Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Galiano Gold Inc. Improved Long-Term Outlook for the Asanko Gold Mine conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. Now, Mr. Matt Badylak, President and CEO of Galiano Gold, you may begin your conference.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you taking the time to join us on the call today to review our long-term outlook at the Asanko Gold Mine that was released earlier this morning. Before we continue with the discussion, on behalf of myself and the rest of the Galiano team, I'd like to extend my sincere condolences to the families and all those impacted by the tragic accident which occurred on our site earlier this month. Historically, the operation has achieved a strong safety record.
However, this event reinforces how important it is to maintain continuous focus on creating a safe work culture. Since the accident, we have worked closely with our employees and our contractors to reinforce our commitment to zero-harm operations, with safety being our number one priority. We'll be making forward-looking statements during the call.
Please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A, as well as this slide of the webcast presentation. Additionally, please note that all financial figures presented are in U.S dollars unless otherwise stated. All operational data is presented on a 100% basis at the AGM. With me presenting on the call today, I have Matt Freeman, our CFO, Chris Pettman, VP, Exploration, as well as Richard Miller, our VP, Technical Services. I will initially go through the highlights and then take you through the operations. Matt will discuss the financials, and Chris will review the exploration opportunities across the AGM. I'll then wrap it up and open the call up for questions.
Okay, before getting into the new life of mine plan that we just released, it is important to acknowledge the fact that Asanko Gold Mine has had its fair share of challenges over the years. I joined the company in late 2020 as COO and discovered a complex multi-deposit operation with a hungry mill that required multiple feed sources and deposits to be brought into production at a fast pace in order to continue milling at the required processing rates.
This also coincided with a strategic shift to rebuild the technical team, which was being transitioned from Johannesburg to Vancouver. Board composition also changed considerably over the last two years, and I truly appreciate the skills and experience they now all bring to the table. Fast-forward to Q1 2022, when we were faced with some metallurgical challenges at what was then our primary deposit, Esaase.
Fortunately, at this time, we already had put in place a competent technical team with enough time on the ground and skill sets needed to address this challenge. With the team in place and availability of stockpiles on-hand, this event presented us with an ideal opportunity to slow down operations and advance our technical understanding of known deposits. We did this through engaging a team of third-party independent consultants to commence work on a feasibility-level study and focus on an extensive geometallurgical drilling campaign. Additionally, we also embarked on a thorough infill and step-out drilling campaign across all core deposits. These drilling campaigns were primarily focused on expanding resources and improving our geological understanding of these deposits.
As we are now releasing our updated feasibility study and preparing to restart mining, we have the team in place and are confident in our ability to execute the life of mine plan. Next slide, please. Looking very quickly here at some of the updated feasibility study and MRMR highlights. The key points I would like to emphasize are that we have now reinstated and grown our Mineral Reserves compared to the 2019 technical report.
We have advanced Abore and Miradani North, such that they now make up four cornerstone deposits, significantly de-risking our life of mine plan compared to previous plans, which comprise of just two principal deposits. We have a new mine sequencing plan with a focus on cash flow generation to support the restart of mining at the AGM. Average gold production is estimated at 217,000 ounces through to 2031, totaling...
producing a total of 2 million ounces, almost 2 million ounces of gold. The mine has robust economics, with $478 million expected in pre-tax NPV at 5% discount and all-in sustaining costs just over $1,100 per ounce. Slide, please. This slide is just showing where we are positioned on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt, where we hold 467 sq km of land tenements and are flanked on both sides by the more mature Ashanti and Sefwi greenstone belts. Ghana has a long history of mining and is one of Africa's largest gold producers. We are surrounded by many of the gold majors who operate in this country. Ghana has a highly skilled domestic workforce with high levels of education, and as a result, low levels of expats employed in the industry.
Although the country has endured some economic challenges through 2022 and into 2023, Ghana has a stable democratic government which supports the mining industry. We have a 45% JV partnership with Gold Fields at the Asanko Gold Mine, and the remaining 10% free carry interest is held by the Ghanaian Government. Galiano are the operators of the AGM Gold Mine, receiving a $7 million annual management fee. We are pleased to report that, as outlined in our press release this morning, we now have just over 2 million ounces of Mineral Reserves in the P&P category, totaling just under 49 million tonnes at a grade of 1.31 grams per tonne gold. The opportunities to continue to grow these Reserves and extend its eight and a half year mine life will be touched on shortly.
Next slide, please. This is a high-level overview of base case feasibility study at $1,700 Gold. Over the mine life, we expect to produce 1.8 million ounces of gold and average approximately 254,000 ounces annually during peak production years. The mill will continue to process 5.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.31 grams a tonne and an average recovery of 89%.
I must stress the significance of our new mine sequencing plan, as by pushing Nkran out a few years and focusing on Abore and Miradani North pits first, the AGM is projected to be able to self-finance the restart of mining. Looking quickly at some of the capital requirements, I just wanna highlight the following. Galiano Gold is a well-established and ongoing mining operation, with all infrastructure in place to continue existing operations.
Future capital includes site establishment to allow mining at various deposits and subsequent TSF embankment raises. Capital waste stripping is obviously a large item here, but you must remember that this is spread over 6 deposits, with Nkran contributing to more than half and beginning in mid-2025. Next slide. This is just to show the overview of the mine.
Again, key point here is that there are no additional major infrastructure requirements at the AGM other than an 11-km haul road to Miradani North and two additional TSF embankment raises. We're expecting to begin the construction of the Miradani haul road later this year. The TSF stage 7 embankment raise is already underway. We have a fully permitted and operating mine with a mill, TSF, waste dumps, and water treatment plant. At site, we also have full accommodation and medical facilities, offices, and core storage shacks.
All of this to say we are a fully operating mine here with a mill that has been in operation since 2016. Looking at reinstated Mineral Reserves. Abore and Miradani North had previously been thought of as satellite deposits, but through the 2022 drilling campaign, they are now elevated to core deposits. They have relatively low strip ratios with robust economics and an ability to support capital requirements at Nkran.
Next slide. Looking at the AGM mining schedule for 2023, we will continue to process the existing stock piles until Q1 2024. While we are processing these stock piles, we would advance JV approvals to allow us to commence stripping at Abore in Q4 2023. Following a short waste stripping campaign, Abore will provide the majority of the mill feed starting in Q2 2024.
Concurrently, we'll be utilizing some of the Esaase ore that is readily available with minimal strip throughout the first half of 2024. We are moving on to Miradani North, where the stripping campaign is expected to commence in Q2 2024. Stripping of Nkran is expected to commence in mid-2025, with Esaase coming in late 2026, and the remaining satellite deposits filling the gaps in later years. Looking at the AGM mining schedule over the next 6 years, we'll be mining nearly 343 million tonnes from the pits, including nearly 42 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 1.43 grams per tonne gold, with an average strip ratio of 7.2 to 1. Obviously, these are big numbers, and we'll be looking at opportunities to improve costs and efficiencies on the mining front. Next slide.
Here is our production pro-profile for the current life of mine. You can see that we'll be ramping up gold production over the next 24 months until we reach steady state in 2025. This is largely a function of stockpile processing as we return to hard rock mining. Metallurgical recoveries are slightly reduced in years 2027 and 2028, as well as the tail end of mine life as Esaase contributes to the mill feed. We know that there are small zones of carbonaceous material at Esaase, and we'll be treating this deposit in isolation from other deposits in order to avoid impacting their higher recoveries.
In addition to separating Esaase from the other deposits, we'll be looking to segregate Esaase low and high carbonaceous material. This will be achieved through organic carbon assays of grade control samples at the time of mining, in combination with a carbon model for the deposit. I'd like to emphasize that we are confident in the recovery numbers reported here for all deposits, including Esaase. Moving on to the next slide, where I'll now turn the time over to Matt Freeman, our CFO.
Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everyone. As Matt previously mentioned, the life of mine plan demonstrates that Asanko Gold Mine's strong operating margins with all-in sustaining costs of just over $1,100 per ounce, generating a post-tax NPV of $343 million, assuming a gold price of $1,700. The most significant operating costs of the life of mine plan are our mining costs. They're anticipated to be $3.66 per ton mined. This includes all deferred stripping costs and the transportation costs of material mined at Esaase, which is hauled down the road to the processing plant some 30 kilometers away. Key focus of the technical team in the coming months will be to find ways to optimize the mining operation in order to reduce these costs where possible.
Processing and G&A costs are anticipated to remain consistent with those we've seen in the second half of 2022, which will reduce substantially following a successful restructuring that was completed in Q1 of 2022. It's worth noting the G&A costs presented also include a $7 million management fee, which is payable to Galiano each year. Now turning to planned capital expenditures. Sustaining capital is anticipated to equate to approximately $100 million over the life of the mine. The largest component of this being the completion of the tailings facility and associated water treatment plant, totaling $45 million. Stage seven expansion of the TSF is currently underway, and then a stage eight lift will be required in 2025 and 2026. Routine plant and infrastructure is modest, given the plant is fully operational already.
Finally, site establishment costs at our smaller deposits will form the balance of the spend. Development capital is estimated to be approximately $60 million, primarily for site establishment costs to bring Abore and Miradani into production. The largest constituents of this are the new haul road to Miradani, which is approximately 11 kilometers south of the processing plant, and also certain building relocation costs for structures that currently exist within 500 meters of the plant pits.
Deferred stripping is also a major component of the mining costs that I highlighted above. The most significant component being $259 million required for Nkran Cut three, which is planned to be undertaken between 2025 and 2027. The mine plan has enabled this significant investment to be funded from cash on hand and cash flows from Abore and Miradani deposits.
Through the period from the stripping campaign commences, the technical team will be focused on further optimization to reduce the length of the stripping period, as well as reducing mining cost unit rates in order to further enhance the economics of the project. Finally, our estimate for mine closure and reclamation is approximately $80 million. That will generally start to be incurred at the cessation of mining activities. Cash flows are somewhat constrained, as you can see from the graph here, as we invest in the future of the mine over the next two years. Once Abore and Miradani are in full-scale ore production in 2025, significant cash flows begin to be generated that are estimated to cover the costs of the stripping campaign at Nkran.
Importantly, the JV was sitting on more than $90 million of cash as of December 31, 2022, following strong cash flows in 2022. With this treasury, the JV will be able to fund the anticipated recommencement of mining later this year and the execution of this business plan. Overall, the life of mine demonstrates significant cash flow generation and a very robust post-tax NPV of $343 million. On top of that, we've seen many opportunities to optimize operations and costs, and also to extend mine life further through exploration in our extensive land package. With that, I'll pass it over to Chris Pettman, our VP, Exploration, who will give a high-level overview of some of those opportunities on the exploration front.
Great. Thanks, Matt. Happy to run through the exploration opportunities that we see at the Asanko Gold Mine. For 2023, the exploration team at the Asanko Gold Mine has two key focuses. The first being adding additional ounces to our reserves and resources through evaluation and testing of our near mine targets at our existing deposits. The second on regional general exploration, with the goal of delivering new discoveries that could have a material impact on extending the life of mine. In the next few slides, I'll touch on some of the highlights of the upcoming programs briefly. I'm gonna start first zoomed out at a regional level, which you see here, where the Asanko Gold Mine holds the largest land position on the Asankrangwa Belt. Our tenements consist of approximately 46,700 hectares of what is still largely underexplored and highly prospective ground.
The Asankrangwa is the least mature in terms of exploration of the 3 major gold mining belts in southwest Ghana, the other two being the prolific Ashanti and Sefwi belts, which are adjacent to us on either side. As such, it remains a really exciting exploration play for us. Gold mineralization at the AGM is controlled at a regional scale by a series of northeast-trending shear zones. In this image, you can see 4 of the primary known shears, along with the areas that will be focusing our 2023 regional exploration work. The slide summarizes the range of exploration activities that we'll be conducting throughout the year and reflects a diverse nature of our target portfolio, given the range of maturities of the targets.
The regional work's gonna consist of a variety of programs, ranging from early-stage greenfield mapping, soil sampling, geophysics, all designed to identify new drill targets, through to follow-up trenching and approximately 19,000 meters of drilling to be designed to test for mineralization at some of our more mature regional targets.
As you can see by the distribution of work, we're looking to evaluate the entirety of the AGM tenements as we seek to deliver those new discoveries from areas that have seen limited to no exploration activities in the past. A significant number of generative targets not shown here have also been identified through ongoing review of historic data, which will continue to feed our generative pipeline as we systematically prioritize and evaluate a really large number of known and emerging targets in this space.
Now on this slide and beyond the regional exploration opportunities, in the near mine space, we also see potential for significant growth. To illustrate this point, the image on this slide consists of a long section of a portion of one of the shear zones shown in the previous slide. This is a long section through approximately 10 kilometers of the Nkran-Asuadai shear, which hosts the Nkran, Akwasiso, Dynamite, and Asuadai deposits. As you can see from the image, all four deposits lie along linear trends, and this trend is defined by that shear zone that extends from beyond Nkran in the southwest to Asuadai and beyond in the northeast. As the most mature deposit and largest source of historic production at the AGM, Nkran, as you see it here, is the most well-defined deposit in the belt.
Despite this, it still holds potential for significant growth. Drill programs carried out in 2022 successfully intercepted mineralization which remains open well below the current resource, serving as proof of concept for us that the deposits on the Asankrangwa have the potential to grow significantly larger, as we now know that the favorable geology and mineralization do in fact continue at depth.
As we move northeast along the shear, Akwasiso and Dynamite are also both past producers, yet they're less well tested than Nkran, as historic drilling has not extended much past the bottom of the existing and as-built pits. At both of these deposits, mineralization also remains open at depth and variably along strike. Akwasiso is one of the deposits slated for further drill testing this year as part of the 2023 near mine program.
Continuing along the shear, Asuadai is significantly less mature than the other deposits on the shear, given it has much less drilling and has no production to date. Like its neighbors, though, mineralization does remain open at depth and along strike, making it a really compelling near mine and exploration target that's currently under evaluation.
The image shows the conceptual targets that remain untested below existing drilling in this part of the Nkran shear, but it's important to note that the shear continues well beyond this 10-kilometer section and is itself open in both directions for discovery of new deposits similar to these ones. To demonstrate how even the most mature deposit at the AGM remains the potential for future growth, we can move on to this next slide here and look at Nkran in more detail.
We're zoomed in now, this is a long section through Nkran, which as I just mentioned, is the most mature deposit at the AGM. Despite the fact that it's been known for more than 20 years, has produced significant amounts of gold, and has been extensively drilled, it continues to demonstrate growth upside. This is the only deposit at the AGM that has been tested for mineralization at depths below the known resource. In 2022, we've reported the results of that work, and we've highlighted some of those intercepts on this slide in yellow in order to visualize where this mineralization lies. Again, this is proof of concept that the mineralization can and does continue to depths well below the known extents of these Sankorboa deposits, and this is key to our near mine exploration efforts.
On the back of these results, an initial evaluation of the potential for underground mining at Nkran is currently underway and could represent a real step change for not just Nkran, but all of the AGM deposits. Beyond opportunities at depth, we also see possible strike extensions to the south of the Nkran ore body, as highlighted here. We're currently drilling in this zone where we think we can both increase reserves and potentially identify new mineralization that may have a positive impact on the proposed cut three at Nkran. This is just a brief snapshot of only one example of the many near mine growth opportunities that we're currently working on, which include Miradani, Abore, and Akwasiso, all of which are open to depth.
I'd like to finish just by saying that this is a really exciting time for exploration at the AGM, as our exploration team is well-resourced with technical capability. We have in place the personnel and the funding to deliver on both the near mine and generative opportunities that I've briefly touched on here. We're keenly focused on delivering results to extend the AGM life of mine. With that, I'll turn it back to Matt Badylak to finish up.
Thanks, Chris. As I wrap up here, I want to acknowledge the independent consultants who are listed on this slide and compiled the updated MR, and feasibility study. It has been a long 12 months completing all the drilling, test work, and analysis. In the end, we've come away with a great product. Moving on to our final slide, again showing that the life of mine production profile of 1.85 million ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of just over $1,100 per ounce. Based on the life of mine, our preliminary production outlook for 2023 is expected to be between 100,000-120,000 ounces derived solely from processing of stockpiles. All-in sustaining costs are expected to come in at $1,900 an ounce.
However, I'd like to remind you that these high costs include the investment of nearly $40 million of sustaining capital expenditure required to benefit further years of production. Finally, I'd like to reiterate that the AGM is now well-positioned on the back of a completed independent feasibility study, a reinstated Mineral Resource Reserve, and has cash on-hand to execute the restart of mining and return to production levels in excess of 250,000 ounces per year. I personally have confidence in the team's ability to safely deliver to the stated mine plan and generate value for the Galiano shareholders. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to the operator and open the lines up for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you want to ask a question, please press star one. If you want to withdraw your question, please press star two. Please don't press any keys before lifting your handset if you are using a speaker phone. One moment please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Raj Ray from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, Matt and team. I just wanted to start with, during the presentation did mention about some cost optimization opportunities. If you can specifically touch upon some of those key opportunities that you see and the potential impact. The second was, just wanted a clarification on the life of mine strip of 7.2.
When you talk about the Nkran pre-strip and also some of the deferred stripping that's been capitalized in the sustaining, I just want to make sure I'm not double counting. That 7.2 is inclusive of your operating sustaining as well as non-sustaining stripping. Is that correct? Is it possible to get a split for that strip ratio over the life of mine?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Raj, appreciate the question. I might start off with the first part there with regards to opportunities, I'll pass it on to Matt to answer the question on the stripping. Listen, Raj, you know, you would have seen obviously mining makes up the large balance of costs at the AGM, you know, we are mining a significant tonnage here over the life of mine. With regards to those opportunities, I think predominantly we'll be looking at finding ways to reduce the mining costs on a go-forward basis. We have identified that I think all of these deposits, as they've grown over the course of the last 12 months, are most likely amenable to mining with larger fleet.
You know, we haven't run that analysis to ground fully yet, but we do believe that, you know, all the upfront deposits, including Abore, Miradani, and then even getting into Nkran can be upsized in terms of fleet sizes. That certainly will have a positive impact on the cost going forward. That's the main area we'll be looking at. I'll just remind you also that, you know, the optimization that we've conducted through 2023 with regards to resizing the manpower on site, and reducing costs there are also carried forward as well here. That's been a very good project for us over the last 12 months.
With that, I'll pass it on to Matt for the other part of the question.
Hi, Raj. With the regards to the stripping, yeah, the deferred stripping is all included within the mining costs that we quoted. The $3.66 per ton includes all of the deferred stripping. That 7.2 strip ratio for the life of mine also includes all of the deferred stripping. We'd have to get back to you on any split between of that strip ratio, what is deferred stripping vis-a-vis kind of operational mining costs and mining stripping. I don't have that split to hand at this point. In terms of double counting your costs, yeah, the mining costs include that full deferred stripping.
As you would have seen in the presentation, from an all-in sustaining costs perspective, the deferred stripping is split between some development capital, which is the Nkran deferred stripping, given under the World Gold Council guidance that the sheer magnitude of that project on an operating pre-operating mine. All of the other stripping is considered sustaining stripping because the deposits that you're stripping are smaller in nature and scale in reality to the project. There's that difference between treatment of those two stripping. There's to avoid double counting, mining costs for 366 per ton include all of that stripping. If that answers your question.
just to follow up on Nkran. I understand they're still doing a lot of studies with respect to the underground potential. Is there an opportunity to lower the waste strip and tap the underground sooner? Is that something you're looking at or you don't see that potential?
Yeah, thanks, Raj. You know, certainly by pushing Nkran back in the life of mine and commencing stripping in mid-2025, that becomes an opportunity for us. I mean, it's something that we'll be looking at over the course of this year. You know, basically looking at that trading off with, you know, larger mining equipment for the strip as well, reducing the cost on the open pit front as well. Yeah, certainly, you know, the timing around where Nkran comes in with regards to commencement of stripping does afford us some time to run that to ground. I don't want to preempt, you know, any conclusions of that work because we're still kind of in the early stages of that. Suffice to say we are looking at it.
Okay. Thank you. That's it from me.
Thanks, Raj.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Stephen Sergacich from Equinox Partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, gentlemen. Thanks for doing this. I've got a couple of questions. First, in the release it said that this plan is subject to Gold Fields' approval. Could you give us some more color on that and let us know if there's any reason to believe that they won't approve this plan?
Thanks, Steve. Yeah, I mean, we've been clear on that. Again, you know, the asset is managed under a JV that, you know, within the structure of that JV agreement, there are certain approvals are required from both partners and, you know, that process is underway at the moment, and has not yet run its course. You know, we're just being clear with yourselves and the market that, you know, that process is still ongoing. Once we secure those approvals, we'll obviously have the green light to get going. At this stage, you know, I wouldn't anticipate any issues on that front.
Also, could you walk us through? There was just, I think a bit of delay or on this plan, and I think the hope was that this was gonna be delivered sooner. Can you just walk us through the difficulties you had in delivering this and sort of why it came at the time that it came?
Yeah, Steve, I think we've been very clear throughout the course of the last 12 months around the timing of this, and we've been pointing to Q1 2023 as the delivery date. you know, and we've delivered on that. I'm not sure exactly, you know, the reference. I think we've hit the deadlines that we've described to the market, and we've always been guiding the market to Q1 2023. Yeah, I'm not sure if that answers your question or not, but certainly in my view, we've met the deadlines that we've guided to.
It just wasn't I think as timely. I think the news is relatively speaking positive. I just think that, yes, we had hopes. I mean, you certainly guided to this later, that this would be the case. I think earlier on, there was an expectation that a plan would be delivered sooner. I guess Raj asked you about the Nkran, the underground. Obviously this is not included as part of this mine plan, but is there like a timeline for when you plan to show sort of what that could look like?
I mean, we're looking at Nkran in two phases, Steve. I mean, the first one is a trade-off between open pittable cut three and an underground opportunity in the same volume of material. Obviously, due to the timing around getting Nkran stripping commencing in mid-2025, that first phase of the analysis needs to be run to ground relatively quickly, and we're advancing that over the course of the next 12 months.
That's the first stage when we talk about Nkran underground. Subsequent to that trade-off study, you know, we believe, as Chris mentioned earlier, that there's, you know, opportunity to again look at an underground potential of Nkran, even if we were to progress with a cut three open pit at Nkran because we've identified mineralization that sits significantly below the current resource. That is gonna continue to be investigated, you know, but doesn't take the same level of priority, so to speak, as the trade-off, work that we're doing with cut three.
That's helpful. Just 1 final question, then I'll drop off. You obviously highlighted the extension at depth for various deposits in this presentation. In terms of exploration, both for 2023 and going forward, do you have a sense for how much you plan on devoting to other potential sort of, I don't wanna call them greenfield, but other potential undrilled targets on your current land package?
I'll let Chris answer that one, Steve.
Sure. Thanks for the question, Steve. Yeah, look, as I mentioned in the presentation, you know, the team is really focused on two priorities. We've purposely divided the team into both a near mine and then a generative exploration group so that we can focus on both of those things. While the near mine is obviously extremely important to us to make sure we're maximizing value of our known deposits and looking to extend the life of mine, we do have an extensive land package, and it's a great time to be exploring it.
There's lots of exciting targets, and the team is really focused on that. You know, this year our efforts are, generally speaking, 50/50 split between the regional generative targets that are more greenfields to the near mine space. I anticipate that continuing on, you know, into 2024 as well as we try and evaluate the entire tenement.
Okay. That's all I got. Thanks, gentlemen.
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, should you have a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Charlie Rothbarth from Berenberg Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning or good afternoon here in London. Thank you very much for taking my questions. My first one is probably around just your guidance this year. Apologies, I've been a bit late joining the call. Your sort of running and sustaining cost guidance is sort of relatively high versus I think what people are expecting alongside your production guides for Pad Lode. Is this just driven by, you know, people perhaps expecting you to come on to mining the ore body a bit earlier? I think people are expecting sort of start of Q3.
Hi, Charlie. It's Matt here. As we tried to outline in the presentation here, we appreciate the all-in sustaining costs is on the high end of things. This is based upon the life of mine plan that we've laid out, and there is some extensive capital requirements to kind of get things back into restart mode, which are falling into 2023. We have pointed the fact this is preliminary guidance as well, and this is based upon the technical report that we've outlined today.
We will be going through, obviously, closely reviewing that as we move through, how sort of more internal and GFI JV approval process over the next few months to look close at this and see whether there's any way that this could be improved. It's a point in time now based upon the technical report, but mainly driven by the large CapEx that's needed to really get started again. Obviously, the future years will benefit from that heavy investment in 2023 that we've seen as we move forward.
Okay, thank you. Just on a slightly sort of more, more macro scale, How much conversations have you been in about sort of taking on the other half of the asset and getting the full reward for the work you do, you know, now that Gold Fields and everyone has seen this? Have you had further commentary? Do they still? Have they started commenting around whether or not this is a core asset for them?
Yeah. Thanks, Charles. I mean, just, certainly from my perspective, you know, I feel that, you know, this asset, you know, belongs more in our hands, more appropriately in our hands than it would in a GFI portfolio. Again, I mean, it's not solely up to us to rationalize the JV at this stage. You know, it takes two to tango and, you know, those discussions, you know, have taken place in the past. You know, they were difficult in nature because there wasn't the same level of clarity on a go-forward basis with regards to where the asset shakes out in terms of the value. You know, certainly we'll be looking to re-engage those discussions going forward. You know, I certainly wouldn't be preempting any potential outcome, of those discussions.
Okay. Thank you very much. I suppose the last one is, when you write through this, through this study, do you have an inflation assumption running there?
Yeah. We baked in the various assumptions that the Q3 will come, you know, in terms of cost structure. I think obviously, as I kind of walked, I know I said you joined the presentation a little bit late, but as we walked through earlier, the main cost driver here is mining costs. They were factored predominantly on tenders that we received as a basis for that cost with some inflationary impacts on certainly fuel and other things. We feel pretty comfortable. Where those are shaking out at $3.66 a ton, I think compares pretty well. It's slightly elevated from the last couple of years, but I think it pretty well covers us for the inflationary impact that we've been seeing on the ground.
And obviously we're looking at a life of mine view. It's not just a knee-jerk reaction to 2022 inflationary requirements as well. G&A and processing costs again, where applicable, we factored in necessary inflation. I think the G&A side of things, as you will know, through 2022, we did a really successful restructuring and reset the cost base at the site. We anticipate that carrying on through. We've sort of been naturally expecting some level of inflation at normal course to continue from there. Finally, processing costs again. I mean, we've seen some inflation as all extractive companies have in the last year or so, particularly around some of the reagents. Again, that was factored in.
The $10.80 per ton processing cost that we've got in this life of mine plan, you'll see stacks up pretty well to how previous historic performance and slightly higher than the last few years, I think, which covers us off in that area.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think those are the end of my questions. Congratulations again on getting this out.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sean Fieler from Equinox Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. On the, so the Ghanaian FX has been kind of all over the map last year with the default and everything. What FX rates are you using in your study? Does it Ghanaian cedi, does it account for much of any of your, the costs?
Sorry, Matt here. The technical report was based purely in U.S dollars. The majority of spend and material expenditure at site is based on USD. The FX components of that haven't been, aren't material. The vast majority of our spend is denominated in USD, including things like local labor, local, and fuel, of course, is USD based. There's no material FX component to the life of mine plan.
Any other impacts from the Ghanaian bankruptcy on your ability to operate in country and move forward with this plan?
Yes. No, Sean. At the moment, we aren't seeing any major impacts there. Obviously, we're cognizant of the situation in the country and trying to be on the front foot there where possible. At this point in time, we haven't seen any negative impact to our ability to operate in country through the course of the last 12 months, and we don't anticipate that changing going forward.
You haven't been subject to any tax investigations or any. Seems like there's a number of companies getting kind of unfriendly letters from the Canadian tax authorities.
Hi, Sean. It's Matt again here, or other Matt Freeman. Yeah, we actually completed an audit with the GRA in 2022. That was normal course, no adverse findings, and we disclosed that in our quarterly statements through the course of the year. Yes or no, we're quite pleased. We saw some of those quite scary things come out of some of the large tax assessments that have come out from other companies. We say we got to an audit without any material impact, so hopefully they'll leave us alone and won't come back with anything crazy. We feel in a good position with the GRA. We have a good relationship with them, and our local team works very closely with them on all aspects of tax and VAT recoveries and things like that.
last question, the, any hedging that would go along with these kind of capital commitments, if you go ahead, as planned?
We've obviously outlined a long-term life of mine plan here. We will look into price protection mechanisms from time to time on a short-term basis, if the market provides an opportunity to do so. Not long-term hedging, no.
Okay. you might sell forward a quarter or two, that's basically it?
Yeah.
If you-
Typically we look for. We're not speculating on the price of gold. We're looking for a reason in which to hedge. If there's a period for a major kind of investment or period where we know, like during stockpile processing, very low, relatively lower margins than we would otherwise have had, we might look to do something, but not long-term, and so not trying to speculate on the price of gold.
Okay. Well, congrats on getting a plan that works with, you know, your balance sheet and gives you guys a way to move forward. Thanks so much for the call.
Thank you, Sean.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. You may proceed.
Thank you, operator. Again, I'd just like to congratulate the team here at Galiano and on site, as well as thank the consultants who have delivered what is, I believe, a very positive path forward for the company. With that, I'll just close the call and thank you, operator. Cheers.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, we ask that you please disconnect your lines.