will show you later on, Endeavour is a business with embedded growth options. Our goal has been to run our business like Any other business, regardless of the industry we are in. Given the decisions we have taken, we are proud to be able to compete for capital not only within our own industry, but against other sector. We didn't want to repeat the errors made by others in the last bull run, where companies focused on growth for the sake of growth. Costs rose and shareholders did not see much benefit.
Today, the industry is in much better shape. In fact, the best it's ever been. Gold miners are generating healthy cash flows, are paying dividends, building up their balance sheets and are focused on improving the quality of their portfolio rather than only chasing growth. This bodes well for our industry, which is small compared to other sectors. We, of course, all need to remain disciplined.
Before moving into the description of our business, we thought it would be interesting to remind you Why we are so bullish on West Africa. We've been building up our competitive advantage in the region for the last 5 years and now have reached a status where I believe that this competitive advantage is unmatched. We truly believe that this creates a sustainable competitive advantage for our business, which will be able to reward shareholders for many years to come Across cycles. From the stats you see on this page, the opportunity for the gold sector and Endeavour in particular in West Africa It's truly exceptional. West Africa is the 2nd largest region for gold production globally and was the top region globally For new gold discovery over the past decade, Enneva's track record of successfully building and operating operations here Over many years sets us apart.
We are now the largest producer in each of the 3 countries where we have operations. We account for 20% of the total exploration spend in the region. Moreover, the $2,000,000,000 of investments made in the region over the last 5 years, Buy Our Minds and Projects has created sustainable value for local communities and governments, which now gives us a strong social license to operate. You can see here how production has been growing in the region over the past 30 years From less than 1,000,000 ounces in 1990 to over 12,000,000 ounces today. While most of the production has historically come from Ghana, You see here that most of the recent production growth has come from Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.
This is why we focused on these countries and are now the largest in each of them. We expect West Africa to continue to grow faster than other regions in the world, helped in part by the significant exploration spending we have planned over the next 5 years. Our competitive advantage Starts with the region's significant underexplored geological potential. This is a high growth region where Endeavour is exceptionally well positioned To deliver growth for our shareholders. Let's now shift to look at gold production by region.
While West Africa is the 2nd largest region now With continued investments, we anticipate West Africa will overtake China as the largest global producing region for gold in the near future. Given the golden opportunity in West Africa, 6 out of the top 10 senior gold producers have a presence in the region. Given you might think that we are a bit biased given our exposure to the region, we thought it would be interesting to also hear it from someone else who has significant success in West Africa. In fact, this person built the blueprint on how to operate in the region and today continues to focus on the region. Mark Bristow, who is now the CEO of Barrick.
Over to you, Mark.
So West Africa is one of the most Prolific gold regions, I call it a province, the Permian of West Africa, and it's delivered more than any other region around the world when it comes to new discoveries. And I built Randgold resources on the back of The West African, Burmian Gold Potential. When I started in the early 90s, it was risky, Much more risky than it is today. And I've always said that, for instance, Mali, which is the very foundation on what we built Randgold Resources has always been a country with risk. It worried me most, But it's the country that's delivered the most as far as our exploration success goes.
When you operate in the emerging markets, and in particular, the sub Saharan region, You can only really prosper and be successful if you have a license to operate. It's a very complicated environment in which to operate and you need a license to operate. And so certainly, we In Randgold Resources and now Barrick, it took us decades to earn that license. And again, we would never have done the deal with Sabodala if we didn't believe and then encourage The Onward consolidation with Endeavor, we would have never done that if we didn't feel those two companies Had the ability to operate with a real license to operate in West Africa. I'm a big believer in consolidation of the industry.
Barrick Randgold Merger Started that process. I've been talking about it for years now. And then we led the consolidation of the Nevada assets, That's the Newmont and Barrick, Nevada assets, which have been talked about for a long time, never really happened to create the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture. And then subsequent to that, we had a number of Consolidation in the industry and Massawa took a decade to really bring to account. And the big debate around Massawa was, it was a significant deposit, but we had Sabodala right next door.
And I don't believe that you end up building a big mistake in gold mining is that We build mines right next door to each other, and we don't really utilize the capital base. And Sabodala had It's got a fantastic bit of infrastructure. It had everything that you need to process the ore in Massawa Initially, and then you could add a bit to it. So it made sense to partner with Taranga at the time and join all those deposits together And process them through 1 processing facility. The Endeavour consolidation in West Africa Chichio.
It was always an inevitable occurrence. I've spoken to Sebastian, the CEO of Endeavour, many times over that Consolidation, he started it, and I was privileged enough to be able to help Endeavour consolidate further. And now we have a real West African focused gold mining company, which really Supersedes the Randgold brand and Endeavour now listing on the London Stock Exchange, again, Creates another significant vehicle for investors to invest specifically into West Africa.
Thanks, Mark. What has been great is that the operators in the region don't really see themselves as competitors. It is our common benefit to help each other out and to promote West Africa. Moving next, you see that within West Africa, Endeavour is the largest producer overall. While focused on West Africa as a region given its highly prospective orebodies, Endeavor is diversified across multiple countries and 7 producing assets.
Our leading position in the region Helps us maintain strong support and alignment with host governments on key issues such as security and permitting. We continue to view our host governments and communities as partners, delivering value for all. And we are well positioned to continue to support our social license through ongoing programs to improve the lives employees and other community stakeholders in the areas of our minds. Our operating model is at the core of our competitive advantage. It is unrivaled because of the size we have in the area.
Our scale allows us to set ourselves up In a different way to peers, we're not trying to manage mine based out of Perth, Vancouver, where it takes several days to get to site. We have a regional office in Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire where our group support functions are located. From here, our teams are able to reach All of our operations within a few hours using the airstrips built at each mine site. This allows us to bring both people and critical supplies to site on short notice as well as to export gold for sale In a straightforward manner, this system pivots around the main general managers who are empowered to make decisions With the support of our strong group support functions, we also gained significant benefit from our centralized technical functions, which can rapidly share best practices across operations, most of which rely on relatively similar technology and layouts. This strong operating model has yielded strong results.
On the top of this graphic, you can see that our safety performance Continues to significantly outperform the industry, showing how we mine safely. This is often a representation of how well a mine is run. Despite this strong safety approach, our objective is not just to be better than the average, It's to bring this number to 0. On the bottom of the slide, our operations have performed exceptionally well With Endeavor meeting its annual production and cost guidance for each of the last 8 years. This is very important to us.
Our goal is to remove the operating uncertainty so that investors can reap the benefits of leverage to the gold price and our growth. The next slide provides some additional detail about our exploration spend across West Africa. A total of $5,000,000,000 has been spent in the area Over the last 10 years, accounting for approximately 10% of the global exploration budget, In 2020, the region received more exploration dollars than all but Australia, Canada and the U. S, which are the sources of much of global exploration funding and as a result, receive a disproportionate share of spending. Given that exploration spend often foreshadows future production growth, West Africa has the potential to continue to be a large producing region, and Endeavour is at the forefront of driving that growth.
Here you can see that the industry has been investing in West Africa for a good reason. It ranks as the 1st globally for discoveries With nearly 80,000,000 ounces discovered in 10 years, this region is significantly underexplored compared to other regions, Which leads to attractive exploration leverage. Our stronghold in the region also positions us for exploration success. The key here is the relatively unexplored nature of West Africa and particularly Burkina Faso and Cote D'ivoire, which account for 60% of the total Greenstone Belt, but only 30% of current production. However, This is changing rapidly with 50% of total West African exploration spend now targeted on Burkina and Cote d'Ivoire, where Endeavour accounts for a significant portion of investment.
As you can see, we have a great position in 2 of the most prospective belts in the region, which are the Ity and the Hounde Belts. Here you can see our position in the Ivorian portion of the Ity Greenstone Belt, where we have exploration permits covering the full 125 kilometers Ity trend, including the Ity mine permit area. Outside of the mine permits, there are 6 additional exploration targets already identified by regional scale exploration work and which are being evaluated. It was a very competitive process to secure these elements, but given our 1st mover advantage and our operating track record, We were the obvious partner of choice. Next, you can see our permit locations in the Hounde Belt as well as the recently acquired Wahgnion area on the Benfora Greenstone Belt.
Our well consolidated land package includes 20 deposits and at least 8 identified exploration target. This land package would be the equivalent of controlling most of the Abitibi Belt in Canada. I would not be surprised if in the not so distant future, there would be a mine every 50 kilometers or so in this belt given its huge potential. So by being in the right region and having a good team, we've been able to achieve extraordinary efficiency with our exploration dollars. With more than 8,000,000 ounces of gold discovered through to the end of 2020 at a cost of less than $25 per ounce, This plays us well on track to reaching our goal of between 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 ounces of new discoveries by the end of 2021.
This was an aggressive target initially set in 2016, which at the time represented 2 times our depletion. But we wanted to bring accountability to our exploration efforts. Just as our operations team is accountable for production and cost And our project teams are accountable for CapEx and time line. Our exploration team is accountable for the dollars spent, Ciccio. Given the new assets in our portfolio, We are working on a new 5 year exploration target, which we expect to publish in September.
Now I just mentioned our project team. We have built 4 mines over the last decade with Ity, Hounde, Agbaou and Nzima, All constructed on time and within budget, while also achieving 0 LTIs during construction. The region has been a very favorable environment in which to build new mines. We've had success because the geology is simple, The terrain is simple. Infrastructure is good and the region is very mining friendly.
This means that mines can be built in another 18 months as we have done. While a good portion of our management is French, Which helps when dealing in French speaking West Africa. We also like the region beyond the geological potential because it is a favorable mining jurisdiction. Collectively, the countries in West Africa have taken proactive steps To create a stable environment for investment, the countries in which we operate are part of an economic and monetary union with a common currency, Stable fiscal and monetary policies and a common central bank. The mining codes In the region are all stable and balance the sharing of profits between miners and the state.
Because the YLT rate is based on a sliding scale based on the gold price, it means the governments Are also benefiting from the current higher gold price environment. Lastly, because the mining sector doesn't represent the bulk Of the country's GDP, this means there is less pressure on the sector as opposed to other development countries whose income is mainly driven by mining. This creates a good operating environment. To further speak about the mining sector within the region, we invited the Minister of Mines, Obukina Faso, to say a few words. Thank you, Mr.
Minister. This graphic now shows the development timeline For our key internally developed deposits, including the Kari area at Hounde and Le Plaque at Ity As well as the Fitecro project where we are currently completing a DFS. In each case, we drilled the discovery hole during 2017 With the Kari area at Hounde reaching production the most quickly following the award of the permit in 2020. At Ity, we anticipate commencing production from La Plaque during 2021. And at Fetekro, a greenfield discovery, we've generated a resource, Upgraded it to a reserve and advanced to a stage where we will have a construction ready project by the end of this year.
Leveraging our in house teams and flexible planned designs, which are able to be rapidly modified to fit various project requirements. This demonstrates our proven track record of quickly moving from first discovery to production within 3 to 5 years. This is unmatched across the globe. We can move this quickly by leveraging the benefit of the mining friendly jurisdiction, Quick permitting process, long standing partnerships and of course, the quality of our internal teams. Here you can see how all these points come together to create the competitive advantage I mentioned earlier, where we have a dominant presence in the world's 2nd largest producing region.
Our scale position allows us to realize benefits from our operating model and our teams have an exceptional track record for meeting or exceeding production, cost, Exploration and development targets over the last 8 years.
That's a strong case for West Africa. You heard it from Sebastien, but even from our guest speaker, Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick. If you want more information on the region, I invite you to check out our fact sheet and our most recent sustainability report or of course by contacting us directly. It's been very pleasing to see Sebastien describe our resilient business. I remember 5 years ago, we're marketing with investors.
We're saying, don't look at the portfolio we have today, but rather look at the potential we have and where we want to go. I will now invite Sebastien to describe that journey. It's been quite a journey. This all started back in 2016 when we joined Endeavour. At the time, we took
a look at Endeavour shareholder register, which had no blue chip investors. So we went out to ask them why. This gave a clear road map of the portfolio That would be both appealing for them and for us. Our objectives were to create a high quality portfolio With all in sustaining costs below $900 per ounce, one that could generate good levels of cash flow regardless of the gold price, Be diverse across multiple countries and mines, have at least 10 years of production visibility, Have a sizable production in the region to be able to leverage economies of scale and focus On a threshold of a 20% return on capital employed, ultimately, we wanted to be able to generate sufficient cash flow To reinvest in our business and reward our stakeholders. Following 5 years of portfolio turnaround, We have now reached this objective.
We increased our production visibility from 4 years to now over 10 years. We're producing nearly 3 times more at a cost that is slightly less than in 2015 with most importantly a return on capital employed that has increased fourfold. Our journey so far has been split up into 3 distinct phases. Our first four years were focused on organic growth And divestments, our strategy was built over 4 key levers. 1st, be good operators through operational excellence, which has seen us deliver guidance for the last 8 years.
2nd, on project development, where we've invested over $1,000,000,000 To build Hounde and Ity. 3rd, on unlocking exploration value, which has seen as discover over 8,000,000 ounces At less than $25 per ounce. And lastly, by an active portfolio management, which has seen us divest 4 non core assets. Last year, we focused on strategic consolidation, having purchased Teranga and Semapho to leverage our Strong West African operating platform. We significantly delevered ourselves, allowing us to start our shareholder returns program, which saw us paying our first dividend at the beginning of this year.
Given the organic growth potential within our portfolio, We entered this year another organic growth phase. The key difference, however, between the first phase and this one Is that now we are able to self fund our own growth through the cash flows being generated by our minds while also being able to deliver shareholder returns. Existing shareholders will certainly recognize this bubble chart. The bottom axis here is mine life, whereas the right hand axis is all in sustaining cost. Put simply, Our strategy has been to get assets into the bottom right box.
This approach is focused on owning and running the most cash generative, Highest returning mines that are long life and will generate the best returns whatever the prevailing gold price. Assets that don't fit our core criteria are divested as shown with the white circles. Looking forward, we will continue to aggressively explore with a strong focus on our recently acquired assets at Sabodola Massawa, Wahgnion, Mana and Boungou To extend their lives beyond 10 years to ensure they are contributing to our overall portfolio quality on a sustained basis.
Thanks, Sebastien. I've been referred to that bubble chart often. I can vouch that it has been very useful to explain our strategy. Before we take a tour of our assets with our COO, I'd like to touch upon the integration of the recent Semapho and Taranga acquisitions. We have rapidly integrated those assets within our West African operating platform.
And as mentioned during our Q1 webcast, We're on track to realize nearly $100,000,000 of synergies. One of the key factors Our successful integration has been the people aspect. Our staff has grown by 80% over the last year alone. I therefore sat down with Henri, our EVP of People, to discuss this in more detail and particularly how we approached making our new employees feel part of the Endeavour family. For those of you who haven't met Henry, He is based in Abidjan and is probably the EVP who spends the most time on-site.
You've integrated 2 businesses last year. Our workforce has nearly doubled. What's been the biggest success factor in being able to integrate so many people so quick within our culture?
The key word is humility. I'm not trying to just copy paste what you did before to the new acquired assets. So we have started by clearly understanding the culture of these assets. They operated in a Different way as ours. So it was not too bad to tell them guys, you did that before, it's going to change now.
So we have adjusted our operating model, Did not change its DNA because we strongly believe that we need to have a decentralized model with strong Policies, guidelines to have consistency across the group and to make sure that we deliver our objective, but more importantly is to create a common culture And common references and for the people and for the workforce to see all the opportunities that are linked by the fact of belonging to A larger group. We just want to take the best out of the 2 worlds to create 1 world.
So social license to operate, it means a lot of things to a lot of people. But what does it mean from an HR perspective?
It's something that we have to deliver on a daily basis. It's not only a concept. And the way I see it, it starts with the recruitment strategy. So we have very long processes and policies on the matter, But I would summarize it by the closer, the better. We always try to promote Paul, internally, first, when we have a back end position, saw the interest of being a group because it increases the number of opportunities within the group, which means a lot of internal communication and HR speaking to each other so as to identify potential candidates to take another position in another site and to be promoted.
And then we hire externally, but we first hire in the country. And that's only if we do not find that we enlarge the search In West Africa or internationally.
How do you make this happen?
So first, we have a team in Abidjan, the regional HR team that provides Support and assistance to Mindsight on daily issues, daily matters as well as making sure that our strategic pillars are well applied across the board. So the strategic pillars, Therefore, one is Endeavor Care, which was created 3 or 4 years ago, and its original intention was to make sure that Each and every employee is covered by a medical insurance, him, her and the family. So that was the first step. And now we have enlarged it To make sure that we have a positive mindset across the board around health and safety. So we have a lot of communication and we work Together with the HSE department to make the Endeavour Care program the one that highlights everything that needs to be done to make sure that we operate safely.
The second program that we have launched at the end of our next program is to make sure that for every critical position, we have identified Successors and a program to train them to make sure that they are ready to take the position is called the Andeavor Academy. So we have a lot of ambition around the Andover Academy program, which is about partnering with schools. It's about soft Skills, art skills, knowledge transfer, skill transfers, and we are going to launch soon an online platform on the matter. And at the end, I think perhaps for some people this is the most important program, which is the Endeavor Rewards program, is to make sure that we Pay the people, you know the right amount and we have the right compensation scheme in place, best salary, short term incentive plan, long term incentive plan, All aligned with the objective of the company. So that's where we put in place the short term incentive plan program that cover Every employee within the group from the CEO to the lowest level of the organization.
So we have consistency across the board, and we try To have this consistency being ensured by your strong HR network that communicate each other so as to break down barriers between mine sites. We don't want to be the sum of the part. We want to be a group. We have a duty to hire locally And we are very proud of, for example, we have reduced the number of expats at both Boungou and Mana by 40 So the objective is not to oppose expats versus nationals. We are all And DevRel's employees.
But when you are an expatriate, we believe that you have an additional duty to train, to mentor, to Transfer skills and knowledge to identify successors. So it's a very important part of our HR strategy, and I think it's a very important part of
How would you define our culture today?
We have a very diverse team workforce, 52 nationalities, different horizon. We wanted to articulate what are the main Features that define Endeavor, the 4 P's, partners, pioneers, proactive, performers. So every time we take a decision within the decision making process, we need to make sure that the 4Ps are in the room.
So Henri, you spend a lot of time on-site, But I think the person who now spends the most time on-site is Goldie.
Goldie. Goldie is our mascot, and Goldie is The vector to communicate things in a positive way on mine site and not to just like Tell people that they are prohibited from doing X and Y for safety reasons, but communicate in a much more positive way. So it's a kind of funny Character that is everywhere across the board and that give a kind of a tone, Positive and nice tone at Endeavor.
You mentioned diversity earlier. How is this integrated within your HR
That's a very important point, Martino. I think it's very important that everyone within the organization, not only HR, Know that he has to deliver on the matter, on diversity. Diversity cannot only be the matter of HR. It should be the matter of everybody. So we have a lot of communication around that.
Every month, monthly reviews, business reviews, this is part of the KPI that we track. And this is part of our incentive program as well. For example, last year, we targeted to reach 10% of our workforce being women, we were at 8%, so it was a kind of an ambition, big step, and we managed it. And on top of reaching the 10%, internal communication by just saying everyone is incentivized on the fact that we need to reach that Send a very strong message internally.
Now that the integrations are complete, what's next?
I think what next is just like what makes our DNA, which is attracting, retaining talents. And more importantly, I think, is to make sure that Every employee at Andeavor, whatever his position or her position is, is happy in the morning to go to work. I think it's very important to have a very positive attitude, positive feedback from the people and to have people making sure Knowing that they can grow, they can have opportunities with Endeavour and that they have a future with Endeavour.
If you'd like to learn more, I invite you to watch the Meet Our People and Ask the Experts video series on our website. It's now time for the fun part. Let's travel to West Africa for Mark, our COO, to give us a virtual tour of our assets. Mark joined Endeavour in early 2019 following the successful build of Ity and Hounde. His arrival really marks the moment that Endeavor transitioned from being a project company to a producer focused on operational excellence.
Mark has significant operating experience in Africa across both open pit and underground mines as well as CIL, Heap Leach and Refractory Processing Circuits. Mark, over to you.
Thanks, Martino. Over the next 20 minutes, I'll take you on a virtual flyover of our portfolio of mines. But before I start, let me explain a little about how we operate. We have a very hands on management model and our executives are in West Africa frequently. It's so important to spend time on-site and in the regional offices with the various teams.
They've done an amazing job keeping our assets running throughout the pandemic and through the integration of both Semapho and Taranga. International travel is made easier by having our regional headquarters in Abidjan from where we can get to 6 out of 7 of our mines in under 3 hours. One really important aspect is the way we empower our general managers to run the operations and ensure we have the right balance of corporate oversight And support with Mine Level Decision Making. We are also very proud to have 3 West African General Managers Plus many more of our talented local professionals in senior roles on-site and in the regional offices as it is a priority for us to continue to enhance local opportunity And leadership. Safety will always be our number one priority.
Whilst we are pleased with our strong safety record, We continue to strive to improve by focusing on leading indicators, including on the ground leadership and through workplace audits and task observations. I'm really proud of what we've achieved within our portfolio, including the integration of newly acquired assets over the past 12 months. Let me now walk you through our operating mines, starting with our flagship operation, the Sabodala Massawa complex. Sabodala Massawa is a great asset with the potential to get even better. Something that really impressed me when I first visited With the self sufficiency developed by the team after many years as Taranga's only asset, some great systems have been developed Through a predominantly owner based approach to many aspects of the business, which aligns well with the Endeavour approach.
We acquired the mine in February 2021 And work to rapidly integrate the team and systems within our own operating platform. Last month, our General Manager from Hyundai transferred to Sabodala, Which was part of a planned transition as the incumbent General Manager had indicated his desire to stop expat work by the middle of the year. In 2020, Taranga acquired the adjacent Massawa permit, which hosts significant deposits of high grade refractory mineralization, which is overlaid by free milling oxide ore. This was game changing as the combined mining complex now has the potential to be a long life, low cost, top tier asset. Owner Mining is undertaken with face shovels and 100 tonne trucks with multiple open pits And at Central Processing Facility.
The team did a great job in 2020 to construct a 30 kilometre haul road and quickly establish mining at the Sofia Pits at Massawa, which now represents a large portion of the FEED. Following a number of stage expansions, the processing plant throughput has steadily increased From 2,400,000 tonnes per annum at start up to 4,400,000 tonnes per annum today and is currently equipped to treat oxide and fresh ore Via a carbon in leach circuit. Despite being more than 12 years old, the plant is in good condition and achieves very good overall utilization. The Phase 1 expansion is underway and will allow for the processing of higher grade Massawa ore more efficiently by enhancing overall carbon management associated with Increased residence time, increased elution, regeneration and electro winning capacity and finally a gravity circuit To recover free gold ahead of the carbon in leach circuit. As of late May, all civil works were completed and the first shipment of structural steel and plate work arrived, allowing assembly to commence on-site.
The additional electro awning cell is now being commissioned ahead of schedule. Phase 1 is on track for completion in quarter 4 2021. Phase 2 of the expansion will enable processing of high grade refractory ore. This incorporates a bio Chichio. Sedation plant to be located adjacent to the current Sabodala plant, as you can see here.
A feasibility study is underway with a focus on several key optimizations, including improved geometallurgical modeling and enhancements to the processing flow sheet. The timing of our Taranga acquisition was very important as it allowed us to continue with the Phase 1 expansion work and evaluate the Phase 2 PFS outcomes ahead of commencing the feasibility study. We see an opportunity to further enhance the project relative to the design considered in the PFS and look forward to sharing the results later this year. We believe that there remains a significant opportunity to further enhance our reserves at the operation, which Patrick will now speak about.
Fittingly, our largest exploration budget in 2021 is at Sabodala Massawa, where we plan to spend $13,000,000 The ultimate gain for us is similar to all our other operation, which is to increase the man life as close as possible from 10 years, While adding high grade ounces that will help to ensure the plant is operated with maximum capability for as long as possible. This is what we already achieved for Ity and Hounde and that's our goal for all the recently acquired operations. In the short term at Sabodala Massawa, we are mainly targeting non refractory ore resource. This will allow us to optimize the mine And grade profile to maximize return from the Phase 1 expansion that's supposed to be completed later this year. On the longer term, we are also looking to add to the inventory of refractory ore sources and this will provide additional feed for the Hopewell's Phase 2 expansion.
Moving to Ity, we are incredibly proud of how the mine looks today, how well it is operating and the reserves that we have, which is a large contrast to when we first acquired a stake in the mine in 2012 with only 2 years of reserves. Today, it has a very bright future with the capacity to produce at 250,000 ounces per annum over at least 10 years. Ity has been in operation for more than 20 years, starting as a small heap leach mine. Given the exploration success and change of thinking towards a higher capacity carbon in leach plant, we were able to transform the mine completely. The plant was commissioned in early 2019 And following the series of upgrades, is now operating in excess of 5,000,000 tonnes per annum.
The topography of the region is undulating, Densely wooded and has the Cavalli River snaking past many of the deposits. This requires some very careful planning for the mine layout And the projects team have done a great job to accommodate the plant, TSF and other facilities in a very compact footprint Whilst enabling scope for exploration to continue around the existing pits. We have now successfully completed 4 small river diversions to enable us to access and expand some of our pits. Ity is much more of a processing operation than a large mining operation With a low strip ratio and several smaller deposits, achieving the most optimal ore blend to the processing plant is critical, given the many ore types and sources. The tailings storage facility is designed by a reputable consultancy and is fully lined with both clay and plastic sheeting.
The walls of the dam are raised in increments every 1 to 2 years, which includes extending the clay and plastic lining. The TSF also has a leak detection system, monitoring bores and piezometers in the walls. Every year, our TSS are inspected by the Designing Consultant, who is also known as the engineer on record. La Plaque is a new discovery approximately 8 kilometers south of the processing plant with a higher average grade than our other pits. Now that the whole road has been completed, great control drilling is well underway, which places us in good position to start mining later this year.
We've been very fortunate at Ity to have so many exploration targets, which leads to extensions and merging of pits, Some of which only become possible to drill once river diversions are completed. This means that our planning and operations teams Have to be very adaptable to the changes and ensure that there is always an eye to the future with placement of waste dumps and staging of pit cutbacks. As we begin La Plaque, We are already looking ahead
at the next discoveries, which Patrick will detail. Ity is really a great Example of how our exploration platform can perform while achieving very exciting results. We have been adding over 2,100,000 indicated ounces between the end of 2016 the end of 2020. And this has allowed us to extend and expand the production profile while keeping all the costs quite low. On the right, you can see the numerous target that still remains on this extensively mineralized belt, which we control Fully, our total budget at Ity for this year is going to be $9,000,000 We are going to spend this money to replace depletion and to maintain a minimum of 10 years of mine life, While opening and delineating nearby new targets.
We think the best opportunities to do so in the short term are by continuing To extend the Le Plaque and the West Flotour deposit, the latest one being our latest discovery and also to do additional work around the D'Aiple area. With the recent new mine plan and the new project added, It's a bit lower down the exploration priority list now. But due to its quality, We still have a very active program in Ity. In addition, the anticipated small diversion Of
the Cavalli River are anticipated to make some additional lateral and down deep extension of Collin Sud accessible. It will be the same for deeper Bakatou and Walter along the river. Hounde is another great example of our approach to Flooring, developing and operating assets. The mine was developed entirely during Endeavour's ownership from initial studies through to permitting and construction and began operations in late 2017. As far as mine layouts go, Hounde is one of the best examples and benefits from the largely flat topography, ThyCredit goes to the projects team for the quality of the design and construction.
This has contributed to the successful execution of the project, Which was completed on time and on budget with the plant now processing at 30% above nameplate. Open bit mining is done from multiple deposits with And 100 tonne trucks with the drilling and blasting activities contracted out. Following debottlenecking and minor upgrades, The Carbon and Leach plant now operates in excess of 4,000,000 tonnes per annum. We recover up to 30% of the gold by gravity with the remainder through the CIL tanks where the gold is recovered onto carbon before going through the elution and electro awning process prior to smelting to form gold bars. Hyundai is now in its 4th year of production and we are very pleased with how the team has matured and improved across all aspects of the operation.
With the addition of the Kari deposits last year, we have even more mining and processing flexibility. Given our commitment to sustainability, We're also looking into commissioning a solar plant, which will provide low cost renewable electricity for the mine and reduce our diesel consumption. This will be a really exciting development for the group as we will then look at options to repeat this in our other operations. There are significant opportunities to In the Hounde mine life beyond 2,031. These include the potential integration of the recently acquired Golden Hill property, which is around 30 kilometers away.
We also see additional scope to continue to add ounces, just as we have already done with the Kari area through the discovery and development of satellite deposits.
Hounde is another very good example of our exploration success over the last 3 years with Over 2,600,000 indicated ounces added since the end of 2016. And most recently, We have added high grade resources at Kari Pump, which have significantly improved the overall mine plan of the mine. This year, We've got a $7,000,000 exploration budget, which will be mostly focused on replacing the depletion as usual, But also completing exploration over the entire remaining Kari area as well as the entire Vindaloo area. We will also be working intensively towards the north of the exploration license where we will be addressing Other attractive targets such as Mambo, which is currently being actively delineated.
The Mana mine has been in operation for over a decade and was acquired in 2020 as part of the Semapho acquisition. Manor is a combined open pit and underground mining operation feeding a central CIL plant from an adjacent open pit complex And an underground mine 15 kilometers to the southeast. Production commenced in 2,008 with nominal capacity increasing over time To the current throughput of around 2,800,000 tonnes per annum. The plant is well maintained and operates very consistently. Open bit mining is done by excavators and 100 tonne trucks with half of the fleet owner and half contractor based on the Semapho strategy at the time.
Since the acquisition, we've focused on optimizing the asset, which started by bringing in an experienced General Manager with over 40 years of open pit and underground experience. We have reduced the size of the expat workforce and have shifted the focus to really empowering the site team. Production has benefited From the ramp up of the Siou underground operation last year. Following a detailed review of the Wona North open pit cutback and given the success of the Siou underground, The decision was taken to forego the next cutback and rather to develop this as an underground operation, which we expect to start next year. Open pit mining will continue at Waina South until 2022, after which time the mine will revert to 2 underground mines Until any further open pit satellite deposits are proven, Mana is also benefiting from a fresh pair of eyes under a new exploration team And Patrick will describe their focus.
For Mana, we have a total exploration budget of $8,000,000 with the objective Like everywhere to increase the mine life closer to its 10 years. Semapho had previously completed some extensive exploration in the area, But we still see a lot of additional opportunities remaining. In 2021, We are going to concentrate our exploration effort on open pitable oxide target, which are within a reasonable tracking distance from the mill. The main area we are going to concentrate in 2021 is Maula, which you can see is located At the boundary between the exploitation license to the southwest of Mana as well as looking for extensions in the Siou North and South areas. In the Shoe underground area, we see an opportunity to extend mineralization at depth and to consider a much larger open pit concept.
Our next asset is the Boungou Mine, which we acquired during 2020 and where we recommenced mining shortly thereafter. As with Mana, following the acquisition, we put in place a new General Manager who previously ran our Ity mine and has a wealth of experience mining in the region. Under his leadership, the team at Boungou has really taken a step up and it is pleasing to see the results. Given its location, we have put in place Security plan, which leverages our strong relationships with the government of Burkina Faso and regional security forces. We have invested significantly in mine site security, including the construction of an on-site airstrip, new facilities and other measures.
This allowed us to restart mining operations in quarter 3 last year, utilizing a very capable West African mining contractor. Open Bit Mining is fully contracted and utilizes a number of excavators and 100 tonne trucks. The 1,300,000 tonne per annum carbon in pulp plant was commissioned in 2018. It also has a gravity circuit that recovers up to 50% of the gold, Which is a very high percentage. The mine consists of 1 large open pit and 2 smaller adjacent satellite pits.
Much of the optimization potential at Boungou is based on exploration success, which will start a long strike of the existing pits and expand further into the exploration permit in parallel with enhanced security measures.
At Boungou, We see for 2021 the best opportunities lying just nearby the mine. Our total exploration budget at Boungou for this year Will be around $7,000,000 Our primary goal is also to extend the mine life toward our 10 years mine life target By testing all the remaining deposits extension around the existing mine and open pit. We also see the potential to modestly step out of the area of the Boungou North, Natugou Northwest and Natugou Southwest target.
Moving to Karma, which is our smallest mine in terms of ounce production and also has the shortest mine life. This is a low grade heap leach which commenced operating in 2016. The team has done a great job to keep all in sustaining costs below $900 per ounce For the first 5 years of production, the operation is well led by a Berken Harvey General Manager with predominantly local workforce with a strong drive to succeed. Given the low grade, efficiency is key and the team are doing a great job in this regard. Open bit mining is done using excavators and 100 tonne trucks, mining mainly oxide material with low blasting requirements.
Last year given the short mine life, we transitioned the mine fully to contract mining, which has worked really well. As a heap leach operation, all mine material is stacked on the lined leach pads, which represent the final storage location for the processed ore. We are investigating a high pressure leaching option once stacking has been completed in order to recover any remaining gold locked up in the heap And ultimately to flush out any residual cyanide prior to closure of the leach pads, which will be rehabilitated in situ. There is definitely good exploration upside at Karma with potential to have many small deposits along with sulphide ore at depth. The reality, however, is that this is not a core operation for Endeavour with so much exploration focus on our other assets.
Wahgnion is the youngest mine in the portfolio, having been commissioned by Taranga in the Q4 of 2019. Wahgnion has a carbon in leach plant which processes ore from 4 different open pit groupings. Due to the size of the pits, Mining is done with smaller excavators and trucks than used at our other mines. There are many small pits which require careful sequencing and placement of waste dumps, But this also enables us to backfill some of the pits with waste. Since start up, the plant has produced sustainably at 25% higher than design capacity, Enabling a throughput of 3,600,000 tonnes per annum.
We are also using a contractor in the satellite pits to increase mining volumes to support the higher mill throughput. The operation is host to a number of prospective near mine exploration targets. So our focus is on identifying those ounces, which will contribute to extending mine life and potentially increasing production through higher grades. The CIL plant was designed by Leica Podium, who also designed our Ity, Hounde and Boungou plants. It is very reliable and is equipped to process a combination of oxide and fresh ore consistent with our other operations in the region.
One of the things that we are proud of at Wahgnion is how the team have managed the community relations and village relocations By providing new land for farming and developing some intensive agriculture projects, we have been able to retain strong community support, which is really important to us. To meet the above nameplate throughput, we are focused on advancing the satellite pits with mining at Fekura underway and now early planning for Samovogo As well as ongoing resource drilling to optimize the pits and mine
sequencing. Before I talk about our plant for Wahgnion, A little about the history of the deposits. The mine was developed quite quickly and recently and lots of pits We're opened at the same time in order to feed the plant which was running at 30% above the nameplate capacity. As a result, some of the deposit have only been drilled down to rather shallow depths and along very limited lengths And we think a significant upside remains deeper and on trend with the existing deposit as they are known today. Wahgnion has been targeted with our 2nd largest exploration budget this year with $12,000,000 You can see on the map That there are more than a dozen additional targets occurring within a reasonable rolling distance Including all those located immediately around the existing near mine infrastructure and deposits.
In the very short term, we are focused on Nok Belay North and South areas. But over the longer term, A number of satellite deposits will also be targeted with a multi year effort where we see significant additional upside potential.
So as you can see from the footage, we have built an impressive portfolio of assets in West Africa over the last 5 years. The mines are well constructed and the teams that we have assembled are really doing a great job across all aspects of the business from safety, environment, social and security Through to Production and Cost Management. We truly believe in developing our people and giving them opportunities to take on more responsibility. This in turn has enabled Endeavour to grow the portfolio. I'd like to thank our team for their strong efforts last year to achieve guidance despite the challenging COVID environment.
We are very proud to have maintained our track record of meeting production and cost guidance for the last 8 years.
I hope you've enjoyed that virtual tour as much as I did. Thank you, Mark and Patrick. For those of you who would like more 3 d visits, Please look at our website. We have verified tours available on each of our mine pages. We also have historical operating data and financial data available in our analyst center.
You heard Patrick speak briefly about exploration potential each of the assets. He will now talk about the exploration methodology he's been following and take us through his most recent discovery, the Feteko project in Ivory Coast. As background, Patrick has been with Endeavour since 2016. And before this, he was a core member of the La Mancha team after successes at both Ariba and Total. Over his career, regardless of what he was exploring for, Placzek has deployed a proven methodology, always surrounded himself with solid teams.
Thanks, Martino. I'd now like to spend a bit more time talking about our exploration strategy overall. One of our cornerstones as a company over the last several years has been our capability to add value through the drill bit. In other words, in the end, the only reason why we do exploration is because we can bring Additional high quality answers to the company bottom line at a much cheaper price than if we had to go And by them on the market. That's all.
Once this accountability rules is set, the core criteria here It's to identify high quality answers that would fit in with our portfolio management criteria and our capital allocation framework. To date, our approach and deployed exploration strategy has resulted in the discovery of over 8,000,000 ounces of indicated resource since the end of 2016 and this at a cost of much less than $25 per ounces of indicated resource, Which is at least 3 times cheaper than our West African peers and 5 times lower than the average cost of discovery worldwide. More broadly, we are looking to support our operation by maintaining a 10 plus year mine life as well as identifying new significant standalone projects through regional exploration that will fuel our future development. We do this With a proven exploration and portfolio management methodology, which is based roughly around the conservating ranking and screening approach, which is completely similar to what is used in the oil and gas industry for a company scale high numbers of exploration prospects. We start with a tentatively exhaustive and large number of exploration targets occurring within our global exploration portfolio.
We then filter all this through an exhaustive set of criteria down to our top best selected target. In that case, back in 2016, it was 40 Monte Carlo simulated target That were the outcome of our exercise. And then we ponderate all these with a global probability of occurrence, Which represent broadly the confidence we have in describing the quantity and the quality of the answers we are targeting. The overall result represent the quality and what could be expected from our complete portfolio, while incorporating a balanced approach including some high risk, high reward and bread and butter type targets. Once the mine requirement priorities are included within our exploration yearly sequences, the 5 years Exploration plan is delivered and associated with our related budget, so to match our yearly discovery ambition and KPI In terms of discovery cost per new indicated answers.
Following the success of this method and exploration program since now 4 years, A new 5 years exploration plan is currently being built and is expected to be published later on this year and it will be based on the enhanced portfolio of the Endeavour asset. Back in 2016, our main objectives were not only to increase our flagship mine life up to 10 years, but We are not only to increase our flagship mine life up to 10 years, which we did, but also to bring to the company through greenfield exploration what could be our next Standalone Development Project. Fetekro is for us a great example of the success of our approach, where we have delivered an Endeavor sized project with promising economic for an exploration investment of only €21,000,000 since 2018. The Fetekro project has delivered through our recently published pre feasibility study, strong economics With an NPV of around $500,000,000 at $1500 gold price. This represents 23 times return on exploration spending.
As you can see in the video, the ore body is quite uniform, dips gently towards the Southeast and shows some pretty good lateral continuity of good grade mineralization. It is amenable to conventional open pit mining because it simply starts at surface. We are continuing to explore the whole Fetekro land package with our effort targeting right now and drilling in between Lafigue North and Center Deposit, also drilling at Lafigue South and also addressing other nearby targets. We expect to increase the resource base later this year and incorporate this into our ongoing definitive feasibility study, which will be completed by year end. We are very excited about our exploration program in 2021 As we have the largest exploration budget to date of between $70,000,000 to $90,000,000 Brownfield Exploration will indeed focus on the new mine acquired in 2020, while our greenfield priorities will indeed be around Fetekro, But also Afema, Bantou, Sigiri in Guinea and around the Tandou Kou Bandou Cou cluster in Cote d'Ivoire.
We expect our 2021 exploration program to deliver and complete our last year of our 5 years exploration plan and give us a head start on our next strategic exploration one, which will be initiated by year end. Thanks, guys. I hope you are enjoying the presentation so far.
We will now take a short break, and we will see you very soon. Welcome back after that short break. Let's now continue. So you've heard about our high quality portfolio and you've seen our assets and their potential. In order to deliver strong shareholder returns, we also need to have a strong social license to operate, which in today's terms is referred to as ESG.
I will now hand it over to Sebastian to to take you through some of the exciting initiatives we are doing.
Thank you, Martino. Being a trusted partner is an integral part of our business strategy. While ESG might be the current flavor of the day, this forms part of our social license to operate. It is not new to us. It has been our bread and butter for years years, and I believe mining in emerging markets is one of the most impactful industries When it comes to ESG, building infrastructures, access to water and electricity, education, health And income generation projects are core to our social license to operate and make meaningful contribution towards improving people's life in these developing countries.
This is one of the reasons why we are so passionate and proud of our business and why it makes such a difference compared to many other businesses. As a leading global gold producer and the largest gold miner in West Africa, Endeavour's purpose is to produce gold that provides lasting value to society. Gold has long been prized in society for its beauty and has a store of wealth. And today, it plays a critical role in the modern world From widespread use in electronics to future applications in environmental management as we transition to a decarbonized world. As one of the largest producers of the metal, our starting point is protecting and promoting the people and places where our goal comes from.
Our work is a partnership helping to create resilient and self sustaining communities where people are equipped with the skills, knowledge And expertise needed to prosper. We recognize the responsibility and the opportunity we have to support Long term social and economic development within our host countries and communities. We set high standards for our ethics and governance, and we are trusted to unlock the full benefits of the material we mine for all stakeholders from local communities, government partners To our shareholders, who are invested in its discovery and production, the essence of our purpose is captured in the emphasis We place on supporting long term sustainable development and promoting a responsible approach to mining Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I believe this is how we can continue to support the well-being of our people and host countries Long into the future, empowering the next generation of miners to develop new skills, support their communities And create lasting value for all of society. So that is our purpose, but it cannot just be inspirational words. There has to be backed with actions or it is meaningless.
And profits do not have to come at the expense of purpose either. For me, they are interlinked. A business with both a clear sense of purpose and an effective strategy Should be profitable. Having a strong social license to operate and in turn being a trusted partner Has always been at the heart of what we do at Endeavour. Now it has taken on an even greater imperative.
The increased scale of Endeavour has reinforced the need to consolidate our initiatives and create a new integrated approach Chichio. Across our business, so we can amplify our efforts and deliver even greater value to our local communities and host countries. But we can't be all things to all people. We need to concentrate our actions on those key priorities we believe We'll have the most impact on the social upliftment and economic development of our host countries. We've centered our integrated ESG strategy around 2 strategic key pillars: investing in our host countries And protecting the environment.
These two pillars are supported by a strong foundational framework for governance, And this combination helps guide the success of our initiatives in ESG. We've designed what we believe are the proper ethical frameworks Along with transparent governance structures to give our initiatives the greatest impact at the right levels. Our social investments in our host countries I prioritize in the areas of health, education, access to water and energy and economic development. With regards to protecting the environment, we will focus on tackling climate change, water stewardship And conserving biodiversity as well as plastic waste, which is a particular issue in our local communities and host countries. Having an ambitious ESG agenda is all well and good.
However, we are miners and we are experts in mining, not socioeconomic development. So it's important we leverage our size and partner with global experts who can bring the required know how in these different areas to help us reach our goals. And Our ambitious ESG agenda goes beyond just our immediate communities. We see an opportunity to deliver meaningful impact in our host countries as a responsible global citizen and to support government sustainability agendas. Our EcoDev fund is one such example of how we are doing things.
I'm also proud to announce that we have now established a new Endeavour Foundation, which will be our primary vehicle to regroup and implement our sustainability projects at the regional and national levels. You can see more detail on this and on all our ESG activities In the detailed presentation on our website that accompanies this Capital Markets event. You can also read more in our recently published sustainability report. But for the remainder of this section today, I just want to focus on few key areas. This, I think, will give you an idea of how we think about ESG and the approach that we take.
Let me start by diving deeper into the social investments and contributions we make in our host countries. As I mentioned, our priority focus areas are health, education, access to clean water and sanitation And economic development. Without good health, quality education is hard to achieve. And without these 2, social and economic development is impossible. Progress can only be achieved with the strong foundation of a healthy and educated workforce and population.
Taking health first. The coronavirus pandemic Has really shone a light over the past year on the impact that health can have on economic development. COVID may have made the world wake up to this, It has been an underreported reality in many parts of Africa for many years. While there were nearly 100,000,000 COVID cases worldwide last year, each year, there are around 230,000,000 cases of malaria. The disease kills a child every 2 minutes and these deaths are particularly prevalent in West Africa, yet They are preventable.
We've made reducing the number of cases at our mines and in our communities a priority. Malaria should not be seen as something that is normal or an everyday occurrence. Our focus has been on raising awareness and on taking steps towards prevention. Most notably, we are seeking to control the vectors that help it spread, mosquitoes, Through regular spraying programs and raising awareness of the simple steps people can take to protect themselves and their families. Last year, we had considerable success and we are able to reduce malaria cases by 36% compared to 2019.
Ahunde mine has seen the best results so far with an 80% reduction between 2018 2020. And we have ambitions to cut these cases even further this year. To ensure everyone across our business is aligned, Our 10% reduction target forms part of the group wide bonus for this year. But in order to do more on malaria for our communities, We are working with labs and innovative companies to find the next big action we can deploy to further reduce malaria cases. Of course, one of the drivers of malaria is poor quality water and sanitation, but access to clean drinking water And basic hygiene facilities goes far beyond that.
It prevents a host of other health impacts such as typhoid and dysentery. At the moment, only a quarter of homes in Sub Saharan Africa have their own handwashing facilities with soap and clean water. Even fewer, just 18% have access to their own clean sanitation facilities. As part of our efforts to address this issue, I'm really pleased to announce our newest partnership in this area with the One Drop Foundation. One Drop was established in 2007 by Cirque du Soleil founder, Guy Laliberte.
I'm sure you all have seen one of the Cirque du Soleil show, magic. Gila Liberte's ambition is to ensure that all communities around the world have access to safe water supplies. We're proud to support this ambition in West Africa and work with the One Drop team. Our 3 year partnership will start with a focus on the Cascade region in Burkina Faso, Chichio. So where our 1 year mine is located.
It is targeted at supporting women, firstly, by providing access to water And hygiene facilities and secondly, by raising awareness of clean hygiene practices so that we can change behaviors And break the cycle of disease. This is not something we could have done alone. Again, we are miners, But it's just an example though of what a partnership approach can achieve by bringing together the expertise on one hand And the resources, on the other hand, to make a difference. We adopted the same approach when looking at education. We know the importance education plays in social mobility and great strides have been made in this across the world by inter and
non governmental
organizations. However, West Africa particularly suffers from poor access to education. And in countries with young population, Such as those we operate in, this poses particular problems in hindering gender equality and economic development. It is difficult to establish the skills and knowledge required for countries to develop their economies when less than half of children In Sub Saharan Africa are being exposed to secondary education. We are working with a number of institutions across our host countries To promote education, particularly in technical and scientific subjects and with a particular focus on girls and women.
This involves providing scholarship and work experience to ensure future generation entering the market Have the best possible opportunities to shape their own futures and those of their countries. Since 2017, We've awarded 114 scholarships and offered over 550 young people internships and the opportunity to start their career development. With our recently acquired assets, this program will be expanded considerably over the coming year. Our ultimate goal is to stimulate and promote economic development. Improvement in health and education that I have just discussed Can certainly play an important role in supporting that, but so can our own direct involvement.
For us, this starts with our workforce. We now have over 6,500 employees, of which 95% are nationals. Growing and developing our local talent, Both men and women is core philosophy of ours. I'm proud to see so many highly talented West Africans Strive and advance in our business. Our senior management now comprises approximately 60% African nationals.
We've also made good progress improving the diversity of our workforce. 21% of our new hires last year were women And while we still have work to do, approximately 15% of our women are in management positions. Alongside direct employment, We're also supporting our host country's broader economic agenda with our Impact Investing Fund, EcoDev. I will now hand over to Pascal Benasconi, who is our EVP for Public Affairs, Sustainability and Security. For those of you who haven't met Pascal in the past, he is based in Abidjan and he's managing our Ecodev venture fund.
EcoDeg is an impact investment fund that we set up to help create sustainable local businesses in West Africa beyond just the mining sector. It forms a key part of our ESG strategy, which is to support our host country's broader economic And Industrial Development Ambitions. To maximize impact, the Fund identifies opportunities to co invest In small and medium enterprises that improve the value chain in key industries in our host countries. EcoDev Works like other impact investing funds. It is professionally managed by Class M, Specialist in Economic Development Project in Africa, and we expect to get a return of our investments, which we can then redeploy in other investments.
We launched EcoDev in 2019, And so far, we have invested in 2 projects, Malishi and Rondeletree. These investments have created nearly 200 direct jobs, We'll support over 121,000 people at full capacity and most importantly, Enable both Mali and Burkina Faso to access new markets in peanut butter and beef export, respectively. Our ambition is to implement 1 EcoDev project each year. The Mali Shi project is a great example of the impact EcoDev can have. Mali is the world's 2nd largest producer of sheet, and it is the country's 4th largest export.
However, he did not have any industrial processing capability. EcoDev, along with the consortium of other investors, I identified this barrier and have invested in the country's 1st industrial scale sheet butter processing facility. Alongside the direct jobs created, this plant will support 4,500 female farmers around our Kalana projects With an eventual goal to economically empower 120,000 women in the region and across Mali. Most importantly, Echodave has helped to accelerate the vertical integration of managed cheap butter industry and move up the value chain so we can access new customers and new markets. Let me turn now to our second investment, The REMS DUTOY project located near our Hounde mine in Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso is a large country with a tradition of pastoral farming. Nearly 80% of households hurt cattle, and the sector accounts for 18% of GDP and ranking 3rd in terms of export value after gold and cotton. However, the sector has not been commercialized. Rondeutuy will be West Africa's 1st commercial scaled intensive cattle fat lot with integrated refrigerated slaughterhouse and meet production facilities. It will support over 1,000 farmers and create more than 50 direct jobs.
The project will produce fresh, traceable quality beef for local sale and export. Meat export generate Higher value than the export of leaf cattle and RanchoTree is well positioned to capture market share in niche markets in Cote D'ivoire and Ghana as well as countries in Central Africa. Once fully operational in 2023, Rangutry will play a key role in strengthening the cattle sector in Burkina Faso and meeting the government's ambition to become a key exporter in the region. The development of EcoDev projects such as Malishi and Rangitry Are the results of a pioneer approach for the West African Mining Industry. They reinforce the role of economic partner that Underwear Mining Want to play with our host countries.
Importantly, these industrial scale projects are a win win, promoting sustainable economic development in the region where we mine as well as making a concrete contribution to advancing our host country's strategic economic objectives. What I like the most about EcoDev
is that it identifies the most Chichio. Full industries where there is a missing link, a barrier in the value chain. Ecodev's role is then to team up with a local partner And finance the development of this missing link to create a sustainable business. And in doing so, Its impact goes beyond just the immediate business and opens up access to the whole value chain of this particular industry. Those investments will ensure more value is captured by the local communities and our host countries.
Through EcoDev, we are enablers, unlocking value by supporting local entrepreneurship. It's vitally important that our hosts, Whether at the local or national level, feel invested in Endeavour as a business. Wherever possible, we to ensure that our procurement of goods and services takes place in country. Last year, 74% of our spending All around $620,000,000 was on national and local suppliers. Over the past 4 years, our in country procurement spend Has totaled approximately $1,800,000,000 This year, we also adopted the local procurement reporting mechanism To further increase the reporting and visibility of our local procurement strategy, which show us engage with more than 2,000 businesses and suppliers in our host countries.
Given our size, it's no surprise that we are a significant contributor to the economies where we operate. As we have grown, so has our contribution to these economies. Alongside investing over $1,000,000,000 in building our high quality portfolio, During the same period, we've paid approximately $800,000,000 in taxes and royalties to government. And in 2020, The total economic value we distributed approached $1,000,000,000 While our social and economic contributions are important in immediate, We also need to address our environment, possibly one of the greatest challenge the world faces today, whether protecting biodiversity, Ensuring climate resilience at our operations, managing our water use or transitioning to a net zero carbon business, We recognize our responsibility to act. While we started reporting our Scope 1 and 2 emissions back in 2017 And Scope 3 emissions in 2020, our journey is still in its early stages.
This year and next, We plan to further improve Scope 3 reporting by focusing on upstream emissions and asking our top suppliers to detail their emissions too. This will help us calculate the full impact of Endeavour's operation from the mine to the refined dore and help us develop new ways to reduce our emissions intensity. We committed to do the work necessary to align our business With the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Science Based Targets initiative. To reinforce this commitment and our ultimate ambition Of net 0 by 2,050 and our goal of 30% emissions reduction by 2,030, we've done 2 things. The first is to include a carbon reduction strategy as part of our long term executive compensation scheme.
The second Was to start a detailed action plan across our portfolio, but first, here is a snapshot of our energy footprint. The 3 countries in which we operate have very different energy mix with varying contributions from fossil fuels and renewable Such as solar or hydropower. In turn, only 2 of our mines are currently connected to the grid, while the remainder use a variety of different power generation types. The portfolio we have today reported total emissions of 139,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020 for scopes 1 and 2. From an intensity perspective, Taking that total on a per ounce basis, we are amongst the lowest emitters in our peer group and all our mines performed better than the industry average.
We've identified 8 levels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work is already underway investigating these opportunities. From the mining perspective, we're looking at the use of cleaner fuels and ways to optimize the use of our fleet. There are additional levers from our electricity use, including improved generating capacity, increased efficiency and switching to renewable power. We see solar as forming a core part of our energy mix going forward and have identified potential for up to 150
Chichio.
Solar is also a key component of Burkina Faso's national agenda to electrify the nation. The President's goal is to have 80% of the country electrified over the next 5 years, and we see ourselves playing a central role in this. We want to implement our solar strategy In partnership with a renewable energy specialist through PPAs, power purchase agreements, giving us cost stability And certainty while enabling us to fast track the project. We believe this is the most effective strategy for us And also the best allocation of capital across our different opportunities. So if we look at the Hounde project in more detail, We estimate a solar plant could reduce our power cost by 20% to 35% and lower scope 2 emission By 35% to 50%.
Our current time line envisions the commissioning of an 18 megawatt solar plant by the end of 2022. We also plan to go beyond the mine and assist with Rural electrification and I hope to announce more details on that later on in the year. What I like the most about solar is that it's a really good example of a sustainability project that ticks multiple objectives. It's good for our operation as it reduces our cost and improves efficiencies. It reduces our CO2 emissions, so it's good for our planet.
It's good for our local communities as they are electrified with renewable energy, which future proofs them. And finally, it's good for government as it's aligned with the national agenda towards access to electricity and their own contributions to the Paris Agreement. Tackling emissions and climate change clearly gets much of the world's focus today. However, rising up the global agenda of issues to address It's water and biodiversity and both these topics form a key part of our environmental strategy. Operating in the Saile region means water is paramount to our communities and we are very conscious of our water use.
Our strategy aims to ensure we have enough water for our operations, while at the same time protecting the quality and quantity of water available to our host communities. While as a group, our total withdrawal increased in 2020 due to our larger size, I'm pleased that our reuse and recycling rate has increased and our overall intensity has fallen. However, We recognize that it is an area where we still have work to do. If we want our communities to be resilient to climate change, We need to make sure we are also looking at biodiversity. The African continent is experiencing a dramatic loss of biodiversity Due to climate change, human population dynamics and habitat loss.
In Africa, around half of all bird and mammal species Are at risk from climate change by the end of this century. This loss affects not just the species involved. It impacts livelihoods, water supply, food security and lessens resilience to extreme events as well as the Intrinsic arm to other species. So in keeping with our ESG strategy, We looked at how we mitigate our own impacts as well as the broader role we, as Endeavor, could play in addressing this with our partnership approach. At the mine level, building on the experience we gain with the Depka Forest Reserve on our Agbaou mine, we've set up a partnership with University of Dalois in Cote d'Ivoire To create a forest conservation initiative within the Ity mine site to protect endangered species and promote biodiversity.
More recently, we've also established an important partnership with Pantera, the only wildlife organization devoted exclusively To the conservation of the world's wildcat species and their ecosystem. Together, we will work to develop wildlife conservation management projects in regions where we operate. Our collective goal will be to monitor key wildlife populations while taking steps to ensure the security and management of protected areas and habitats for various species of big cats. Finally, before I move on to governance, I want to address plastic waste, which is a scourge everywhere, but particularly in Africa. Recycling rates and opportunities to recycle are far lower than in Europe.
Plastic waste is often burned to the detriment Of Air Quality and the Climate. I think we're all familiar with the length of time that plastic takes to biodegrade and the impact it can have on ecosystems, even thousands of miles away from where it is deposited in landfill. At our mines, we are tackling plastic by reducing single use plastic where we can, such as introducing Refillable water bottles and reducing our overall use of plastic in our supply chain. At a national level, We are proud to partner with the Plastic Odyssey initiative, an NGO that works on plastic impact awareness And harnesses a mix of technology to recycle plastic. Plastic Odyssey will be assisting us in developing a host of Local initiatives in and around our minds to encourage recycling.
It's been quite impressive to see the products we can do with recycled plastic Such as bricks, bags, etcetera. Clearly, you can see today that we've taken on some very ambitious initiatives, each of which can have a large and lasting impact. As I noted earlier, with our increased scale Comes bigger and bolder objectives in our ESG program. To be effective, we believe we need to be focused. Each of the initiatives we outlined today has clear objectives supported by a road map to help ensure success Not only for us, but most importantly, for our partners and the communities where we operate.
We are proud of what we've achieved to date on ESG. Much good work has been done, but we know there is more to do. And we are committed across our organization to continuously improve our efforts And outcomes across our various ESG initiatives. We recognize that we have an ambitious sustainability program. And to implement this successfully, we must have solid governance in place.
I will let Morgan discuss the frameworks and structures We've developed to support our ESG program in more detail.
To make sure we have the appropriate levels of oversight and the right targets And incentives to drive the right behavior, we have a Board level ESG committee that's dedicated to overseeing and monitoring the sustainability practices and performance of the organization. Supporting their efforts, we follow leading ESG reporting frameworks such as SaaSBI and TCFD. We're also leading members of the World Gold Council And fully support their comprehensive ESG framework, the responsible gold mining principles. In addition to demonstrate the robustness of our reporting, we externally assure our ESG Chichio. We recognize the power of the international organizations and the rigor that they bring, and we are already a signatory to the women's Empowerment principles, which support our broader diversity and inclusion initiatives.
And we plan to adopt the voluntary principles on security and human rights as well as the signing the UN Global Compact this year. These organizations showcase best practice in the area of ESG, and our ambition is to at least match these standards. I'd also like to talk about governance in the context of the upcoming listing on the London Stock Exchange. We are already listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. And while there are important differences between the two markets, they're not as dramatic as As part of the preparation for the listing, we completed a thorough GAAP analysis with our advisers at an early stage.
It's widely known that the gold standard of a London premium listing that, that carries is very exacting in its requirements in the area of FPPP or Financial Prospects and Procedures. We also had to develop a corporate risk management framework that didn't exist before. As intensive as they were, I would say that the rigor that the London listing process puts you through forces a company to I think it's fair to say that the listing process that Endeavor has been through has left us in a very strongly governance driven environment, and I see that only augmenting over time. Like the company, the Board has been on a journey in the recent past. While the company has experienced a lot of change in terms of the composition of the business and the assets, the Board has been a bedrock of stability for management to be able to rely on At a time which was strategically vital.
It's a bit of a tale of 2 cities because the Board has itself been through changes driven by those corporate events. Amongst the events of the last 2 years or so, we've had the really good fortune to be able to appoint directors who have A profound appreciation for the kind of governance expected for a premium listed company in London. So there's a rigor of Discipline and terms of procedures and oversight that the London investor community has come to expect. I think that the skills and experience matrix Our directors should strike the right tone. We've had the good fortune to appoint some really impressive people, as I mentioned, over the past 2 years or so.
And with 44 Board and Committee meetings in the last year, I think they probably had more excitement than they expected. Finally, I'd like to say a few words on compliance, which is a subject on everybody's mind, and it starts with the theme of whistleblowing. We've had an independent outsourced service in place for many years, but what we found is that Cultural norms in West Africa mean that people sometimes have a reticent about speaking up or a hesitancy about using the services, Even if it is anonymous. So we're adapting that whistle blowing approach to what we call a speak up culture in which employees are encouraged Chichio. To call out noncompliance with our values, and our values are something that are well established, well known, well marketed internally.
There are things that people identify with quite easily, and they demonstrate what we stand for as an organization and what we don't stand for as an organization. Turning for a moment to ABC or anti bribery and anti corruption. We look at this through the lens of Combination of training, awareness, culture, procedures and audit, those are the levers that you have to work with in risk mitigation. For several years now, we've conformed with the requirements of the U. K.
Bribery Act, and we took that decision In 2016, because it's the highest standard in the world and the U. K. Office opening as it was in 2016, We realized that we would have more and more nexus to London and to the U. K. It led us to completing a baseline risk Assessment, which was assisted by an external law firm, and that was essentially a GAAP analysis for which we were able to backfill The procedural gaps to ensure that the ABC system was robust and fit for Fervis.
We have annual mandatory Retraining on bribery and corruption for anyone who has a managerial or a financial function, and that extends to The Board of Directors, too. Apart from the ABC policies and procedures and promoting this culture of honesty and ethical business, we've taken other recent steps, We've just adopted a new supplier code of conduct, which imposes our standards on our contractors and suppliers, And this is backed up and embedded in the contracting framework and their obligations. And that's the important point. Our values extend beyond just us and our people. We make it clear to everyone who's working with us that we expect the same high standards of ethical behavior from them in return.
In this final section, we bring it all together to talk about how our approach leads to the potential for strong returns for our shareholders. You'll hear again from Sebastian, but also from Joanna, who recently joined our team as CFO. Prior to Endeavor, Joanna was our audit partner, which allowed her to build a good understanding for our business. Sebastien, back to you.
To deliver on our purpose and realize our potential for our shareholders, we need to have a resilient business and one that is a trusted partner to our stakeholders. I think that we have earned our trusted partner status with host governments And communities where we operate, that secures our social license. This, combined with a high quality asset base, Provides Endeavour with a strong foundation to reward shareholders. That reward is offered by improving our per share metrics represented by metrics such as net asset value per share, increasing dividends per share and cash flow and earnings per share. Growth in these metrics are supported both by a resilient business and ability to continue to repurchase I own shares when appropriate.
Rewarding shareholders also means ensuring that all of our projects compete for capital on a risk adjusted returns basis to optimize the value that we are able to generate. You can now see how our approach to capital allocation has evolved over time. In the initial phase, We sought to improve our portfolio and focus on growth. We are now in a position where we have a leading cash generative asset base combined with a solid balance sheet. This means we can now deliver on our next phase of organic growth and provide returns for shareholders.
So we are well positioned to meet all of our corporate goals on a sustained basis, making the necessary investments in our operations, providing economic benefits to our host countries and establishing an attractive shareholder returns profile. From the portfolio's successful transformation, we now have a robust portfolio that is capable of delivering strong returns over the long term. At the front end of the project pipeline is exploration, where we have consistently added ounces and target a discovery cost of less than $20 per ounce. Our project pipeline is competitive across the industry, and our management team has a Strong track record of delivering projects on time and on budget. Using disciplined and effective screening metrics, We ensure that our pipelines contain the best projects capable of delivering returns through gold price cycles.
For Endeavor, We instill that discipline by applying a 20% after tax IRR hurdle at gold prices of €1300 per ounce. With that rigor applied, we are able to benchmark projects against our 20% ROCE target with conviction. They either compete and are feasible or the capital will be returned to our shareholders. These criteria link back to our core project criteria, Which we spoke about earlier and you'll probably hear again. We are focused on advancing a portfolio of assets with a 10 plus year mine life, The capability to produce more than 200,000 ounces per year and an all in sustaining cost of below 900 per ounce Over the mine life.
Applying that disciplined approach sees our legacy assets having gone through a core investment phase well positioned to generate attractive returns. We measure this through return on capital employed. In 2020, this more than doubled compared to the prior year to 20%. Consistent with our capital allocation benchmarking, We intend to maintain our focus on this important metric to test future investments. Our approach to advancing quality near term growth is exemplified by the 3 projects highlighted on this slide.
1st And probably most significant from a value perspective, the expansion of the Sabodola Massawa operation. Phase 1 of the expansion project is underway today and will add approximately 90,000 ounces per year of Gold Production Capability for a very modest CapEx of $20,000,000 in 2021. Following this optimization, the Phase 2 expansion We'll consider refractory gold processing circuit. A definitive feasibility study on this project is targeted for completion during Q4 2021. These initiatives are set to position Saba Della Masawa as a Tier 1 low cost Long life asset.
On the right side of the page, you can see our 2 most advanced greenfield projects, Felicro and Kalana. We recently completed positive pre feasibility studies on these assets and they are now progressing through definitive feasibility studies targeted for completion in late 2021 early 2022, respectively. Both projects offer compelling returns and are viable. However, we want to ensure we are optimizing our development plans to ensure the best DFS results before making a construction decision. As a result of our focus on high quality assets, our portfolio has evolved systematically with declining assets replaced by newer mines with growth upside that achieved our stated objectives.
Looking forward, we have a diversified portfolio with embedded organic growth options And the ability to produce more than 1,500,000 ounces annually on a sustained basis And at an all in sustaining cost well below our targeted $900 per ounce. This profile incorporates the Sabadola Phase 2 expansion Based on the PFS work that Terranga completed and assume a start in 2023 and a ramp up in 2024. We are, however, expecting to improve the results, which could further boost production. It also includes the development of our next growth project with first production commencing in late 2023. We've assumed that Karma ceases production in 2022 and have not factored in any material additions in exploration nor any potential to debottleneck some of our existing plants.
Given the conservative assumptions incorporated into this outlook, We believe that we will be very well positioned to, at a minimum, deliver this production growth. This, in turn, demonstrates strong cash flow generation capabilities And underpins our ability to reward shareholders over the long term. I will now invite Johanna to walk you through our balance sheet strengths.
Thanks, Seb. I joined in late 2020 and I'm fortunate to be joining at a time where the company is in cash harvest mode. The chart of net debt tells the Endeavour story well. The company finished its build phase in mid-twenty 19 following the investment of more than $1,000,000,000 in the Construction of both Ity and Hounde and funding our exploration programs. With the completion of Ity in 2019, We have now been able to significantly deleverage ourselves, finishing 2020 in a net cash position for the first time.
Having assumed that the debt held in Taranga as part of the acquisition in Q1 of this year, we are again in a net debt position at March 31, But we continue to have a robust balance sheet with strong cash generation anticipated to continue in the next few quarters, in particular with the continued strong gold prices. Our balance sheet enhances Endeavour's resilience. It allows us to navigate more challenging gold price environment And continue to meet all of our shareholder and broader stakeholder obligations. This includes paying a sustainable dividend, Funding organic growth internally and ensuring we can return excess capital to our various stakeholders. Given the strong gold price environment and our diverse portfolio, we are currently generating levels of cash flow that will enable us To meet our objective of a net cash position of $250,000,000 in the near term.
With the recent acquisitions of Taranga and Semapho And the resulting increase in our operations. We have continued to manage our working capital and our overall balance sheet To ensure financial flexibility moving forward, the extension of our revolving credit facility and obtaining the bridge facility enabled us to reduce the cost of group debt Upon assumption of the Traanga debt in February. In the past 12 months, the excess cash generated from our operations Has been used to repay outstanding leases and other long term liabilities as well as repaying the RCF. Our bumper liquidity available at the end of Q1 was largely the result of the LaMancia $200,000,000 private placement falling at the end of the quarter. Going forward, we will continue to focus on gross debt reduction, while maintaining the financial flexibility to assess our various growth opportunities for the lowest cost of capital.
Our current debt structure is a diverse set of lower cost debt instruments, and we will continue to manage our liquidity and overall debt structure well in advance of their maturity in the Q1 of 2023. While we are expected to reach a net cash position in the near term, If we take a more holistic view, we do believe that our business can support debt and should do so at opportune times. This allows us to make efficient use of financial leverage To maximize returns to shareholders. To remain resilient across the gold cycle, our goal is to target a maximum leverage ratio of 0.5 times net debt to EBITDA. This will allow us the financial flexibility to periodically increase debt levels to deliver any major organic growth initiatives with the goal of rapidly deleveraging following the capital spend.
We also believe that we have a robust balance sheet relative to our peers. We focused on building assets with strong financial returns and this is the prime catalyst to our ability to deleverage quickly once they enter production. Looking across the sector, we are very well positioned with low leverage compared with our peers. This now positions us very strongly in terms of supporting internal investment And delivering shareholder returns. Seb?
Thank you, Joanna. As I've mentioned, a key part of Endeavour's proposition In addition to production growth and ability to discover gold at a very competitive cost is our sustainable shareholder returns program. I want to go into this now in a little more detail about what it means in practice. Given the confidence we have in our business And to provide visibility to our shareholders, we've decided to implement a minimum progressive dividend policy. We're targeting a distribution of at least $500,000,000 over the next 3 years if gold remains above 1500.
This is aligned to our expected production growth. So we are rewarding shareholders with a growing dividend, both in nominal terms and of course on a per share basis. Our first dividend saw us pay $0.37 per share or $60,000,000 earlier this year. For 2021, we expect the minimum to be more than doubled on a nominal basis, which translates into at least $0.50 per share based on our current shares outstanding. We will announce our H1 21 dividend along with our Q2 results.
In addition, we'll continue to seek further opportunities to provide value to shareholders based on the continued strength of our balance sheet, which at the moment is benefiting from the higher gold price environment. As long as our leverage is below 0.5 times, we can maintain the resilience in the business while having the potential to provide Supplemental returns in the form of higher dividends and buybacks. Given where we are today, we are already delivering these. We launched our share buyback program in April, which provides for up to $250,000,000 over the next 12 months. In the first two months, we've already bought back $50,000,000 worth.
Here you can see how cash returns compare to our peers in the sector With our proposed minimum dividend for 2021 as well as the buybacks already complete, it currently represents an approximate yield of 3%. The important thing to remember is that with our balance sheet, along with our cash flow generation, this does not stop us from pursuing the growth options I laid out earlier, nor is it dependent on market condition. It's sustainable throughout the cycle. In summary, this slide illustrates well our road map for rewarding shareholders across cycles. Ultimately, it's a dual approach of maintaining a resilient business and having a disciplined capital allocation model.
As mentioned earlier, we have a high quality portfolio and our business is well positioned to remain resilient over the long term given the unmatched competitive advantage we now have in West Africa. Our balance sheet strength is also a key component of maintaining our resilience And this, of course, is achieved through our disciplined approach to capital allocation. And finally, to reward shareholders, We focus on both share price appreciation and delivering on our shareholder returns program. To drive value and gains within our share price, We focus on unlocking value within our business. Put simply, this means increasing our underlying net asset value per share and free cash flow.
This can be achieved by further optimizing our assets, extending our mine lives through brownfield exploration, Generating new projects organically through greenfield exploration and by expanding our building new mines. Of course, all of this is only possible thanks to the strong operating exploration and projects teams we have. In addition, I do believe that obtaining our UK listing will help unlock further value for shareholders by increasing the appeal and demand for our shares. With the removal of RENEGOLD, the LSE has relatively limited option for investors seeking significant diversified gold production exposure. Upon completion of the listing process, we will be the largest Premium London listed pure gold producer, and we also believe we will be well positioned Chichio.
Our shareholder returns program is also very competitive with the promise of a minimum progressive dividend supplemented with the ability to pay additional dividends and to implement buybacks. For all these reasons, we believe Endeavor He's ultimately positioned for generating strong shareholder returns over the long term.
Now that you've heard from management, I hope that we have lived up to the promise that I set out at the beginning of the event. As you can see, a great deal of hard work has been done over recent years to reshape our business into one that appeals to a diverse investor universe. When we set out 5 years ago, our first priority was to appeal to precious metal funds. Given the significant change in our top 20 register, which is now mainly comprised of blue chip investors. We have achieved that goal.
Most importantly, most are overweight endeavor due to their strong conviction in our ability to deliver immediate cash flows through production, short term growth through project development and long term growth through exploration. With the improvement in our portfolio in our larger market cap following the recent acquisitions, We now have an attractive business and the enhanced capital markets profile required to attract large Generalist Funds. We are now able to appeal to a wide range of investment strategies. For those who are deep value driven, The key feature for you might be our attractive valuation and our ability to remain cheap based on discovering more ounces. For those of you that are more growth oriented, you might appreciate the optionality of our industry leading project pipeline, which of course is underpinned by our company's ability to meet our 20% return on capital employed metric.
Given our recent dividend initiation, We are now also starting to attract dividend funds and I'm sure that a minimum progressive dividend with the potential for it to be supplemented with more dividends and buybacks will be appealing to you. Our leadership in ESG is also opening us up to a class of ESG Driven Investment Funds. Shareholders that have visited our sites have seen firsthand the positive impact of our operations. For this reason, we believe that a dollar invested in Endeavor can go a longer way in that same dollar invested elsewhere. I'm also seeing more and more demand from emerging market funds due both to the strong growth that West Africa has seen across other sectors and of course its rapid growth in the gold mining sector.
If you are a family office, you will also take comfort in knowing that your investment is in good hands given that you have a like minded investors such as La Mancha, another family offers as a cornerstone shareholder. The last two groups are the ones I spend the most time worrying about. These two classes have grown in importance given their size and market influence. Regarding indexes, we expect to be included into both the FTSE and MSCI indexes, which will be a strong catalyst for our shares. Regarding quant funds, given our sustained upward trend in per share metrics and our track record of delivering on guidance, I hope that this will work well within your secret algorithm.
So after having heard all of this, if you are sitting within the Fund and think that we might be a good fit for a colleague running a different strategy, please do refer us. And now I'm sure that you have some questions. I'm going to turn it over to our operator for the live Q and A session.
The first question today comes from the line of Obais Habib calling from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Your line is unmuted.
Hi Sebastian and team and thanks for taking my questions. By the way, great presentation as well as a good update on ESG. And also great to see Endeavor implementing our minimum progressive dividend policy today as well. Sebastian, couple of questions from my end. So with the Taranga combination completed, Endeavour obviously now has a solid asset base and growth pipeline.
You recently released the pre feasibly study on Kalana and Patrick Crow. And in your portfolio, you've got the Golden Hills deposit and Bantou project as well. This is a question for Patrick, which Pipeline of projects are would you most be interested and excited about in terms of exploration upside?
Well, I'll probably thank you, Vice. I'll probably start and we'll see if Patrick wants Chichio. To comment further, but I think that, first of all, on the brownfield and in particular Sabadellamasawa, we are very Ciccio. We continue to discover right now, I mean, since we started at the end of last year, We continue to find some new oxide targets, which were not in the existing Our resources are reserved from Randgold. We see also a massive potential on the underground side, So that's a very attractive one.
On the project side, I think that the team is really focused for the time being On the 2 upcoming projects, Kalana and Fetekro, I think that Fetekro in particular It's progressing extremely well. There are some drilling campaigns which are ongoing, and we expect those new results Chichio. By summertime, so that we can include them into the DFS as part of our new reserves. And then as you mentioned, I mean, we've got a pretty hefty pipeline of other key projects, upcoming projects. I think the 2nd part of the year, we'll be working on Bantou.
Obviously, Golden Hill as a brownfield for Hounde is interesting, Chichio. And we'll be working on it also. So I think the priority beyond Kalana and Fetekro is really going to be around Bintu, Golden Hill and Afema. Then you've got all the greenfield discoveries, which are less advanced, but on which we are very excited. And I would point out in particular to Guinea, which is One interesting one that is progressing well and is getting Patrick and the team quite excited.
Patrick, Patrick, I don't know if Patrick is on the line, if you want to comment.
Yes, Sebastien. Hi, Aurese. Well, I don't know. I think Ciccio. You answered pretty well for the question to Ovais' question.
So unless Ovais has additional One additional detail, I think you made a very good summary of what's going on.
I think that's good. And just maybe moving on to my next question. So just a follow-up question to that. So at Fetek Hello. Obviously, you guys have identified 14 exploration targets.
And the Phase 3 study that was done or sorry, the pre feas that was done Earlier was just on one of those specific areas. Now Obviously, Patrick, your team will be testing those additional targets during the 2021 drill program. So do you think you'll be including this potential upside in the feasibility study expected by the end of the year? Or is it planned Release the feasibility study and then incorporate the upside once the project is built, I mean, similar to what you did at Ity and Hounde.
What we have been doing, we try to be focused because indeed the Fetekro license Ciccio. Actually, we have been quite aggressively drilling in between Lafigue North and Lafigue Centre Just to homogenize a little bit the deposit and also as well as extending, I would say, the mineralization Down deep towards the Southeast. So this is going to be our main target. Hopefully,
we are Ciccio.
Going to see an update in the resource, as said Sebastien, probably beginning of Q3. And this resource Update will be indeed integrated within the full feasibility study. Additional exploration is starting Ciccio. But I doubt that we'll be in a position to add a significant resource by year end in the So basically, what we want to is to make the Fetekro as called On the Lafigue deposit itself, the feasibility study, as strong as it is, while Keeping the opportunity toward here and there, later on next year or the year after, additional deposits that may exist around. So the first priority is Lafigue then we'll be moving at the end of this year and also in the coming years on additional targets we have in the area.
Perfect. Thank you, Patrick.
And just one last question for me, Sebastian, and maybe this question is for you. In regard to Sabarara Musawa Phase 2 expansion, now If Pettico gets the green light in 2022, are you comfortable to build Pettico and PACE 2 expansion at the same time? Or would you consider staggering these two projects?
No, I think we are very comfortable with Moving those two projects, there are two level of different complexity. 1 is Brownfield expansion, which we feel comfortable given the strong team we have on-site at Sabadora and given the project team that we've kept Chichio. You know from the construction phase back between 2016 2020, so we have one project manager dedicated for the brownfield expansion And the greenfield Fetekro, which we hope to clear by end of the year, we like this project And we feel very comfortable because it's basically our 3rd project in 5 years in Cote d'Ivoire. We know extremely well obviously the environment. The project manager is already in place and has worked with us a lot over the past few years, Knows extremely well he was involved in particular in the IT Construction as a leading manager.
So We feel very comfortable to launch in parallel those products.
Perfect, Sebastian. That's it from me. And just again, great job on the presentation.
Thank you very much, Oveys.
The next question comes from the line of Raj Ray calling from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, Sebastian and team, and thanks for the detailed presentation. Love the welcome song and obviously the special appearance by Mario Christo. I have three questions. The first one is on your production profile over the next few years.
So you expect to get Go to around 1,600,000 ounces by 2025. Sebastian, just want to get a sense of what do you think is an optimal level of Production for Andeavor as a company and what's the optimal number of assets to get to that production level as we look forward?
Sure. Thank you, Raj. Always good to have some guest stars as part of your movie. So pretty thankful for Mark to joining us this afternoon. On the production, I mean, we always said that 1,500,000 ounce was probably a good number, and it's plus or minus, so it depends on the years.
Some years you might be slightly below if you decide, for example, to sell a non core asset, which is becoming less relevant in terms of returns than the others. And sometimes you might be over depending on your organic growth pipeline and production. So I would say that 1 point 5,000,000 is a good environment. Keep in mind that and we're mindful Put on our side that 1,500,000 ounce of annual depletion means that we're putting a lot of pressure on Patrick's team in being able to discover at least 1,500,000 ounces of reserves to be added, Which is in turn probably about 2,000,000, 2,500,000 ounce of indicated resources or 3,000,000, 3,500,000 ounce of inferred resources on a yearly basis. So when you look at EUR 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of indicated resources, that's basically what we've been delivering Every year for the last now 5 years with Patrick and the team, so we feel comfortable with this kind of level.
But Chichio. Moving towards €2,000,000 or plus is not on the agenda today. On the number of assets, I always said that for me, I was comfortable with 6 to 8 assets. I think Chichio. That's probably a maximum because you want to keep the team focused.
The lucky part on our side is that all the assets are in the same region And that's a very strong benefit to manage.
Thanks, Sebastian. My second question is on your Project Pipeline. Now one of Endeavour's core competencies has been building projects. The successful track record you have with Hyundai AT and before that This speaks to that. And if I look at your portfolio and you have already touched upon the fact that you look you have several like MassHealth Expansion Phase 2, you have the Tetra, but you also have TALAMA feasibility study coming next year.
In the past, you have looked to build most of your projects, a major part of your projects in house. As you look at your pipeline, do you think you have the Capacity to do multiple projects in house or you are looking to use third party PCM contractors
Ciccio. Sure. Well, I think we feel comfortable in running next year Two projects in parallel, and that's in particular due to the new size of the group compared to 3 or 4 years ago. I think the way we probably go is doing 1 fully in house and another one Chichio. Actually, with an EPC contractor, we've been working closely with some over the last few years.
So, yes, I mean, we feel comfortable in pushing forward.
Okay. Thanks. And lastly, I mean, the West Africa explosion potential is definitely very attractive. But one of the questions a lot of investors All we'll have is around the security situation. I know you don't have any operating assets in Today, I just have a development asset in Kalana.
But with the French government deciding to suspend cooperation with the Malian government, do you think that's So a concern for the security situation in the country and also if you can talk To the security infrastructure that Endeavor has in place, just to give some comfort to investors on how you manage your security. That's it for me.
Thanks. Sure. Well, I think on the Malian side, I mean, as you pointed out, we don't have today any operations in Mali. We have a project, an upcoming project, Kalana. I think that Mark Bristow was pretty clear on this.
I mean, there is There are some risks sometimes in some of the jurisdiction where we operate, but they are also extremely prolific in terms of potential for discoveries. I think the announcement from the French to suspend for the time being their military cooperation with Mali Chichio. It's part of the negotiation tactics to push the Army to bring quickly an end To this transaction and have a democratic election, they haven't suspended the rest of their operations in West Africa, in particular in Burkina Faso, which is more important for us today than Mali. I think that the beauty of The Endeavor model is it's a platform of diversified assets across several countries within this region. So we're not like focusing in one particular jurisdiction.
We are over several jurisdictions. And in terms of security environment, I mean, we've invested a lot in security. I mean, we've invested a lot in security. We have, I would say, A team which is organized as a dedicated business unit supporting across the group all the mine sites and monitoring very carefully And having the right intels with all the governments which are involved in the region. So we feel,
again, it's we feel comfortable operating there.
And I think we've And I think we've demonstrated over the last few years that we were taking security seriously, but we were also handling In our security, seriously.
Thanks, Sebastian. That's it from me, and best wishes for the upcoming London listing.
Thank you, Raj.
The next question comes from the line of Amos Fletcher calling from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, gentlemen, and thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to dig into the capital allocation framework that you gave us earlier on in the Chichio. I just wanted to sort of dive into what are the metrics that you use to define the absolute dividend levels. So I guess you showed us the targeted production profile over the Yes.
But I'd be interested to know what assumed gold price you're using, the CapEx profile and what percentage of resulting free cash flow that you're allocating to dividends?
Thanks. Hi, Amos. Thank you. Well, I think that what we wanted, I mean, Through this minimum dividend distribution was to give visibility Irrespective of gold price, so what we said is those minimum amount for the next 3 years, which are growing amounts, We'll be distributed as long as we are above $1500 gold price. So this allows to ensure that whatever the environment, this is the minimum that Chichio.
We commit to distribute to our shareholders. And whenever gold price is above $1500 I would say that the Chichio. Extra cash flow will be properly allocated between the different pillars that we have, including increasing the dividend on top of what I've been committed as a minimum, plus doing whenever it's Deemed opportunistic doing some buybacks. So the way we did it is we wanted to ensure Given the visibility we have on the production and the cash flow over the next few years, I would say irrespective of the gold price, Ciccio. Demonstrate that we have very strong confidence in our ability to deliver this minimum dividend.
And Chichio. We could have gone with a certain percentage of cash flow, for example, of free cash flow, but then the question Would have been okay, what is your free cash flow for the next 3 or 4 years? And we know that analysts or investors would have so different views On this, that it would be complicated to manage expectations. So we prefer to have a minimum increase base for the dividend. And then whatever is on top of that will be distributed to shareholders.
Okay. Understood. I mean and then I guess, sort of slight follow-up from that. So when you get to the position of $250,000,000 in net cash and assuming that the gold price is above $1500,000,000 is it reasonable to assume that 100% of surplus cash flow generation above that $250,000,000 will be returned to shareholders? Or Will it be more of a mix between that and organic options, etcetera?
I think we'll have a reasonable and balanced approach Simply because based on the return on capital employed that we currently have, 20% to over 20% return on capital employed, We have also a lot of investors which are confident and want us to continue to invest in our business. So I think the objective is To be balanced between those two approach, growing dividend on one side and continuing to invest on organic growth.
And then the final question, I guess, just to ask around your preference between Dividends and buybacks for surplus cash returns, is that driven purely by a decision over NPV per share relative to the share price? Or Do any of your major shareholders have a specific preference for dividends over buybacks?
No. The way we're looking at it is Chichio. Depending on where the share price is, we have our internal model to define whether buying our own shares can ensure that we deliver This 20% return on capital employed and obviously in the case of buyback, this is a risk Free investment. So this is why I said it's opportunistic because we would continue to do buyback as long as we feel Chichio. The share price is not reflecting what we consider is the real value of this company given its cash flow generation.
So and that's why we initiated that back about 8 weeks ago. I think so far, we've already completed close to $50,000,000 of buyback And we'll continue as long as the share price remains in or low.
Okay. That's great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from the line of Lawson Winder Collett from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead. Lawson, please ensure that your line is unmuted locally and please go ahead with your question. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you very much, operator, and thank you, Sebastian and team, for the presentation today. I just wanted to start off with a question on your growth outlook. So you're targeting 1,600,000 ounces by 2025. And I was hoping to get a little bit of clarity on some of the asset Chichio.
So obviously, Fetekro would be part of that, I would assume. But what sort of number for Boungou would be built into that and And Anna as well.
Well, I think it's the What we've been looking at is the overall portfolio and for Boungou, we'll Probably remaining to the 150,000 to 200,000 ounce by that time. We're expecting further Discovery is there. I think if we take just the current reserve, we are probably around 150,000, But we hope to be able to maintain that closer to 200. And then as you said, it's really the kick in of The Saba Dalla Massawa expansion that will allow Saba Dalla Massawa to be over 400,000 ounce by that time. And in parallel, the Chichio.
Strong fedeco greenfield also into account, which will be over 200,000 We're still working on Fetekro at looking what's the right size of the plant based on the further discoveries that we're making. And I can't Exclude that a bit like Ity, we continue to increase the plant size as we progress the Chichio. Which might lead to Fetekro going even over 200,000 ounce.
And just in terms of Sabadellumassawa, is that are you assuming anything beyond sort of 4 100,000 ounces a year in that 1,600,000 ounces?
No, not yet. We've planned conservatively at about 400,000 homes, but my internal expectation would be to deliver much more.
Okay, great. And then just on Mana, actually Patrick when you were speaking, you mentioned the concept of Potential larger open pit there. Could you maybe just talk a little bit more about what you're seeing there? And then also maybe John, potential strip ratio. I think great.
Thanks.
I think on Mana, what we're heading up is for the next few years is we believe that In fact, we will switch off progressively the Werner open pit and turn this into a Werner underground. So for the next few years, we would have 2 underground running in parallel, on one side, a shoe underground and on the other I'd want to underground, which will give visibility over the next few years for production again between 150,000 to 200,000 ounce for this asset, while being able on the other side to give time for Patrick and Chichio. Team to do exploration to identify new oxide open pit targets and also progress studies that we started on Regarding refractory ore, there are a lot of refractory ore in the Mana inventory and around. So we want to give visibility and time to work on those two aspects in order to bring progressively Mana to Again, above 10 years my life.
Great. That's excellent. And then I wanted to touch on the new dividend Framework, super helpful framework, I think very bullish for the outlook. And I just wanted to maybe understand your thinking a little bit more On the downside, so granted we're well above $1500 per ounce, but how do you think about your commitment to That's 3 year dividend outlook at prices below $1500 And maybe you could Talk to it in terms of what is your sort of downside tolerance on that $1500 lower end? Thanks.
So I think that everyone would understand that the gold price has an impact on the Chichio. I think that the longer gold price stays at the current level, the more we accumulate Cash on the balance sheet and therefore the more we are immune for the next 3 years to in fact whatever gold price and still being able to deliver those committed minimal dividends. So I would say, also we're saying that Those are the minimal dividends that we would distribute as long as gold price is above $1500 My sense is that with the current gold price We are able to strengthen very strongly the balance sheet and therefore should be in a position to even maintain that beyond Oh, I would say below 1500 gold price. And I think the as you said, the visibility we wanted to give there To make things simple and also demonstrate that we are extremely confident on the ability for the current business to deliver those dividends whatever the gold price environment.
That's excellent. Thanks for that. You talked about GS or greenhouse gas reduction I'm believers. I was curious if you guys are kind of working on an internal target and when you might provide that. And I apologize if I missed it, but I don't think I did.
I think it's something that maybe you're working on internally.
So we're working towards, I mean, 2 targets, Obviously, net 0 by 2,050 and in the short term reducing by 30% our
intensity by 2,030.
There are a number of levers that Chichio. There are a number of levers that we are working on. What we outlined in the presentation is that if you take scope Ciccio. About 50% of our emissions is linked to the mining fleet. So we need to work on levels such as Over the next few years, how things evolve on the electrical side for mining fleet.
I don't think the gold industry is advanced on this, but our peers In the base metal are progressing extremely well, so we'll be carefully monitoring that. And the second half, I would say, of our emissions is really on the Electricity production, and there what we said is that we see massive improvements on our CO2 emissions by growing a Strong portfolio of solar plants, in particular in Burkina Faso. So we'll start by launching a solar plant at Hounde. But overall, we see the potential for building a portfolio of up to 150 megawatts Of electricity generated by solar across our business. But what was interesting in doing all the analysis and preparing New strategy, what was interesting for us is to see that from an intensity standpoint, we are One of the lowest in our peer group.
So when you take, I would say, 2 key features in Vandaver, I would say one of the lowest production cost of our share group and also one of the lowest in terms of CO2 emissions intensity per ounce Produced, which I think is, again, a good feature going forward.
Great. Thanks so much, Sebastien. And then just any update on the Karma sales process?
Not yet, Lawson. I think we've been pretty busy on preparing the London listing and integrating the Tauranga assets. So I would expect Progress on the Karma sale probably in the second half of the year.
Great. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Before we move to the next question, please be reminded if you would like to ask a question The next question comes from the line of Don DeMarco
So you guys have provided 3 year dividend guidance. Can we expect 3 year production and cost guidance may follow at some point?
Sure. I think that as part of our production guidance, we also gave indication of all in sustaining costs for the next 5 years, in fact, saying that we would expect for the next 3 years to have production sorry, all in Chichio. And then we said for the 2 remaining years, 2024, 2025, to be well below 900. Chichio. And I think it's a way to confirm that whatever gold This business will continue to generate very strong cash flow over the next 5 years.
Okay, Great. You guys have had a very clear messaging on no more M and A. Has anything changed when you see other companies such as Roxgold being bid on?
No, not at all. I think that we're so happy with the portfolio that we have that Chichio. We feel that there is more value creation for our shareholders to be done by organic growth Ciccio, rooted in looking at M and A. And yes, and we haven't seen anything that would be of interest that would Chichio. Jump us out or any interest in West Africa.
So very happy again with Chichio. What we did last year to build this portfolio and now focus on delivering the value creation out of that portfolio.
Okay. Thanks for that. So now shifting to your primary shareholder, La Mancha. They completed the $200,000,000 financing. To the extent that you're aware, can you comment on their plans with respect to increasing or decreasing their position in Endeavor?
Sorry, say that again, Don.
I was just wondering how La Mancha feels after this $200,000,000 financing. Do you have any thoughts? Can you provide any color on whether or not they may further increase or potentially decrease their position in Endeavor at some point?
No, I don't. But what I can say is that their $200,000,000 commitment was Chichio. On the back of the Taronga deal, as part of their anti dilution close, which at the time we agreed that, that was the Last time, they would exercise the anti dilution clause. So now it has now vanished. And We were jointly with Neghibs Aures, we were jointly agreeing that having them below 20% as Part of our London listing would be the right level.
They are around 19.3% or 5% currently, And they've been clear on the fact, Naguib has been clear that for him this was a long term investment for his family, and therefore, I don't
The next question comes from the line of Anita Soni calling from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thanks, Sebastien and team for
a very good presentation and particularly the ESG component. So my question relates to that. I don't think I saw it and I'm sorry if I missed it, but did you give any indication of how many females you have employed at the company and How many are in management positions?
Sorry, Anita, can you the line broke up, you said?
Sorry, I was just asking about the component of Female employees that you have and how many are also in management positions as well?
Overall, we are slightly above 10% in terms of female across the group in terms of employment, and we have about 15% in management position.
Okay. And then second question, a little bit leveraging off of Don's question on cost. Could you Give us an idea of the capital spending profile over the next 3 years. I don't think I saw that. And then you had also mentioned That if needed that you could increase your net debt to EBITDA if the CapEx I guess is lumpy.
So I'm just trying to get an understanding CapEx profile will roll out over the next 2 to 3 years. I'm talking about growth capital here.
Yes. So I think on the if we take just the sustaining and non sustaining CapEx approach, we guided this year for around €370,000,000 And what we said is that we would expect going forward to have Sustaining and non sustaining CapEx on our existing operations to be closer to 250 going forward, so from 2022 onwards. That's for the I would say that's for the sustaining and non sustaining CapEx. Then when it comes to gross CapEx, Obviously, the important one is in 2022 and 2023 linked to the construction of the Saba Dola Massawa Pension Phase 2 and the potential construction of Fetekro. We would expect, I mean, the total CapEx to be between $550,000,000 to $600,000,000 maximum spread over this 18 month period.
And I would say that usually we have about, I would put about 40% in the 1st 12 months and 60% in the last 6 months. So 40% in 202260
Okay. So that $550,000,000 to $600,000,000 was the combination of both Battacro and Masalis, Abadola?
Yes, exactly.
Okay.
And that's your split, 20406040. Okay. All right. Thank you.
The final question comes from the line of Travis Anderson calling from Gilder Gagnon Howe and Company. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions. I was wondering, Tanaga had done a fairly complete Phase 2 study, what was it that you felt needed to be improved there or were We're hoping to change by basically redoing it.
Sorry, which project you were talking about?
Chichio. Sabadagal Masawa Phase 2.
Okay. Now so Sabadagal Masawa, When we took over from Teranga, they had completed the PFS. So this was published, in fact, In September, October last year, so we've done further trade off studies between Since we took it over, so even during the after the announcement, so from November to March, we did some further trade off studies Chichio. To confirm some of the key parameters of the PFS and in particular, the size of the Vioxx plant, putting into competition Vioxx with other processing options also. We've now firmed up all those different options and are progressing to the And we are expecting the DFS to be completed by year end.
Okay.
Thanks. And secondly, I just noticed Nevada has now agreed to increase their royalties on mining, gold mining in the Is there any issues or pending possibilities you think of changes in terms in any of the Countries you're working in a major way?
Sure. Well, I think we there are 2 ways to Look at it, the first thing is in the countries where we operate as part of our mining conventions, we have some stability clauses. So if there were some changes to the tax royalty regime, this wouldn't apply, I mean, for the existing operations, but only for the future ones. Where we are confident is that the as part of this mistake, which was done in the past and in particular during the previous Gold Bull Run, where in fact YLTs were fixed amount irrespective of gold price, it created inevitably some tensions Between mining companies and government. So all the countries where we operate in West Africa have evolved and changed that About 5 or 10 years ago, in changing the royalty scheme so that its scaled royalty is depending on gold price.
So when the gold price increases, the royalties also are increasing, which make sure that everyone is on the same boat and fully aligned. So it's not just one mine site in country, which is suddenly enjoying huge profits without giving That's back to the host country. So higher gold price, you have obviously your higher YLTs, but obviously, you're So paying more taxes on the income part, and we've got tax rates which are similar, I would say, than in Western countries. And then for the communities, the good thing is we have now implemented again in all the countries where we operate this 1% Chichio. Turnover additional payments that we're making to local funds in order to enable local projects.
So obviously, gold price goes up, turnover goes up, and therefore, the 1% for communities is going up. So I think there is across the operations in The countries where we operate, a good alignment between the mine, the communities and the host governments in sharing that increased value when gold price goes up.
Okay, great. Thank you. It was a good presentation.
Thank you very much.
We have no further questions through on the phone lines. So I'd like to hand the call back over to Martino Di Chiccio, Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations, for closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for joining our virtual Chichio. We hope that the information presented has been helpful. The replay will be available on our website very shortly. I'll now hand it back to Sebastien
Thank you, Martino. And I'd like first to give a big thank to the entire team and in particular to Martino's team for preparing this Capital Market Day. We've tried to be as comprehensive as possible, In particular, on our business, on why we are so bullish about West Africa, but also giving visibility on our capital Chichio. Total allocation strategy going forward and also our enhanced ESG strategy following the increase of our size. So thank you so much for attending this day.
As Martino said, everything will be on replay on our website And hope to see you all later on. Thank you very much.