Good morning. Extremely pleased to provide you with an update on our activities at IAMGOLD. Very exciting time, as mentioned, first goal at Côté Gold project and ramping up the assets. Wonderful, wonderful year ahead of us with a lot of very, very good value creations and growing assets. And the Côté Gold—we'll speak mostly about it today, but give you a good update as well on Burkina Faso and our assets in Quebec. As mentioned, it is all about now shifting this company with a strong focus in Canada. This company used to be over 80% of its valuation in West Africa and South America. We embark into massive transformations and repositioning. We divested quite a few assets in West Africa.
As a result, now we have a strong focus on this wonderful opportunity ahead of us with the Côté Gold. We achieved the first goal last weekend of March. We're now currently ramping up. As I would show, Côté Gold is one of those unbelievable opportunities in Canada. It's already sitting in the top largest gold deposit as a potential for being the third gold producer in Canada on an asset basis. We still operate the Essakane Mine. It's the sixth largest open pit gold mine in Burkina Faso. It has currently a five-year life of mine. But we've been capable last year to extend by one year. And we continue to believe that there is a potential to extend beyond that. Westwood, the underground mine - I'll speak of that one as well.
It's a mine that has, over the years, suffered some seismic event. In 2021, after a good stop and rethink, we restarted the mine with a completely different approach, technical on the mining method and sequencing, and a completely different monitoring and control of the seismicity. As a result, we go for three years without event. The asset now is repositioning. We're almost done. 75% of the scoping, you know, from the past and the high grades are bringing back now in the reserve category. We believe that 2024 will be the year where we turn the company the asset into a positive cash flow. Strong finish in 2023. 465,000 ounces achieved over a top-end guidance of 470,000. Well-funded by the end of the year. Some of it is already behind us, of course.
$750 million of dollars of liquidity as of the end of the year, including $367 million in cash. That goes against completion of the project of $142 million, which is pretty much behind us, of course. The project was designed to be in a partnership with Sumitomo at 70/30. And as a result of the, lack of funding to complete the construction, there was an additional 10% sold to Sumitomo. But we have a path forward until 2026, starting November 2024, to buy back the 10% and return in 70%. And that would be our priority number one. Strong commitment to ESG. This company, that's nothing really has changed. This is something that has been the core value of the company. We achieved a one-time record at Burkina Faso and Essakane in 2023. Over 15 million hours worked at Côté during the constructions and commissioning without any major incidents.
So outstanding. First climate report released in 2023 showing reductions of 30%+ as we move forward and become more established in Canada. On the pipeline side, this company has a strong proven record. Over 30 million ounces of new resources discovered in the last decade. So with the same focus now, we're shifting to Canada with the Gosselin and Côté that continues to grow. And we have recently as well consolidated the Nelligan project in Quebec with 100% interest at zero royalty on it. This is how we look today. Strong focus to, like I said, in Canada. More than 75% now of the valuations of the asset is now locked in Canada. We still operate, as I said, the Burkina Faso, Essakane Mine. So Côté is currently a 60/40% partnership with Sumitomo. Strong, strong partner. We've done very good things together.
It continues to grow in terms of partnership. But our priority would be to return to 70%. When you're sitting on an asset like Côté Gold, this is a company builder. And as I'm going to show you, already 17 million ounces of measured and indicated, over 4 million ounces of Inferred resources. So this is already the second largest gold deposit. And it keeps growing. So all our eyes now are turning to average life of mine, 365,000 ounces. But again, this is based only on the reserve of 7.6 million ounces for the next 18 years. But we're sitting on a much more sizable deposit. So expect over time that this asset has all the potential to grow but also to extend its life of mine. This year would be 220,000-290,000 ounces for the year. It's the year of a ramp-up.
But the asset has the potential in the next 5 years to be very close to the 500,000 ounces equivalent on a 100% basis. The Westwood mine started in 2014 with a different mining method, struggling with control of seismicity. Had some event. Some zones were closed. But since 2021, we've been systematically and diligently restarting the mine. We started the year at 4 mining areas underground, closed the year at 8, brought back a significant amount of ounces of a high grade. And things are advancing extremely well. And hopefully, this year will be our year of a positive cash flow with an AISC of $1,800-$2,000 but to grow more ounces produced, 100,000-120,000 ounces. And the Essakane Mine, currently life of mine of 28. It's an open pit. It's very large. It's the same size, actually, than the Côté Gold.
It's about 35,000-36,000 tons a day. Very good grade. And we shoot for an attributable. We're 90%, 10% to the government of Burkina Faso. And we shoot for 330,000-370,000 ounces at an AISC of $1,675-$1,800. Now, this is what I would call a balanced guidance. We're all aware that it's been a little bit it's a little bit rough patch in 2023 around Burkina. But we go for over six months now, pretty stable. No disruptions in the operations. So if it stays that way, I think we have all the chance to beat our guidance this year. In terms of the financial, as I mentioned, at the end of the year, we were sitting at about $750 million of liquidity, $360 million in cash, cash equivalent, from which about $150 million is retained at the asset level.
Other source of income for the year is the closing or the remaining closing of the West African divestiture that took place late in 2022. There is over $80 million of proceeds. We're currently busy with the buyer managing to close Guinea. And following that, we should close the Mali part of the transaction. So we remain confident that we're going to close those transactions in 2020 and 2024. We also have some prepaid. We just announced the deferral of the second quarter 2024. So we had 150,000 ounces of prepaid that took place from April it says April 2024 to March 2025. But it's now from July 2024 to June 2025, as we just announced the deferral of the Q2. So we're matching the delivery of those ounces as we ramp up Côté and assure the cash flow as well.
In terms of obligations, $142 million was our share to complete the construction of Côté. So this is pretty much behind us. Now we're ramping up. We think that the asset will become positive cash flow post-commercial production. And from there, as the asset becomes positive cash flow, there will be a priority for us to return to 70%. In terms of long-term debt, we've got a senior note of $450 million and a term loan that was announced in May 2023 of $400 million that composes most of our long-term debt. So Essakane started the year a little bit on a rough patch with some security issues. And we had some supply delays. And by the second quarter, we were back on our feet, strong production.
We were disrupted a bit of disruptions in the Q3, in the third quarter, as a result of the coup in Niger, which impacted our fuel delivery. But since then, I would say in the last six to seven months, we've been even though the situation in the country is still a bit difficult, but the mine has been operating extremely strong, has a very strong Q4, 108,000 ounces attributable, 372,000 produced right on the top end of our guidance. Mined extremely well, but almost 13 million tons of mining took place. AISC of $1,521 an ounce. That's, as again, it compares to 1,675-1,800 which I would call more like a balanced, prudent approach to guidance. But if we continue stable as we are and continue to benefit, you know, from zero disruptions, we feel very strong again that we could we could outperform those guidances.
In terms of mineral and reserve and resources, we've been capable to extend the life by another year to 2028. We continue to aggressively work on expanding the asset beyond. We're now currently 1.8 million ounces at 132 grams a ton with some stockpile. What you see to the right, this is the current plan for the next five years if there is no further extension of the life of mine. So you can see that the production and throughput will remain very strong while the capital expenditure and the mining cost and strip ratio would decrease significantly. So read through this significant cash flow in 2026, 2027, and 2028 as we depart from Burkina. Quickly on the Westwood mine.
So the central part that you see here and the further down to the central part, this was the area back in time that were very much under stress of seismicity. We've changed the mining method, a completely different approach since then, almost three years without any issues. So we've been capable to move the underground back. So an increase of 123% of the reserve in 2023. And this is the result of having brought back those high-grade zones from the past back in the mine plant. So now the asset is comfortably sitting on a 2,033+ life of mine. Our plan this year is to bring back the remaining two very high-grade zones, bring it up to 10, which will allow for mining in about 1,000-1,200 tons a day down the road at a reserve grade of 10.3 grams a ton.
So this year is the year of completing the work. We still have $65 million of capital. That's included a lot of rehabilitation. But we see the asset now turning positive cash flow this year. Down the road, higher grade underground, more production, lower costs as we park the rehabilitations and bring down the capital and turn the asset into a much better cash-flowing asset. Côté Gold, our jewel, a very, very strong asset. Few pictures you see there, some of them a little bit outdated. The asset is fully commissioned now. We produced the first gold last weekend. Now we're currently ramping up the asset. What you see here on the truck, first North American gold operations to be commissioned using fully autonomous trucks. No operators in the pit, all fully autonomous. Working on the automation as well of the drills, a little more complicated.
But we think that we could probably put some automations around at least 50% of the drilling down the road as well. So it's a bit of technology, high productions profile, like I said, third, second largest gold deposit and with a lot of capacity. What we've learned from the commissioning so far, what you see in the bottom, the bottom center, it's the ball mill. But we traded the SAG mill and secondary crushing for the use of HPGR. So doing extremely well. Very pleased with the power consumption, which seems to be showing that the capacity installed is for sure at or probably above the design. On a 43-101 basis, what you see here on the bottom chart, you see productions for the next five years approaching about 500,000 ounces. Go down a little bit down by the year, 7, 8, 9 and then pick again.
This is, again, just based on the 7.5 million ounces of reserve. There is probably an opportunity to smooth out a little bit as we will be working in 2025 on a fully integrated scenario. And how can we bring back a lot of those resources within the next 15 years plan? So this is based on the 43-101. There's still some good work to do to optimize as we move forward but also to take advantage of a significant amount of resources that are currently not in the plan. For this year, 220,000-290,000 ounces, we see the cash costs and the AISC as we exit the year. So we want to exit the year at least at 90%+ of the nameplate with the commercial productions showing up, hopefully, not late in Q3.
As we exit the year, this is what we see for our costs, $700-$800 an ounce cash costs, $1,100-$1,200 AISC. And as we enter 2025 and fine-tune and bring the asset to 100%, we see further reductions in costs, of course. In terms of capital, it's still a big year, $179 million. This is for the constructions at a 100% basis, some $40 million for post-first goal to complete some infrastructure. And there is an additional $40 million as well as capitalized operating expenses during the commissioning. Those are all non-recurrent costs. After this year, none of it will be in the future capital to run the asset, sustaining $145 million and capitalized waste stripping at $50 million and somewhat in line with the NI 43-101. In terms of capacity and how big is this deposit taking place, so to the left is the Côté Gold pit.
To the right is the Discovery Gosselin. So within the left pit shell, the yellow line that you see there, this is the reserve. Everything else is currently outside of the plan that I just showed. So 18 years Life of Mine, 365,000 ounces average, is based only on what you see within the yellow line. So it's growing quite a bit and fast, 16, almost 17 million ounces of Measured and Indicated, over 4 million ounces of inferred. We're going to put another 35,000 ounces of Measured this year. And we believe that the deposit could be mined at depth. So are we sitting on a super pit? Are we going to be drilling below the pits as well and show the continuity of the mineralization with the view that there is perhaps an underground scenario as well?
It's a bit like the Côté Gold type of approach, if you will. So there's no doubt in my mind that there are more ounces there. And then as we move on and move forward and ramp up the asset, we're going to embark now from 2025 in the fully integrated scenario to bring back to bring forward more ounces from the resources within the first 15 years. So ramping up this asset to the nameplate and executing on a 7.5 is really just a Phase 1 that we see for this asset, way, way much more to come. This is where the asset is currently sitting in the Canadian platform, the potential third largest gold production profile, 18 years life of mine, which has all the characteristics to increase, 17 million measured and indicated makes it the second largest gold deposit. And it keeps growing quite fast.
So, very exciting time. I think I have maybe a minute or so for a question.
No. I think we're just about out of time, so.
OK. Good show here at IAMGOLD. Very, very pleased with the repositioning. So more to come, of course, as we move forward in the year. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Renaud.