Percent growth in annual gold production, taking us from the current 300,000-ounce level to over 500,000 ounces. This is through the execution of two projects that we have in our portfolio. Unlike many growth stories in our sector, this growth does not depend on a discovery or an acquisition, or issuing equity and diluting our shareholders for growth. The ounces are already in our mineral inventory, already in our portfolio, and the cash is in our balance sheet. Before talking about growth, let's start with the platform that's funding it. We operate three mines, have two development projects, and multiple assets across our regions of choice, which are South America and West Africa. We work from a solid foundation of gold in inventories. We have 7 million ounces of gold in total mineral inventories, of which 4 million ounces are in mineral reserves and growing.
This is the platform that supports and funds the company and allows low-risk growth. This slide shows the journey of the company from its beginnings. As you can see, in 2025, we divested of two assets. Our production naturally dropped with that. Two assets that did not fit strategically our portfolio anymore. The Yaramoko mine in Burkina Faso and the San Jose mine in Mexico. Those assets didn't have the reserves, the resource base, where we could project a decade in mining. They were running short on reserves. So we decided to divest of those assets so we could focus our financial resources and our human capital into growth opportunities rather than mine closures. Right?
We are currently advancing the two projects I'm going to be talking to you about, the Diamba Sud build and the Séguéla mine expansion, which deliver that 60% growth in annual production to over that threshold that we place for ourselves of 500,000 ounces a year. The business is performing extremely well. Again, I talk about the strong platform that we have. Our production trailing along with guidance for about 300,000 ounces of gold this year. We're being effectively able to capture the benefit of this high-price environment. If you look at year-over-year, our sales up 55%, net cash from operations up almost 80%, free cash flow from ongoing operations for the first half of the year at $260 million, up 110% from a year ago.
We are generating free cash flow from operations at the tune of about $500,000,000- $600 million annually at this price environment. We have, over the last four quarters, generated $620 million in operating cash flow, keeping our costs steady and, again, capturing the benefit of higher gold prices. Fortuna has, what I believe is a strategic advantage, a fortress balance sheet. A balance sheet that allows us to have a strategic competitive advantage. We've been able to fund growth. We're being able to fund growth, retaining the strength of the balance sheet, and at the same time, returning capital to shareholders. In the first six months of the year, we returned over $100 million via the share buybacks. Our net cash position as of the end of the previous quarter stands with liquidity of $750 million.
Taking a look a bit closer at the assets, I'll focus on where the growth is coming from. The growth is coming from two projects. One is the expansion of our flagship asset, the Séguéla mine in the Ivory Coast. Séguéla is a successful mine, currently producing gold at a rate of about 160,000 ounces annually, with a reserve life that we can project for close to a decade. It continues to give in terms of success with the drill bit and mineral exploration, as I'll show you further down the presentation. But we are looking to expand this mine by 30% in terms of throughput, which should take our annual gold production to north of 200,000 ounces of gold annually. In a similar timeline, we're advancing Diamba Sud in Senegal. This is a new project. We just delivered a feasibility study for Diamba Sud.
Diamba Sud, it's on the late stages of permitting. We've been working very closely and successfully with the Senegalese government. In less than 12 months, we obtained our environmental and social approval, and we're on the late stages of permitting the exploitation permit. We anticipate that permit will be obtained in a matter of days, if not weeks. Once Diamba Sud is in production, it should be delivering gold at a rate of about 160,000 ounces annually for the initial years, with a projected life of mine right now of close to a decade, but more importantly, with significant exploration potential remaining. We invest in mineral exploration, roughly $60 million annually, over 250,000 m of drilling across our portfolio. We have active exploration in Côte d'Ivoire, in Senegal, in Argentina, in Guyana and in Peru as well.
In West Africa, we're mostly active against regional structural control that runs through Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, and into Senegal, and there you can see some of the locations of our projects. For example, we are the largest shareholder in Awalé Resources in Côte d'Ivoire. Awalé Resources has a most exciting property package and a most exciting discovery currently under a joint venture with Newmont. Again, we're the largest shareholder in Awalé Resources today. We have multiple other projects like Tongon North, north of what used to be Barrick's Tongon mine in Côte d'Ivoire as well. We have active exploration in Guinea. It's early-stage work, but we're setting a foothold in Guinea as well. We recently announced the acquisition of the Bambadji project from Barrick and IAMGOLD.
It was a $200 million acquisition we paid in cash and allows us to become the most significant land holder in what's one of the most productive gold belts in West Africa. To talk about Diamba Sud and Bambadji, the two come together. We currently have a little over 1 million ounces in reserves at Diamba Sud. We have a feasibility study showing a 60% internal rate of return using $3,500 per ounce gold. We get our payback in less than a year, roughly, measured in months, 11 months, 12 months. I'm not going to, for the benefit of time, drag you through the detail of geology, but across the border on the We sit right on the Senegal-Mali border. We're on the Senegalese side.
Across 5 km away from us, on the Malian side of the border, we have the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, B2Gold's Fekola mine, and further south, Managem's Boto mine. Between that collection of assets along that 50 km, 60 km long stretch, you have about 30 million ounces of gold, about a million ounces of annual gold production. On the mirror side, across the river, we have the commanding land position over 50 km of the right geology that we control. In orange, you see the original acquisition of the Diamba Sud project, and in green, our recent Bambadji acquisition. We will start referring to those two as one. We closed the acquisition of Bambadji from Barrick a few weeks ago, and we are already in the ground with six drill rigs, targeting the priority prospects that we have acquired. This to give you some color onto Séguéla.
Again, we are expanding the Séguéla mine.
It is a 30% throughput expansion that should take us from the current 160,000 ounces of gold annually to 200,000 ounces. It is a $100 million CapEx that the board of directors already approved, and we should be seeing first gold by mid-2028. We have a collection of deposits at Séguéla. We have also here a commanding land position. We are the largest landholder in the Séguéla camp, and we have eight mineral deposits hosting reserves. This is Kingfisher, one of the latest discoveries we had. As of the latest inventory, we have close to 500,000 , 600,000 ounces of gold sitting at Kingfisher and mineralization remains open. This is Sunbird. We will be going underground at Sunbird. We have close to a million ounces of gold sitting here. We are in the late stages of permitting the underground mining here, and we are looking to anticipation to initiate that.
Again, the underground, the plant expansion for Séguéla all come into play mid-2028 as we expand production. This is Lindero in Argentina, the Lindero porphyry within our property only 3 km away. We have even a bigger gold porphyry called Arizaro. Arizaro is poorly understood. There is a surface gold mineralization that we are going to start drill testing. At Lindero, we currently have over a decade of life of mine as well. Before I run out of time and we have some room for questions. Why Fortuna? We have a solid platform generating strong free cash flow. We operate with EBITDA margins in excess of 50%, 60%, generating, at these prices, over $500,000,000 dollars of free cash flow from operations. We are uniquely positioned to deliver significant growth that we believe is low risk and we control.
Again, this does not require a discovery, an acquisition, or over-leveraging the balance sheet or diluting our shareholders. We will not need to finance this. We will fund it. We have a fortress balance sheet, as I said. We have been proven to be prudent capital allocators over the years, and we are not going to do anything that we have not done many times before. Over the last years, we have built in these type of jurisdictions successfully and operated successfully. We have five mine builds under our belt. Again, we work from a solid base of reserves and resources, 7 million ounces of gold in total mineral inventories and growing. That is the presentation, and we might have some time for questions.
Thank you, Jorge. We do have a few minutes for questions. I see one from the audience.
Jorge, you operate in several countries, both Latin America and Africa. Is there anything pending in legislation about changes in tax regime in those countries?
Naturally, with the higher gold price environment, there is a natural impulse from many of these countries to increase their take. We're seeing that right now, particularly in West Africa. Côte d'Ivoire is discussing an increase, removing the 8% cap in the royalty. The same thing is taking place in Senegal. The important dynamic in those discussions is, throughout the years, I've been many times in a situation when you are trying to convince your counterparty in government that mining is good and they should permit the mine and allow the mine. In this case, the dynamic of the discussion is completely different. They all want the mine. The question is how much. That's sometimes a fair discussion. I think where we are seeing these discussions take place, the host governments are being careful in how they manage their tax burden so they remain competitive.
Go ahead. We have another question back here.
My name is Mahamar Touré . I'm a CEO of BlueSky Négoces Mali and BlueSky Négoces U.S. I actually have some greenfields in that region, in Mali, in Guinea, also in Liberia. I also have some projects that I'm developing myself. But I'm working more in small mining. My question is Fortuna Mining interested in working with miners like me in Mali to develop some other mines in the future?
Strategically, we have a long-term interest throughout the region, throughout the West African region. Tactically, we will see how we deploy capital. Today, Mali is not a place where we are deploying capital. We're more focused on more the coastal countries, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea. That would be the focus. Now, I would say longer term, we believe that the endowment and the opportunities throughout the region are second to none.
Okay. Do we have any other question? We have a question here. Go ahead, sir.
You mentioned interest in some particular African countries. How about in Latin America? Where would you put your focus there from a strategic point of view?
There's been an interesting turn in Argentina over the last few years under the new administration. Everybody hated Argentina. Now everybody's in love with Argentina and Mr. Milei. We're cautiously optimistic, and we're investing prudently outside of our mine. We continue committed to the long-term success of our Lindero mine. Outside of Lindero, we have two projects, Arizaro in the province of Salta, and an option agreement in a very exciting epithermal system in Río Negro. But we're investing prudently. We're not betting the farm in Argentina yet. We're investing in Guyana, the Guyana Shield. I don't like to do proximology, but we're only 30 km north from Oko West. In similar rocks, we're very excited about. We're going to start drilling this month of October. So we're very active in both regions.
Today, we have seen over the last few years a bit more opportunity flow coming out in Africa, but we're still committed to South America.
Okay. Great. You have two major expansions. You've got the 30% throughput expansion at Seguela, and you got Diamba Sud as well, that are going to lead to higher free cash flow once they're done. At Seguela, do you have the mining rates expected to be aligned with the increase in throughput? Will there be additional pits coming online or just leveraging the existing pits, and would you perhaps have a stockpile ready to smooth out the transition once you get the higher throughput ramped up?
Yeah. Mine planning in these mines, it's a full task. What do I mean? We have eight deposits and now an underground component coming into play. So what we see is the underground coming in 2028 helping to lift grades. The underground comes at a bit higher grade, over 4 g gold. We continue making discoveries in the camp. We started with four or five deposits. We're now up to eight. So the mine planners don't get bored at Seguela. No, they are fully iterating all the time. So I think the new thing is the great opportunity that comes with the underground, where we have about 1 million ounces of higher grade.
Okay. Thank you very much, Jorge. Once again, that's Jorge Ganoza, CEO and Director of Fortuna Mining, and good luck on that-