Greetings, and welcome to Endeavour Mining's 1st Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Results Webcast. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr.
Sebastian De Monteza, CEO of Endeavour Mining Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Dimon Caesar. You may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our for 2019 and full year results presentation. My name is Sebastian De Monticeieu. I'm the CEO of Endeavour Mining, and it's a pleasure to be talking to you once again. Please note today's call is covered by our disclaimer and notice on forward looking statements.
The format for today's call will be usual quarterly format. I will provide an overview, then Luis will review our financial performance followed by Mark who will discuss the operations and will conclude before opening today's presentation up for questions. Our Head of Exploration Patrick is also with us here today and available to answer any exploration questions you may have. Beginning with our usual format, I'm pleased to show that we have achieved strong results across all four of our strategic pillars in 2019. Most importantly, 2019 marks our successful transition from a period of intense capital investments to a cash flow generation phase, In H2, we generated our first positive net cash flows since the investment phase and were able to reduce our net debt by $132,000,000 by year end.
This is an incredibly exciting milestone for the company, and I will delve deeper into the details of the following slides. Another key achievement is our strong operational performance, which for the 7th consecutive year saw endeavor achieve its production and all in sustaining cost guidance. This is a significant accomplishment, and I want to take a moment to commend our entire operating team. Most notably, we benefited significantly from the step at the Ity CIL mine following its commissioning in Q1. The mine was completed on budget and ahead of schedule, and we are looking forward to seeing the results of a full year production this year.
Exploration continued to be a strong focus for us as we look to build optionality throughout our portfolio. We saw over 300,000 meters drilled across the group in 2019 and discovered 2,100,000 ounces of MNI Resources. Turning now to the next page. Below the industry average, as you can see here. However, we are very saddened to report that occurred last week at our Karma mine an employee died following an accident involving a heavy mining vehicle.
Despite immediate emergency medical care efforts to revive the employee were unsuccessful. We are undertaking a comprehensive investigation to understand why the strategy occurred so that we can work to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Mark will come back to this in the Karma overview section. As I mentioned a moment ago, Endeavor enjoyed another strong year from an operation standpoint successfully meeting our guidance for the 7th consecutive year. On the graph here, you can see the production from continuing operations, in blue and the gray shaded area represents production from discontinued operations.
Overall production from continuing operation has increased by 6% in 2019 over 2018, mainly thanks to the ETCL project startup in late Q1. Looking ahead to 2020, we expect to see further increase as we benefit from a full year with TCIL and the higher grade Kari Pump discovery at Hounde, coming into production in the second half of the year. Turning now to Slide 7. You will see more details on our all in sustaining cost. We have seen a continued decrease since 2013 hitting $8.18 per ounce in 2019 and meeting our guidance for the 7th year in a row.
2019, we benefited from the ETCIL startup, which had all in sustaining costs to you in the low $600 per ounce range, in 2020, we expect the ASC to remain low at $8.45 to $8.95 per ounce. This translated to a strong increase in all in margin. You can see just how marked this increase was in the chart displayed here. As we added $62,000,000 from our 2018 figure. It is interesting to note that we have generated 2.8 times all in margin in H2 versus H1, a substantial increase, thanks to a stronger gold price in the Ity CIL production.
Turning to Slide 9. This illustrates the strong cash flow generated in 2019 really showing the increase in maturity of our portfolio. The main factor underpinning this is our successful transition from a construction phase to production phase and as shown here, Q3 was really the cash flow inflection point for us. We had finished building it in Q1, but we still had some cash outflow in Q2 due to upside the plant and accounts payable. This change in Q3 when we made $52,000,000 and then later $80,000,000 in Q4.
So a total of $132,000,000 the second half of the year. On this next slide, we show how we compare on free cash yield against peers in our sector Before I comment on our own performance, I would like to commend the industry. For a long time, this industry has shown negative free cash flow yields, and this has been a key challenge in attracting generalist investors. Today, a number of gold companies are now starting to focus on return on capital employed and cash flow and many of them starting to generate healthy yields, in time this will benefit the sector as a whole. In our case, it's graphic that rate both the work achieved on the portfolio and the rerating potential of our stock.
Because of the large CapEx spend in the first half of the year, up twenty 19 free cash flow yield was 1%. Based on 2020 consensus estimates, we are now trading at a 30% yield amongst the highest within our peer group. This remains a tough market and companies are normally rewarded only after they deliver understandable given the prudent nature of investors. As such, we are confident that as we continue to demonstrate strong cash flow, this performance should start to be reflected into our share price. Now we have reached a state of positive cash flow point.
And this has translated into a strong net debt reduction, which was expected given the quick paybacks of our projects. The bottom of the graph illustrates the cumulative CapEx for the business and what has been insured in each period, both of which have been steadily decreasing as we completed the Ity CIL project. We decreased from a peak net debt of $660,000,000 at the end of Q2 to $528,000,000 by year end. Year over year, we finished at a lower net debt and have significantly better our net debt to EBITDA ratio, which decreased from a peak of almost three times in Q1 to one 0.48 times at year end. This is expected to further decrease to be below 1 times by year end.
As you see on this next slide, we show how this is ultimately translated into return on capital employed. A key target for us is to achieve a 20% return on capital employed. And we can see that when we analyze H2, which is a more than fair representation of what the group can generate, it stands at 14%. Expect this figure to continue to increase in 2020 based on a greater production within the group. Turning to Slide 13 now, I would like to exploration, which remains a large focus for us and has been successful.
The key priorities for us are twofold. Firstly, to extend mine lives at our flagship assets, Umde and Ity. We've been successful with the carry discoveries and the look like discoveries, respectively, both of which are being converted into reserves. Loplac at Ity was converted into reserves 2 weeks ago, and at Hounde, we expect reserves on Kari West and Kari Center to be converted in Q2. In parallel, we've been working on increasing optionality within the portfolio, mainly with Fetekro as it has grown from 0 to 1,200,000 ounces of indicated resources in less than 18 months.
In addition, we are starting to drill other greenfield areas such as Guinea, which looks promising. On Slide 14, we have a reminder of our 5 year exploration targets that we set for our sales at the end of 2016, The objective was to find 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 ounces of indicated resources at a cost of less than $20 per ounce. We felt that increasing our budget was easy, but we needed to show accountability just as the operations are accountable for the production and all in sustaining costs and projects for CapEx and timeline. We felt that exploration also needed to be accountable. We are pleased to show that since late 2016, the team is tracking well against these targets, and we have already found 6 point ounces at a cost of less than $12 per ounce.
The goal has been to find high grade deposits and displace lower quality production Therefore, we have ensured this is the case for all major discoveries over the last 3 years. What is even more remarkable is the time from discovery to production, as you can see on the chart here. Which is exceptionally quick in the mining industry. Looking at the various examples, Bakatou at Ity was found for less than $10 per ounce, and has been put into production within 2 years. We see a similar story with La Plaque and Kari Pump because it's high grade.
We're eager to start mining there. Mining people have asked us what the secret for growing fast. I guess I'm not supposed to give it away, but here it goes. First, it is a question of exploration mentality. We want exploration to produce.
Therefore, we don't want to waste time on answers, which will never get mine or be mined in the next 10 years. We test many targets and once we are confident enough on the discovery, it is full steam ahead. Because of our large presence in West Africa, we can redeploy our human capital based on our strategic needs. For example, when we made the Kari Pump discovery, it was all hands on deck to drill over one thousand holes in a year, and we go trade to indicate its status by passing the inferred category altogether. This means that when we have made an indicated resource, we then just need to do engineering work to have reserves.
As for permitting, as soon as we have a strong conviction, we start the process. Of course, having the right team and land package is the first fundamental step So the formula doesn't need copyrights. Here on Slide 16, we want to show how we're planning to extend the mine life at Hounde in order to achieve our goal of 250,000 ounce per year over 10 years. For illustrative purposes, we're showing that we need to fill the gray areas. You the chart on the right hand side.
In total, this adds to 1,100,000 ounces of reserves. The good news is that we have already added 710,000 ounces with the Carripom Discovery, meaning we need approximately an additional 400,000 ounce to convert to reserves and achieve our target. Of this latter figure, we have already identified above 1,000,000 ounces of indicated resources at Kari West And Kari Center, and we expect to convert this into reserves within Q2. Once this has happened, we'll update our mine plans and publish technical reports. On Slide 17, we show the same illustration for Ity.
We also have similar objectives namely fill the gap and achieve 10 years of flat 250,000 ounce of production per year. In order to reach this target, we need to add 500,000 ounces of reserves. And we are well on the way to achieving that. Le Plaque, where we announced reserves 2 weeks ago, has already added 400,000 ounce. Again, we will be publishing updated technical reports in Q2 to show these new reserves and that the plant is running at 5,000,000 tonnes per annum compared to the previous 4,000,000 tonnes per annum in study.
On the next page, you see a snapshot of the two projects that we have in the pipeline, Kalana and Fetekro. Although our main focus is to reimburse debt. As I mentioned at the beginning, we are also seeking to build optionality in the portfolio, and this is being done through these two assets. As you recall, we bought Canada about 2 years ago and we're now pleased that Canada is competing with Fetekro for capital allocation. The idea is to advance both project studies this year.
On Fetekro, we target a PEA for Q2 of this year and further exploration to continue to grow the resource. On calendar, we expect to complete an updated feasibility study in Q3. The idea is to be in a good position by year end to compare both projects side by side. Before I conclude this I'd like to just take a moment to reflect on the turnaround we've achieved over the past 4 years. It has been a very busy and exciting journey.
We have invested almost $1,000,000,000 into the business. In turn, we've built 2 flagship mines and discovered 6,300,000 ounces so far. In addition to this, we have divested 3 noncore assets and acquired 2, Same to this hard work, we are now ideally positioned to benefit from the stronger coal price environment. Looking forward to 2020, I focus is to deleverage the company, continue to extend the mine lives of our flagship assets and build portfolio optionality as we've just described. This is all in the aim of delivering stronger shareholder returns.
While we are therefore very proud of our turnaround over the past few years, this hasn't yet been translated into strong shareholder returns when looking at our share price. I've shown on the left here over the past over the last 3 years, We've been trading in line with the index. While frustrating, we have managed to identify and address the key risk to the business. Looking at the right hand side, we've detailed this key risks. The largest overhangs have been the construction risk and its associated balance sheet risk.
Over the past few years, we've gone from one construction to the next. And in doing so, we increased the overall risk of the business because we took on debt without demonstrating to the market our ability to generate cash. Today, we believe this risk is largely eliminated as both mines built are performing well and our net debt quickly declining to healthy level. The other key overhang has been finalized, which we believe has also been addressed with Ity and Udel now having plus 10 years. Moreover, the reserves addition being added have made us even more attractive from a PNF perspective.
Given our growth objectives and because we are seen as a natural consular data in West Africa, There seems to have been an M and A overhang despite us proving time and time again that we are disciplined when looking at external growth. As just described, we've been working hard over the past 4 years, and we will keep up the good work to increase shareholder returns, thanks to our strong cash flow. With this, I will now hand the presentation to Luis and walk you who will walk you through our financials.
Thank you, Sebastian. On my first slide, I thought it would be interesting to provide you with a snapshot of how the business has performed. Given our time constraint, I will only comment on the full year numbers in the adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow were up 34% 20%, respectively. Most of this performance was weighted in the second half of the year following the coming online of the ETCIL project. Let's turn to Slide 23, where we have provided a breakdown of the major elements used to derive our all in margin.
In the tables, we have shown both the nominal amounts as well as the dollars per ounce impact as shown in the right hand side columns. The all in sustaining terms, we were up 22% for the year. For reference, we have provided additional insights on each of the main line items on this slide. On the next slide, we start from the all in margin as shown on the previous slide and work our way to the net cash inflow for the group. Overall, we had a $66,000,000 inflow for the year.
And as Sebastian mentioned, we were cash negative during the first half with strong inflows during the second. Diving into a bit more detail, I'd like to anticipate any questions you may have, therefore, focusing on the 2 main variances. Starting with working capital movement, it swung to an inflow of $38,000,000 during the quarter and we have provided details on quarterly movements in our news release. And this strong reduction contributed favorably to our cash inflow for the quarter, bringing the full year to a net outflow of $14,000,000. The second main item relates payments made at Hounde, which comprised of $27,000,000 for its 2018 income tax payment and $12,000,000 for 2019 provisional income tax payments.
This should now normalize at Hounde. We should be only making regular provisional tax payments. I would also like to point out that Agbaou now becomes liable to pay income tax for 2019 as the tax holiday ended in 2018. This is contributed to the higher tax expense in 2019. Moving on to the next slide.
Thanks to the cash generated in the second half of the year, the company's liquidity remains strong and we are in a healthy financial position with $310,000,000 of available funding. Our current leverage ratio, as Ed mentioned, stands at 1.48 times, which is a sharp decrease over the 1.97 times end of December 2018 and our peak of nearly three times at midyear last year. We now turn to the next slide, which outlines the breakdown of earnings and the adjusted EPS. Adjusted earnings increased by 40% in 2019, amounting to $74,000,000 or $0.67 per share. All the adjustments made to derive our adjusted EPS figure have been explained on this slide, total adjustments made amounted to $237,000,000.
The Karma impairment was mainly as a result of a reduction in reserves which Mark will elaborate on further in his section. It is worthwhile pointing out that the net impairment impact is $105,000,000 as we have credited our income tax expense with $22,000,000, representing the reversal of a deferred tax liability associated with the amount of that team and I would be happy to address any specific questions in the Q And A session or in the coming days. Moving on to Slide 27. You can see that on a quarterly basis the adjusted EPS has steadily increased over the past 4 quarters. My final slide is the starting point for future discussion on our capital employed and this slide provides a summary of the return being provided across our portfolio of assets.
As a supplement to comments made earlier by Sebastian in his presentation. Looking at the pie chart, is interesting to note that nearly 20% of our capital employed is related to projects and exploration. While this is currently not generating a return, it is expected to provide returns in the future. And if we were to exclude the Kalana project and other exploration projects, as well as adjusting for some corporate assets, the return for producing assets would be approximately 14% for the 2019 full year. To further understand the rationale behind these numbers, I have provided breakdowns per asset with projections for 2020.
That concludes the financial review. Hand over to Mark to
give us an update by mine. Thanks, Louis. Before looking at the operational results, I'd like to focus on the evolution 2,000,000 ounces. And as you see on the bottom right chart, most of the increase was at our flagship Hounde mine based on the Kari West and Kari center discoveries, plus additions at our exciting Fetekro project. These more than offset the decline in resources at Karma and Agbaou.
On Slide 31, we can see the incremental increase in reserves. Reserves amounted to 7,900,000 ounces at year end, remaining relatively flat year on year net of mine depletion. As you see on the bottom right chart, reserves increased at both our flagship mine This was due to the Kari Pump discovery at Hounde and the La Plaque discovery at Ity. Agbaou reserves declined in line with mining depletion. At Karma, reserves decreased as we updated the resource model for Ggone and reran pit optimizations based on life of mine unit cost, geotechnical and recovery rate assumptions.
Given Karma's low grade nature, the updated resource models and reserves are better expected to be more robust and maximize profitability. Despite the reduction in reserves, there is still the potential to further extend mine life as we will continue to assess Neo pit extensions at Ggone And Cowenorth in particular. Given the current higher gold price, Karma also offers optionality to reevaluate the sulfide resources beneath the current pit This would require a CIO plant and as such would be evaluated alongside other internal growth opportunities. Now moving to our operational performance. On the next slide, we have an overview of production by mine, starting with the bridge on the top left with the exclusion of Tabagoto, which was sold at the end of 2018, for from continuing operations amounted to 612,000 ounces.
As you see from the waterfall chart, the year benefited from the Ity Cereal startup. On the bottom of the slide, we have provided insights per mine, inclusive of 2020 guidance. Starting off with the Ity mine on Slide 33, production decreased slightly in the past quarter as processed grades and recoveries were partially off set by increased plant throughput. The main thing to note is that during the quarter, to 5,000,000 tons per annum. The process grade decreased as lower grade stockpiles were used to supplement mill feed, while the recovery rates decreased due to increased volumes of deploy fresh ore processed.
Turning to the next slide, a full 5000 ounces at all in sustaining cost of up to $6.75 per ounce. Expected to be sourced from the itty, Bakatou, and deploy pits, while continuing to be supplemented with lower grade historic dams. I was at Izzy last week and have been impressed with the significant progress made on open pit infrastructure associated mainly with the building of the Hall Road which was the new pit constructed on the other side of the river and reconfiguring roadways for more efficient operation the CIL as opposed to the heap leach project. As many of you will know, ity is located in quite a high rainfall environment, and adjacent to the Carvalley River, meaning that use of mining fleet can be impacted by underfloor conditions, but the commencement of the dry season in late Q4 focus was placed on the construction of the 2nd lift of the TSF and improving exit roadway conditions. This work is progressing well and we should be far better prepared for this year's wet season.
Moving on to Hyundai on Slide 35. Production in the last quarter remained flat, a slightly higher throughput was offset by lower process grades. As we mentioned on the quarterly call, the 3rd quarter was impacted by severe rains, which delayed the development of the high grade Borer pit, and waste capitalization activities at Vindaloo. This meant that we had worked to work hard to catch up in the fourth quarter of last year, and continuing into this quarter. Process grades decreased despite a 20% increase in mine grades, as low grade stockpiles supplemented the mill feed and recovery rates remained flat.
In terms of full year results on the next slide, production decreased and all in sustaining cost increased due to low grade stockpiles supplementing the mill feed and a shift to processing a high proportion of harder fresh ore. By comparison, 2018 benefited from high grade soft ore and a lower strip ratio. Looking ahead to the rest of of up to $8.95 per ounce. Mining is expected to be focused on the Vindaloo and Burray pits. The top end of production guidance and low end of all in sustaining cost guidance incorporates the potential to start mining at the higher grade carry pump deposit in the latter portion of the year.
The permitting process for this pit is well underway. There have been a few changes in the past few months the management team, and I can see that they are really working well together across all facets of the operation to ensure that Hounde can be a safe consistent producer for many years to come. Turning now to Slide 37 for Agbaou, a higher recovery rate in Q4 compensated for lower mill throughput and mill grades. All mine remained steady with most of the ore being sourced from the west pit while waste extraction progressed at the south pit. In terms of process grades, these decreased as low grade stockpiles supplemented the feed.
In terms of the full year on the next slide, Production decreased marginally due to lower mill throughputs and grades, which were partially offset by a higher recovery rate. Looking ahead, we expect the mine to produce up to 125,000 ounces in 2020 at an all in sustaining cost of up to $9.90 per ounce. Mining is expected to focus mainly in the north pit with contributions from the west pit in the first half of the year and from the South pit extension in the second half. Overall throughput and recovery rates are expected to decrease marginally due to the harder ore blend. The team continues to perform well at Agbaou and is totally focused on maximizing performance over the coming years.
Finally, we turn to Karma on Slide 39. Before talking to the Q4 production, I would like to take the opportunity talk about the fertility who died following an accident in the Councilor Fid. Though the incident is still under investigation, we have taken this opportunity to really look hard at all of our mining operations across the group to ensure that we have all the right systems and processes in place and that everything is operating and being operated accordingly. As often happens following a tragedy like this, all of us get a second chance to really improve on how we operate. Our hearts go out to Robert's family and colleagues as I mourned the loss of a husband, father and highly respected workmane.
Quarter on quarter production remained flat at 27,000 ounces as an increase in stacked tonnage and recovery rates offset the lower stacked grades. Mining activities focused exclusively on oxide ore and waste from the County Wolf pit. Process tonnage increased following upgrades to the Stacker system while grades decreased slightly as low grade stockpiles supplemented the feed. Turning to the last slide of the operations review, in terms of the full year, production decreased due to lower grades associated with additional ore stack from stockpiles. This year we are guiding production of up to 110,000 ounces for Karma at an all in sustaining cost of $10.50 per ounce.
Mining activity is expected to occur at the Canor pit throughout the year, while the Ggone pit commenced production in Q1. As mentioned in the reserves and resources slide, we will continue to undertake definition drilling along strike in the GG-one and County warfare with the intent of extending the mine life of these pits. And with that, I will hand over to Sebastian to conclude the presentation.
Many thanks, Mark. As we have shown throughout the presentation, we have successfully moved from a period of intense capital investment to one concentrated on generating significant cash flow. This is a pinnacle moment in our company's history and a testament to the efforts of the team over the past 5 years whether on the exploration, project or operational side. Now that we have the strong foundation for the company, we are focused on 2 key initiatives the strengthening of our balance sheet and ensuring optionality is built into our portfolio. Following the portfolio repositioning, we now have strong fundamentals centered on high quality asset base generating a strong free cash flow yield.
We have demonstrated a strong capital allocation discipline with a 20% ROACE target, which we are approaching. And thanks to proposition to the one we did a few years ago when we were largely a turnaround story. Before I take your question, I'd like to thank again the team their tremendous efforts in both 2019 and over the past few years, which have ultimately resulted in this achievement. Thank you as well to our shareholders who have supported us in this journey. This could not have been done without their support, and we expect that they will now start seeing their support rewarded.
Thank you very much. Thank
Your first question comes from the line of Farid Parikh. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning. This is Fahad from Credit Suisse. Thanks for taking my question. You talked a bit about capital allocation, that you're seeing from
the
clearly as the free cash flow improves, you're quite along the way of deleveraging already. Maybe just your thoughts on a dividend Thanks.
Thanks, Fahed. Well, as we've been saying over the last, the last few months, our key challenge is, you know, to demonstrate to the market the raw business of our cash flow generation, which I think we've done now for 2 quarters The objective is to demonstrate in Q1 and Q2, which will give a 12 month rolling cash generation that we are now ready for, putting in place the dividend policy. So this is on our agenda for the July board meeting in order to have this 12 months site to decide the type of dividend policy. But clearly, that's in our mind. This is a way for us to demonstrate the raw business of the business going forward.
And will be keen in putting that in place in the second half.
Okay, great. That's helpful. And just on Fetekro and Kalana, what goal remind us, what is the gold price assumption that you're using to assess the economics right now and Is that goal price assumption something that you could change given what's happening more recently with goal prices?
Yeah, the, I mean, the studies that we are currently running are done at 1300 gold price, and we don't expect to change that. If you recall, for example, with, ity, we were also showing the economics for those projects that $1000 gold price So the objective for us is to continue to be very disciplined on the way we look at gold price and making sure that, we have 20% plus return on capital employed on projects.
Your next question comes from the line of Justin Chan from Numis Securities. Please ask your question.
Hi guys. Thanks very much for taking my questions and congratulations on a couple of great projects built and reaching this inflection point. My first question is on Hounde and kind of the medium term profile. And I realized that the study is probably coming soon. But, bringing in carry pump towards the end of this year, do you expect throughput to come back up in the next few years, driven by more oxides?
And then just on the cost profile there, costs are a little bit higher this year. You expect that to come down in the next couple of years?
Sure. I mean, Justin, I think that this has been, we are expecting and you will see that in the technical reports that we will publish, I mean, in Q2, which is being able to stabilize Hounde at $250,000 for the next, the next 10 year. Clearly, the fact that by year end, we should in production, carry pump, which will be much higher grade and mostly also oxide. This will help a lot in both the throughput, but also in driving down the all in sustaining cost. So we're expecting some positives around that for 2021 and going forward.
Okay. And in terms of your current thinking about, do you I guess from an approach standpoint, do you think it would make more sense to push throughput there or given the higher grade, would you just maintain announced target, and keep your foot where it is?
No, we, I think we mentioned last year that we wanted to see how the carrier area was moving in terms of size to see whether at some point we would have a potential call for an increase in the plant capacity. At this stage with Mark, you know, we're feeling that there is still some room, I mean, for debottlenecking the current plant. And obviously by improving the mix, we should be able to increase a bit the throughput compared to, obviously, what we had last year. So we're more focused on that for the timing rather than adding some capacity.
I see. And absolute dollar 1,000,000 cost terms, is Hounde where you expected to be going forward? Or is there sort of higher current stripping and that absolute number should come down?
Well, I think that 9 and 2020, in particular, the first half of twenty twenty is higher than what we would expect compared to the midterm. So, I would expect some improvements obviously in H2, but more importantly, as Keribaum gets in, you should would see those improvements in 20212022.
Okay. Thanks very much. And then just my last one, is on Karma. The reserves have come down there. At the current gold price, is your expectation that if the gold price remains as it is, into the medium term that, that reserves come back up and ultimately that operation would continue?
Or, does the reserves now reflect your strategic view on it in the current price environment?
No, I think we've taken, I would say, cautious approach, I mean, to the asset based on the gold price that we saw last year and some of the results that we got on recoveries in particular in certain pits. But obviously, given that it's a low grade operation, it's highly sensitive to the gold price environment. There are a number of things that, you know, we haven't decided to do, you know, so far that you could be revisited if, you know, in a higher gold price environment. Exploration, for example, have been streamed down given the environment in that north spot. So there was no real focus over the last 2 years, 18 months, I mean, on exploration, sulfide also has been something that We haven't pushed forward given the gold price environment in the past.
Things obviously will change if the gold price stays where it is right now on spot. And as well as extensions on the current pit. So I think it's it's a conservative approach and, you know, I think a desirable also approach, but it doesn't mean that, that this asset is gonna say with this mine life, we expect that, hopefully, we'll continue to increase over the next 12, 18 months in particular with this current price environment. Okay.
Thanks very much. That's very clear. I'll free the line up for everyone. I'll start the question
Thanks, Justin.
Your next question comes from the line of James Bauer from RBC Capital Markets. Please ask your question.
Good afternoon. Just firstly on your guidance for next year, you've got quite a broad range in terms of your ounce and cost guidance. I just wondered if you could talk about the scenarios where you get towards the top end of that range and what we should be looking out for as the year goes ahead in terms of operational performance or maybe the early start at carry pump, etcetera?
Thanks, James. I think you got it right. I mean, the reason of this is mainly due to the timing of carry pump at year end. Carry pump would be obviously a very low cost operation and very high cash flow generation. And depending on where and when we'll be starting mining and getting answers from this bid will basically, make the difference within the, within the guidance.
It's a very significant, you know, impact on the overall post production and cost performance. We're expecting for now to have the permit for Kari Pump to be delivered at the end of Q2 beginning of Q3. If things goes this way, then we're pretty confident that we should be in the lower part of the guidance. If we're getting a bit of delays on that front, then we'll be probably more in the mid to the higher end of the guidance.
Okay. That's great. And then just looking at return on capital employed, obviously moving higher, you know, heading for your targeted twenty when we look at the asset breakdown, you gave on slide 28 in terms of where the ROCE are, where keys are, see obviously commerce lagging quite significantly there. How long are you sort of willing to tolerate that sort of level of ROCE before kind of look at the potential for disposal from that asset?
The answer is not long. I mean, I think we've shown over the last 3 years that, we want to be focusing on the assets that are bringing the level of returns that we are expecting. And therefore, if we feel that those assets can deliver this type of returns, then they probably don't fit into our portfolio. So, I think that's fair to say that, Karma is on the spot and And either we see based on the new gold price environment, some perspective to increase significantly the returns there. Otherwise, Kama will become non core for our portfolio.
Okay, that's great. And obviously 2019, you had an approach of another company, you talk about M And A risk as being a risk that's been addressed. Should we think about you maybe being slightly more conservative on the M and A front in 2020 given where the project pipeline is and the opportunities you've got to convert ounces there?
I think we keep having the same approach, which is, given the portfolio that we have and the optionality, that we have in the portfolio and also the cash flow that we expected to generate in 2020. M and A is not a priority. We look at external growth more on an opportunistic basis. And I think that, we've tried to demonstrate to the market and to our shareholders that when it comes to looking at M And A, we try to be very disciplined in order not to do crazy things and fact that we are able to start and end the process when we feel that we're not able to create enough value for our shareholders. You know, it should be, somewhat some comfort to give some comfort to our shareholders.
So, a lot is happening in the market. The good news is whenever you have to whenever you feel that you can go to a negotiation table, you want to make sure that you're completely free to move out of that table, if the conditions are not there. So, that's what we've shown with Centamin and we continue to be, in a very disciplined on that front.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Raghre from MBO Capital Markets. Please ask your question.
It's Sebastian from BMO Capital Markets here. Just a quick question on the Fetekro upcoming resource estimate and PEA. I mean, how do you, how are you looking at the capital intensity for Fatura given that the development timeline seems to be aligning pretty well with the remaining mine life at Agbaou? And there, whether there is scope for reuse of some of the equipment that you are, that you have at Agbaou and reducing the capital for Fetekra? How should we look at that?
Well, I think that, Raj, that's exactly what we are looking at. It's a bit too early. I mean, be able to, you know, to answer the question, but we've been looking at Fetekro as a nice transition from Agbaou to this new project. Potentially both in terms of our key staff and also as, you know, moving some of those key equipments potentially from one to the other. This is why we're moving now to a scoping study that we expect to publish in the next few weeks.
And, obviously, Fetekro is still early. Objective is, to come up hopefully also with a pre feasibility study in, by the end of Q3, which will help in terms of guidance on what we can achieve there. The most important for us is to see what the synergies between the two the 2 mine, the 2 assets. If there are some, then we'll be, I guess, mixing smartly, I mean, the profile and the timing. If there is less synergies, then there is more freedom in terms of timing.
But clearly, that's something that we're looking carefully at.
Your next question comes from the live of Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Please ask your question.
Thanks and thanks for the call. Much appreciated. And first one is just on Karma. Can you just remind us, on the Karma stream, if the reduction to the reserves short of the mine life, just does that impact you in any way shape or form in terms of any additional payments on that stream? Or is it simply that when it rolls over from the $100,000,000 of payment that it just goes to, 6.5 percent of production thereafter and it doesn't matter if you come that live short.
First one. Thanks.
Yes, Richard. That's exactly the case. I mean, it doesn't impact and it doesn't change the streaming structure, which is moving from, I mean, 6.5% on the remaining part.
Cool. Thanks, Evan. And the second one is just on working capital for Louis. So you had a strong performance in the fourth quarter. And should we be expecting kind of a continuation of that destock.
Is there any more sort of juice from the orange that you can squeeze?
Richard, definitely, we will keep on trying to drive down our working capital levels. I think fair to just flag the elect year in Burkina Faso, we were very successful in our VAT receivables and getting those in towards the end of the year that I would say is the only risk, I might flag, but I think fairly confident that we'll continue along the veins that you've seen, during the fourth quarter. Cool. That's
Your next question comes from the line of Geordie Mark from Haywood Securities. Please ask your question.
Yes, good afternoon. Maybe I can start with, from the top and look holistically in terms of how you view asset portfolio management with the producing assets that you have. And I guess the realized life of mine at Karma and potential segue from Agbaou into Fetekrope perhaps, just in terms of if you can remind me in terms of the viewpoint there in terms of the the key criteria that you look to employ when you're looking at assets from core to non core and perhaps a viewpoint in terms of optimal structure in terms of number assets under management or at least, jurisdictions under management.
Yes, sure. Well, in terms of the way to look and manage the overall portfolio is really making sure that we focus the team on assets that are generating the right level of returns. I mean, we've set a target of 20% return on capital employed for the group. And therefore, when you deep dive and think this is why we wanted to show for the first time a bit of split between the return on capital employed per asset. You see that clearly some assets are not at the level performance that we would like.
And either we find a solution to get them to this level or the answer will be that they don't fall into our portfolio, and they might be in that hands somewhere else. So that's the way. I mean, we're looking at at the portfolio. And this is why we, we sold over the last 3 years, 3 assets between YUGA and Zeman Tabakoto as those assets were falling short in terms of returns. And as you can imagine, still taking a lot of, you know, management time.
So that's probably the first point. The second point in terms of overall portfolio, I think that, with the team that we currently have, we gear them into, you know, operate 6 to 8 mines, I would say. I don't want to be above those 6 to 8 mines, because otherwise you start having a strong and large in a team to run them and you don't necessarily benefit from the same level of synergies. What's important is to keep that focus over, you know, West Africa, where we have a loan a lot of synergies and also it's very useful on, in terms of management, in being very focused geographically. So, up to 6 to 8 assets and continuing that focus over several countries in West Africa.
That's the obvious strategy.
Great. Okay. Thanks. And perhaps moving now to Ity in terms of understanding where La Plaque sits and future production may be added from there. Is this you expect that to just offset low grade stockpiles?
Material over time or do you expect to see incremental improvements in throughput rates given where you what you achieved in Q4 versus nominal nameplate. Yes, we'll start there.
Yes, sure. Well, for ity, Le Plaque, I mean, we have some infrastructure to get to the assets. And, and obviously, you want to do those, those infrastructures during the dry season or the rainy season. We're expecting to get the low black permit in by the end of Q2, beginning of Q3, which means that infrastructure works, you know, will be done, you know, start after the rainy season this year. So you would be expecting Le Plaque to come in production in H2, I would say H2 Twenty 1.
But in any case, we'll be updating all that with our technical reports in Q2.
Okay, great. And perhaps in more detail in terms of, obviously coming out of the wet season I guess, early in Q4, and then moving into a number of operating pits. So you're looking at changing mining or average mining quip sizes equipment sizes?
You mean at AT?
At ATTC, yes, that's right.
Well, no, I think that, one of the key, the key subject that we faced at the beginning with ity and the multiple pit has been mainly the soft rock and therefore having to run mostly with ADT rather than our DTs. So as we move forward into the dry season, we're expecting to have a better performance through us through our entities. Somehow it's good that we've kept, I mean, those ADTs from the heap leach operation as they will serve during the rainy season in order to have a balanced approach between DTs and ADTs in particular during the critical season. But, clearly, the objective is to have a much better productivity during the dry season running with the with the deities.
Okay, great. Good answer. And in terms of moving maybe over to Hounde, looking at the I guess, the broader plan there for the objective, sort of, I guess, the nominal sort of 10 to 12 year outlook. Outside Kari pump, what are your main priority targets out those outside those that you'd look to to fill that sort of future production gap?
Sure. Well, I think that, with Keri West Keri Center coming into reserves in Q2, we will be able to we should be able to, to demonstrate rate in the technical report about 250,000 ounce for the next 10 years. But what's interesting is, when you look at the, again, the exploration potential around Hounde, we still have big exploration targets like for the Wound Sierra Cianiqui, which are north of Bouere, which are very interesting and that we'll start to drill this year. So, I'm quite confident that the success that we've seen in the carry area there is no reason why we don't continue to have some significant success in those new areas in the North part of Way.
Okay. And if I can indulge one more question. In terms of leverage to oil price in terms of proportion of operating costs to get an idea of, how oil costs fit in there? I guess, corporately in that sense.
I think that, for the time being in average, our diesel price for the group is about $1.2 between $1.1 to $1.2 per liter. So we should see, as you know, a big part of this is also local taxes. So we tend to see, the impact after, you know, few months as it is on a rolling basis rather than just spot on the oil. But obviously, it's going into the right direction for us in terms of overall cost improvements. But I would expect this to have significant impact only if it continues for appear at the time, given that, again, all the taxes locally are mitigating a big part of those decrease in the oil.
Thank you
rear right of time. I would now like to hand the conference back to Mr. Dimon Sita.
Thank you very much, operator. Well, thank you all for attending this Q4 and year end results and looking forward to present you our Q1 results in the next few months. Thank you very much. Have a good day.