Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the 2023 second quarter financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will 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 and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Medilek, President. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and thanks everyone for attending K92 Mining second quarter 2023 results conference call. We hope you and your families are doing well. In addition to myself, we have on the line, John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director, and Justin Blanchet, Chief Financial Officer. I would also like to remind everyone that after the remarks from management, the call will be followed by a Q&A session. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosure in our MD&A and slide two of the webcast presentation. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted. Now, I'll turn it over to John to provide you with an overview.
Well, thank you, David, welcome everyone. In the 2nd quarter, Kainantu delivered strong operating performance, increasing gold equivalent production by 43% from the 1st quarter, 18% from Q2 2022. Cash costs, all-in sustaining costs for the quarter were significantly lower than our annual guidance range. Our cash balance notably strengthened during the quarter, even after near-record capital spend and exploration spend. We also made considerable progress on multiple growth initiatives, including the completion of the Stage 2A plant expansion, the discovery of a high-grade zone at the J2 Vein at Judd South, potentially outlining yet another productive vein within the Kora, Kora South, Judd, Judd South vein systems. Subsequent to quarter end, the board of directors approved the award of Stage 3 expansion process plant lump sum EPCM contract, which significantly de-risks the majority of our growth capital for the expansion.
We look forward to discussing all of this in more further detail in the course of the presentation. Now, we're very proud of the company's performance highlighted in the 2022 sustainability report, which was released in late July. The report details our key sustainability initiatives, demonstrating our commitment to socially responsible mining. K92 has a workforce of approximately 1,500 people, with a major focus on local hiring. Approximately 94% of our workforce is from Papua New Guinea, and the majority from our local communities, with a large focus, obviously, on training and development. Kainantu has a low environmental footprint, with a traditional tailings impoundment, no cyanide, and low greenhouse gas emissions profile. We're currently focused on multiple long-term social and economic development initiatives in Papua New Guinea through joint ventures, education, infrastructure, service prog, agricultural prog, and investing in female empowerment prog, among many others.
K92 has been recognized by ISS as having peer-leading corporate governance, and we are the second largest corporate taxpayer in Papua New Guinea's mining industry. We encourage you to read the report, which is available on our website. While the report covers the FY 2022 , we are deeply saddened to report two tragedy incidents which resulted in multiple fatalities during the quarter, as previously disclosed via press release. The health and safety of our workforce has been, and always will be, our highest priority, and we are committed to providing further disclosures on these incidents and the steps we've taken to reinforce our safety culture in our 2023 sustainability report. In June, K92 was very pleased to announce our 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25% on a business-as-usual basis.
K92 is already one of the lower emission gold mines globally, and we're committed to further improving our energy and GHG emissions profile. We believe that we are well-positioned with a clear path to achieve this target through enhancing access to hydropower from a local grid, combined with other reduction initiatives. I'd like to make the point that we've already taken action to improve our greenhouse gas emissions this year with a dedicated power line completed from the Ramu substation to site. The power line was installed to increase reliability of hydroelectric power from the distribution grid so that we can reduce usage of standby diesel gen sets. Through our partnership with PNG, we're assessing further opportunities to maximize utilization of hydropower. Moving on to operational performance.
During the quarter, the Kainantu mine produced 30,794 ounces gold equivalent, 112,471 tons processed at a head grade of 9.2 g per ton gold equivalent. Compared with Q1 2023 and Q2 2022, production increased by 43% and 18%, respectively, and longhole stoping during the quarter performed to design. Cash costs of $597 an ounce, and all-in sustaining cost, $975 an ounce, notably lower than the annual guidance range of $620-$680 for cash costs and $1,180-$1,300 for all-in sustaining costs. In terms of our key operational quarterly physicals...
K92's delivered within 5%-10% of our record ore tons processed, total material mined and developed, and that despite the impacts of the safety incidents in the case of processing tons, work involved with the Stage 2 at mine commissioning. As noted in previous conference calls, increasing our development rates continues to remain a major focus as we catch up on development that was impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I'm pleased to report that a new jumbo arrived on site during July. A major positive in the second quarter has been the performance of the process plant, with recoveries having considerably increased after completing the commissioning of the new rougher flotation cells, which have doubled our rougher flotation capacity, and that was the final part of the Stage 2A plant expansion, and that was completed in May.
In the second quarter, we achieved the highest recoveries for both gold and copper since Q4 2021, and in June, gold recoveries achieved the Integrated Development Plan param of 93%. Now that that initial commissioning is complete, optimization work to further boost throughput and recovery is underway. I'll now turn our call over to Chief Financial Officer, Justin Blanchet, to discuss our financial results for the second quarter. Thank you, Justin.
Thank you, John, and hello, everyone. During Q2 , 2023, we had revenue of $51.8 million, a 39% increase from prior year. We sold 28,141 gold ounces at an average selling price of $1,883, compared to 23,674 gold ounces at an average selling price of $1,783 in the prior year. As at June 30th, 2023, there was 2,398 gold ounces in inventory, including both concentrate and doré, a decrease of 895 gold ounces when compared to March 31st due to timing of sales. In Q2, 2023, cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was $16.2 million, compared to $10.5 million in the same period prior year.
As at June 30th, 2023, we had $95.6 million in cash and cash equivalents. As at June 30th, K92 had one of its strongest reported working capital balances of $112.5 million, even after expenditure of $22 million for property, plant, and equipment during the quarter. The company has no debt on the balance sheet. The increase in cash and cash equivalents when compared to March 31st, is primarily due to increased production and total metal sold, while still spending $15.9 million on expansion capital. In Q2 2023, cost of sales was $29.2 million, compared to $23.2 million in the prior year, or $21.8 million, compared to $18.5 million when excluding non-cash items.
Despite an overall increase in cost of sales, the company achieved better economies of scale and lower unit costs when measured for each tonne of ore produced, attributable to the successful ramp-up of the Stage 2 expansion, with ore and waste tonnes mined increasing 17% to 266,613, from 227,673 in Q2, 2022. As John mentioned, during the second quarter, the Kainantu Gold Operations produced 27,405 ounces of gold, 1,526,547 pounds of copper, and 34,001 silver ounces, or 30,794 ounces of gold equivalent.
We sold 28,141 ounces of gold, 1,657,115 pounds of copper, and 36,253 ounces of silver. We incurred a cash cost of $597, and an all-in sustaining cost of $975 per ounce of gold, which was significantly below our realized gold selling price of $1,883 per ounce. Our Q2, 2023 cash cost per ounce of gold decreased to $597 from $617 in Q2, 2022. The decrease in cash cost was primarily due to the increase in production as compared to prior year. Our Q2 all-in sustaining cost per ounce of gold increased to $975 from $893 in Q2, 2022.
The increase in cost per ounce can be attributed to spending $8.3 million on sustaining capital as compared to $4.9 million in the same period prior year. The increase in sustaining capital is primarily due to replacing some equipment during the quarter. I will now turn the call back to John to continue with the rest of the presentation.
Well, thank you, Justin. For the exploration and growth section, we begin with a short video clip of the now completed Stage 2A plant expansion, starting from the crushers, flying towards the middle, rougher flotation circuit, gravity circuit, and filter press building. As previously noted, the final item, which was a doubling of the rougher flotation capacity, was commissioned in May 2023. Post-commissioning, the plant performance in terms of recovery and throughput has been strong, and we're continuing to optimize the plant towards realizing its ultimate recovery and throughput potential, whatever that may actually be. I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge the team on site who delivered both Stage 2 and Stage 2A plant expansions. This team has more than tripled the throughput rate from the end of 2019 to today, and much of that expansion work was completed during the pandemic.
In terms of the Kainantu Mine Strategy growth pipeline, Stage 2A, as noted earlier, is now completed. On Stage 3, we've now made considerable progress in multiple areas of the expansion. On July 24th, the board of directors authorized the award of the engineering, procurement, construction lump sum contract for Stage 3 expansion process plant to GR Engineering Services. The contract award amount is $81 million, and is a lump sum fixed price arrangement. We also announced at the same time that the, the main process plant long lead items have now been ordered. For the Stage 3 expansion process plant, approximately 94% of the total capital cost has been fixed. This represents over 1/2 of the total growth capital cost of Stage 3 expansion, based on the Integrated Development Plan, and significantly de-risks potential growth capital cost increases for the expansion.
As previously announced, the commissioning of the process plant is targeting the end of Q1, 2025. Forecast cost is within 10% of the Kainantu Integrated Development Plan DFS and PEA case, and as noted earlier, growth capital cost increases have been significantly de-risked. We are extremely pleased with this outcome. Stage 3 expansion also made notable progress in multiple other areas. As shown in the picture on the right, the tailings dam lift 1C is well underway and approximately 60% complete, with completion targeting the end of 2023. Our accommodation facilities continue to expand, with capacity due to exceed 1,500 by the end of 2023, which is the capacity required for the Stage 3 operations. Paste fill plant front-end engineering design is proceeding, and we expect to award the final contract in Q4.
The process continues to advance through various underground surface infrastructure packages, including vertical development, power, and transportation. On the twin incline, the furthest incline has now advanced 2,539 m as of the end of July, and is over 80% complete. In Q4, we plan to commence mining the lower portion of Kora resource from the twin incline ahead of schedule, progressively providing significant boost to our operational flexibility in 2024 as we establish the new mining front at depth. The twin incline also provides a very useful drilling platform for exploration. As I think many are aware, the twin incline is sized for up to 5 million tonne per annum with conveyors, which is multiples larger than the Stage 3 and Stage 4 expansion through.
We did this simply because we don't know how big the system is and will be, and how many stages of expansion that are potentially in front of us. Based on what we've seen from exploration, be fair to say we're pleased that we have oversized the twin inclines. In terms of near mine drilling, we're currently drilling Kora, Kora Deep, Kora South, Judd South, targets from either underground or surface. Targets such as Maniapi, Arakompa, and Karempe, are very high potential, and we expect to commence drilling in due course. Looking at a long section of Kora, Kora South vein system, there are three key points that I'd like to make.
Firstly, there's been a significant amount of drilling outside of the resource since the last estimate, shown with the various pierce points annotated, and which now covers a non-drill strike length of up to 2.65 km. Secondly, drilling to the south has discovered dilating zones, with 2 zones interpreted today as annotated in the blue lines, the double arrows, as you see there. Delivering record intersections, including 27.9 m at 10.5 g per tonne gold equivalent, and 50 m at 5.2 g per tonne gold equivalent. These zones appear to have limited strike length, but significant potential vertically, and our understanding is continuing to advance as we execute our drill program in this area.
Third point, we see drilling from underground entering an exciting phase with both Kora Deep and Kora South now underway at depth, as highlighted with the 2 blue ellipses that you can see to the south and at depth. In addition to drilling Kora South from the surface as well with the third ellipse. These are all high potential areas. Now, looking at the long section of Judd, Judd South vein system, there are four key points I think I'd like to make here. Firstly, we've significantly expanded the coverage of drilling of the Judd resource, delivering a very strong hit rate and some very high-grade results. Secondly, Judd, like Kora, has a dilating zone with 2 zones interpreted to date, again, looking at the blue lines there.
Thirdly, we announced in the third quarter discovery of high-grade zone to the south in a second vein at Judd, J2, recording 2.4 m at 345 g per tonne, which I'll discuss in the next slide. Lastly, like Kora, we see an exciting period for underground drilling at both Judd Deep and Judd South. On May 25th, we announced 62 drill holes from Kora, Kora South, and Judd, Judd South. The results were highlighted by the discovery of the high-grade zone at the J2 Vein to the south, as outlined with the, with the ellipse here. That included, as I mentioned before, 2.4 m at 345.36 g per tonne gold equivalent.
Proximal to other high-grade intersections, including KUDD-0045, which recorded 11.2 m at 12.69 g per tonne gold equivalent, and KUDD-0043, which recorded 3.8 at 10.19 g per tonne gold equivalent. Importantly, the J2 Vein is not included in the current resource estimate, is open in multiple directions, and has recorded a hit rate to date of 46% of intersections exceeding 5 g per tonne gold equivalent.
At the J1 vein, the results are highlighted by surface stepper drilling, KODD0036, recording 5 m at 161 g per tonne gold equivalent, targeting a substantial under-drilled target area between the Judd resource estimate and surface within ML 150, and KUDD0040 intersecting a dilated zone, recording 22 m at 5 g per tonne gold equivalent, with a substantial 57.8 m at 2.73 in a broader intersection. As shown in the long section, J1 is open in multiple directions and has delivered a strong hit rate to date.
Drilling expanded multiple areas of non-high-grade mineralization at Kora-Kora South, with highlights at the K1 vein, including KMDD0485, recording 5.94 m at 15.96 g per tonne gold equivalent, and KMDD0545, recording 7.98 m at 12.14 g per tonne gold equivalent. Highlights in the K2 vein included KMDD0535, 10.3 m at 12 g per tonne gold equivalent, and KMDD0525, recording 5.65 m at 9.08 g per tonne gold equivalent. On porphyry exploration, we continue to progress at A1 Porphyry, recording multiple porphyry vectors from drilling, look forward to providing an update to the market in due course. With that, operator, we'd like to commence the Q&A question session. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press Star then 1 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 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Hi, John and your team, just a couple of questions from me to start off. Number one, sustaining capital was about, just calculating about 26% less than Q1. I believe you're looking to accelerate development going into the second half. Do you have all the equipment and people needed to spend the development budget allocated for this year, or do you see kind of spill over into 2024?
Okay. Thanks, Ovais. Look, in terms of capital, yeah, look, it does as you know, it, it goes up and down a little quarter to quarter. In terms of equipment, yes, we do have the equipment that, that, we needed to have by this point in time in the year. In fact, I think subsequent to the quarter, we had another twin boomer arrive on site. We've, we've had two trucks arrive, we've had a long-hole drill, additional jumbo, an additional loader, charge out machines, and a whole lot of other equipment arrive on site. We are, we're definitely ramping up the number of people. In fact, by the end of the year, the camp, for instance, will actually be at the capacity that's required for Stage 3.
We're actually ahead in, in, in some of our, some of our capital that we're actually spending and some of the expansion that we're doing. At this point in time, we have the people on the equipment that we, that we need to achieve the numbers in terms of sustaining capital.
Perfect. Thanks for the color, John. Then just in regards to, in Q4, you're looking to, I believe this is just the Kora zone that you're looking to mine in Q4, that's not in budget. Any, any kind of color that you can provide in terms of how, how many tons or what kind of grade can we expect on that front and going into 2024 as well?
honestly, I have to say not at this point in time. We don't expect it to be a lot of tons, 'cause we're only gonna be doing a bit of development, on ore. We don't expect to get a lot of tons out of there. It is obviously the, the start. There'll be no stopping down on the, on the 900 level. It'll simply be some development, a long strike on the, on, Kora.
Okay. Thanks for that, John. Maybe I'll leave it there, and, you know, and thanks for taking my call. By the way, I'm looking forward to coming down to site as well next week.
Yeah, well, I'm, you know, I'm here making sure that the beds are made and, you know, all that sort of stuff.
The next question comes from Alex Terentiew with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys.
... A couple questions. The first one, just to kind of related to what Ovais Habib was asking there. With Barrick and the group at Porgera, making some, you know, progress, basically looking to restart that, has that changed the labor or cost situation at all in the country or for your project in any way over the past, you know, I guess, couple months?
Thanks, Alex. That's a fair question. Actually, we obviously benefited from the only other underground mine is on maintenance. I think fair to say that we do have some people that we have skilled people I'm talking about, unskilled underground people that have come in from Porgera, and we certainly expect to lose those people back to Porgera. Simply because they're coming down from there, we actually we bus or fly them down from there. We don't see it as a, as a major issue for us, simply because we did operate with both them and ourselves previously. We've actually put a fair bit of focus on actually developing skills of our local people, and that's intentional.
If the local people, from here in, in our communities, then they will tend to stay with the mine. They will not be looking to go up to, up to Porgera. I think from an operating environment, we, we offer a, what I would say is a better operating environment than, than you have, up at Porgera. I mean, that we won't have one or two shortages, if people leave with little notice. I mean, overall, we're ramping up our numbers and, looking to get ahead of the curve in terms of, in terms of numbers. I'd note in, in terms of expats in key things like twin boom jumbo operators and what have you, we haven't found any significant issues in being able to, to recruit those people.
Okay, great. I, I guess, I mean, obviously, since you guys are, are well on your way and on this Stage 3, you've got probably, I would imagine, a bit of the, the upper hand in, in keeping those people, but great. My second question, great to see the exploration budget jump up this quarter. I know you, you spoke about a lot of targets, and I guess my question is, have you, I guess, officially raised your exploration budget this year? I mean, your past guidance was $13 million-$16 million, and you have a lot of targets, obviously, that you can, you know, put your money to, to advance it.
What, what areas are you, I guess, most, really focusing on, and when could we when do you expect the, the next resource update to come out?
Okay. Well, the focus from the underground perspective has been on Judd within the mining lease, then Judd South from, primarily from surface, also a bit from underground. Kora, closing out a couple of the areas to the north, and a couple of areas within the mining lease, and then Kora to the south, both from surface and underground. Sorry, Judd also from surface, I should have made that point, within the mining lease. Those are the ones that are primarily focused on expansion of the resource, and we're looking at October to get a new mineral resource estimate released. Other areas right now that we're drilling is the A-One Porphyry.
We've got one rig operating, and it, depending on the closeout of some of the drilling at Judd Kora from the surface, we would be looking to perhaps get a rig over to Arakompa, Maniapi. Alex, you may recall that there are two historical resources, Arakompa, sitting around 800,000 oz, Maniapi, a bit under 580,000 oz. 560, 560, I think it was actually. They haven't been drilled for 20-odd years. They're just a couple of kilometers away from Kora. They're actually closer to the plant than Kora is. Certainly, they're something that we're, we're pretty excited to get in and start doing some drilling.
You know, when you consider, let's say Arakompa, you know, almost 800,000 oz, 9 g per ton, down to 300 m and hasn't been drilled for over 20-odd years, that's the sort of opportunity that PNG, and more particularly the Kainantu region, offer to us. And, and I guess why we've always been excited by the exploration potential of, not just Kora and Judd, but the, but the areas around that.
Okay, great. Yeah, I, I guess, having so many targets is a, is a good problem to have in deciding where to pick to, to drill next.
Yeah, it means you have to have more exploration strategy meetings than you normally would.
Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you.
The next question comes from Ralph Profiti with Eight Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Good morning, John. I wanna come back to the first ore at Kora Deep coming into play in Q4, just wondering if we think about sort of Q4 and into the early parts of 2024. Just wondering how the veining works in terms of what's gonna be, you know, initially targeting, targeted. Then maybe secondly, just sort of on the mining method and how you're thinking about the deeper areas, sort of, you know, Avoca, you know, and eventually transferring into, into longhole.
Okay. Well, we're busy with the detailed mine plan and budget for 2024 right now. I can't give you a lot of detail on that simply because we're busy with it.
Pardon the interruption. This is the operator. John Lewins's connection is disconnected. We'll please stand by as we reconnect him.
Sorry, can you hear me? Hello?
Yep, I can hear you now.
Oh, I'm back again. All good. Sorry about that. I'm not sure how much you got of that, but current operating level, which is 1,200, which is actually going from about 1,130 up to 1,280, actually, will be the primary focus balance of this year and next year. That is a combination of Judd, K1, and K2.
Mm-hmm.
As we mentioned, we'll be looking to get into that, area 900, in primarily Kora. It will just be development. We will not get stoping until, I would think, Q2 next year at the earliest.
Mm.
The results have the potential to pull out some Judd from that as well, relatively early. In fact, we've, we've gone through Judd in some of our development for our first ore waste pass that we're, we're putting in, which we develop out to the west. Pulling out some tons from Judd down at 900 is also a potential. In terms of our mining method, it'll continue with Avoca until 2025, when we commission the paste fill plant.
Gotcha. Thanks, John.
Thanks, Ralph.
As, as a second question, when you think about sort of the mining areas, that are planned into the second half and, and considering how that flows to ore throughput, you know, are you confident that, that you're not seeing any sort of localized geotechnical challenges, that those have been addressed, and that sort of development, that is planned is ahead of levels of mining, that kind of, you know, where you're sort of happy and, and confident?
Look, I, I'd say we're, we're pretty happy with where we're sitting right now in terms of access to mining areas. In terms of localized geotechnical issues, underground mine, you're, you're always going to find some localized geotechnical issue. We think we have a good handle on, on what we're, what we're looking at in terms of those areas and an ability to, to manage any interaction with those areas. But underground mine, I haven't worked in any underground mine yet, where you don't get localized geotechnical areas, and, and issues, and it's an ongoing, it's an ongoing management thereof. In our case, we use a lot of shotcrete in our support system, as well as a fairly comprehensive bolting and meshing.
You know, those are things that we continue to look at and evaluate. Certainly one of the projects we've got going, for instance, is, is evaluation of how we can mine the gouge zone and, and realize additional answers are, are currently in the DFS of the PEA.
That's excellent. Glad to hear. Appreciate the color, John. Thank you.
Thanks, Ralph.
The next question comes from Arun Lamba with TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey, John. Just quickly, like, I don't normally ask, just kind of accounting questions, but can you just remind me, how we should think about kind of, the revenue, coming in? Like, just looking at the loss on receivables at fair value. Revenue came in a little bit less, based on, your reporting. Can you just remind how to think, how we should think about, that going forward?
Pardon the interruption. This is the operator. John, your line is open. Pardon the interruption. This is the operator again, and we have John Lewins back on the line. John, your line is now open. You may proceed. Pardon the interruption, this is the operator again. Please stand by as we try and reconnect John Lewins.
Sorry, guys, I dropped tape. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you now, John.
Sorry about that. Did David answer the question?
I didn't hear anything, but I, I'll just quickly again ask it just in case you didn't hear. Just how to think about kind of the revenues coming in, came in a bit like sales and productions pre-released, and came in a little bit less based on I guess some of the agreements you have. Can you just mention how to think about it? I've seen this happen in the quarter before.
Yeah, well, I think, we saw, in terms of our gold revenue, I think from start to end, gold revenue was down $50.67, I think, from start to end. There's obviously an adjustment coming in there. We also had an adjustment coming in from, you know, 31st of March to June, which was also down around 5%, I think. We had adjustments coming in from both of those. We also had from our provisional invoicing to our final invoicing in terms of moisture content and assays. I think we had a couple of percent points adjustment there. That tends to be around about where we get. Obviously, gold varies from quarter to quarter, and copper varies from quarter to quarter.
No, that's perfect. Thanks, John. Just one quick one for me. Just thinking on the bull case of this expansion, on the PEA, the mill, both mills would do probably 1.7 million tons per annum. Assuming the mill can do a little bit above design, will you guys have the infrastructure in place, ramp, et cetera, and will the mine be able to support potentially if the mill can do 1.8-1.9 million tons per annum in kind of a bull case scenario?
That's a good question. I mean, we flagged from early days that the twin incline has been specifically designed to handle Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, and potentially Stage 6. Certainly infrastructure in that context, yes, in the infrastructure in terms of ventilation, power, et cetera, et cetera, are all positive on that. In terms of the tonnage and being able to get, you know, your tons per vertical meter, et cetera, et cetera, we would certainly look at going forward, seeing, we think a significant addition to the resource coming in, in October, would certainly indicate that we'd be able to support being able to get 10%, 20% more on an annualized basis in terms of in terms of tonnage.
Yeah, as you quite rightly say, I mean, right now, we already see that the existing plant can comfortably do 5%-10% more than perhaps the nameplate we have for 500,000. When you look at, you know, standard sort of design for plants, mills are obviously your, normally your, your bottleneck. Generally, with a new plant such as ours, you're designing on 85% Bond Work Index. In other words, you're allowing to be able to get your nominal hourly throughput where effectively your hardness is significantly above the average for the ore body. That generally means that your capacity of the plant that you put in overall tends to, tends to be higher than the nominal capacity, that nameplate capacity.
It's a way of metal are just making themselves look good, and then all the help they can get on that.
Great. That's it for me. Thanks a lot, John.
Thanks for that.
The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, John and team. A few questions. First of all, great to see the strong rebound lower in all-in sustaining costs. Clearly, the higher grades helped. But now I'm looking at year to date, AISC is around $1,180 versus the guidance range. That, that puts it right at the bottom of the guidance range. We're heading into sort of a potentially stronger back half of the year. Can you just comment on, you know, where you see AISC headed in the last couple of quarters? You know, sustaining CapEx year to date, $20 million. Are you expecting sustaining CapEx to increase? I think Ovais Habib had, had touched on this a little bit. Maybe if you could just expand on the outlook for sustaining CapEx and AISC at year-end, next couple of quarters.
We, I think in general, we'd be saying that, yes, we expect to see the sustaining capital higher in the second half of the year. With that additional rig that's coming, we're looking for more development m. That's obviously one of the drivers for all-in sustaining costs. There are a number of other drivers that'll come in and be part of that. Yes, we are expecting to see higher expenditure on all-in sustaining costs second half of the year, and we still very much expect it to come in as per guidance or within that guidance range.
Okay, thanks for that. maybe looking at the, the mine development meters, we, we saw the pace was increasing quarter-over-quarter last year. It's moderated a little bit this year. How many meters per quarter should we expect in the next, the next few quarters?
Okay. Well, we dropped, we dropped some meters this last quarter, the end of last quarter, beginning of this quarter, obviously, with our safety incident. We're a little bit down on where we wanted to be for the quarter. Generally speaking, we're looking for 2,000-2,400 per quarter and certainly north of 2,400 for the final quarter.
Okay, thanks for that. You know, encouraged to see the, the positive free cash flow during Q2. Congratulations on cash balance edged higher. With this, you know, maybe the RCF just continues to be kind of, a lower priority item, but if you could just give us an update on, on, the timing of the RCF or any discussions that are, that are underway at the moment.
... we expect to have that completed in this quarter.
Excellent. Okay. Thanks so much, and, yeah, look forward to seeing you next week, and, good luck with Q3.
Thanks, Phil.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. As there are no further questions, this concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Lewins for any closing remarks.
Well, thanks, operator. Thanks everyone for joining us. Apologies for the slight technical issues, coming to you from Kainantu. I think it would be fair to say that, when we look at the, the numbers in the second quarter, we're, we're pretty happy with the final numbers in terms of production, in terms of costs, and whatever else. As a company, however, we, we've gone through, what would be the toughest quarter I think we've ever faced with our, with our, with our safety, incident. That's something that as a company, we're, we're, we're gonna be working very hard at to, to make sure that we, we never have anything quite like this again.
This, for the entire team at Kainantu has really been something exceptional in unfortunately, the wrong sort of way. As a company, however, we've refocused both on our safety and on our operations, and we'll certainly be focused on that going forward. I would just like to recognize the passing of our teammates. Secondly, the efforts of all of our people here in Kainantu in the success of that the company has achieved over the last few years and the last few quarters, and that ongoing commitment to the company. Thank you for that, and I look forward to seeing some of the people on the call here on site next week.
Thank you very much.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.