Good morning and afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the OceanaGold 2022 fourth quarter results webcast and conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also know that the call is being recorded Tuesday, February 21st at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time. I would like to turn the conference over to Brian Martin. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Welcome to OceanaGold's fourth quarter and year-end 2022 results webcast and conference call. I'm Brian Martin, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Investor Relations. We're joined today by Gerard Bond, OceanaGold's President and CEO ; Scott McQueen, Chief Financial Officer ; David Londono, Chief Operating Officer, Americas ; Peter Sharpe, Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific ; Scott Sullivan, Chief Technical and Projects Officer ; and Craig Feebrey, Executive Vice President, Exploration. We will be referring to a presentation during the conference call that is available through the webcast and on our website. I would also like to remind everyone that our presentation 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 included in the presentation, news release, and MD&A, as well as the risk factors set out in our Annual Information Form.
All the dollar amounts mentioned in this conference call are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. I'll now turn the call over to Gerard Bond for opening remarks.
Thank you, Brian. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us today. 2022 was a successful year for OceanaGold, one that was marked with many accomplishments. This first slide lists how we went against each of the five pillars of our corporate strategy. Our people are our most valuable asset, their safety is essential, I'm very happy that 2022 was the safest year on record for the company. Total recordable injury frequency rate of 2.3 per million hours worked. This low injury rate reflects the care our people are taking in their daily work, both for themselves and each other, as well as the effectiveness of our safety leadership programs. It's a great outcome, we're not complacent, we remain ever vigilant in keeping our people safe.
It's also great to be able to say that we delivered on 2022 guidance. This was driven by the Didipio successfully achieving its full target mining and processing rates ahead of schedule, and Haile delivering another strong year, beating its increased production guidance. In New Zealand, we had a challenging first half of the year at Waihi, but we had a stronger second half and are guiding to improved performance in 2023. At Macraes, we had some weather-related downtime mid-year, but rebounded with a very strong fourth quarter result. Despite their challenges in 2022, it's worth pointing out that both New Zealand operations combined produced 25,000 oz or 16% more than they did in the prior year.
The second pillar on this slide is about making sure we have the right culture for us to deliver on our potential. We've made some important steps forward here with a revised company vision and values, and some measurable improvement in employee turnover and community relations. There have also been some excellent additions to our management team, which I'll talk about a little later in the presentation. From a growth perspective, we successfully progressed our organic growth projects. At Haile, we are now fully permitted for the expansion. The team there are well underway with the underground development and PAG construction. David will cover this later on the call. We also released some exciting exploration results in December, highlighting the fabulous near mine potential we have at Haile, Didipio, and Wharekirauponga, which Craig will talk about in more detail later.
From a financial perspective, we had a very good 2022. EBITDA was $382 million, 16% higher year-over-year, despite both gold and copper prices being lower year-over-year. We were able to progress our growth options and still generated meaningful free cash flow, which allowed us to further strengthen our balance sheet with a $68 million reduction in net debt over the year. We'll share with you today how we see that playing out over the next three years. Our three-year outlook is once again. A compelling story of near-term production growth, reducing All-In Sustaining Costs per ounce and free cash flow generation potential.
This strong operational and financial performance in 2022, together with the confidence we have in our outlook, underpin the board's decision to reinstate the company's dividend policy. We have declared a $0.01 per share semi-annual dividend to be paid in the second quarter, showing our commitment to provide returns to shareholders. From a market rating perspective, we effected a number of tactical changes which have improved senior management proximity to investors and concentrated our register in North America. All of what you see on this slide is in service of our objective of increasing and sustaining the higher value of OceanaGold. The share price appreciation enjoyed by shareholders in 2022 was a pleasing reflection of this strategy being executed. Moving on to our three-year outlook.
We project a production growth rate of 9% per annum over the next three years, which gets us to over 600,000 oz of gold by 2025. In addition, we have a projected decline in both unit costs and capital spending over the three years. Haile is the primary growth engine, though Waihi's production growth is also projected to contribute meaningfully. Sourcing high-grade ore from the underground and lowering material handling at Haile is a key driver of the unit cost reduction over the next three years. In 2023, we expect to produce between 460,000-510,000 oz of gold at an All-In Sustaining Cost of $1,425-$1,525 per ounce.
The guidance for 2023 is being impacted by the very recent identification of a need for preventative maintenance on one of the ball mills at Macraes, which unfortunately has decreased 2023 guidance by around 15,000 oz from what it would have otherwise been. Peter Sharpe, who I'm pleased to have on today's call, as our relatively new Chief Operating Officer for the Asia-Pacific, will talk more about this later. By 2025, we're projecting our All-In Sustaining Costs to be between $1,100 and $1,250 per ounce, in line with an increase in production profile and a projected reduction in sustaining capital. Growth capital expenditures are also expected to decrease over the next three years as expenditure on Haile underground and surface expansion winds down.
Together with higher gold production at a lower unit cost, this should in turn lead to significant free cash flow generation at current gold prices over our three-year outlook period. I'll now move on to our 2022 full year results and have a bit of an overview of those. As mentioned, our total recordable injury frequency rate was an industry-leading 2.3 per million hours worked and a record low for the company. We produced a little over 472,000 oz of gold at an All-In Sustaining Costs of $1,407 per ounce, meeting both our full-year production and revised cost guidance ranges. Our adjusted EPS was $0.21 per share. We generated $58 million of free cash flow, and that's calculated after repaying the principal and finance leases.
We reduced our net debt by $68 million. In summary, it's a great result and a reflection of the hard work put in by everyone at OceanaGold. I'll now hand the call over to Scott McQueen, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide an overview of our financial highlights and 2023 guidance.
Thank you, Gerard. Good morning, everyone. As you can see from the bar graph on this slide, it is clear our business is trending in the right direction with year-on-year increases in revenue, EBITDA, and profitability. Included, record full-year revenue of $967 million in 2022, which was a 30% increase relative to the prior year. Pleasingly, the record revenue reflects underlying operational performance with higher production and sales, the driver of higher gold prices. With the 2022 average gold price received slightly lower than the previous year. The underlying increase in production and sales came mainly from a full year of operations at Didipio to higher contribution from the New Zealand operations. Fourth quarter revenue was also stronger, up 14% on the comparative quarter of 2021.
The increase was mainly due to higher revenue from Didipio following the restart of production in November 2021. Full year EBITDA of $382 million, 16% above the prior year, driven by higher sales and revenue, partially offset by an increase in cost of sales, which again was mainly attributable to the full year of operations at Didipio in 2022. The EBITDA of $109 million in the fourth quarter was also a significant increase compared to the prior quarter, and the corresponding period in 2021. The increase relative to the previous quarter, mainly due to higher sales volumes combined with a lower cost of sales and unrealized foreign exchange gains. Adjusted net profit for the year was $148 million, including $29.9 million in the fourth quarter.
This equated to earnings per share of $0.21 for the full year and $0.04 for the fourth quarter, both of which were above analyst consensus estimates of $0.18 and $0.01 respectively. The company generated $58 million in free cash flow in 2022, $3 million of which was in the fourth quarter. This despite weather precluding the delivery and sale of just over 4,600 oz of gold doré from Didipio during the final week of the year. 2022 free cash flow was calculated after deducting finance lease principal repayments. Going forward, we're going to express free cash flow on a pre-lease principal repayment basis. This is more consistent with how others calculate free cash flow and aligns with our inclusion of all finance lease liabilities in our net debt figures.
If we applied this updated calculation methodology to free cash flow in 2022, our free cash flow would have been just under $88 million. Our improved financial performance in 2022 has enabled the company to reduce net debt, inclusive of finance leases by 29% to $170 million at year-end. This decreased the company's leverage ratio by 38% to 0.45. During the year, we repaid $100 million against the company's $250 million revolving credit facility, $50 million of which was repaid during the fourth quarter. As at the 31st of December 2022, the company had immediately available liquidity of $183 million, including $83 million in cash and the $100 million undrawn from the company's revolving credit facility. Moving on to our 2023 guidance.
On a consolidated basis, we expect to produce between 460,000 and 510,000 oz of gold and 12,000 to 14,000 tons of copper at an All-In Sustaining Costs of $1,425-$1,525 per ounce. While production is expected to increase on 2022 levels, 2023 guidance has been impacted by the recently identified ball mill issue at Macraes, as mentioned by Gerard. Peter Sharpe will also cover that in more detail later in the call. Production is expected to be variable over the course of 2023, weighted more to the first half of the year. This is driven mainly by the grade profile at Haile.
2023 cost guidance is slightly higher than 2022, reflecting inflationary pressures across the industry, which feed into the full year's cost base, as well as the effect on production of the Macraes ball mill issue. This year, Haile is expected to produce between 170,000 and 185,000 oz of gold, while All-In Sustaining Cost guidance remains flat year-on-year at $1,500-$1,600 per ounce. As previously noted, the Haile production profile is expected to be more strongly first half-weighted as mining continues in the higher grade Mill Zone, which is scheduled for completion around mid-year. At Didipio, production is expected to improve relative to 2022, with 2023 guidance of between 120,000 and 130,000 oz of gold, and 12,000 to 14,000 tons of copper.
An All-In Sustaining Costs expected to range between $750-$850 per ounce. Didipio's gold and copper production is expected to be relatively evenly weighted throughout the year. Cost increase year-over-year is primarily a result of higher sustaining capital and grid supplied energy costs, as well as the effect of inflation. After allowing for the ball mill impact on processing capacity, Macraes is expected to produce between 120,000-135,000 oz of gold at an All-In Sustaining Costs of between $1,625-$1,725 per ounce. Finally, at Waihi, we expect to see continued improvement in 2023.
With production expected to be between 50,000 and 60,000 oz of gold at an All-In Sustaining Costs of $1,400-$1,500 per ounce. Production profile is expected to be second half-weighted as mining transitions to higher grade material combined with an increase in ore tonnes mined and milled. Total group capital investments are expected to range between $305 million-$350 million, with approximately 50% of that attributable to capitalized mining costs. Majority of our 2023 growth capital relates to the development of the Haile underground mine, with permitting processes now complete and development in full swing. We also expect to spend between $25 million-$35 million on exploration in 2023. Majority directed to expanding underground resources at Wharekirauponga near Waihi and at Haile.
This, in conjunction with our three-year outlook, has given the board confidence to reinstate the company's semi-annual dividend policy with the first dividend of $0.01 per share payable in April this year. I will now turn the call over to David Londoño to provide more information on Haile's performance.
Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone. Haile exceeded its increased full year production guidance for a second year in a row, delivering 2022 gold production of 176,222 oz. More importantly, we achieved this while decreasing our injury frequency rate by 33% year-over-year to 1.8 at the end of 2022. Gold production in 2022 benefited from positive tonnage and grade reconciliation in the Phase 1 of the Haile pit, leading to the overperformance relative to guidance ranges. Fourth quarter gold production of 41,533 oz was better than the previous quarter as expected, primarily from higher-grade mined and processed coming from the Mill Zone pit. On the mining side, we continued to focus on optimizing the mine plan that was designed as part of the Haile technical review.
Total material mined in the fourth quarter was 10.2 million tons, better than the previous quarter due to improved shovel productivity resulting from double side loading implemented in less better, which has translated into better mining fleet productivities and utilization. Total ore mined in 2022 was 4 million tons, higher than the same period in 2021. This was a result of mine sequencing and positive ore tons reconciliation in Haile, Phase 1 pit. Total mill feed was 11% higher year-over-year, largely reflecting improvements in the processing plant related to crusher and mill performance and improved recoveries, as well as continued focus on effective blast fragmentation.
Fourth quarter mill feed of approximately 836,000 tons was lower from previous quarter, caused by 5.5 days of lost processing time due to the freezing event that occurred in the last week of the year in the Eastern United States. The operation continues to sustain increased throughput rates from blast fragmentation improvements and more effective blends. Haile performed its full year All-In Sustaining guidance, achieving $1,425 per ounce, year-over-year All-In Sustaining Costs did increase due to lower sales, combined with higher operating costs, mostly due to inflation-driven increases in consumables.
Looking ahead to 2023, Haile is expected to produce between 170,000-185,000 oz, while cost guidance will remain flat relative to last year, with All-In Sustaining Costs expected to be between $1,500-$1,600 per ounce. At Haile, we also anticipate a smoother production and cost profile in 2024 and 2025 relative to the 2022 Haile technical review, where production levels varied significantly over this period. Talking about the Haile expansion, I am very pleased to provide everyone with an update on the project. At the end of 2022, we received all the necessary permits and approvals to complete the Haile expansion. With all this in hand, we can now fully develop the underground mine and expand the operating footprint to allow additional waste containment facilities and expanded tailings storage capacity.
To date, we have developed a total of 950 meters, of which 400 are under production decline and a combined 550 meters on the two ventilation portals. We continue to safely progress the work, and first ore from Haile underground remains on track for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2023. Construction in the 541 Pond and West PAG Stage 1 continued through January. Earthworks and groundwater pipe installation. I'm also pleased to say that we're hosting an analyst and investor tour at Haile next week, where I'm very much looking forward to showcasing the great work that is being done by the Haile team. I will now turn the call over to Peter Sharpe to discuss Didipio and our New Zealand assets.
Thank you, David. In 2022, our Didipio operation reported 0.74 recordable injuries per million hours worked, a record best at this operation. Didipio reached its full target mining and milling rates ahead of schedule in the second quarter of 2022, and met its full year guidance by producing 113,198 oz of gold for the year, including 29,104 oz in the fourth quarter. Full year copper production was 14,361 tons, including 3,476 tons in the fourth quarter. Total material mined for the full year was 1.7 million tons, including 404,000 tons from the fourth quarter.
Mill feed for the year was 4 million tons, a significant increase relative to 2021 following the restart of the mill late in the fourth quarter of 2021. Mill feed grade was 1 g a ton of gold and 0.38% copper, slightly higher than in the previous quarter and consistent with the variation in the underground mine grade per the mine plan. Mill feed composition for the fourth quarter was approximately 37% of underground ore and 63% from surface ore stockpiles. Didipio continues to generate strong margins with an All-In Sustaining Costs for the year of $637 per oz and $1,061 per oz in the fourth quarter.
Notably, a 4,600 oz doré shipment planned for sale in December 2022 was not able to be completed due to weather, which resulted in lower sales and higher All-In Sustaining Costs for this quarter. However, this shipment has now been sold. Last year, we received the permit required to increase our processing rates to 4.3 million tons per annum, and we are currently investigating how to optimally use this additional capacity. Our preferred option is to increase the underground mining rates to 2 million tons or more per annum. An optimization review is currently underway to assess how this can be achieved. Results from this review are expected in 2023. At Didipio, we are also making significant progress with our external stakeholders as we continue to improve our relationships with key government and community groups.
A key initiative completed last year was the relocation of our principal office to the Didipio mine, which will result in all of the local business taxes, which is approximately $6 million per annum, flowing to local government and communities in 2023. Under our renewed Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement, our FTAA, we have also implemented two new streams of community development funding, namely the Community Development Fund and the Provincial Development Fund. The Community Development Fund is the first of its kind in the Philippines. This fund was created to expand the number of neighboring communities that receive development funding from the mine, and is governed by a steering committee comprising company and community representatives.
These people evaluate the proposed projects and ensure that they are delivered in line with the community's development goals. All of the costs associated with the Community Development Fund and the Provincial Development Fund programs are included in our guidance figures for Didipio. For an update on our New Zealand operations. Macraes significantly improved its safety record last year, with its injury frequency rate decreasing by 35% compared to the previous year, down to 5.2 recordable injuries per million hours worked. The operation finished the year strong, producing 39,815 oz of gold in the fourth quarter. Annual gold production was 143,672 oz for 2022, 10% higher than the previous year, primarily due to higher tonnes milled and higher tonnes mined from both the open cut and the underground operations.
Total material mined in the fourth quarter was 12.5 million tonnes, an increase from the previous quarter when mined tonnage was impacted by record rainfall that occurred in July. The development rates at the recently established Golden Point Underground continued to improve throughout the quarter, and the first stope ore tonnes mined were in December. The operation at Golden Point Underground is expected to reach full capacity during the second quarter of 2023, while Frasers underground mine is expected to complete operations at the same time. As with Didipio, an optimization review is currently underway at Macraes to increase underground mining rates, with results from this review also expected in 2023. For the full year, Macraes recorded an All-In Sustaining cost of $1,510 per ounce, a good result given the weather-related challenges which occurred mid-year.
As Gerard previously mentioned, production guidance at Macraes for 2023 was impacted by approximately 15,000 oz due to the discovery of a crack in the feed end trunnion in one of our two ball mills in our processing facility, which was identified during a planned total plant shutdown last week. The Macraes team is working to develop the optimal recovery plan to reinstate the mill back into full operations. Contingency plans have been developed and some are in process to minimize overall impact on production, including processing of higher grade ore in the short term to offset the reduced mill feed rate. For our Waihi operation. Waihi also significantly improved its safety record last year, with its injury frequency rate decreasing by 50% compared to the previous year, down to 3.1 recordable injuries per million hours worked.
Production also significantly improved in the second half of the year, due predominantly to improved confidence in the underground resource model, which allowed for more accurate planning and adherence to plan. Waihi met its revised guidance and produced 39,109 oz of gold in 2022, including 10,466 oz in the fourth quarter. While production decreased relative to plan in the fourth quarter, this was predominantly attributed to slower mining in remnant mining areas during October, plus an unplanned mill outage during the same month. Importantly, the poor performance during October was not related to the reconciliation challenges that occurred in the first half of the year.
With the benefit of the grade control drilling program being approximately 18 months ahead of mining, it is expected that the mining performance and reconciliation accuracy will continue to improve in 2023 and beyond. As with Didipio and Macraes, an optimization review is currently underway at Waihi to increase underground mining rates, with results from this review also expected in 2023. Waihi's full-year all-in sustaining cost was $2,174 per ounce, while fourth quarter all-in sustaining cost was $2,035 per ounce. Looking ahead to 2023, Waihi is expected to see materially improved performance with guidance between 50,000-60,000 oz at an all-in sustaining cost of between $1,400-$1,500 per ounce.
Waihi has experienced abnormally high rainfall since the beginning of 2023, with over 850 mm of rain in January, followed by over 250 mm of rain in the first two weeks of February. This has impacted productivity in the underground mine, especially in the remnant mining areas of Edwards and Empire West. On the expectation that rainfall will moderate, the company expects any first quarter production impacts to be recovered across the balance of 2023. I will now turn the call over to Scott Sullivan to talk about progress at Wharekirauponga.
Thank you, Peter. Good morning, everyone. Last year, we took the important step of lodging the consent applications or permits with the two local councils. The council has formally accepted our application as complete for processing and issued a number of requests for additional information, as is normal process, which we will respond to ahead of public consultation this year. At the completion of the consultation stage, the councils will determine the formal hearing process for considering the consent application. Target indicated resource size of 1.1 million oz has been determined as optimal for the initial development plans, which provide improved mine design opportunities in support of a pre-feasibility study.
Due to slower than expected drilling at Wharekirauponga in 2022 related to drought conditions, the company is now targeting to release a NI 43-101 compliant PFS in the first half of 2024. On current schedules, we're expecting first ore from Wharekirauponga in late 2031, with stoping fully underway in 2032. I will now turn the call over to Craig Feebrey to talk about exploration.
Thank you, Scott. Our 2022 drill programs across the group delivered strong results, supporting our focus on creating value through near mine resource conversion and growth. At Wharekirauponga, outstanding drill intercepts continued as reported in December and shown in this slide, including 73 g per tonne gold over 12.9 m. Drill meters were down, however, hindered by poor weather conditions and the prioritization of hydrogeological drilling. This year, our drilling at Wharekirauponga continues to focus on resource conversion with two rigs and 8,800 meters planned. At Martha Underground, three rigs are currently drilling with 5,000 meters forecast for Q1, contributing to both resource conversion and growth.
At Haile, our focus in 2022 was the Palomino underground target, where we drilled nearly 10,000 m in 20 holes with a focus on converting the remaining inferred resource to indicated in support of an updated resource estimate and economic study. We also had several exceptional results, including 6.8 g per tonne gold over 100 m, as shown on this section. Our goal here is to convert Palomino to reserve in early 2024. Exploration expenditure at Haile this year is expected to range between $6 million-$8 million, with an increased commitment to exploration drilling over previous years, focused on resource conversion and replenishing the underground target pipeline.
At the Didipio, last year our team was successful in discovering two near mine mineralized structures adjacent to underground infrastructure, encouraging us this year to commit a further 26,000 m to infill and extensional drilling following up these and several other priority targets. Looking across our exploration pipeline, I'm very pleased we're continuing to invest in our exploration success with a further $25 million-$35 million earmarked for 2023, with a focus on near mine resource conversion and growth. I'll now turn the call back to Gerard.
Thanks, Craig, thanks, team. In addition to announcing strong production and financial results, I wanted to take the opportunity to let you know we've also significantly strengthened our management team recently. Today, I'm pleased to advise that Michelle Du Plessis will join us as Chief People and Technology Officer on the first of March, a little over a week away. Michelle has over 25 years of experience in human resources, transformation, and executive leadership across multiple industries and countries. She joins us from BHP, where over her 15 years there, she had numerous operational and strategic roles, led a cross-functional improvement and transformation function, and most recently led global HR operations. As previously announced, Megan Saussey joined us as Chief Sustainability Officer in December last year.
Megan is a highly experienced executive in this area, and brings to the role particular expertise in social performance, human rights, climate change, environment, and a range of stakeholder engagement functions on large and complex projects in the resources and construction sectors. Today, you heard from Peter Sharpe for the first time, who joined us as Chief Operating Officer for the Asia Pacific in October of last year. OceanaGold has a stronger executive team, and we've also made a number of key appointments at other levels across the organization. This all gives me confidence that we can drive the full value potential of this business with a target culture throughout the organization. While we're proud of our 2022 accomplishments, there's still plenty of improvement opportunity and much work to be done.
Our focus is on safe and responsible delivery and execution this year and beyond, maximizing the free cash flow generation of the business and improving shareholder returns. Our three-year outlook represents an annual production growth rate of 9% per annum to over 600,000 oz of gold in 2025, with an anticipated improvement in margins and decline in capital spending, leading to a significant increase in projected free cash flow in that period. This growth is near mine, lower risk and organic, with the Haile expansion on track to deliver a significant increase in gold production over the next three years. We'll also continue to invest in the exciting exploration opportunities we have across the portfolio, with a focus on near mine, high return targets at the Didipio, Haile and Wharekirauponga, where we see tremendous upside.
I'll now hand the call back to the operator and open up the line to take any questions.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will then hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you wish to withdraw from the question queue, please press star followed by two. If using a speakerphone, we ask that you please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you do have any questions. Your first question will be from Ovais Habib at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Congrats, Gerard and OceanaGold team on the Q4 beat and meeting the full year guidance. Gerard, just a couple of questions from me. Just starting off, the first one is regards to the three-year guidance. Gerard, can you point to any risk and also any sort of areas that you have added conservatism to this guidance?
Owais, thanks for the question. I mean, there's always performance risk across any gold mine and I think, you know, we view it as balanced from a risk perspective. You know, we do have programs in place to drive improved performance across the portfolio, and I've spoken about those before. We have some signature programs in asset management, procurement and continuous improvement, all of which we'll be implementing or are in the process of implementing to drive better production and cost outcomes that are in the outlook numbers, that all remains to be captured. We view it as a very credible, realistic profile of what we can achieve. Obviously, our job is to beat it.
Perfect. Just in regards to the 2023 guidance, that production is weighted more strongly to the first half of the year. Should we also assume CapEx is also weighted towards the first half of the year as well?
I might let Scott McQueen handle the CapEx question because that's I hate to deny him the opportunity to answer a question. Yeah, no, as the first half is slightly weighted to be more production-heavy as a result of, you know, basically Haile grade presentation. Scott, do you wanna answer the CapEx profile question?
Well, thanks, Gerard. Good morning, everybody. It is actually slightly first half weighted, mainly with some carryover from 2023 with the delay in the SEIS at Haile, but not hugely. Similar to the production profile.
Got it. Thanks for that. Then my final question is maybe for David. At Haile, now you've completed, I from what I remember hearing about 400 m at the production decline. Any negative or positive surprises, David, that you've seen as the decline continues to progress?
Hey, good morning.
Hi.
No, I think, you know, we found a little bit of more soft two material at the beginning of the portal and probably more water than expected, and that was a result of heavy rains during the month of January and late in the year. Other than that, you know, that was from the first 200 m. After that, the material is turning back to what we were expecting.
Okay. Thanks for that, David. That's from me, Gerard. Again, thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, everybody.
Next question will be from Cosmos Chiu at CIBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Gerard and team. Thanks for a very good presentation here. Maybe my first question is in New Zealand. As you talk about Macraes, there's the crack in the trunnion. Just wondering, you know, where are you at this point in time? Does it need to be replaced? If it needs to be replaced, what are the supply chains? How do they look like in New Zealand? The other part is, you know, just to confirm, it sounds like you have two ball mills. One ball mill is impacted. I would imagine you're still processing ore at this point in time. What's the, you know, throughput at this point in time compared to run rate?
Thanks, Cosmos. I'll let Peter answer the question as it relates to the crack and the milling rate. Just a reminder that, you know, the impact we have in relation to this is 15,000 oz from what it might have otherwise been.
Mm-hmm.
I think as Peter said in his prepared remarks that, you know, we do see the ability to use the remainder of the med, and the ordering of the feed grade to minimize the impact. Pete, do you wanna talk about address the questions that Cosmos asked?
Sure. Thanks, Gerard, and thanks for the question, Cosmos.
Hi, Peter.
The crack that was picked up within. Hi. The crack that was identified during the full plant shutdown was in the feed end of the trunnion of the ball mill, as we talked about. It's a full cast, feed end, so the shell and trunnion are one unit. What we're looking at doing is ultimately a fully. The final fix will be to cut that trunnion off and actually bolt on a replacement trunnion, which is-
Mm.
Which is something that, you know, is quite common in those ball mills. We're getting serious engineering support out of Hofmann's out of Australia. We are looking to your point around the supply issues. We are looking if we can to get as much support from in New Zealand itself, from engineering firms, with the backup support from Hofmann's, who are the technical experts. We, while we have a, quite a, I think a reasonable handle now on the actual methodology for repair, it's still obviously going through full review. That's why-
Mm-hmm.
The, at this stage, the estimate of impact is around 15,000 oz. I think the second question was what is the overall impact? For Macraes, yes, there's two ball mills. There's two SAG mills. At full operation, they run at around 730 ton per hour. We've been able to re-pipe some of the feed pipe work so that we can run the remaining three mills, as one SAG and two ball mills. We're impacted by around 200 ton per hour.
Okay.
One of the, I think one of the positive things around Macraes is there is a mixture of different grades of ore. The high grade from the underground, some medium grade from the open cut and some lower grade also from the open cut. You know, the longer this goes on, you know, we are seeing the ability to lift average feed grade, so it minimizes impact as well.
Great. Thanks for a very detailed answer. Maybe switching gears to Waihi. You know, as you talked about, 2022 was good. It sounds like, or you know, was okay, but in 2023 is going to continue to improve from 39,000 oz last year to 45,000-55,000 oz in 2023. You know, two parts, I guess. Q1 2023 impacted by rainfall. I seem to recall that was also an issue in Q1 2022. You know, have you learned? Is there anything that we can do about, you know, heavy rainfall? Have you done anything else this year compared to last year? The second part is, yes, it's improving year-over-year, but is the 45,000-55,000 oz sort of steady-state?
I seem to recall that previously, it got as high as 70,000-80,000 oz. I'm just wondering if, you know, 45,000-55,000 oz is, you know, where we should settle at. It doesn't sound like it, 'cause I think previously you talked about some optimization studies that you also have in place at Waihi. If you can address all those questions, that would be great.
Sure. Gerard, did you want me to just answer that, or did you want to?
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Firstly, the guidance for 2023 is 50,000-60,000 oz of gold. Just to be clear on that.
Oh, sorry.
The question around the rainfall. Look, 1.1 m of rain in six weeks is highly unusual. I don't think any mine, underground or open cut, is not gonna be affected by that quantity of rain. You might have seen that Cyclone Gabrielle impacted the North Island of New Zealand just over a week ago. I was there last week at Waihi, and I must say I was just very impressed with how actually well it was managed from both surface runoff perspective and underground water perspective. I think the team have certainly done a great job, you know, learning from history around that.
That said, you know, there is an open cut that sits directly above the underground, and water does feed from the open cut into the underground. We are still looking at ways of minimizing that water getting into the underground. All future rain, yeah, can be mitigated. I will say again, the work that's been done has... You know, it doesn't look like they've just had 1.1 m of rain in the last six weeks. Just pause there. Was there any other questions you were asking me?
Yeah, the run rate. Yeah, Peter Sharpe, in terms of, like, as you said, thanks for correcting me on the production. I was looking at CapEx. Is that a good run rate in terms of what you're guiding to in terms of 2023? You know, can I just take my spreadsheet and equal to 2023 for the rest of time? You know, are you looking for higher production?
Sure. The interesting thing about Waihi is, the average mining rate is around 1 million tons per annum, and that's what is currently in the forecast. What we see, over time is that the percentage of ore versus the percentage of waste does increase. In 2023, we've got about a 50/50 blend of ore to waste, which means that, you know, there's just under 500,000 tons of ore milled. In the future years, you know, there is more ore mined than waste. We do see an uplift in gold production at Waihi in the next couple of years, and that's part of our three-year guidance.
Predominantly it's about that ratio of ore to waste as opposed to an overall uplift in the underground mining performance. What we are doing, as I mentioned, at all of our three operations in Asia Pacific, is undertaking the assessment, how do we actually lift overall production? Which for Waihi especially, will automatically turn into more tons milled. That's right.
Great. Maybe one final question and maybe back to Gerard. I don't wanna deny you of a very good opportunity to answer questions, Gerard. Your dividend, you know, it's great to see that you've now reinstated the dividend. It works out, if my math is correct, to about 0.8% dividend yield. What's your longer term thinking in terms of dividend? Is there a target that you're trying to get to? You know, how should we think about that?
Yeah. Thanks, Cosmos. Look, we're equally delighted to be back to paying dividends. I said it early when, in my tenure, you know, real businesses pay dividends. We're back into the position of being able to do so. We think that by, you know, putting a dividend out there, you know, it puts the shareholder at the front of the queue for the cash that's generated by the business. I think for now and, over the next, short period of time, I mean, we've got so much growth ahead of us. I think that, you know, people would be, should be happy to see a dividend. You know, it's not... We don't have a target per se beyond the dividend policy as it stands.
We have every avenue open to us in the future as and when we progress the production growth and cost reduction that we've put out today to either increase it or move to share buybacks or effect other forms of capital return. I wanna make it clear that we're very keen to improve and increase returns to shareholders. The dividend policy is $0.01 per share semi-annually, and that's it for now. You know, plenty of scope as you were seeing for that to change as and when those cash flows eventuate.
Great. thanks again for answering my questions, and we look forward to the remainder of 2023.
Thanks, Cosmos.
Next question will be from Wayne Lam at RBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks, guys.
Just wondering, for the cost look, cost outlook, it looks pretty good over the next few years, especially into 2025. Just wondering if that $300 an oz improvement in AISC, into 2025 includes any modeled tail off in inflation at the other mines, or what's kind of driving that improvement in cost profile outside of the Haile Underground?
I'll have the first. Outside of the Haile Underground. Haile Underground is the primary driver of it, right? That's. Then, obviously, as Waihi lifts, you'll get a lot of leverage there too. It had an AISC in the 2,000s this year. Naturally, as we lift to the target quantum next year and then beyond, as Peter said, there's a good deal of leverage. The Haile is the primary driver, both volumetrically and also from a cost perspective than Waihi. From a price outlook perspective, I'll let Scott McQueen answer that as well.
We're not projecting anything beyond what you would see in the forward curve for any material input cost, whether that be energy or the steel-making materials, grinding media, and the like, in our cost base. You know, we do have a full year of the inflation impacts this year as opposed to, say, half year in the year that's gone. No, we're not, we're not baking in further increases in inflation beyond that, what you would see in the forward curves of any varying input costs. Scott McQueen, anything to add?
No, that's correct. No, heroic assumptions there weighing on any big step down in costs. As Gerard mentioned earlier, our strategic pillars include, you know, a focus on procurement, continuous improvement and asset management. As you mentioned earlier, those opportunities aren't yet baked into the plan. It's a pretty achievable outcome, and hopefully we can aim to do better.
Okay, great. Thanks. Maybe on the production outlook, is the lower 2024 guidance purely driven by smoothing in the profile at Haile, or are there other incremental improvements we should be thinking about, like expanded capacity at the Didipio or an increase at Macraes? Just in terms of that smooth profile at Haile, should we just kind of take an average of the 2024, 2025 profile around the 210,000 oz level?
It's a little different to that, Wayne. I mean, basically, and we made this very clear when we put out the technical review last year. There was that very lumpy 2024, 2025. You know, you've seen roughly 60,000 oz go out of 2024 and 2025 is up by about 70. That's a product of a couple of things. One, we stayed in one of the pits in 2022 longer than we expected, so you've got a mine plan transition issue or like a smoothing opportunity. Then there's just like, you know, an optimization of the mine plan. Overall, you know, the technical report remains intact.
You're just seeing a shifting of the shape of production in the near term, which is not surprising if anyone looked at what that profile looked at a year ago when we put out that report. Other than that, the, you know, Waihi is, you know, will be a step up in 2024 from 2023, all other things being equal, but everything else should be around flat.
Okay, great. Thanks. Maybe just last one at Macraes. Have you seen any similar impact in terms of rainfall and flooding in the south? Just on the three-year outlook, does that include a relatively flat production profile there around 130,000 oz, or is there a scenario where that mine kind of boz back into the 150,000 oz range in the future?
I'll let Peter take the second half. The first half we did, just a reminder, in the September quarter, we did report that we were heavily impacted by rain in the month of July. We had record rainfall in July there. So that was an impact. Peter, just on the multi-year outlook.
Sure. Thanks, Gerard. Just to answer on the January, the January, February rainfall significantly impacted the North Island, but the South Island, yeah, wasn't impacted by that significant rain. Generally speaking, Macraes is a relatively flat outlook. You know, not looking at big number increases at this stage as part of our forward guidance. However, as I said, you know, we are obviously looking at ways of increasing underground production, which obviously is much higher grade than the stockpiles or the open cut. Any benefit that we can get out of those optimization reviews will flow through to higher outlook. At this stage it's relatively flat.
Okay, perfect. That's all for me. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Wayne.
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Your next question will be from Mike Parkin at National Bank.
Thanks, guys, and congrats on the good quarter. Just one follow-up question on what's happening with the ball mill at Macraes. The 15,000 oz impact, is that solely being budgeted based off the reduced throughput, or have you budgeted in a potential impact on the replacement? I guess better clarity, are you even running it now? Basically, is my question.
Yeah. Well, we're not running that ball mill now, Mike, because it's in a state of repair. The 15,000 oz impact and the guidance that we put out for 2023 is inclusive of all the measures that Peter spoke about, both our estimate to effect a repair or replacement and the mitigating effects of optimizing the feed grade. Altering the circuit to still get the other, you know, ball mill and the two SAG mills operating optimally.
Okay, thanks so much.
Thanks, Mike.
Thank you. At this time, we have no other questions registered. Please proceed with closing remarks.
Well, look, thanks. That's for everyone for joining us on the call. That concludes the webcast. A replay will be available on the website later today. On behalf of the entire management team, and everyone at OceanaGold, I appreciate you joining us and wish you all a pleasant rest of the day.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.