Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold First Quarter 2023 Results and Corporate Update. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then 0. If you are participating through the webcast, you can submit a question in writing by using the text box in the lower left corner of the webcast frame. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rhylin Bailie, Vice President, Investor Relations for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Ariel. Thank you everybody for joining us this morning. We will, of course, be making a number of forward-looking statements today. Please do visit our continuous disclosure documents on our website, on SEDAR, on EDGAR. I'm now gonna turn the conference call over to our CEO, Greg Smith.
Thanks, Rhylin. Good morning, thanks everyone for joining us today. On the call with me is our COO, Doug Reddy, our CFO, Peter Hardie, our EVP of Exploration, Scott Heffernan, and our VP of Investor Relations, Rhylin Bailie, of course. For those new to the company, Equinox Gold is a diversified America's focused gold producer. We have seven producing mines across Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, we also have several growth projects, including our large-scale Greenstone gold mine in Ontario, which we are constructing now with our 40% joint venture partner, Orion Mine Finance. Today, we are discussing our 2023 first quarter financial and operating results. I'll start with a broad overview for the quarter, then turn the call over to Pete and Doug for more details.
During the first quarter, we produced just under 123,000 ounces and sold just over 123,000 ounces of gold. Cash cost per ounce sold was $1,376, and all-in sustaining cost per ounce sold was $1,658. This was a good start to the year for us and we're on track to meet our 2023 production and cost guidance of 550,000 ounces to 625,000 ounces of gold, with cash cost between $1,355 and $1,460 per ounce, and all the sustaining costs between $1,575 and $1,695 per ounce. Over the course of the quarter, construction at our Greenstone mine continued to advance on time and on budget for first gold pour in the first half of 2024.
I was there just a few weeks ago with a few of our directors. I can say that while the progress that Eric and his team have made over the course of the winter is impressive. At the end of the quarter, we were 73% complete overall. Construction was 65 complete or 65% complete. The team is now primarily focused on mechanical, piping, and electrical installations and preparing for commissioning and operational readiness. Just a quick word on Castle Mountain and Aurizona. At Castle Mountain, we have now received acknowledgement of completeness of our permit amendment application from the state, county, and federal regulators. Permitting will now start to advance through the formal environmental analysis and work on the environmental impact statement is expected to start later this year.
At Aurizona, the feasibility study on the addition of an underground mine at Aurizona is progressing well. We expect to have results ready for public release mid this year as well. On the corporate side, we did take some steps this quarter to fortify our financial position as we continue through the Greenstone build. These actions resulted in an unrestricted cash balance of $285 million at the end of the quarter. That's up $85 million from year-end, plus approximately $130 million available from our credit facility, for a total of $415 million in available cash liquidity. Pete will go into more detail on this later in the call. I am pleased to report we also continued our excellent safety record during the quarter with a continued reduction in our 12-month rolling total recordable injury rate.
We also had good environmental performance during the quarter. In February, we announced our greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 25% by 2030, and that's as compared to a business-as-usual case. Details of that are laid out in our climate action report, which is available on our website. Finally, actually, shortly following this call, we will also publish our 2022 ESG report, which will be available on our website. This report is very detailed, has loads of information on all things ESG at Equinox, I'd encourage everyone on this call to check that out. With that, I'd like to hand the call over to Peter Hardie to run through our financial results.
Thanks, Greg. We're now on slide six in the presentation. As to our financial highlights for the quarter, we received an average realized price of $1,895 per ounce on the sale of 123,000 ounces of gold, generating $234 million in revenue. We had $172 million in Operating Expenses in Q1, which is similar to the $168 million of Operating Expenses from Q4 2022, an increase compared to Q1 2022 is $152 million. The increase from Q1 last year is consistent with the inflation Equinox experienced in the first half of 2022.
On a per unit basis, cash cost per ounce increased in Q1 2023 to $1,376 per ounce from $1,238 per ounce in Q1 2022, and all-in sustaining cost per ounce increased to $1,658 per ounce from $1,578 in Q1 2022. Key consumables unit cost remained stable from Q4 to Q1 2023. From Q4, we saw small decreases in key consumable prices in Brazil.
Were offset by small increases in consumable prices in Mexico and the USA. Fortunately, the flattening of key consumables costs on a per unit basis has been a consistent trend since early 2022. As Greg mentioned, our Q1 gold production and cost results have us on track for our 2023 guidance. Our EBITDA in Q1 was $65 million, or $57 million on an adjusted basis. We had net income of $17 million for basic earnings per share of $0.06 or $0.05 per share, fully diluted. On an adjusted basis, we had a loss of $8 million or $0.03 a share. The main adjusting items to income are the reversal of a $35 million dollar gain on reclassifying our holdings in i-80 Gold from an investment in associate to marketable securities.
This reclassification results from selling a portion of the i-80 holdings, which moved us to below 20% total ownership. There are adjustments of $13 million for unrealized gains on foreign exchange contracts and $15 million for our share of losses on investment in associate. Those are related to i-80, we won't be incurring those going forward. Cash flow from operations before changes in non-cash working capital was $195 million for $0.63 per share. Included in that cash flow from operations is the receipt of $140 million from the gold prepay arrangement. If you back out those prepay funds, Equinox generated $55 million in cash flow from operations or $0.18 a share.
In terms of liquidity and capital position, we ended the quarter with $285 million of unrestricted cash and $127 million available to draw under our credit facility, giving us a total of $412 million of liquidity. Our cash position was enhanced with the gold prepay arrangement we announced in March. For the $140 million we received under the terms of that arrangement, which is recorded as deferred revenue, Equinox will deliver approximately 80,000 ounces of gold in equal monthly installments from October 2024 to July 2026, which represents less than 5% of forecasted production for that period. Deliveries start after Greenstone construction is complete, and gold can come from any of the mines to satisfy the obligation. Deliveries will be credited at $2,170 per ounce of gold as it is delivered.
We note that for purposes of the debt covenant calculations, the prepay will not receive deferred revenue treatment and will be included as debt. The prepay was led by ING with NBF and BMO participating, and we of course thank our lenders for their continuing meaningful support. During the quarter, we also bolstered cash by realizing total investment sales proceeds of $77 million, with $53 million received on the sale of our remaining Solaris shares and the $24 million on the sale of the i-80 shares. Net debt decreased about $80 million from the end of December to $548 million at the end of March. To further strengthen the company's financial position during Q1 and into early April, we put in place gold hedge collars.
There are approximately 164,000 ounces hedged from Q2, 2023 through the end of Q1, 2024, with a floor price of $1,910 per ounce and significant upside participation up to a ceiling of over $2,100 an ounce. That represents a little under 25% of our production through that period. Moving to slide seven, what does that all mean for Greenstone funding? Based on construction progress at the beginning of Q2, Equinox's share of the remaining construction budget is about $260 million. We expect to fund this amount with our cash balance of $285 million, our ongoing operating cash flow, and the undrawn revolving credit facility of $127 million. Additionally, the $100 million accordion feature remains in place on the revolving credit facility.
With those and other sources of liquidity, we're well-funded to complete Greenstone construction. I should note also, as we stated previously, we paused the use of the at-the-market facility in January after drawing about $25 million from it, so there's $75 million remaining on the ATM that's available. With that, I will turn the presentation over to Doug for a review of our operations.
Thanks, Pete. We're on slide eight. For the operations, all the mines are working on continuous improvement programs that are focused on productivity improvements, consumable usage reduction, and also procurement savings. Specifically looking at Mesquite during Q1, the focus was on stripping in the Brownie and the Vista East pits, and that will provide us ore for the remainder of 2023. Due to the emphasis on stripping in Q1, we did have a relatively low number of new ounces that went on to the pad during that period. Ounces were as planned for the quarter, and that's in part due to contributions that we got from re-leaching and side slope leaching of the pad in previously leached areas. We are continuing our exploration and permitting efforts, looking for mine life extensions at Mesquite.
At Castle Mountain, we were placing both run of mine and crushed and agglomerated ore on the heap leach pads. We had an increase in the overall tonnage being placed over the prior quarter, and we continue working on increasing the overall crusher throughput with the intent to put all of it through the crusher and agglomeration system. We are advancing our permitting and met test work in support of phase two, and I'll mention some more on that later on. At Los Filos, we're currently mining in the Los Filos and the Guadalupe open pits, as well as the Los Filos underground mine. We've had improved productivity with more tons being placed in the quarter and with higher grades coming from both open pits and underground mines. However, recovery was impacted for some of the ore coming from Guadalupe open pit.
Some of the ore has a high copper grade, specifically copper oxides, and they are cyanide consumers, and they delay our overall gold recovery. We've now been separating that ore. We're using a higher cyanide dosage, and we anticipate an extended leach cycle for the recovery of the gold from that ore. That's gonna mean that the ounces from that ore will be dragged out over subsequent quarters. Also of note, we did suspend the Bermejal underground during the quarter, and that was due to the prolonged development period and investment period and the lower productivity that we were getting out of the mine. We will develop the revised mine plan to be able to match the timing for restart so that that higher grade ore will be fed into the CIL plant. Turning to slide nine.
At Aurizona, we had good mine production as we moved through the peak of the rainy season. Our contractor brought in additional trucks during the quarter. We also mobilized a second contractor so that we can catch up on the material movement as the rainy season begins to abate. The process plant maintained a higher throughput than planned, and we produced slightly higher than planned for the quarter overall. At Fazenda, the mine performed well with open pit mining contributing higher grades and more tons than planned, which helped to offset lower production from the underground mine while we catch up on development headings and bring on additional stopes in the underground. Both throughput and plant recoveries at Fazenda were above plan, and the mine was ahead overall on ounces being produced.
I note our exploration work at Fazenda continues to provide good resource and reserve replacement. As per each year, we focus on doing that to extend the life of Fazenda. Exploration has also been following up on the Greenstone belt between Fazenda and Santa Luz. At RDM, we restarted the process plant in January 19th, after a permitting delay. We're doing owner mining with our own equipment, supplemented with a rental equipment fleet, and mining is ahead of prior quarters for both the ore and waste movement. We're processing this combination of in situ ore, plus supplemented by low grade dump material. Recoveries are almost 90%, which is a couple % above plan, and the mine intends to catch up on full year production as projected for the year.
The final TSF raise is in progress. In our current TSF, we're optimizing the volume that we have available by cycloning the tailings, and we've entered into the per-permitting process for a filtered tailing storage facility at RDM. Moving on to Santa Luz. We had lower recoveries in January, but over 65% was being achieved in February and March as we kept the ore blend steady and modifications were being completed on the detox system, which is critical to maintaining recoveries at Santa Luz. Recoveries are now over 68% in April and we continue to work on process plant improvements with a plan for recoveries to be over 70% for the second half of the year.
I do note the resin leach plant is achieving higher recoveries overall than what would have been possible with carbon leach processing. Moving on to slide 10 and onto the development side. Greenstone, this will be one of the largest gold mines in Canada with 5.5 million ounces of reserves. Annual production for the first five years will be 400,000 ounces a year, 14 year life, first production coming in the first half of 2024. I just wanna take a moment to acknowledge the focus on safety at all of our mines, but especially as a construction project at Greenstone. They've passed three million hours just after the quarter end with no lost time injuries. Good that they keep the focus on safety.
Moving on to slide 11 and looking at the construction information. The project is on budget and on track. Overall, the project is 73% complete at the end of Q1. You can see the various other items for construction procurement, concrete structural steel. Capital spend is 65% complete, and we have around $260 million remaining as our share of the spend on the project. Project progress was really good during the winter months, as Greg stole some of my thunder and talked about how well things have been going. All the buildings were enclosed and being heated by the end of the quarter. Ball mill installation has commenced as per the schedule.
As you can see in the photos, a lot of the buildings now provide us the ability to move inside. We have major installations underway, mechanical, electrical, piping being a focus. All major equipment is on site with the exception of the HPGR, which is en route to the site at the moment. On the operations side, we started mining in Q3 last year with four trucks and one shovel. We moved to 24/7 operations in Q4, and by the end of Q1, we'd moved 6 million tons of material. We now have seven trucks on site and two shovels. I note that we will be doing an analyst visit in September this year. Moving on to our other expansion projects. They include Castle Mountain Phase 2.
We'll see an increase to over 45,000 tons a day going on to the leach pads and production of around 218,000 ounces a year for a 14-year life. As Greg noted, we submitted our permit application in March of 2022. We've had our notices of completeness from the permitting agencies, and we'll continue to work through the process and should see environmental assessment work happening during 2023. For Piaba Underground at the Aurizona mine, we're working on the feasibility study that involves mining from both the underground at the same time as the open pits. The feasibility study will be wrapped up by midyear. We have permits for three portal locations.
We will, upon completion of the feasibility study, look at timing for an exploration ramp that would give us underground drill stations and the ability to mine on the ore, and we'll be looking to assess geotechnical and hydrogeological parameters, and also it will ultimately serve as a production decline. At Aurizona, as noted, we are looking at construction of the CIL plant. We'll be making a decision on the construction once we're through the higher CapEx period for Greenstone. We're also looking for doing work on our operational efficiencies and having continued stability with the local communities. With that, I'll hand it back to Greg.
Thanks, Doug. I think that covers the quarter well. I should say, quite recently, we did launch a new website. On there, you can see a whole bunch of pictures of all of our sites, but also of the progress at Greenstone. As Doug said, we haven't had anybody at site since September last year. We'll be doing a site tour in September of this year. In the meantime, the website has plenty of pictures that you can kind of track progress that way. I think I'll just make a final comment to thank the entire Equinox team here in Vancouver and at all of our sites who, as always, are working hard for all of our stakeholders and of course, also for the continued support of our shareholders.
I'll finish up there and pass it back to Rhylin for Q&A.
Perfect. Thank you. Operator, can you please remind people how to ask a question?
Certainly. Once again, to join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. If you are participating through the webcast, you can submit a question in writing by using the text box in the lower left corner of the webcast frame. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue.
Thank you. While the queue up, I'll take a question from online. Can you give any further clarity on when you're going to pour first gold at Greenstone?
Well, what we've been guiding to the market so far is that we'll pour gold in the first half of 2024, and that's the guidance we're gonna maintain for now.
Okay. Can you please take some questions from the phone?
Certainly. Our first question comes from Wayne Lam of RBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks, guys. Just wanted to ask on the progress of the results of the quantitative risk assessment at Greenstone. Just wanted to understand the rationale behind the recent hedging and the prepay. Is that, kind of, just shoring up the balance sheet, as you guys look to wrap up construction? Or is that, based on some of the results from the risk assessment?
We started the QRA in April, so we're still working our way through. We've got initial feedback, but we have to work through the whole thing. It's the same thing that we did last year. It gives us a good whole view of the site and make sure that all of our progress is on track, that we've accounted for all of the materials, and we'll make any adjustments going forward.
Then on your Wayne, it's Peter. On your question on hedging and prepay, you hit the nail on the head. With respect to the, and I'll refer to it as very short-term hedging, those hedges expire in a run through Q1 next year, is to lock in. We were opportunistic, on two occasions, to take advantage of the for-forward gold curve. That was at the end of January and the beginning of April, where we locked in profits during our CapEx intensive period. Then, I would add, we still have meaningful exposure. You know, it's just under 25% that's hedged through that period. The ceiling is very high at $2,106. Of course, we have full exposure on the unhedged 75% that remains on the short-term hedge.
With respect to the prepay, yes, it's to add liquidity now during the CapEx period, again, with a really high, locked in forward rate at $2,170 an ounce throughout the delivery period. That's just under two years, and again, post-Greenstone startup.
Yeah, Wayne, I think it also helps just to, you know, add some additional context. If you go back to late October, early November, gold was $1,650. You know, we're in the middle of a very substantial capital build at Greenstone. You know, we've taken a number of incremental measures just to make sure we've got as strong a balance sheet as possible as we move through that build. You know, we've done a number of different things, which has included some hedging, the prepay. We sold some securities. We did tap our ATM. We've worked with our lenders and relaxed our covenants. All of that was designed to just decrease risk over the build periods. That was just one more part of an overall strategy to do that.
Okay, great. Yeah, I agree. looks like some prudent risk management.
Maybe at Mesquite, I was just wondering if you might be able to discuss the lower cash cost quarter-over-quarter. Is that in part related to the kind of optimization in moving to the smaller pits? Just wondering if that's sustainable relative to where the guidance was.
Yes, it is specifically that. I mean, that's why we moved to the smaller pits at Mesquite, and we continue to look at opportunities to be able to extend life overall. That is the approach there.
Okay, great. Thanks. Maybe just last one for me. just at Castle Mountain, on the permitting front, can you help us understand the impact of the designation of the National Monument across that access road, and how does that impact the progress on timing, in terms of the permitting, for phase two?
It should have zero impact on the timing of permitting. Actually, if you go to the language of the proclamation for that national monument, it's very detailed in its, I guess, exclusion from any restrictions on any existing right of ways, whether it's roads, utilities, power, other infrastructure that might be in the monument. You know, that was obviously a key interest to us, and we're very, very pleased with the language that they ultimately used in the monument. We don't expect it to have any effect on permitting at Castle Mountain. We were, you know, in very ongoing, I guess, conversations with the regulators as that monument was being put into place.
Not just us, there's lots of infrastructure on the Nevada side of the California-Nevada border there where that monument was put in. All in all, I think it was a good result for everybody and we're happy with the way that turned out.
Okay, great. Congrats on a good quarter, and thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, Wayne.
Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Greg, Doug, and Peter. A few questions. Firstly, the inventories. They've been climbing for the last couple of quarters, and I just wanted to understand how the inventories play into the cost. Am I correct to assume, 'cause I looked right through the notes, correct to assume that it's a function of some of these higher costs, higher unit costs, will take some time to wind its way through? Or is there something else at play there?
Anita, it's Peter. One of the main contributors to the increase in overall inventories at Los Filos, where there was quite a bit of stacking activity both in Q4 and Q1, with a longer recovery from inventory. Those costs remain in inventory, of course, until they come off and we sell the gold, but that's the biggest contributor to the increase in inventories.
Okay. 'Cause it's been about $30 million per quarter for the last two quarters. That should come out over the, in the back half of the year? Like, what's the leach cycle at Los Filos?
Normal leach cycle is 120 days. I mean, most of the gold comes out in the first 60 days, 120 days. For the higher copper ore, we're looking at 180 days, so a third cycle to get it all. Hence it drags out.
Yeah, if you're building that into your model, then yes, it's pushing it into kind of later Q2 and Q3.
All right. Just an overall question in terms of, as we think about, you know, the costs that you delivered this quarter and then increasing production over the course of the year that you'd previously mentioned, do you anticipate that, you know, that will have a overall, I guess, will cost be flat to this quarter? Will they be rising from this quarter? Would you expect them to decline?
Well, I think it's fair to say we're not shooting for the high end of our, of our cost guidance.
We're shooting for the low end of our cost guidance. You know, traditionally at Equinox, just seasonality, Q1 is usually a lower production quarter for us, and we typically see increasing production quarter-over-quarter. We expect this year to be the same, and along with that increase in production, you have a corresponding decrease in costs.
Okay. That's my questions for accounting. Now can I move on to Greenstone? Just in terms of the deliverables, I think you had mentioned that, you know, when we had a mine tour, about 9 months ago, that at the end of Q1, you would have been around 80%, 80% complete. I do notice that in Q2 and Q3, you do have some pretty good productivity improvements. According to the schedule right now, you're only supposed to deliver about, you know, I guess a little over 10% in Q2. Do you expect to make up the shortfall in the completion over Q2, Q3, or will that kind of push out into Q1 and Q2 into 2024?
No, it is exactly as you say that, the intent is to catch up by, we were looking at Q2. I think coming through the winter, we're looking at Q3 for the catch up.
All right. A few specifics. I guess you've got seven trucks at this point. Is that correct?
Far. Operating, yes.
Okay. Yeah. Then by the end of the year, you're supposed to have 18 that you need for operational readiness. Is that the case?
We have another 11 coming. I'd have to check the delivery dates, but it's all per our schedule. We've doubled down and checked to make sure we're gonna achieve everything we need to do for material movement.
Sure. Just moving on to the TMF. I'm just wanted to clarify, it is a downstream tailings facility, right? Not a, modified center line?
Downstream with a, and we do a cut off wall that's deep soil mixing, and we're doing an abutment or embankment on the TSF as well, which is where a lot of our material goes to right now for the waste that goes down onto the TSF.
The other deliverable that I was thinking about for this quarter, did the crushers get delivered yet?
Crushers, yeah.
You talking about high pressure grinding rolls or the crushers?
Crushers. The crushers are there.
The crushers. Yeah. It was listed as crushers in terms of in our mine tour booklet from last September that the crushers were should have been delivered.
Yeah. Crushers are there. Yeah.
Okay. All right. That's it for my questions. I'll pass it off to somebody else.
Thanks, Mia.
Our next question comes from Arun Lamba of TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Just a couple quick ones on Greenstone. It's kind of largely been answered, but I guess first, can you just remind us when the timing of that independent study is gonna come out? I'm guessing it's before the site visit in September. Just lastly, you mentioned, I mean, all the buildings are enclosed, equipment on-site except the HPGR. In your view, it could be Greg or for anyone, what's the critical path item right now to kind of keep everything on schedule?
On the QRA assessment, we're in the mix of it right now. I think that'll be done probably sometime in May, and we can update the market probably in May or June, so long before the September site visit. Critical path has been the same since basically the start of construction, which is through the milling facility.
Really east end of the process plant building, which getting it enclosed, which was done in Q1, was critical, starting the ball mill installation, which has commenced on schedule. It remains a critical path until we get through the commissioning of that because it is the core piece of equipment. We've got the two mills being installed in parallel, previous to their schedule for serial, so that should be able to keep everything on track there.
Aaron, I think, I think when we spoke in, I guess it was January, you know, you asked me what, you know, what kept me up at night at Greenstone and it's going really well, but the same thing I said then is the same thing I'll say now, which is we just have to maintain the productivity level of the contractors that are doing the mechanical, electrical, piping, and installation at site. That's a lot more challenging when the buildings aren't enclosed. At this point, they're all enclosed. We're moving past winter at Greenstone now, and things are actually starting to move very quickly there. That's the main critical path, keeping that productivity up as we get the mill installed, but things are looking really good.
I just double-checked. Crushers are on site and secondary crusher installation work is underway. Yeah.
No, that's great. Then just quickly, just on the Sandbox, potential up to $75 million, do you have an estimated time of approximate completion for that, or is it just kind of a bunch of variables, it's still kind of unknown?
Well, we in the non-binding term sheet that we signed with Sandbox, it had an outside date of September of this year. You know, the team at Sandbox is working on, and Equinox is working on the final documentation, and then that would lead to Sandbox doing a financing and then closing that transaction. Right now, the outside date is September, that's the date that was in the term sheet.
No, that's great. Thanks a lot. Congrats on a good quarter.
Thanks, Aaron.
Our next question comes from Mike Parkin of National Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on an earnings beat for the quarter. Most of my questions have been answered. Just can you give us a bit more color at Mesquite around the permit with respect to mining and the path forward there in terms of what you expect at the asset, say, next year and the year beyond?
The permitting for Mesquite relates to every time we do a drill program, we have to permit them. That always is in the queue, is to get every single drill program being able to be permitted. It's a stepwise progression. We are looking at one of the areas where we would like to be able to mine that will involve some modifications to infrastructure, so that's underway. We also had applied for a pad height increase, which we recently got granted. There's always permitting modifications to be done on a relatively tight footprint in a very large mine.
You know, it sounds like it's fairly low risk of being an issue for 2024.
Well, yeah. Essentially, I would say the key thing is looking through 2024 into 2025. I mean, we need to get all drill programs done to be able to support productions that goes from the end of 2024 into 2025.
Okay. Then just flipping back over to Greenstone, can you just give us an idea of where you are at staffing? Are you at peak contractor employment, or is that still yet to come this year and that can support an increased productivity, in terms of, like, your monthly completion rates?
Well, we peaked through the summer, but due to a combination of operations and construction personnel, that was to be expected. We've been through all the housing plans and everything, yeah, it'll be tight, but it's part of the plan.
In terms of, like, your, for your regular worker staffing, how is that going? You were kind of highlighting some wins in terms of looking to be kind of the employer of choice, given the long mine life in the area. Is that still tracking nicely?
It's tracking nicely, it's not without challenge. You know, we're the team at Greenstone is working hard to get everyone they need for the operation. I know they're attending a lot of different, you know, employment shows and conferences, and we're very actively hiring. If anyone is interested in a job at Greenstone, you know, you can check our website or the Greenstone website. We'd love to hear from you. You know, the biggest challenge is the more technical roles, you know, mill operators, electricians, heavy duty mechanics. Those types of roles are certainly challenging. There's a lot of competition. It is going well and, you know, we're keen to talk to anyone who wants to work at Greenstone.
Our peak will be June for personnel on site. We're about 870 at the moment, but June peaks out just over 1,000.
Okay. Looking forward to tracking the progress on that one. Look, thanks, guys.
We have one follow-up question from Anita.
Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks. I was just gonna ask about the project CapEx spend. If I look, you're on schedule in terms of the CapEx spend, at around 65% at the end of this quarter. Given that you're a little bit behind on the actual progress, I guess, as you try to catch up over the next couple of quarters on the progress, will that have any impact to the overall capital or the capital spend pattern over the next couple of quarters?
Yeah, Anita, it's Peter. We don't believe it will.
Okay.
But...
Could you provide some color on why it won't?
We believe within our budget overall contingency for those kinds of items that might be taking more hours than originally planned, that contingency is sufficient to satisfy, you know, an increase if necessary.
Okay, how much of the contingency remains? I think when we were on the tour, I believe some of it had been used up already, but I don't really have a update on what the contingency was since then.
That is part of the QRA that we're going through right now. I'm sorry, you're gonna just have to wait for us to finalize that work that we're doing.
Okay. I just wanted to dig a little bit more on this on the tailings dam. I guess what I'm trying to drive at is, you've got seven trucks right now. I think you were supposed to have about nine by the end of this quarter. To me, the truck delivery is kind of critical to making sure that your TMF is built on time and available for when you start production. Could you give us a little bit of a timeline over the next six months, nine months, about when you're expecting the trucks and what needs to be done on the TMF to be ready for the first half of 2024?
Yeah. The TMF is to be available for use as of the fourth quarter of this year. That doesn't change. I'd have to go back and check on actual truck numbers, but Darrol van Deventer with our technical services team monitors what David Newhook on the operations side at Greenstone has for progress. I'll come back to you on that one.
Sure. I mean, in the technical report, it said it was nine by the end of this quarter and 18 by the end of next quarter, so.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. because obviously you've got to do a lot of moving of earth in Q2 and Q3, so you need those trucks.
We also modified the mining plan, which we talked about last year, that we went from, I think the original plan was about 41 million tons. We modified the plan for the first period to be about 30 million tons, which meant that we could push off some of the trucks and it had no impact overall for the first five years of operations. It just pushed some of the tons into the operating period.
That's, that was for the stripping, right? You've basically given yourself, I guess, 10 million tons of wiggle room on the... Okay.
Yep. Yep. Sorry, there's the disconnect for you. I can come back and check on the delivery times for it. We'll come back with an answer for you.
Okay. Thank you.
It's a good point. Just kind of further to your point, we've actually put in orders in advance on the trucks that we need.
Shovels.
Shovels. We're very comfortable that we're gonna have all the gear we need in the time that we need it, as we've kind of accelerated the ordering of and made commitments on that gear.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. We've got one question from online. Have you got all the permits that you need now at RDM?
Yes, with the exception of the permit for the filtered tailings storage facility. We do have one permit which was for some additional low-grade dumps that we were looking at topping up our feed. We know that the permit's been issued. We're just waiting for the signed version of it to be delivered, but we consider that to be in hand. Just the filtered tailings storage facility, which for us is a shift at RDM and obviously is the way to go in Brazil 'cause all mines are shifting towards filtered tailings storage facilities for the future once they finish their current designs.
Perfect. Thank you. Greg, do you have any closing remarks?
No, I think that sums it up well. As usual, I'll just say if anyone has any further questions, you can always reach out to Rhylin or myself via the website. All of our contact information is there. Thanks again for attending the call.
Perfect. Thanks everybody for joining us today. Operator, you can now conclude the call.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.