Greetings, and welcome to the Endeavour Mining Third Quarter 2020 Results Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. It is now my pleasure to hand over to the management. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here on our Q3 presentation results webcast. I'm sure that this will be a very exciting presentation as we have a lot to discuss today. You would have seen that we also published our new life of mines for Ity and Hounde. On the call, I am joined by Sebastian, who as some of you might have seen here, our very insightful social media feed is currently in Ivory Coast.
Also on the call are Mark, Henri, and Patrick. Today's call will be followed by the usual format. Sebastian will start with an overview followed by Henri to discuss the financials. Mark will then take us through the performance of each mine, including the updated mine plans at Ity and Hounde. And then Patrick will move towards providing an exploration update.
Before we start, please note our usual disclaimer. And now I'll hand it over to Sebastian to take us through the first section on Page 6.
Thank you, Martino. Before we start, I'm sure you've all seen the announcement on Tuesday. Which confirms that we are in discussions with Taranga regarding a potential merger of equal style combination. These discussions are ongoing and may or may not result in an agreement in respect of a potential transaction. Any transaction would only be pursued by management and the Board of Endeavour if they believe that it represented compelling value creation opportunity for our shareholders.
I want you all to however, rest assured We remain committed to our promises of generating strong cash flow, deleveraging and paying dividends. I do not intend to comment any further at this stage either in this presentation or during Q And A, which I hope you'll understand. But it's okay as you'll see that there is lots of other exciting stuff to talk about. For those who haven't yet had time to digest all the materials published this morning. This slide is a very good summary.
In short, we are on track to meet guidance for the year. We generated a record cash flow per share and are mentioning per share because it was a record in absolute as well, but given the completion of the same FFO transaction, it is more fair and accurate to look with a 71% reduction over the last 12 months. In Q3, we reduced it by nearly $300,000,000, and expect to be net cash We also published new mine plan for our Flat 2 flagship mines, Hounde and Ity, which demonstrate strong real ability to generate cash flow over a long period and gives visibility to our cash flow generation. And last but not least, given that we have now a strong balance sheet and that we expect to generate significant cash flow, As seen with our new life of mine plan and our 2 flagships, our board has declared our 1st dividend at an attractive yield. It's exciting for me and the team to break this milestone given the work done over the last 4 years in building the right portfolio and put us in this position today.
We will go over all these items in debts and in the upcoming slides. Turning now to Slide 7, I'd like to update on our COVID 19 response. We continue to operate at level 1 of our business continuity plan. Which is near normal operations with enhanced preventive measures in place such as temperature checks, increased hygiene standards, social distancing and regular testing of our workforce. Thankfully, West Africa has avoided the brunt of the impact of COVID 19 so far, While we have seen some impact from the pandemic on our business earlier on in the year, it was mainly around people movement and bolder's closing, Thanks to the precautionary decisions made and the significant efforts of our entire team, we've been able to maintain our guidance and remain on track to achieve our targets for the year.
We continue to remain vigilant We can see how we're tracking against our guidance for the year. We continue to focus on our lost time injury frequency rate as a key measure of employee safety and we are pleased that this rate continues to track well below our peers. As anticipated, we had a strong Q3 and we are well on track to achieve our guidance in terms of both production and all in sustaining costs. This is driven by an expected strong Q4 as we benefit from higher grades at Hounde and the restart of the Boungou mine. We will also see lower weighting from the relatively higher H1 2020, cost structure of CEMAFO once we look at the pro form a full year.
This is in spite of a $45 per ounce increase in royalties, which is driven by the a little more detail, starting with safety first. This is of the utmost importance to us and our first priority. As I mentioned, we continue to be well below the industry average. However, 3 lost time injuries over the past 12 months is a reminder we can never become complacent. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Hounde which achieved 20,000,000 lost time free man hours and Agbaou reached 10,000,000 lost time free man hours.
This is a great collective effort by the team on-site. On Slide 10, you can see the trend in production and all in sustaining costs on a consolidated basis for the past five quarters. This is the first quarter where we are reporting the results of our consolidated portfolio following the swift integration of the CEMAFO assets in the summer. In terms of production, we have had a strong quarter adding 95,000 ounces since Q2, which represents a 64% increase quarter on quarter. This increase is due to the addition of Mana in Bongo and a stronger performance in our existing portfolio.
Looking ahead, we expect Q4 to be a record quarter as we benefit from higher grades from the Karipam deposit at Hounde as well as the restart five quarters, our margin has increased by 119 percent since Q2 this year to $245,000,000 demonstrating a strong performance following the acquisition. We've also been able to take advantage of the higher gold price environment following the expiry of our gold collar program at the end of June, which saw nearly half of our production capped at the time at $1500 per ounce. Turning to Slide 12, our operating cash flow before working capital. As you can see, this was a record quarter for us for cash flow, both in nominal terms with an increase of $138,000,000 during Q3 when compared with Q2, as well as on a per share basis, due in part to the Semapo acquisition, which was accretive to operating cash flow per share by more than 30%. Increased production across the group and higher gold price were also significant contributors.
Turning to Slide 13. You can see the trend of our leverage profile, where we have steadily driven down net debts in completing the investment phase at Ity and Hounde. As you can see from the graph here, we are in the back end of our debt reduction phase having brought the net debt down by $300,000,000 in the third quarter alone. This is a great achievement for the business and for our shareholders, as we are now As mentioned earlier, we are pleased to announce that based on our expected robust free cash flow generation, our Board of Directors has declared a 1st dividend of $60,000,000 for the 2020 fiscal year payable in early 2021. The initial dividend equates to approximately CAD40.48 per share and represent a 0.61.6 percent yield based on yesterday's closing price.
As you can see on this chart, the yield of 1.6% already ranks competitively against our peers. The first dividend sets the past to a sustainable dividend policy based on our capital allocation framework and our strategy of maximizing long term shareholder value. Following the payment of this first dividend, we expect to declare future dividends on a semiannual basis with the goal of maintaining a similar annualized dividend yield until we have reached a target net cash position of $250,000,000 I believe it is important to build this strong balance sheet buffer to be able to continue to pay a dividend during cycles. Once this target cash position is reached, we would be well positioned to reassess our capital allocation priorities which may include augmenting our shareholder return program through either increased dividends and or share buyback program. Moving to Slide 15.
This shows you why we are confident to be able to pay a sustainable dividends going forward. Thanks to the updated mine plans and outlooks for both Ity and Hounde, we have visibility on long term cash flow generation. As you will have seen this morning, we've just announced updated mine plans for Hiti and Hounde to our flagship assets, driven by 2,000,000 ounces of reserve additions principally from recent discoveries at Loeblak at Ity, and Kari Pump and Kari West at Hounde, as well as expanded mill throughput. These additional reserves have allowed us to optimize demand plans to focus on both Ity and Hounde contributing 250,000 ounces each per year, sustainably, with each mine confirmed with more than 10 years of mine life remaining. We believe that the opportunity remains continue to extend production at each operation through continued exploration success and fill the gap to maintain this 250,000 mark on an annual production for each operation.
The combined annual production of both mines is therefore expected to average approximately half a 1,000,000 ounce for 2,125,465,000 ounces for 2021 through 2030. The chart here shows the details of the current and previous mine plans. In one, you can see the original plans where the blue bars represent the added production from the mine plants announced today. In aggregate, this plant has an average of 106,000 ounces or 25.7 percent per year, suited through 2025 and 100 70,000 ounces or 58 percent a year from 2021 through 2030. And of course, These are just two mines out of our portfolio of 6.
On Slide 16, We can spend a moment looking at the 5 year outlook for the Ity and Hounde mines in more detail. Both mines are expected to produce as I said, SEK 250,000 a year each, and these figures don't include further upside potential from Neiman exploration. The average all in sustaining costs for those two assets is $8.23 an ounce, which places them at the bottom of the industry cost curve. With total M and I resources of 8,600,000 ounces, we are very optimistic we'll be able to continue adding to reserves as a result of our exploration campaigns and has demonstrated over the last few years. We've already identified a number of targets which we are busy assessing.
Looking at the column of the far right, we are confident we can continue extending the mine life to beyond 10 years in each case as a result of further near mine exploration programs. When looking at mine performance and assessing the impact of our operation, We look beyond just production and cost metrics and consider our environmental footprint, including CO2 emissions. We believe that predicting our potential impact is an important step in finding ways to further minimize this impact. At these two operations, we have calculated that the intensity of our greenhouse gas emissions will be well below the industry average of 0.6 tons of CO2 equivalent, which is encouraging. As miners continue to tackle climate change, we believe this will become an increasingly important metric and a differentiating factor.
Continues to be made at Fetekro, our greenfield project in Cote d'ivoire. During the quarter, we announced a 108% increase in sources to 2,500,000 ounces and an average grade of 2.4 grams per tonne of gold. We also released the result of an initial PA, which was based on the original 1,200,000 ounce indicated resource and a 1,500,000 ton per annum plant, As you can see on the right hand side, the economics are already quite compelling. Based on the robust project economics and the fact that we have determined that we don't need to do any further drilling for reserve conversion, we've decided to fast track Fetek Road to PFS stage, which we are targeting for completion now in Q1 2021. This will include a doubling of the processing plant size to 3,000,000 tons per annum.
With additional nearby targets still to be drilled, We believe Petekro has the potential to become a key asset in our portfolio, which is very exciting indeed. Finally, before I hand over to Ori, let's take a look at the exploration side of the business on Slide 18. You can see on the right hand side, the breakdown of our exploration expenditure for the year to date. The largest spends were at Ity and Hounde as we continue to drill a track exploration targets at each mine. We also continued to invest in Fetekro as well as in some other promising greenfield targets.
As we move into 2021, we expect to ramp up exploration efforts on both Boungou and Mana. I'll keep this slide brief as Patrick will comment later. Turning to Slide 19. You can see here that we remain well on of resources by 2021. Since then, we've added 8,400,000 ounces and this was done for less than $15 per ounce discovered, which is, of course, very competitive.
We are finalizing exploration plans for Mana and Bongo and CDs are strong opportunities for additional success. Boungou in particular has seen limited drilling since it was built, and we have identified several promising near mine targets. We look forward to updating you on this during the course of next year. Slide 20 brings us to the end of the highlights section. To summarize, I believe we have created an attractive portfolio with diversified exposure and optionality across the asset lifecycle.
Following the acquisition of semaopfo earlier this year, We now have 6 producing mines which are generating good cash flow and allowing us to pay dividends. In addition, We have near term growth potential from our 4 projects and long term upside from our extensive greenfield exploration portfolio. I will now hand over to Henry to take us through the financial results in greater detail.
Thank you Sebastian and hello to everyone. I will start on Slide 22 with a snapshot. The key takeaway here is that we are in a much stronger position year on year, mainly due to higher production across the group, a full year of Ity and of USB's integration of the same WAFO asset during the quarter and gold products. This has contributed to strong increases as you can see here. If we turn to Slide 23, Martino, we can see the breakdown of the all in margin which as a reminder, includes a non sustaining capital.
If we look at the bottom line of the slide, you can see that on a year to date basis, we are up more than doubled compared to the same period in 2019, while on a quarterly basis, we nearly tripled all in margin. If we move to the next slide and net free cash flow, you can see that the continuous progress our net free cash flow during this year. Our year to net free cash flow before repayment or proceeds from long term debt improved by nearly $63,000,000. And if we highlight some notable items here, we have tax paid, which has increased mainly due to increased corporate income tax payment at Agbaou. And as you can see, in point 6, Q3 also includes acquisition and restructuring costs.
If we move to point 9 of this slide, you can see that we have repaired a portion of the CF, which we grew down in, in Q2 as a precaution during the COVID 19 crisis. Moving to Slide 25, net debt and liquidity analysis. We will take a closer look at our net debt and liquidity. We have prepared analysis of our cash position, starting with our cash position at the end of Q4 2019 and ending with how we currently stand at the end of 3, 2020. And as you can see, with significant operating cash flow and with investing and financing cash flow, we ended up the quarter with $523,000,000 in cash.
This means that we ended Q3 at a net debt of $175,000,000, which as previously noted is down significantly from last year. So this combined with a strong EBITDA performance has resulted in a reduction in the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to just 0.29 times. Next slide, it provides a breakdown of our adjusted net earnings. And for ease, we have noted the adjusting line items with the letter A on the right hand table. And if we look at the table, we'll see that the largest relates to the losses on financial instruments.
This is mainly due to the derivative portion of the convertible senior bond which has increased due to the significant increase in our share price in 2020. Earnings were also impacted by higher depreciation results from the growth of the same asset. Nonetheless, our adjusted net earning increase on the growth on the per basis compared to the same period last year, as you can see at the bottom of the table. In particular, our adjusted net earnings per share has increased significantly to 1.24@quarterend nearly a factor of 4. And then Slide 27, Martino, I'd like to say that the financial review by looking at our adjusted earning per share and how it's trended over time.
And as you can see from the graph, it has continued to grow steadily over the year and it's now sitting at 44% for the quarter. Up 47% from the same period last year. Sebastian, back to you.
Thank you, Roni. I realize that this is your last webcast as Joanna has recently arrived and will be taking over as CFO beginning of next year. I saw that leave you with a nice stats you now hold the record within Endeavour as CFO that has generated the most cash flow, good timing. While you were interim CFO, we decreased our net debt by $298,000,000 from $473,000,000 to $175,000,000 But given the production is higher weighted to Q4 and due to the continued strong gold price environment, Jona, I'm sure we'll quickly try to surpass you. On that note, Mark, over to you for the operational review.
Thank you Sebastian and hello to everyone. Trust that you're keeping the tape and well wherever you're located. Starting on Slide 29, our production bridge illustrates the performance year to date for both the pre acquisition assets as well as the pro form a business. Ity CIL, Hounde, and Karma all showed increases. Which more than offset the expected decline at Agbaou and resulted in a pre acquisition production level of 475,000 ounces year to date.
A great achievement given the challenges presented by COVID-nineteen and the modest increase from the same period in 2019. Which are typically a more challenging quarter given the rainy season. Once we add in the year to date impact of Mana and Gungu, we're now looking at pro form a production of 722,000 ounces. As you know, we have recently restarted mining operations at Boungou, the production shown here is managed and processed in stockpiles. Moving to Slide 30.
I'll start the operational review with Hounde. As you can see on the chart, production increased in Q3 due to higher process grades, which more than offset slightly lower throughput. All in sustaining costs decreased quarter on quarter, mainly due to a decrease in sustaining capital, lower processing unit costs, and slightly higher sales volume, which more than offset higher royalty and higher mining and G And A unit costs. On the bottom right hand side, you can see the detailed KPI. Total tons mined declined by 14% due to the normal rainy season impact.
While total tons of ore mined increased by 15% due to the commencement of mining at Kari Pump with an initial low strip ratio All were sourced primarily from Binduley, Mainland Central And Cary Pump, coupled into both RA and Binduley North. Hunter's mine was flat as oxide ore from Kari Pump, offset an increase in manufacturer from Zimbabwe, while process grade increased as we access higher grade or from Binbloo Lane And Central, supplemented by Kari Pump. Looking ahead to Q4, we are expecting a further increase in production versus Q3 as process grades are expected to improve substantially or process times and recoveries are expected to be relatively unchanged. Turning to the updated life of mine on Slide 31, the key drivers behind the update has been near mine exploration success in Mill Streetbrook. Which has consistently outperformed the optimization phase.
We have added approximately 2,500,000 ounces of measured and indicated resources at a discovery cost of less than $15 per ounce, which have allowed us to add 1,400,000 ounces to a year. It is worth noting that reserves at Kari Center GAP And Pump Northeast have not yet been included, and we expect you to have these completed by year end. On this slide, you can see how the detailed production for Hounde has been enhanced compared to the original study. Similar to the area production chart, the white bars showed the original mine plan while the blue bars showed the incremental production. There are a few more points that I'd like to take you through on this chart.
The first is that we've added more than 200,000,001,000 ounces of gold production from 2021 to 2025, which represents a 21% increase over the previous plan. The second is that the Hounde Mine been extended by at least 3 years, with continued opportunity for expansion from resource conversion and new mine exploration, which Patrick will expand on shortly. Moving to Slide 32. Let's take a closer look at the long production statistics for Hounde. The Hounde operation will be able to sustain 250,000 ounces per annum over the next 5 years and over 200,000 ounces from 2025 for the following 5 years without taking into account our expectations for conversion from additional exploration upside.
All in sustaining costs are very competitive at under $8.75 per ounce through to 20.25 and currently at just above $900 per ounce over the life of mine. Our goal is, of course, to continuously adjust our life of mine plans with each exploration update to augment the production profile for the following 5 year period. On Slide 33, we've included a map which illustrates the extended 2 minutes of Hyundai to incorporate the carry area. You can see the 2 new high grade deposits, Kari Pump and Kari West, that are now part of the updated mine plan as well as additional resources that we will incorporate in the near future. Turning to slide 34, you can see the monitor Dubai pit at Hounde.
The window heat will be sustained at the same source of feed over the life of the operation. While the addition of the higher grade carry pump and carry waste deposits has allowed us to displace lower grade sources to the end of the mine mine. Carrie Center Gap And Pump Northeast deposits, a lower grade in Carrie Pumpings with width. They will contribute positively to extend my life. Montana added 2 reserves at the end of the year.
The benefit that the new long plan brings is sufficient time horizon to consider further improvement initiatives focusing on mining productivity, plant throughput, recovering, and costs. It is worth noting with the volume of ore at Kari Pump, we will be considering alternative options to serve for fully. Another good potential project for Hounde is the use of SOLO to supplement the group, which is more expensive than Burkina Fasen worked with all the underway in this regard. I will now hand over to Patrick to take us through our exploration program at Woodbank.
Thanks, Max, and hello to everyone. Turning to Slide 35 now. When we take a higher never look at the exploration work done at Hounde. If we include the cumulative depletion, Hounde is now hosts off to a total reserve enrollment of more than 3,400,000 ounces within, with 2,800,000 ounces still in reserves. This is an increase of more than 64% compared to the 2016 optimization study, which essentially means we have more reserves today than we did when mining began.
And we are indeed confident that we have several additional opportunities to add even more. Our main focus has been the carrier area at Hounde, which now accounts for 57 percent of the total Hounde MNI resource with 2,500,000 ounces of indicated resource discoverable over the past 3 years. The area owes high grade deposit with approximately 84% of indicated resource grading more than 2 grams per tonne of gold amounting to 2,100,000 high grade ounces at a low very low discovery cost of less than $15 per ounce per indicated ounces. Importantly, all of these deposits are within earlier this year, we also announced an update resource estimate in early Q3 incorporating some 554,000 additional indicated answers for the entire carrier. This included the extension for the Kari West And Kari Center deposit plus new maiden resource for the nearby Kari Gap in Cary South and Cary Pointe Northeast deposit.
We will soon start a new drilling campaign of at least 20,000 meter in the Q4 which is focused on targeting extension in field and exploration exploratory work. We will continue to focus on the career area until we are finished converting all the resource into reserves. And we expect to announce maiden reserve for Kari Center of Kari Gap, South And Pump Northeast, in our year end reserve update during Q1 2021. We will then prioritizing the next target that are within 15 kilometers on the mill for exploratory drilling in early 2021, and we look forward to seeing the result of that program, with excitement. So lots to achieve, but still to play for at Woodley.
Back to you, Mark.
Thanks, Patrick. Turning now to Ity on Slide 36. You can see that production has decreased slightly since the last quarter as higher throughput and gold recoveries largely offset the lower process grades. All in sustaining cost decreased due to a lower strip ratio, an increase in gold toll, higher recovery rates and lower unit processing costs. Which were partially offset by higher unit mining and G and A costs and higher royalty expenses related to the gold price.
Mining continued to prioritize pick cutbacks during the quarter as a higher grade ity and back between deposits. Taking a step back to look at mining activities over the past 2 years since the CIO plant began operation, mining in 2019 was primarily focused on ore traction. During 2020, we accelerated the ETP cutback in quarter 2 and have been focused on this as a cutback at faculty to explore physician law. This will enable us to source ore from several deposits to optimize plant fee based on metallurgical characteristics. We are confident these short term compromises will position in ity for a stronger performance in quarter 4 and into 2021.
Production in quarter 4 is expected to improve over quarter 3 due to higher process grades. That fee during the quarter is expected to be sourced primarily from higher grade sulfide oil at Duplu, along with historical wage dumps and stock price. Throughput and recovery rates are expected to decline due to the expected metallurgical characteristics of the higher proportion of fresh definitely all. Moving to Slide 37 and looking at the updated Ity mine plan. Similar to Hounde, we've been able to do it developed a mine plan that confirms this operation as one of the cornerstones of our business, producing at a rate of 202,000 ounces per year.
Reserves have increased steadily through ongoing exploration success, which has allowed us to progressively increase mill throughput through various small capital improvement projects. On this slide, the brief hours show the incremental production compared to the previous plan, which I mean why. While there have been some modest variations on an annual basis, we have maintained the ability to bring forward additional high grade discoveries to either increase production in the shorter term window, which is sustained to 250 k ounce production for longer, subject to continued discoveries like La Pla, for example, It is worth noting that the published life of mine plan is based on current reserves and installed claim capacity and does not take into account further process and upgrades that are under planning and or detailed engineering, which will bring a range of benefits, including increased throughput increased recovery and reduced reagent consumption. On Slide 38, you can see some additional key metrics both for the 5 year period starting in 2021 and what we anticipate the following 5 year period will look like as well as the total loss of mine as it currently stands. Headline numbers, annual production of approximately 250,000 ounces through to 2025 and an average of 230,000 ounces over an 11 year mine line.
All in sustaining costs are very competitive at $7.80 per ounce for both the next 5 years as well as over the last moment. Moving to Slide 39, we have recently received the mining permit for the entire failure last year period highlighted in purple. Which is held within a new subsidiary for its society, the need to follow, and 90% owned by endeavor. This license covers the existing La Plac deposit as well as several additional targets in close proximity and will give us flexibility to bring additional discoveries into the mine plan in the future. The breach that was constructed for access to the DeBothit enables access to both sides of the Quebrada river with a frolou license as well.
On the next slide, we have detailed the mining schedule across the mine deposits at Italy. Access to the La Pla deposit is underway. We expect to finish all land, compensation and haul load construction in the next 5 to 6 months for the Wheaton South Great Control drilling and infrastructure establishment ahead of the wet season in early 2021. This will enable us to commence mining late 2021. Patrick will talk about exploration plans shortly, but we will always advance higher grade options ahead of the lower grade fit such as Via and Tribute.
Is great to have that range of options and flexibility at Eton. I'll now hand over to Patrick.
Thanks, Mark. Turning to Slide 41, as you can see on the map, the Ity mine remains highly perspective with quite a significant number of exploration target, which are all within trucking distance of the plant. As already mentioned, so far since 2016, we have been we have a discover of more than 2,300,000 ounces of indicated resources. And I am confident due to the quality of the exploration portfolio that we will continue to find more. Since March 2018, our primary focus has been the Le Plaque area, and you can see we have been very busy.
During the year to date, the majority of exploration has continued to focus on the Le Plaque area with $13,000,000 spent year to date, comprising over 85,000 meter of drilling. Without more drilling on the northern part of the fluoro license area. These recognitions drilling outlined that look like represents only around 30% of the large North Sea on flouleaux and Omellis area. Reading on this additional target, is ongoing with result pending on several roles. Our goal is to delineate new resource at some of these targets in 2021, and I look forward to updating you as we progress on that.
We are also drilling a near mill target, including Verso West, the historic leach pad of Ity and the Daimler Southwest. Now back to you, Mark.
Thanks, Patrick. On Slide 42, I'll take you through our Agfao mine where production remained flat from last quarter. An increased proportion of mill feed was comprised of higher grade pressure, which compensated for the expected reduction in plant throughput. This all was sourced from the deeper elevation of the north and south peak, which resulted in higher waste stripping and a corresponding decrease in ore mine. Looking to the last quarter of the year, we expect production to increase as we process higher grades and increase tonnage.
Mining is expected to continue principally in the north and south seas. Throughput is expected to increase following the end of the rainy season, while recoveries are expected to increase that slightly decreased due to greater volumes of the harder fresh ore processed. Moving to Slide 43. Production at Karma increased slightly from last quarter due to the recovery of some of the gold locked up in the heap during previous quarters. This offset the lower grade recovery rate and tonnage stacks driven by the rainy season and higher strip ratios associated with the Cowenorth and GT1 pits.
We expect production to increase slightly during quarter 4, thanks to increased tonnage stacked during the dry season. Mining is expected to continue at Cowenor and Ggone through the remainder of the year is SAC grade expected to be consistent with those in quarter 3 as low grade stockpiles supplement or SAC. Turning to Slide 44, this is our first look at how the Mana Mine is performing as an Endeavour operation. I've been to site 4 times now over the past 4 months, and we'll be heading there again next week as part of our budget process. This has enabled me to understand the operation quite well and meet many of the team.
With the completion of the CEO open pit, All focus is on waste stripping at Werner and maintaining strong production performance in the underground. We have undertaken a review of exploration targets and will commence drilling for both open pit and underground extensions in quarter 4. We've also employed an experienced general manager for Mana, who has suite open pit and underground experiences. This quarter, production increased significantly. One of the biggest improvements was a substantial increase in total tons mined due to an increase in equipment availability.
This allowed us to increase all mining by 19% in spite of a higher strip ratio. All extraction focused on ceilings and loaner pits while pre stripping was conducted at learner. In the underground, all mining increased 43% versus quarter 2, which is impacted by a 2 week check related to implementation of preventative COVID-nineteen measures. All processing increased as a result of higher available feed for the mill. Looking ahead, following a stronger quarter 3, we production to decline modestly in quarter 4 due to the completion of the CU open pit, while increased ore from Werner will lead to lower throughput and recoveries.
Operations will focus on non sustaining underground development and pre stripping of Voya, which is expected to increase both sustaining and non sustaining capital expenditure. We will also initiate a 35,000 meter drilling program for quarter 4 with 27,000 meters of RC and 8000 meters core drilling plan. The program is targeted at Northeast continuations of oxide mineralization at Kona and 2 open pits. A further fifteen thousand meters will be targeted at evaluating continuations of underground ore sheets at the Northeast And Southwest suspension of CU. Moving to Bundu on Slide 45.
Kimo Tamanna, I have had portraits to Bundu with another plan for next week. Our general manager from Ivey is now on-site and good progress has been made with the mobilization of SFTP who have purchased a large amount of the previous mining contractor fleet in addition to the fleet that they are mobilizing to site. We have conducted an exploration review with Patrick's team and drilling will also recommend in quarter 4. As announced last month, Mining activities successfully restarted at Bundu, which will enable us to have a strong 4th quarter. I'd like thank the government of Burkina Faso for their partnership, the improving regional security, and also to say well done to everyone involved in getting this restart of the ground quickly and factories.
It marks a little milestone for us and is a key factor to realizing the full benefits. Of the Semafo acquisition. Production in quarter 3 remained flat compared to the previous quarter as increased plant throughput offset the lower grade and mill feed. We were able to extract some previously blasted ore, which helped to offset the declining stockpile grade Melita to the recommencement of mine. That concludes my operational review.
I'll now hand back to Sebastian.
Thanks, Mark. Before we hand over to Q And A, I'd like to reiterate the strategic importance of the Hounde and Ity mines to our overall ambitions. Of being a strong dividend paying gold producer. This chart is a need summary of how we have turned around this business in just 4 years. Following a period of significant investment and hard work, you can see that our portfolio is now better balanced with an attractive cost profile and gives us significant visibility into the future.
With the investment period now over and debt falling rapidly this quarter, aided by, supported by a strong gold price, we've been able to achieve our goal of becoming a sustainable dividend payer. I'm proud of the combined efforts of our exploration, mine development and operations team who have worked together to make these mines a resounding success. Looking ahead, we have several interesting near term catalysts coming up with higher production expected at both Hounde and Boungou in Q4, were expected to have a record quarter. We also expect to announce maiden reserves for Kari Center and Kari Gap in our year end reserve statement. Turning to our growth portfolio, we plan to announce the accelerated PFS for our Greenfield Telecom project during Q1.
With our first dividend announcement today, our next goal is to seek a second re listing to broaden our appeal to investors and drive incremental investor demands through increased index inclusion. We've worked hard and invested heavily in recent years to build the platform that we have today. I really believe this work is now paying off and we are looking good for the end of the year and into the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Sebastian, Harvey, Mark and Patrick. That's a stellar job as always. It's lots of details, but I'm sure that our audience appreciates it. This concludes the formal portion
Thank
Our first question comes from the line of Raj Ray from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good afternoon, Sebastian and team. My first question is on your dividend and congrats on stealing, your first dividend. If I'm not wrong, you're basing it on a 1% or maintaining 1 1.6 percent dividend yield and it's not a percentage of your earnings or free cash flow. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. I mean, the intent is until we, we reached $250,000,000 of net cash on the balance sheet. We'll maintain the sale same level of expectations throughout 2021 can come as early as, say, Q2, Q3, then we'll be able to increase the dividend yield by distributing further to our shareholders.
Okay. Thanks, Sebastien. My second question, and if I'm not wrong. You did mention about the potential share repurchase that you could look at. Can you give us some color on what valuation marks, would you be looking at with respect to whether you would be buying back your shares or not?
Sure. Well, I think that the objective for us is to come up and that will be probably as part of our year end results with a strategy on capital allocation that includes the buyback instruments by by Feb March when we'll publish our year end results, we'll be able to describe, again, given the strong balance sheet where we are that as part of our capital allocation strategy, a buyback may become an attractive tools of returning value to shareholders. If and only if the share price continues to be significantly underperforming.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then, if I may, just a couple more questions. First up on your convertible bonds, if I'm not wrong, there's a 20 of the sub call provision that kicks in February 2021.
Now this depends on where your share price is at that point and if it's above the trigger price, but Do you have any insights on whether you'd be looking to call that or you let it write to maturity?
Well, I think you're right, Raj. I mean, in, in Feb or March, I mean, the, we have the ability with this call option. Doesn't mean that we're going to exercise it, but we, we always said that our intent was that once we reach strong balance sheet and we do believe that, thanks in particular to our 2 key assets, we should, you know, in this current gold price environment continued to generate significant cash flow, which means that once we are able to reach this $250,000,000 net cash and we're able to continue to pile up cash, down the road, we'll make the assessment on whether from a capital allocation standpoint, it makes sense to call back this bond or not.
Okay. Thank you. And then one last question, maybe this is for Patrick. Wanted to get a sense of the strip ratio for La Plaque. If I remember correctly, ity had a low strip of 2, but the strip ratio has increased with the inclusion of La Plaque?
And how is the profile for the strip ratio? Is it higher at the beginning or as you go deeper into the La Plag deposit, the strip ratio increases? Any thoughts there?
Hi. As far as I remember, yes, it's significantly higher than ity, because the mineralization are much more, I would say, vertical. So for the exact number of the strip ratio, I don't remember. Maybe, Mark could answer more in detail because I know this has been included in our latest mining plan, Mark?
Patrick, if I were to step in here, it's about it's over 4:1, whereas is less than 2:1. So it is more, but it is high grade. Raj, to your question on timing of the different deposits in the press release, figure 7 of the life of mine press release, you have a table there with the pit sequencing. So La Plaque shows that coming into production in late next year and runs throughout the life of mine until 2028. So the idea is to blend the higher grade with some of the lower grade deposits to maintain this 250,000 ounce flat profile.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lawson Winder from B And A.
Oh, hi, everybody. A really exciting dividend policy, well played. I just wanted to ask other question on that policy to sort of reinforce my understanding of it. So it is based on the yield. And just hypothetically, if your share price were to double from here, your dividend payout then would double to $120,000,000?
Well, I think that if our share price doubles I think it just will be reflecting the strong balance sheet and the further cash flow that we'll be generating. So we should be able to continue to maintain this level of yield So that's 1. And second, as mentioned, I think that, we believe that returning value to shareholders in particular ones that have been supporting us over the last 4 or 5 years through the intensive CapEx phase of building Hounde and Ity. Once we've reached this $250,000,000 milestone, then instead of keeping a discretionary view, on this policy. We'll get more into a percentage of, you know, cash flow generated by the company once we've reached this $250,000,000.
So the where we are excited is, we've reached, as we expected, in 2020, this nearly net debt net debt 0. Now it's all about maximizing cash flow. We said that we wouldn't start any new projects in terms of construction before 2022. Which means that 21 is solely focused on maximizing cash flow and getting as fast as possible to this $250,000,000 net cash position. So that we can continue to increase the return to shareholders.
And in parallel, as we have the balance sheet and the cash flow, we'll be able also to revisit what is the best capital allocation, I mean, for our shareholders, including potential buybacks depending on share price performance.
Yes, thanks so much for that Sebastian. Just on another thing you touched on there on the No CapEx in 2021, However, I mean, you do plan to have a pre feasibility study out on Fetekro. And I'm just curious And assuming that previsibility, previsibility study is positive, are there any, permitting type restrictions that would prevent you from proceeding with at least some CapEx spending at that asset in 2021?
Well, the, we'll have to move as soon as we have a sensible feasibility study, we'll have to move to permitting, which is a process which we're extremely familiar with in Cote d'ivoire, as you saw with the recent Le Plaque Permit. Our objective would be to have to be in a position to have a completed feasibility study and mining permits, ready by the end of the year, so that we can decide in terms of capital allocation, whether between Kalana and Fetekro, Vedeco is the first one to go into construction starting in 2022.
Great. That's a fantastic color. And then, on the listing last quarter, you said you're looking at a secondary listing in either London or New York. Maybe one, could you just update us on that process? And 2, from this point forward, could you see endeavor possibly having 2 additional listings?
A secondary and a third, some of your peers have done that?
Sure. I think that our view is that, given our increased size, we believe in sense to have a second listing. We're currently evaluating the right venue. Most of the work to be, Frank, has been done. I would say that we nearly have the answer.
The issue we're facing is in terms of timing, it takes time, I mean, to prepare whether for New York or London, this listing. So I think there is no point in announcing, you know, something that's going to occur in 6 months' time announcing already the venue. I would just say that we are doing the work so that by end of Q2, we are in a position to announce I mean to make the listing happening, which probably means that we'll be announcing it as part of our, you know, year end results. So Yes, I mean, we're progressing very well on all that, full steam. We have a dedicated project team working on that, and we believe that that's an important catalyst also for our share price in 2021?
Okay. And then just any thought to, to 2 listings?
New York or London, and I would say that, you know, still evaluating the merit between the 2.
Okay, fair enough. All right. And then just one final question for me. I'd like to ask sort of a conceptual question. I mean, if I look historically at your sort of deposit strategy.
You guys have tended to go after, deposits of ports in West Africa that tended to be higher grade, large proportions of oxide material. And I'm just curious how you would think about adding a potential refractory deposit to the portfolio and how you might manage the risk associated with that and and the technical challenge that would come along with that? Thanks.
Sure. Well, I think that given the quality of the portfolio that we have, and I think Patrick and the team have been really excited about focusing on identifying short term nearby high grade oxide deposits. So far, we continue to deliver on that front. We know that at some point, we might have, in particular, on the nearby, in order to focus on a bit lower grade. And we all know that in West Africa, there are a lot also a refractory ore.
I don't think it's on the agenda today, but I'm sure that technically there's been a lot of progress done on treating refractory ore and a lot of our peers are progressing on that. So I think that down the road, I'm sure that that's something that the group will be evaluating and might enter into. But, but we don't need to for today, which is good. And this is why we're so happy with our life of mine plans that we published on Hounde and Ity, given the visibility that I think we're giving to investors in the market on those on those life of mine plans with easy ore to treat, I would say.
Great. As always, thanks so much Sebastian and thank you everybody else for your comments
today. Thank
you. Our next question comes from the line of Fahed Tarik from Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. On ET on the 10 year outlook, I noticed in the outer years or near the end of that 10 year period, there's a gap. And at Hounde, from your comments, it sounds like Carey Center and Cary Gap would fill, fill that gap. But for ET, where do you see the exploration upside that would kind of fill that gap in the later years to get you to the 250,000 ounces per year?
Sure. Well, I think Patrick could confirm, but Le Plaque, for example, I mean, it's still open and we haven't finished on the Le Plaque, wider area. So, the team continues to be extremely excited by the multiple targets that we continue to identify on ity. So it's clear that we're not short of ideas on target where to find more answers is just a question of putting priorities. And as you tend to go more to the back end of the life of mine plan, 9 to 10 years down the road.
Obviously, it shifts in terms of priority and timing versus are the more short term priorities on the other mine side and so on. So that Rick, I mean, I don't want to give a bit more color on all those different targets and potential.
Yes, sure. Yes, as Sebastien said, there is tips and upside in the replying deposit itself. But something to remember is in ity. We have been very fast and concentrating, as somebody said before, quite shallow, open pitiable, oxide type of mineralization. That being said, we know that we have some deeper potential, whether, for example, in the Plaque in Baccato, too, where, initial exploration start stopped at quite a shallow depth.
So we know we are outside there, but on top of that, as was mentioned, before during the presentation, there is potential in a Versa West in a several area, actually, around Ity, where, limited exploration was done. Maybe not for 1,000,000 ounce deposit, but we do believe that, there is very good chance to find additional 2 to 300 1000 ounces deposit on ity, at least within the 5 kilometers radius on ity. So for us, it's just a matter of time just to fill up gap.
Okay, that's That's clear. Thank you. And then my only other question was on royalties, I know they're higher, but is that a function of just the gold price? Or are you seeing any pressure from certain governments to try to revise the royalty regime because of COVID budget deficits or just higher gold prices. I'm just trying to get a sense of so far it sounds like it's basically the gold price, but going forward,
Yes, I confirm it is solely gold price. As you know, in most of the countries where we operate, the mining code is basically a scaling YLT based on gold price. So it's simply mechanically the effect of gold price increase.
And just have you seen any pressure from any of the governments you try to revise any of the mining agreements?
No. And I think that, what I've been advocating regarding, you know, West Africa countries, in particular, the French West Africa, where we operate is that because those mining codes do take into account higher gold price with this mechanism. They are already incentivized and therefore, they have no reason into revisiting all this. Thank you.
Well, thank you, everyone, for your questions and attendance. As there's no more questions, we'll now finish the call. I course remain available to address any questions offline. For those of you that I've also seen on our website, we published the virtual tours for Ity and Hounde along with those mine plants, so we invite you to visit those. Thank you, everyone, and have a good day.
Thank you.
That does conclude today's conference. Thank you to everyone who's participated in today's call. You may now all disconnect and speakers. Please standby.