Hello everyone and welcome to SSR Mining's 2024 and long-term guidance conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining.
Thank you, operator, and hello everyone. Thank you for joining today's conference call. During which we'll provide an update on our business and a review of this morning's positive guidance release and technical report update. This press release and the accompanying technical report summaries have been filed on EDGAR and are also available on our website. To accompany this call, there is an online webcast, and you will find the information to access the webcast on our website. Please note that all figures discussed during this call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, so please read the disclosures and the relevant documents. Our call today will start with an introduction from Rod Antal, Executive Chairman. Rod will then be joined by Edward Farid, Chief Corporate Development Officer, to discuss our strategy and capital allocation.
After this, John Ebbett, Executive Vice President, Growth and Innovation, will provide an overview of our operating assets and key growth initiatives. Now I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.
All right. Thanks, Alex, and good morning, and thanks for joining us. We have been looking forward to this opportunity to present the results of the technical reports to you all for some time. Before we dive into what I think should be an informative update, I do want to highlight an event which occurred at approximately 6:30 A.M. Eastern Time regarding a large slip on the heap leach pad at Çöpler. The situation is developing as we speak, and our first priority is people and containment. We will follow up the holding statement we just issued in due course. In the interim, we have suspended the operations at Çöpler. Once we complete our initial emergency response protocols on-site, we will be able to provide more details.
On the back of that, Bill MacNevin, who would have joined us today, is now tied up, and I will be covering his sections in the presentation. Moving on to today's business, the new technical reports provide a refreshed view of each of our assets, taking into account current market conditions, the period where inflation has impacted the industry cost base, positive operation improvements of each of the assets across many of the metrics, and resource conversion and exploration success across the portfolio. Overall, we have increased the life of mine production by 7%, and that is before the incorporation of Hod Maden. Our efforts have been focused on optimizing our asset base and net asset value across all of the operations, and we've been very successful.
In particular, at Çöpler, the technical report reflects a culmination of a number of work streams and trade-offs over the past 24 months, and the outcome means a very different and positive way forward plan. This will become clear as we walk through today's presentation that the near-term production changes that we're reporting in October have come as a result of accretive net asset value optimizations at Çöpler and across the portfolio. The other comment I would make is the new technical reports highlight that the underlying investment thesis for SSR is intact and in a number of ways improved from what it was previously. The key changes in the technical reports, as well as the value drivers for future opportunities, provide a compelling investment proposition. So let me take you firstly through the key takeaways, and there are 10 of them.
Firstly, we have a corporate net asset value of more than $3 billion or $15 a share, based exclusively on existing mineral reserves and our net cash position using consensus mineral pricing, and this is substantially lower than the current spot. When you use the current spot price of gold, this value increases to more than $4 billion or $20 a share. Secondly, we have a five-year production profile that, on like-for-like basis, increases 4% over the prior life of mine plan to 3.1 million oz before incorporating any contributions from Hod Maden. Thirdly, our total life of mine production has increased 7% over prior technical reports and more than 20% when adding in the contribution from Hod Maden. Fourthly, our annual production will approach 800,000 oz in 2027, which is a 10% growth rate over the 2024 levels.
Fifth, we have a consolidated platform with more than 85% of our life of mine production sourced from the bottom half of the industry curve and all-in sustaining cost trending towards $1,300 in 2027. Sixth, we have a weighted average mine life of 14 years across the portfolio. Seventh is we have two accretive growth projects at Hod Maden and the Grind-Leach Circuit at Çöpler with an estimated 30% or higher internal rate of return. Number eight is we have existing $1 billion in liquidity that, when coupled with forecasted strong cash flow, will fully support our growth projects and continued returns, and this will allow us to exit our growth period with a robust balance sheet. Number nine is a low capital intensity growth that adds 1.6 million oz in production from two key projects I mentioned.
Finally, there is significant additional potential growth beyond the current mineral reserves-only life of mine plans, setting us up for an even longer-dated future than currently described in the technical reports. Business fundamentals are incredibly sound, and I'm sure you'll agree by the end of the presentation that our underlying asset value and quality is not reflected in the current share price. Before we dive into these details more, let's first touch on safety and sustainability. Our commitment to safe and sustainable production still remains steadfast. We're firm believers that safety and sustainability are indicators of the health of the business and a foundation for our operations moving forward. In 2023, I'm pleased to report that we delivered meaningful improvements across all the consolidated metrics. This included a more than 40% improvement in our consolidated total injury frequency rate to 2.2.
With this achievement, we believe further improvement is possible through our continued efforts to ensure that all our workers return home safely. In 2023, we've also met many of our other safety and sustainability targets, and you'll be able to read the details of what we viewed as a very successful year in the soon-to-be-published sustainability report. So moving on to slide seven. I'm not going to spend a lot of time here other than to reiterate the diversified nature of our portfolio and the excellent growth pipeline ahead. As demonstrated in the technical reports, our four operating assets provide us a stable and solid foundation for the business, and we've continued to generate peer-leading free cash flow for at least the next 14 years.
The foundation, combined with a strong balance sheet, will fully support our high-returning growth opportunities and enable the continuation of the capital returns program we have instituted. We have averaged 5% capital return yield over the last three years and delivered an 8% reduction in our total shares outstanding, providing a per-share accretion for our investors as we move into a period of meaningful growth. In addition, in 2023, our production was within guidance, reinforcing our reputation as operators. This reputation complements our track record of project execution, successful exploration, and value accretive M&A, and we believe we're well-positioned to deliver value moving forward. On to slide eight. And as I mentioned, we have consistent improvement operated, as is demonstrated on the slide. On a consolidated basis, we've met or exceeded production for 11 or 12 years, which is a rare feat.
This consistent performance is achieved alongside the delivery of multiple growth projects and transformative M&A. As we move into 2024, our business will balance generating cash flow with investment on growth. This reinvestment will begin to deliver production growth in 2027 as Hod Maden and the Grind-Leach Circuit come online. By 2027, we expect consolidated production to approach 800,000 oz and approximately 10% compound annual growth rate. This measured but still meaningful growth profile is fully funded through the existing balance sheet, cash flow projections, and the project finance facility that we expect to execute for Hod Maden later this year. Moving on to slide number nine. John and I will discuss some of the drivers of our guidance in a few minutes, but there are a few items I want to highlight.
This production outlook is provided in the new technical reports, and as I mentioned, many of the assumptions have been updated to reflect current market conditions and operating metrics. As production ramps up in 2027, we expect costs to improve significantly, and we currently forecast All-in Sustaining Costs trending towards $1,300 an ounce. In 2024, we expect sustaining capital spend will see a decrease to more than 30% over the 2023 levels, and at the same time, our investment in growth and exploration continues and is targeted to deliver mine life extension and additional reserve growth. Now let's flip ahead to slide 11, and Eddie's going to join me to discuss the strategy and capital allocation.
Thank you, Rod, and good morning to you all. Before we dive into our operational outlook, I want to spend a few minutes highlighting our strategic and financial positioning heading into the next few years. First, on slide 11, we want to draw your attention to the strength of our balance sheet and current liquidity position, which not only ensures we can comfortably execute on our growth pipeline but also provides assurances that our peer-leading capital returns outlook will remain unchanged during this investment cycle. Moreover, the combination of our current balance sheet and ongoing cash flow generation will allow our business to reach the next phase of free cash flow harvest in 2027 with the balance sheet fully intact and without the need for a period of deleverage.
In more detail, our current liquidity position is approximately $1 billion, including nearly $500 million in cash and an incremental $500 million of capacity on our undrawn revolving credit facility. As we look ahead, we expect positive free cash flow in 2024, and with the business forecast to produce 540,000-600,000 oz per year over the next three years, we expect significant cash flow generation to further enhance this liquidity position. Combined with our plan to project finance Hod Maden outflows, our total sources of capital are approximately $2 billion or multiples of our projected outflows. As we invest in our projects over the next three years, the impact to our balance sheet is mitigated by two key factors.
First, the low capital intensity nature of these growth projects, including less than $200 million in spend for the Grind-Leach Circuit and approximately $330 million in capital outlays and earnings payments at Hod Maden to add over 1.5 million oz of production. And second, we expect Çöpler ongoing cash flow to self-fund the Grind-Leach Circuit capital requirements. With these factors in mind, it's clear to see why our commitment to capital returns remains unchanged during the next three years, which leads me to the next slide, slide 12. Strong capital returns have become a hallmark of our business, and as you can see on this slide, over the last three years, we have returned $470 million to shareholders through a combination of our base dividend and share buyback programs. This represents approximately 25% of our current market capitalization and an average capital returns yield of approximately 5% annually.
Over the last three-year period, the business has generated $670 million of free cash flow, implying we have returned over 70% of that free cash flow to shareholders. This is a clear indication of the financial discipline of the business and our confidence in the go-forward cash flow generation capacity of the assets. We are committed to continuing our forecasted base dividend of $57 million annually or $170 million over the three-year period through the forthcoming growth cycle, and we maintain ample liquidity to execute selective share buybacks going forward, given our current valuation is well below net asset value. To that end, we are currently active in the market with our buyback program, setting a minimum capital returns yield of over 3% already for 2024, a number we expect to grow as we continue actively buying back shares through the year under our current NCIB program.
In 2024, and despite growth capital expenditures of $117 million, we expect to be free cash flow positive, which will further increase our liquidity and anchor our financial position. Turning to slide 13, I want to highlight both our project execution and M&A track record, where we have generated significant value for our shareholders through realized free cash flow and net asset value accretion at each of our assets. In addition to the low capital intensity nature and high returns of our upcoming growth projects, we view both Hod Maden and the Grind-Leach Circuit at Çöpler as low-risk development projects, given our track record of success in building in Turkey. In short, we are building where we have built with success before, and we have shown that clearly with our track record. Our build and buy track record has been nothing short of stellar.
On average, we have delivered a more than threefold increase in the value of the assets that we have bought and nearly a fourfold increase in the value of the assets we have built. This is an incredible history of success and deserves to be highlighted and considered in context of what is ahead. At Çöpler, where we will be adding the Grind-Leach Circuit as a brownfield expansion, we delivered a $700 million complex sulfide plant project on time and under budget and have since generated more than $800 million in free cash flow from the operation since commercial production was declared in 2019. And we still have over $1.6 billion in reserve-only NPV still ahead of us over a 14-year mine life. This is a nearly 4x return on the initial capital.
The core of this project execution team will be responsible for the Grind-Leach Circuit and the Hod Maden construction, both starting later this year. We expect the learnings and experience across the permitting, procurement, and general project execution from the sulfide plant build will help ensure the successful delivery of both growth projects on time and on budget by 2027. It is clear when we look across slide 13 at the individual M&A and project construction initiatives that we have executed and that the business has established itself as a leader in buying and building assets and translating that into free cash flow and value accretion for our shareholders. Now on to slide 14 to discuss our investment return outlook.
Our business has established a discipline of ensuring investments are subjected to a rigorous analysis and due diligence and must pass our internal hurdle rates before they are approved for execution. Our upcoming projects, both have been carefully analyzed, and we believe that they will deliver internal rates of return of 30% or more for our shareholders. Both Hod Maden, a greenfield investment, and Grind-Leach, a brownfield investment, represent two of the highest-returning and lowest capital intensity projects in the sector today. Moreover, our prior history of delivering material value from our development projects, as evidenced by our track record of impressive internal rates of returns from the Çöpler sulfide plant and the Chinchillas project of 30% and 50% respectively, gives us a high level of confidence in our ability to deliver the stated returns at Hod Maden and the Grind-Leach Circuit.
On to the next slide, where Rod will discuss the value we expect to generate from the forthcoming Grind-Leach Circuit investment at Çöpler and the rationale for the investment.
Good afternoon, Scott. We've been assessing the potential at Çakmaktepe for some time now. For those unfamiliar, Çakmaktepe is a satellite deposit at our Çöpler mine that was first drilled in 2017. In just seven years, we've expanded the project's mineral reserves to 3 million oz on a 100% basis. A 3 million ounce reserve is a 75% increase from the 1.7 million oz in the 2021 technical report, which is a significant success for our resource development team. Since the discovery of Çakmaktepe, we've been clear that if the mineral reserves achieved significant scale, we would need to revisit our plans for heap leaching the ore. As a reminder, though, heap leach would only recover 60% of the gold. The growth in the reserves over the last 18 months drove us to evaluate the potential to improve the gold recoveries and maximize the value of the Çakmaktepe deposit.
By investing in a Grind-Leach Circuit, we will improve gold recoveries by another 20%-25% over heap leach, meaning an overall 80%-85% recovery. The Grind-Leach Circuit costs less than $200 million and delivers a greater than 30% internal rate of return as compared to the current heap-leach process. All told, the lifetime mine production at Çakmaktepe is now 2.5 million oz, which is more than a 100% increase from the last lifetime mine production profile. John and I will discuss more of this in a minute. The numbers I just presented should make the rationale for the Grind-Leach Circuit abundantly clear. Previously announced deferral of production allows us to improve the NAV for Çöpler and means we have substantial gold production in the future coming from oxide ore through the Grind-Leach Circuit.
Back over to Eddie on slide 16, and let's revisit the margins inherent in the portfolio.
As you all know, our four core operating assets have come from a significant period of free cash flow harvesting that formed the thesis for merging SSR Mining and Alacer Gold. This free cash flow leadership was anchored in the cost position of the assets and was proven given our free cash flow generation over the past three years. We not only expect to return to this leadership position but expect to exceed prior free cash flow highs as we exit our investment period. On this slide in particular, we want to reiterate that despite higher baseline costs over this coming three-year period of growth investment, we see material improvement to our consolidated cost profile over the lifetime mine at our assets.
As shown in this morning's technical reports, not only have we been able to increase our lifetime mine production by over 20% over the prior lifetime mine plans, but as we look forward, over 85% of our projected lifetime mine production is now positioned in the lower half of the gold industry cost group, reaffirming our projections of strong cash flow generation in the near term. The technical work completed has resulted in lifetime mine production at each asset increasing, and following the completion of the Grind-Leach Circuit and Hod Maden, we will regain our position as one of the lowest cost producers in the sector. Lastly for me, and before I hand it over to Rod and John to discuss our operations and the outcomes of the technical reports, on to slide 17 to discuss our valuation.
On this slide, I want to highlight to you the very apparent disconnect in both our fundamental and relative valuation versus the net asset values we published today. SSR Mining trades at a deep discount relative to the peers and to its fundamental value, and we believe that given our execution track record, strong balance sheet, high return nature of our investments, and the overall free cash flow firepower of the business, that we will provide material share price upside to shareholders. The individual net asset value outcomes released today for our core assets exceed street consensus expectations, particularly when viewed with the lens that these are reserve-only models that do not reflect resource conversion and exploration upside.
The assets present a portfolio with lifetime mine production in excess of 8 million oz with 85%+ of the lifetime mine production in the bottom half of the industry cost curve with a weighted average reserve life of 14 years. This is a well-balanced portfolio with significant option value. At consensus prices, the corporate net asset value is over $3 billion based on reserves only or $15 a share, increasing to more than $4 billion or $20 a share, again based on reserves only at spot prices. The updated Marigold and Çöpler NPVs released in today's technical report summaries alone are worth more than our current market capitalization, implying upside exposure to our Hod Maden, Seabee, and Puna operations, not to mention our net cash position and material exploration upside across the portfolio.
Simply put, SSR Mining shares are undervalued and oversold, which is why we continue to actively buy back shares on the open market. As Rod mentioned in his introductory remarks, the new technical reports should provide a high level of confidence in the health of the underlying asset base. In particular, the overall increases to the production profile both over the five-year and lifetime mine plans, combined with the overall value outcomes of the technical studies, confirmed that the recent changes to our near-term outlook were a result of efforts to optimize the net asset value and invest in accretive, high-returning opportunities. With a fully funded growth trajectory ahead of us, we see material upside in the share price ahead and provide asymmetric exposure to the gold price given our stable cash flow base, which anchors high-return growth.
With that, I'll hand the call over to Rod and John to walk you in detail through our operations and our conclusions of the technical reports.
Thanks, Eddie. Rod and I will share the coming slides. There's a lot of good discussion ahead that summarizes our operational and growth objectives at each of our assets. I'll start with our resource and reserves update on slide 19. Year-end 2023 mineral reserves on an attributable basis and inclusive of Hod Maden are now more than 9 million oz of gold equivalent. These mineral reserves support a weighted average mine life of at least 14 years across the portfolio. There are more than 5 million oz of measured and indicated resources exclusive of mineral reserves and more than 3 million oz of inferred resources to support further mineral reserve growth and mine life expansion across the portfolio. Combined, this provides an extremely solid platform underpinning the production growth of 7% for our producing assets and over 20% when Hod Maden is included.
We expect to continue building on these figures going forward. I'll now hand over to Rod to discuss Çöpler on slide 21.
While the majority of the slides ahead are focused on today's TRS and our growth plans, I'm going to speak briefly about each asset and the key deliverables going forward. Through 2023, our focus has been on strengthening the basics and focusing efforts on prioritized business improvements. While we have a lot more work ahead, this focus is starting to give returns, as shown by the better than 40% reduction in injury frequency, increased mining productivities, and record tonnages across the operations. Now onto the assets starting with Çöpler. Today's release should highlight that Çöpler is a flagship asset with a 15-year mine life and an exceptional all-in-sustaining cost profile moving towards about $1,000 an ounce. We continue to see meaningful improvements in the sulfide plant throughputs, which is a testament to the optimization work going on at site.
In quarter three, we recovered the first gold from Çakmaktepe just six years after discovery. Çakmaktepe has enabled us to look at the advancement of the Grind-Leach Circuit to process oxide ore at Çöpler, and we expect the Grind-Leach investment in the coming years will help to deliver meaningful production growth to 400,000 oz by 2027. Moving on to slide 22. 2023 was a good year for the plant performance, where we recorded throughput, and our learnings are being integrated into future projects. We continue to focus on improving sulfide processing rates, which are key to realizing long-term production growth at Çöpler. We are also beginning the permitting process for the Grind-Leach Circuit, and that's been built into the timetables for first production in 2027. We've improved resolution of the geologic controls with a focus to improve mining selectively and blend optimizations for the sulfide processing.
Additionally, we expect to focus on further infill and extensional drilling at Çöpler and Çakmaktepe as we aim additional value from near-mine targets. So on to slide 23. Back to John. One of the key features of the Çöpler technical report is the addition of the Grind-Leach Circuit to deliver higher oxide recoveries. This project maximizes the value of the significant mineral reserve growth at Çakmaktepe, which now hosts 3 million oz of gold. Prior plans called for heap leach processing of the Çakmaktepe oxide ore at approximately 60% recoveries. We evaluated alternative processing methods and will construct a Grind-Leach Circuit at Çöpler for a total initial CapEx of $194 million. This processing method will meaningfully improve lifetime mine oxide recoveries to the mid-80% range and increase produced oz.
Coupled with the aforementioned mineral reserve growth, Çakmaktepe's lifetime mine production has now more than doubled to 2.5 million oz, delivering a more than 30% internal rate of return. By incorporating this value-accretive project into the Çöpler operation, today's technical report highlights the $1.64 billion NPV along with production averaging nearly 300,000 oz at all-in-sustaining costs of approximately $1,000 per ounce over the next 15 years, reaffirming the asset status as a cash flow engine of the company. This includes a material inflection in production to 400,000 oz annually by 2027, a level that will be sustained to the end of the decade. Slide 24 highlights the key sensitivities of the Çöpler valuation. Firstly, the net asset value of more than $1.6 billion increases above $2 billion at current spot prices.
The biggest drivers of cost are the mining contract as well as consumables and reagents, particularly in the sulfide plant. We have contracts in place to manage these costs and continuous improvement programs to increase efficiency. Moving on to slide 25 to discuss the Grind-Leach. Rod already presented the rationale behind the Grind-Leach investment. I want to walk everyone through the simplicity of the concept, which includes the installation of a commonly used Grind-Leach processing circuit to supplement the existing infrastructure at Çöpler. As mentioned, this delivers a 20%-25% uplift to gold recoveries while maintaining per-ton processing costs similar to the current heap leach operation. These three processing streams will provide flexibility to handle future mineral reserve growth at Çöpler and Çakmaktepe ore bodies.
Moving to slide 26, which highlights the scale of Çakmaktepe, now containing approximately 3 million oz of gold, an increase of 75% over our maiden reserves in 2021, a testament to the efforts of the team at Çöpler. The Çakmaktepe ore body also includes approximately 500,000 oz of measured and indicated resources and over 350,000 oz of inferred resources that future drill programs could convert to reserves. We will also continue to optimize the mine development sequence to bring forward and smooth the production peak currently occurring in 2033. Moving to slide 27. The Çöpler district is expansive and presents various options to create value, which we constantly evaluate. The C2 pre-feasibility study and the Çakmaktepe development were two key scopes of work we advanced during 2023.
Significant outcomes from these valuations are an optimized lifetime mine plan that maximizes the value of reserve growth at Çakmaktepe and a diminished value of C2. The value of C2 was impacted by metallurgical performance, with resource model updates also being a factor. As a result, C2 mineralization was removed from the Çöpler resources. Removing this mineralization from our existing mineral resources is expected to cause a non-cash impact of $350 million off Çöpler's total fixed asset and mineral inventory value of $2.8 billion. This will be recognized in our full-year financial results next week and has no impact on the $1.6 billion NPV presented today. Slide 28 shows our success in delivering mineral reserve growth despite depletion. However, the removal of C2 does impact mineral resources.
The change to Çakmaktepe processing method from 2027 onwards increases tailings production, and the 2023 mineral reserve lifetime mine plan is aligned with current tailings storage capacity. To support anticipated reserve growth, we have already identified and are evaluating options to expand tailings capacity, including dry stacked tailings in line with industry best practices. There is a wealth of exploration and growth opportunities across the district, including more copper-rich targets. We will continue to evaluate copper processing options as warranted by exploration success. Now onto slide 29 to discuss regional growth at Çöpler. In addition to near-mine growth potential at Çöpler and Çakmaktepe, we have conducted a district-wide targeting exercise based on updated geochemical and geophysical data. The most advanced regional targets are Mavialtin and the adjacent Mavialtin South. These are targets with meaningful growth potential.
The targets identified and the expanded ownership of regional Kartaltepe licenses provides more incentive to get boots on the ground and work towards adding mineral reserve-like growth at Çöpler. I will now hand back to Rod for an overview of our Marigold operation.
We're very proud of the Marigold team for the 2023 record production levels in the mine's 33+-year history. We're also seeing good work in delivering improved mining rates, which are heading into the current stripping phase. I also want to note that the initial success of Buffalo Valley, while in an early stage, is another long-term growth option for Marigold. Recognizing the scale and longevity of the operation, Marigold mine is billionth ton in November. Recovery rates returned to normal levels in the second half of 2023. However, the slow start to the year warranted a reallocation of the mine fleet to focus on ore presentation and to deliver the 2023 guidance. This was a success, and Marigold met guidance with 278,000 oz of gold production, which was a record year.
We're currently in waste stripping phase at Red Dot, so ore gain will be lower in 2024 and 2025, resulting in higher costs, but this will pay off with production inflection in 2026. There are many improvements underway in both equipment maintenance and mining productivities, and these contributed to the 2023 results and our areas of focus moving forward. There is also included owners' team maintenance improvement, equipment reliability, as well as equipment utilization and haulage efficiencies moving forward. I want to slide 33 for John.
The updated technical report shows strong results from Marigold, including average annual production of 212,000 oz over nine years of active mining, with costs meaningfully improving following the stripping phase at Red Dot. The $800 million NPV does not include 1.7 million oz in measured and indicated resources or any of the newly defined Buffalo Valley target. Marigold is forecast to generate $95 million in average annual free cash flow over nine years of mining at consensus metal price. On slide 34, the use of long-term consensus gold price of $1,755 per ounce is an especially important consideration. As the sensitivity shows, at spot metal prices, Marigold's NPV already exceeds $1 billion. This provides their business with meaningful leverage to the gold price. Moving to slide 35.
The updated technical report includes 2.9 million oz of mineral reserves plus an additional 1.7 million oz of indicated mineral resources to support continued mine life extension. We continue to evaluate a wealth of near-mine expansion targets across the district, including the potential of a southern heap leach facility that could materially improve the economics of mineralization at New Millennium and Buffalo Valley, currently excluded from resource and reserve estimates. On slide 36, we showcase the production plan by year, indicating the contribution from each pit across the property. We see potential to expand upon existing reserves at Mackie, Valmy, and New Millennium. Additionally, the Buffalo Valley pit outlined to the south represents a new region for growth and mine extension. Now moving to slide 37. The resource declaration at Buffalo Valley is a good start.
With growth potential to come, current study work shows good gold recoveries and is economic with rolling stacking. Drilling plan for 2024 will target resource upgrade and expansion potential to the west. We continue to evaluate other targets and execute target generation activities across the region. Rod will now take you through the CB operation on slide 39.
Quite a tough start to 2023. Seabee delivered a strong fourth quarter. We continue to see improvements in plant throughputs with further increases ahead. The current focus is on efficiency improvements and sustaining costs as we transition out of the Santoy high grade, but we believe we're on the right track. Hawkeye and Hawkeye West present exciting opportunities for growth and extension and will reap the benefits of ongoing Santoy optimization work moving forward. Moving on to slide 40. One of the major positives in 2023 was the advancement, successful resource development, and exploration at the Hawkeye targets, something you will hear us speak more about going forward. Delivery of strong mining and throughput rates was another win, particularly in the second half of the year, which is being reinforced by the record throughputs and the processing plant that was enabled by the strong mining rates.
CB has typically been mine-constrained, and we're evaluating ways to alleviate bottlenecks, including mine equipment upgrades and improved maintenance practices. On to slide 41. Back to John.
The technical report presented here represents a snapshot of Seabee based exclusively on mineral reserves. An important consideration is the economic studies currently underway for Hawkeye and the opportunities to extend mineral reserves around Santoy eight and nine, and the Gap and Santoy hanging walls are not included. These studies will advance in the near term for potential inclusion in the reserve-based NPV. Seabee's history of conversion is highlighted on the next slide. Seabee has consistently operated with a four- to five-year mine life over its 30 years in operation, and near-mine drilling should convert a portion of mineral resources into reserves, allowing mine life extension. Since its acquisition in 2016, Seabee has returned free cash flow well in excess of its acquisition price and produced over 700,000 oz.
As part of our year-end accounting review, we will record a write-down of $50 million to goodwill that was recorded at the time of acquisition. The property remains highly prospective, as evidenced by the recent success with the Hawkeye target detailed on Slide 43. District exploration and modelling has interpreted the Hawkeye targets as a continuation of the mineralized structure that hosts the Santoy ore body. Drilling from Petunia in the northwest through Hawkeye in the southeast have already identified nearly 3 km of mineralized strike. We are aggressively advancing this target, with drilling continuing as we speak. We have seen some great results, including 46 g per ton over 5 m. The current mineral resource is not reflective of potential upside. We have economic and permanent studies underway and are excited by what's to come. All going well, we could see production from 2028.
Moving on to slide 45 for an overview of Mineral Reserves.
It continues to be a standout performer, exceeding expectations again in 2023, another asset where we've seen improvements in processing rates in a record year of production, thanks to our ongoing business improvement efforts. We're working hard to extend the mine life and prepare for new production pathways across the areas. 2023 was a record production year and exceeded guidance. There are a number of opportunities ahead, particularly as we look to extend life of mine, and we're focused on still further improvements to the processing rates and other opportunities to maximize cash flow generation. So back to you, John, on 47.
I will again point out that this technical report summary on slide 47 is a reserve-only case. We have identified potential extension of life opportunities through mineral reserve conversion at Chinchillas. At the same time, the technical report showcases meaningful production continuing over the coming two years as Puna contributes solid free cash flow. Slide 48 provides a summary of another one of our exciting growth targets, Cortaderas, which has been delivering some exceptionally high-grade assays in 2023. Located close to the Pirquitas processing facility, it represents another potentially meaningful extension to the life of Puna. Cortaderas is an underground target with higher levels of zinc than the Chinchillas' ore. We are still evaluating the project economics as we look to advance towards development and showcases the ability of our exploration team to discover highly prospective brownfields targets on the property.
I'll now move on to the most recent addition to our portfolio, the world-class Hod Maden project on slide 50. Before closing out, I want to make sure we touch on Hod Maden and our plans for 2024 and beyond. We're on track to complete the optimization and execution planning in the coming months, with a construction decision and financing package to follow. The infield drilling campaign has delivered impressive results so far, affirming world-class grades and helping ensure the project delivers on its projected 31% internal rate of return. We're also continuing to advance earthworks and site development, setting the stage for full construction ramp-up. We continue to expect the life of mine can be optimized. However, even at base case levels shown on slide 51, the project has an average annual production of nearly 200,000 oz at all in sustaining costs of less than $600 per ounce.
Maden's attributable free cash flow is expected to approach $100 million annually, which is comparable to projects two to three times its size. The property also has meaningful exploration upside in addition to the existing 13-year mine life. Personally, I'm thrilled to be involved in another exciting project in two years, and Hod Maden is a great addition to the portfolio. To summarize on slide 52, with the completion of portfolio consolidation and studies, our growth pipeline is clear and looking better than ever. We have two projects with 30%+ internal rates of return moving towards execution this year, with production expected in 2027. We're leveraging our Turkish project experience, and importantly, we are redeploying the team that successfully delivered the Çöpler sulfide project on time and under budget to lead these two construction projects.
We currently have numerous brownfields projects advancing through study phases, highlighting the potential for meaningful mine life extension at each of our assets. To maintain value creation through our organic growth pipeline, we continue to evaluate early-stage opportunities and invest in greenfields exploration as these current projects advance and are delivered. With that, thanks for your time, and I'll turn back to Rod for closing remarks.
Thanks, John and Eddie. I'll be brief on the closing remarks and leave you with some of the messages from the presentation. Today's update of the technical reports reiterates the strength of the portfolio. We have grown life of mine production by 7% even without the inclusion of Hod Maden. We are advancing two of the highest-returning projects in the sector, both of them expected to be online in 2027, with production growth towards 800,000 oz, lowering our all-in sustaining costs towards $1,300 an ounce. Our balance sheet remains strong even after the growth investments, meaning we can continue with our proven approach to capital returns. I hope that you found the presentation informative today. And with that, I'd like to open up the call for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one 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 two. To join the question queue, please press star, then one now. Our first question comes from Ovais Habib, Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rod Antal team. Really sorry to hear about the.
Hi, Rod.
On the heap leach pad at Çöpler. Just hope everyone's okay at site is okay. Just a couple of questions.
Yeah. Thanks, Ovais. And yeah, look, Ovais, in fact, I appreciate you mentioning it. Obviously, it's front and center on our mind right now, and it's still very early. So I don't have a lot more details to provide anyone in the market. And in fact, I think given the situation is still dynamic, we're probably going to we're going to cut this conference call short now for questions, and obviously, we'll take those during the day one-on-one with individuals as we move around. But I think our priority right now should be at supporting the team on site.
I completely understand. So I'll stop here right now. Thanks, Rod.
Perfect. Thanks, Ovais. John, if we could just move on to closing the call, I'd appreciate it very much.
Certainly. This concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. Please feel free to disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.