Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call and webcast following yesterday's announcement of our expanded Phase 2, or EP2. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call may be forward-looking, and we encourage you to refer to our public filings and disclosures, including the cautionary language in yesterday's news release, for more detailed discussion of potential risks and uncertainties related to these statements. I will now hand the call over to Artemis Gold's CEO, Dale Andres. Over to you, Dale.
Thanks, Meg, and thank you all for taking the time to join this call. In addition to myself on the call today, we have our founder and Executive Chair, Steven Dean, our President, Jeremy Langford, our CFO, Gerrie van der Westhuizen, our Chief Business Development Officer, Tony Scott, and our Chief ESG Officer, Candace Alderson. I'd like to take you through the highlights of yesterday's announcement, and Jeremy will speak to the details of our expanded Phase 2 plans, and then we'll open up the call to your questions. As you know, our board yesterday, and this is very exciting, approved an investment of CAD 1.4 billion to move forward with an Expanded Phase 2, which we are calling EP2, of the Blackwater Mine.
This is the next major milestone in the disciplined development of the Blackwater Mine, which is a world-class, large-scale asset in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction that is already delivering low-cost production and strong cash flows. Our long-term vision for the asset has always been to grow production to at least 500,000 ounces of gold per year through staged capital-efficient expansions and funded primarily by cash flow from operations. And I'm happy to report EP2 delivers on that vision, and now is an opportune time to embark on this next phase of growth. The EP2 project is consistent with the staged development strategy and plan for the Blackwater Mine. However, the strong gold price environment and our previously announced Phase 1A expansion have now allowed us to optimize EP2 at a much larger scale.
The Phase 1A construction is advancing as planned, increasing our plant design capacity from six million tonnes per annum to eight million tonnes per annum throughput by the end of next year, 2026, and EP2 will now take throughput to 21 million tonnes per annum processed by the end of 2028, with, importantly, the potential to increase further once in operation. We are transforming Blackwater into one of Canada's largest gold mines and one of the world's lowest-cost and highest-margin mining operations, and there is further upside on the horizon as we have a regional exploration drill program now underway, targeting our priority targets with priority targets identified and building on a large amount of historical data.
In addition, we are launching a resource expansion program in the first half of 2026, and that will be in the form of additional drilling, and we will also do an optimized mine plan. On slide 4, as mentioned, Phase 1A will take nameplate capacity from 6 million tonnes per annum to 8 million tonnes per annum. EP2 will add 13 million tonnes per annum, taking the nameplate capacity to 21 million tonnes. At a capital cost of about CAD 1.4 billion, this capital intensity is still among the lowest in our industry, at around CAD 110 per tonne of additional annual throughput, and this compares very favorably with industry benchmarks. It will transform Blackwater into one of the largest single gold mines in Canada, producing over 500,000 ounces of gold production per year in the first 10 full years.
It is truly transformational, and we could not have timed it better in this strong gold price environment. We have a strong and experienced team in place that has successfully delivered on the Phase 1 build, and we have strong cash flows and a solid balance sheet that will allow us to build EP2 without diluting our equity holders. We expect to fund EP2 out of operating cash flow, supported by the Phase 1A expansion and the additional cash flow that that brings, so we don't anticipate having to tap the remaining balance on our RCF, but it is available if required.
On slide 5, EP2 increases, as I said, overall gold production to over 500,000 ounces per year following the expansion period, and the economies of scale that this provides provide for low All-in Sustaining Costs, which are expected to average about $1,000-$1,100 per ounce of gold sold in the next ten years. Annual guidance for 2026 will be provided in January 2026 and will account for some additional downtime expected to tie in the Phase 1A expansion project, again, which is progressing well. 2028 will benefit from the ramp-up period for EP2, and the processing plant is expected to run at the full production rate of 21 million tonnes per annum starting in 2029, and that does not include any further optimization efforts or future Phase 3 expansion potential, and I'll speak to some of that later in the deck.
Mill recoveries are expected to average 93% after the construction of both Phase 1A and the EP2 circuits. At the EP2 processing rate, the mine life is expected to be through to at least 2043. I expect it to go much further than that with the final five years of processing from stockpiles. Beyond that, we have identified potential, as I said, to extend the mine life beyond 2043 and to further expand or optimize our processing rates beyond 21 million tonnes per annum. We are currently adding to our low and medium-grade stockpiles with mineralized material that was originally classed as waste, and we'll touch more on that later. At the midpoint of our post-expansion period guidance, Blackwater will remain in the lowest quartile of gold producers globally, and our All-in Sustaining Cost margin is solidly among the highest in the industry.
This is just a quick schematic before I pass the call over to Jeremy, which shows the timeline view of the current development plans at Blackwater. As I said, Phase 1A is advancing on schedule for completion by Q4 of next year, and we do anticipate having that fully commissioned and fully ramped up before the end of 2026. Meanwhile, EP2 early works will start in January 2026 with major works and full plant construction beginning in the third quarter of 2026 and taking about 24 months for the full build. By the end of 2028, EP2 will be fully ramped up, and Blackwater will be running at a remarkable nameplate capacity of 21 million tonnes per annum, and from that, we'll build and optimize further. I will now turn the call over to Jeremy to walk through a detailed scope of work for EP2. Over to you, Jeremy.
Thanks very much, Dale, and good morning, everyone. The processing plant for EP2 has a design throughput capacity of 13 million tonnes per annum, which, when combined with the Stage 1A, 8 million-tonne plant, will increase the total throughput capacity of the Blackwater asset to 21 million tonnes per year. The EP2 processing facility is designed as a separate standalone facility adjacent to the existing Phase 1A processing facility. This allows for segregation of Phase 1 operational activities, the Phase 1 tie-in activities, and the Stage 2 or EP2 construction activities to occur in parallel with little impact on each other, which we see as a strong upside and de-risking tool.
Achieving throughput upside beyond 21 million tonnes when Stage 2 is in operations, I guess, is expected to be largely through continued de-bottlenecking optimization of the 1A and the EP2 plants, with really only modest further capital requirements anticipated to support these efforts in the future. I think the flexibility the Stage 2 asset offers is clearly evident, with the plant offering simplicity in design, user-friendly to operate, and very maintenance-friendly, with ease of access to all areas. Importantly, EP2 is not boxed in its layout, so it's conducive to further upside opportunities beyond what the flowsheet is showing us all here. The next two slides talk about the flowsheet and really an overview, and if we can go to slide 8, please, we'll talk about the flowsheet. The EP2 flowsheet shows a few design differences from both the current Phase 1A plant and the previous Phase 2 design.
The EP2 facility consists of a primary gyratory crusher followed by twin secondaries, cone crushers, which are in standalone structures covered with conveyors transporting the material between each stage. Crushed material is stored in a covered crushed ore stockpile and conveyed to the SAG mill and the ball mill crushers, mills, or an SABC circuit, if you like. The SABC circuit is used for coarse and finer grinding and consists of two 18-megawatt mills, SAG and a ball mill, with the circuit being closed off by cyclones and a pebble crusher. Traditional gravity concentrations are incorporated into the grinding circuit using two centrifugal concentrators that feed an intensive cyanide leach reactor, or an ILR, to recover gold from the gravity concentrate.
Two leach and absorption circuits, which each consist of both a CIP and a CIL train, give us real good comfort of the long-term recovery of this Phase 2 layout and maintains the 24-hour residence time that we believe and the test work shows is needed for good sustained recoveries and operability in this facility. Loaded carbon is treated in a double AARL circuit, an electrowinning circuit consisting of an acid wash column and two elution columns. Finally, a detox circuit is on the back end of this plant, carrying out cyanide destruction in the final tailings using oxygen and sulphur dioxide. We'll just jump over to slide 9 now.
And when we're looking at the process facility or the EP2 facility looking slightly south, you can see at the top of the screen from right to left our oversized gyratory crusher and twin secondary crushers that overarchingly feed a 38-millimetre coarse product to the covered coarse ore stockpile. As mentioned previously, the 18-MW SABC circuit with low-speed synchronous drives offer mechanical simplicity, electrical simplicity, and reduce risk in overall operations life of mine as effectively there's no gearbox between the motor and the mill ring gear on each mill. Separate CIP/CIL trains, as I mentioned before, with the ability to lay tanks off or in sections, really bolsters our mechanical availability of the asset life of mine. And a reminder that the remainder of the 1A and plant two are effectively independent of each other, and the versatility of this really for us is obvious.
If we jump across to slide 10, please, the front-end engineering and design of EP2 progressed really well during Q3, Q4, and we've got detailed project execution plans, a fully constrained schedule, and planning activities and early works and major works construction are well advanced if you think about it as a complete unit. We've already placed orders for several of the long lead items, including the primary grinding mills and the construction camps. In September 2025, if you recall, we placed the orders for the 18-megawatt ball and the 18-megawatt SAG mill. We've benefited with one of these mills from it being a previous customer order that was canceled, so it's de-risked some of our construction timeline, which we will see during the Stage 2 build.
Early works activities for EP2 are expected to start, as Dale mentioned earlier, in Q1 2026, and will focus on activities needed to facilitate time of construction, including installation of a new camp, additional geotechnical site investigation, earthworks, and further progression of detailed design and procurement activities, while also building Stage 1A, which I'll talk about shortly in parallel. Major works construction, as mentioned, we're scheduling for commencement in Q3 2026, and it's anticipated to last approximately two years. With first gold expected in Q3 2028 and full production before the end of 2028. If we can jump into slide 11, please, we'll just talk about Stage 1A.
For those of you who didn't hear, back in September, we approved the expansion of the current Stage 1 asset from 6 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes per annum, which really is clearly an attractive step change that will increase the nameplate capacity of the plant from 6 million to 8 million tonnes a year before the end of 2026. We're looking at opportunities to bring some of these upgrade additions ahead of the overall Phase 1A completion. However, we're cognizant that this is a brownfield expansion of sorts, and the operations and project teams collectively are focusing on a disciplined and efficient systems upgrade and integration as we move through H1 or the first half of next year into Q3. I'm pleased to date with the Phase 1A engineering, procurement, and construction activities since we received formal project approval.
The 3.5 megawatt vertical mill has been ordered, and overall, over 85% of the total procurement packages have been committed under a notice of award. In addition, earlier this month, we completed the foundation civil works for the new carbon leach pre-aeration and leach tanks, and foundation civil works are now progressing really well in that whole area of the plant. We are being very cognizant not to disturb or disrupt the operations team as they're working fiercely in the Stage 1 asset, but we'll be advancing the civil works during quarter one of next year for the vertical mill structural support foundation as well as the building foundation. We estimate the 1A plant will be completed at a capital cost of CAD 110 million, as previously communicated, and the benefit of the throughput increase from 1A is expected to be realized before the end of next year.
I'd like to turn the call back to Dale now. Cheers.
Thank you, Jeremy. As mining rates increase to feed the expanded plant facilities, I do just want to flag that the costs associated with building out the mine fleet and progressing tailings and water management infrastructure, as well as some other minor site infrastructure upgrades, are in addition to the EP2 capital cost. So annual expenditure estimates for these items will be provided each year, and for 2026, will be included in our production and cost guidance, again, which we plan to announce in January 2026. The 10-year All-in Sustaining Cost guidance shown earlier does include sustaining capital costs associated with the mine fleet, tailings and water projects, and other site infrastructure, but during the expansion period, so from 2026-2028, capital costs associated with expanding production will be considered growth capital and not included in the All-in Sustaining Cost.
As in 2025, we will continue to advance construction of the TSF, the tailings facility, and site water management infrastructure in alignment with the previously established plans. On slide 13, I just want to flag, we currently employ about 900 people on site, and that is both employees and contractors, and of these, around 25% are indigenous. At peak construction, EP2 is expected to generate 1,500 direct construction jobs, and that's not including additional indirect jobs and indirect induced economic activity. Once EP2 is completed, we do expect that our full-time employment will be around 1,200 direct employees and contractors, and these jobs, along with indirect and spin-off economic activity, will generate significant economic and community benefits for many years to come. On slide 14, I want to turn to some of our upside potential, and I think this is really exciting, notwithstanding our EP2 announcement.
As we flagged earlier, Blackwater's current reserve estimate, but I think it's a good reminder, is based on a $1,400 gold price. By applying a higher gold price for our pit design and cut-off grade, some of Blackwater's estimated resources could be converted into reserves to extend the mine life. This slide shows how even a $2,000 gold price could add more than 150 million tonnes and 3.2 million ounces to the mine plan using only the measured and indicated resources already identified, with further upside at higher gold prices and with extension to the resources, including our inferred resources. Additionally, we continue to see favorable grade control reconciliation with the conversion of material previously classified as waste into low and medium-grade material.
This low and medium-grade material, which is significant, is currently being stockpiled for processing later in the mine life, and by the end of this year, we'll have more than 14 million tonnes in our stockpile for future processing, and those stockpiles are expected to continue to grow throughout 2026. Beyond EP2, on slide 15, we will be aiming to de-bottleneck and optimize the new facilities and do see the potential to take Blackwater to a 25 million tonne per annum processing rate or beyond, which may require some additional processing circuit modification, and one of the things that we're looking at is a sulphide flotation circuit, but as Jeremy mentioned earlier, with limited capital expenditure. We will continue to evaluate a future Phase 3 expansion to go beyond 25 million tonnes per annum in conjunction with potential resource expansion and the mine life extension opportunities I mentioned earlier.
We continue to see near-term potential for margin improvements as we continue to increase our mill throughput rates and reduce costs. In addition, we are looking at longer-term alternative methods for transportation, and longer-term, I mean as we progress through 2026, but alternative methods for transportation of our waste material, electrification of the haulage fleet, and automation of our haulage operations, each of which could produce significant reduction in cost and, in the case of the first two, lower Blackwater's greenhouse gas emissions. We expect to advance all of these potential options in 2026. Finally, on this slide, we have two branches to our resource growth strategy at Blackwater, namely extensions to the current deposit and regional exploration. The current Blackwater deposit is not closed off, and we will begin drilling to test the extension of mineralization beyond the known resource in the first half of 2026.
On the regional front, we have started a CAD 5 million drill program on exploration, which should give us 15-25 km of reverse circulation drilling. We've done about 5,000 meters of that program to date, and this initial program is expected to be part of a broader and longer-term regional exploration strategy over the next 5-10 years to fully test the highly prospective and large land package that we do have. So we're looking forward to providing updates to our exploration strategy and progress over the next few quarters as we demonstrate the potential here. On the next slide, securing a stable supply of power is obviously a key component in the success of EP2.
We have received certain undertakings from BC Hydro to this end, and with the EP2 investment decision conditional upon receipt of formal confirmation of that supply, we do expect to have this in place in early 2026, and then on permitting, alignment is required on some of our permits, but we expect to obtain those in 2026, and that includes certain minor permits that are required for construction. On slide 17, this slide shows the future position of Blackwater with EP2, and this is transforming Blackwater into one of the largest single gold mines in Canada, with one of the lowest All-in Sustaining Costs and highest All-in Sustaining Cost margins among other large Canadian mining operations.
Turning to the last slide and in summary, the EP2 investment of around CAD 1.4 billion is an optimized and capital-efficient project delivering 13 million tonnes per annum of additional throughput capacity at a cost of just CAD 110 per tonne of additional annual throughput. It will produce over 500,000 ounces of annual gold production for the first 10 full years, and this will cement us as a leading and one of the top gold mines in Canada. We expect to generate industry-leading margins, as I said, and be in the lowest quartile globally on our All-in Sustaining Costs. We will generate significant economic benefits to the mine region through direct employment and other economic activity, and also provide benefits provincially and federally for many years to come.
Further to EP2, we have many upside opportunities, and in closing, I just want to highlight this includes potential for further tweaks to the EP2 design to push beyond 21 million tonnes after commissioning and alternative ore and waste transportation modes, which can really impact positively our costs. We will still be looking at a future Phase 3 development with another step change in throughput, but that will require further study and resources, and both of those we're actively pursuing. We have substantial resource upside from both the current strong gold price and from additional drilling that we have planned, and we have lots of regional exploration upside, so stay tuned. This concludes our presentation, and just before we turn it over to questions, I'd now like to turn the call over to Steven Dean, our Executive Chair, for some final remarks. Steven.
Thanks, Dale. Good morning, everybody. Today's announcement represents the further acceleration of our original plan to grow Blackwater in a staged manner with disciplined capital allocation and avoidance of shareholder dilution. For me, it's a very proud moment for the way our team has brought this together in such a timely manner. Blackwater is a rare asset in our industry. The operation's capacity is only constrained by milling capacity due to the current and potential scale of the deposit. As stated, we now allow ourselves to lift our head above the horizon during the execution of EP2 to further optimize our throughput capacity beyond 2029, and Jeremy has touched on that potential. Jeremy is known for not underbuilding processing facilities, and I'm sure this next step with EP2 will not disappoint.
Further supported by a planned re-optimization of the pit economics with more current gold prices, as Dale has mentioned, there's significant upside potential. The deposit is not closed off into the north and northwest, southeast, and at depth. We are constrained only by drill data. It would be shocking to think that there's not more or beyond the bounds of our current drilling. We're also seeing an outperformance from our grade control drilling of the deposit by significant percentages, particularly in the low and medium-grade buckets of tonnage. The 1,500 sq km around Blackwater in what we call Elephant Country for exploration will be tested over the next few years, and we've in fact started that in this current second half of 2025. We're going to be optimizing costs again.
We think with the scale and with the fixed centroids of the operation with one large deposit, one large TSF, one large waste dump, one large processing facility location, the electrification and optimization of haulage and/or conveying stand to reduce cost materially, as Dale has mentioned. The future remains very bright for Blackwater and Artemis. I want to thank all of you for your support and you and your families. I wish happy holidays, and we look forward to yet again another exciting year in 2026. Thank you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw the question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Harrison Reynolds with RBC. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Artemis Team, great to see the next step of Blackwater coming into focus and appreciate the detail provided in the remarks so far. I was hoping you could provide a bit more detail on the possibility of these further expansions on top of the Phase 2 plant. I guess sort of what are the puts and takes on sort of small-scale optimizations versus delaying for a potentially larger expansion pending resource growth and sort of looking further into the future? If a larger expansion was commissioned, what would you need to see in terms of resource growth? Would it have to be 20% bigger, 50% bigger? Obviously, not asking for a specific number, but just sort of conceptually.
Yeah, thanks, Harrison. And yeah, it's exciting to get the EP2 announced and going. We have a lot of work to do over the next three years. I think it's too early to say exactly where things will go beyond 21 million tonnes per annum, but I think as Steven and Jeremy pointed out, and similar to what we did with Phase 1, we will look to optimize. You know that we're targeting 10% above design. Again, just targeting 10% above design on 21 gets us very close to 25. There are lots of other opportunities that we will be looking at, but it's too early to be definitive around those. I did mention in my remarks about a potential sulphide flotation plant.
That's one of the things that we'll be looking at, but we showed what we could do with Phase 1, including a very capitally efficient Phase 1A, and we'll be looking to do the same down the road.
Got it. And then maybe more of a granular question on Phase 2. Could you break down some of the drivers behind the All-in Sustaining Cost outlook once Phase 2 is commissioned versus the costs that were laid out in the 2024 study? I guess how much of the variance is attributable to scope changes in a larger plant, general inflation, or mine plan adjustments, lowering cutoff grades, and sort of accounting for what's economical in the current environment? But just hoping you guys could provide a bit of context on what sort of feeds into this outlook of CAD 1,000-CAD 1,100 an ounce AISC outlook?
Yeah, thanks, Harrison. I guess for starters, the vast majority of our cost is driven by the economies of scale. So having a 21 million tonne per annum plant obviously helps our site operating cost on a per-tonne mined and milled basis. So we are, and this has always been the plan, to count on the economies of scale with those. I would say, and as we've spoken to you before, continuing to fix up some of the maintenance issues that we have had with the Phase 1A Phase 1 plant. As we look to 2026, our cost structure, as Steven mentioned, we'll be looking to drive our cost structure down. From the 2024 study, obviously, there's been some escalation, so that's taken into account, but it is a different design, as Jeremy pointed out, having a two-stage crushing circuit and an SABC circuit that is in our design.
I think, importantly, allows us to, and with the robustness of that design, allows us to optimize our cost structure going forward. So this is something that we'll continue to refine. It's based on our current resource and reserves. This has not been any change to our cut-off grade, so I just want to be clear on that. And with this 21 million tonne per annum plant and the potential optimization of that plant really does provide us lots of opportunity to take advantage of the higher gold price, lowering the cut-off grades in the future, and to drive our cost structures lower in the future. So we're going to be progressing all of those things through 2026. We'll continue to update the market as we progress.
I just want to highlight again, and we've talked about it before, but our opportunities to look at conveying options for ore and waste and electrification of our pit and our equipment really do present further, I would say, upside opportunities to lower our costs further. Stay tuned. We'll continue to progress those studies. Important milestone with EP2, and we'll progress from there.
Dale, if I could add to your comments, Harrison. Look, the costs are driven by a number of factors. I think your question is you're seeing a slightly higher AISC than earlier studies. I think the point that needs to be considered here is, firstly, those studies were done a few years ago, and costs have risen since then. We're definitely seeing cost pressures in various parts of the operation. I think the whole industry globally is feeling slight pressure for costs, not like we've seen in the last few years post-COVID, but there is still definitely cost pressure. We're seeing things like higher reagent consumption in the last seven or eight months in declaring commercial production. So we've considered that in some of these projections.
I read, in fact, last week in some of your own institution, Royal Bank's projections for 2026, that the industry itself, I think your research has factored in an 8% or 9% increase in AISC for 2026 in your research coverage universe. So I think what we're doing is factoring all of those things, but really the thing that should not be lost in the context of costs, and it's easy to do this, I know, is that Blackwater, regardless, is and will remain in the lowest decile of global AISC. And that's simply because of three or four things all coming together. One, the low strip. Two, the downhill loaded haul. Three, simple metallurgy. And most importantly, perhaps, the green low-cost cost of energy here in British Columbia, which makes it a very unique place to make gold.
So I think those things are underpinning and will continue to underpin our position in the cost curve. But yes, there is cost pressure, and that's what you're seeing reflected in these long-term projections.
Great note. That sounds good. I appreciate the details and the mention of the research. That's certainly what we're seeing, but good to see Blackwater still has an absolutely best-in-class margin profile here in Canada. I mean, that's it for me. All the best over the holidays and into next year.
Thanks, Harrison.
Our next question comes from Andrew Mikitchook with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you to the team for taking us through all this and quite a bit of detail already. Can we come back to this $1,400 reserve, I guess, pit mine plan? That obviously differs drastically from the current gold price or any forecast consensus price or anything. Have there been at least first passes of optimizing the mine plan? I could imagine lower movement rates, at least maybe during this construction period or something like that over the next few years as potential outcomes of looking at something like that. Where does all that stand, and how did you come back to working from a $1,400 pit?
Yeah, thanks, Andrew. And yeah, I just want to reiterate that, and as I think I mentioned in my remarks, assuming a $2,000 pit shell that adds almost 160 million tonnes and more than 3 million ounces just with what we already have drilled. And so as we progress in 2026, we will be taking obviously the reconciliation and this conversion we see from waste to a lot of it being medium-grade material that we're stockpiling, that will be taken into account in our 2026 guidance. So we will be coming out with that in January. And then we are going to be drilling at depth in the current deposits starting early next year. We will be utilizing that drilling together with the reconciliation analysis and looking at different gold prices and cut-off grades to fully optimize longer term.
Obviously, we've optimized the mine plan for the current cut-off grade and the current $1,400 gold price, and that's been run through, but there's lots of upside opportunity, is really what I'm getting at, and we're going to be pursuing that in 2026. By the end of 2026, we do anticipate coming up with a new resource and reserve model, and as we progress that, we'll continue to optimize our mine plans.
Dale, I think the other thing to add is that if your concern, Andrew, is that we're throwing away gold because we're using too low a gold price, not happening. I think you're hearing that we're stockpiling a bunch of low and medium-grade stockpile. I think we're originally forecasting to have about one and a half to two million tonnes of low and medium-grade stockpile at the year end. I think the number is closer to 10.
It'll be 14 by the end of the year.
Oh, is it? Changed again. It's 14 million tonnes by the end of the year of low- and medium-grade stockpile. So there's no risk of us losing out on using this $1,400 gold price. I think that the focus right now is, remember, we're only eight or nine months into commercial production, to be fair. So let's get really good at managing what we've got, and then we'll reoptimize and we'll revisit the scale and cutoff equation and the higher gold price in 2026.
Yeah, no, see, not worried about losing gold. I just kind of, I think, reading between the lines of Dale's comments, I see so many ways to do this even better than what has already been delivered. So we'll all wait and see patiently for that. Just a few small questions. What's the timeline or expected release of kind of a 43-101 on this new Phase 2 plan?
Yeah, as I said, we do plan to come out with a new reserve and resource in 2026, as well as a technical report. We're still working through the exact timing of that. So stay tuned. There will be an update in 2026.
Okay. And then maybe last question, either Dale or Jeremy. You guys are now firmly into your second winter of operations. Any at least overall comments on how that's going, lessons learned, and how the operations are going at site for Phase 1, please?
Yeah, no, thanks for the question, Andrew. And you'll notice on our EP2 schedule, we plan to commission that in the third quarter, so before the winter. It's never fun commissioning something for the first time in the winter. But I just want to highlight we did do that with Phase 1. So this is the second winter. We learned a lot by starting up in the January timeframe, which we did earlier this year for Phase 1. And so as a result of that, we did a lot of winterization activities. And yeah, we're in so much better shape than when we first started up last winter. So things are going well. There's always additional challenges with winter conditions, but we're managing through those well.
Okay, well, that answers my questions. Thank you. I'll wish everyone happy and safe holidays and pass the microphone to the next person.
Thanks, Andrew.
The next question comes from Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll continue to focus on the upside opportunities beyond the 21 million tonnes per annum. With Phase 1, you'd always indicated that there was potential for it to outperform, but it wasn't until that was completed that you provided the official 1A plan and the guidance to 6.6 million tonnes per annum. With Phase 2, will you wait until the end of 2028 for it to be complete to provide further clarity on if and when we would go to 25 million tonnes, or might we get some sort of study earlier on ahead of that?
Yeah, I would say two things to answer your question, Jeremy. Jeremy , Jeremy Langford, feel free to kick in as well. We did announce this 10% on Phase 1. We're still in the middle of building Phase 1A. First and foremost, we'll look to optimize Phase 1A beyond the 8 million tonnes starting later next year. That's first and foremost. We're just getting early work started on Phase 2. We have lots of things that we're pursuing, both from a resource and mine planning point of view, as well as doing the detailed design on Phase 2. I think we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves too early, but we'll be keeping an eye on that throughout.
As Steven pointed out, Jeremy typically doesn't build plants that can only do design, and we will be looking to optimize whether we announce that ahead of commissioning or during or right afterwards. I think we have to see how things progress. But Jeremy , I don't know if you have any other further comments on that around the build itself for EP2.
No, I don't directly echo your thoughts precisely. I think, Jeremy , you've been to site three or four times, and I've been lucky enough to host you on those occasions. You've probably heard me say, and probably a lot of people on this call have heard me say this as well, that Blackwater is spoiled for choice. So we've been very deliberate in making sure that we don't remove upside opportunities further down the track. We've talked about things such as different ways of moving ore from the pit to the tailings stand, which isn't in the stage EP2 at the moment or stage 1A. But those opportunities are still well in front of us. And we want to make sure that when we are considering these different expansion or upside opportunities, that we have the time to be able to take them through due process.
I think what we're putting on paper now and what we're putting out now is simple, really robust, but also provides us with a really good platform for catapulting into what Blackwater really can do in the future.
Yeah, understood. Thank you very much for the color. Next question, I guess, is I guess related to what Andrew was getting at with the technical reports. Sounds like timing not yet certain, but will you guys provide a grade profile upon which the production estimates you guys gave us yesterday are based?
Yeah, we'll come out with our guidance for 2026 in January, Gerrie. And for technical report, I think you can look to the first half of 2026 and would have those details. And then later in the year, a new reserve and resource estimate if you're thinking about timing.
Jeremy, you could be guided by the 2024 expansion study if you're looking for grade.
Yeah, so it really doesn't vary significantly.
Yep. And you'll see that. You can see that from the guidance we've put out there. It's pretty straightforward to back calculate up as well. Yeah.
Okay, excellent. Thank you very much. One last one for me, and it's operations related. You've separated Phase 2 now from Phase 1. You mentioned that it has benefits for maintaining operations while you're in construction. Are there any operational benefits? And how do you determine which ore goes into which plant while they're both running?
Do you want to take that one, Jeremy?
Yeah, sure. Good question, Jeremy. Look, the ore is pretty consistent when you look at the life of mine, I guess, physicals and lithology and the relative ore properties. Obviously, as we get further into and the asset is more mature, there will be different campaigns that we will choose to run, and all operators do the same. But this process facility, EP2, Phase 1A can take either of the feeds. So they're not specific to a certain part of the ore body. They're very homogeneous in terms of one plant can produce whatever the other plant can produce as well. We haven't tied the two plants together just to the second part of your question, Jeremy, but there's very clear synergies in possibly coupling up things and optimizing things like reagents mixing, storage, and distribution, and some of the other detoxification processes that could be common between both plants.
We haven't chosen to do that as such yet, but I think I mentioned just very early on in the presentation that the asset's not boxed in, and I've deliberately left access ways and opportunities for us to cross-connect the plants in certain situations to provide a benefit to us.
Thanks, Jeremy. And maybe I'll just add, with our two primary crushers and a very large ROM pad, we do have lots of blending capacity and ability. And I think, and I'll thank you for the question, Jeremy, because I do think this is additional upside that we can optimize between these two plants. It's like having, as Steven pointed out, we have one mine, one tailings facility, but now we'll have two plants. It does provide both risk reduction as well as opportunities for blending campaigning. If we ever do see problematic ores in the future, we can put those through one plant and the smaller plant versus the bigger plant without impacting recoveries on the main plant. All of those things are just true optimization potential that we can take advantage of. And we've got a team that will be focused on that as this comes into operation.
Okay, great. I really appreciate the color. Thanks for taking my questions. Looking forward to learning more about these opportunities as you guys provide more information. I hope you all have happy holidays.
Thanks. Thanks, Jeremy.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Pierre Vaillancourt with Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. So my question was on guidance for next year. So you just answered it in the last question. But I guess I'll assume that in the meantime, it'll be at the lower end of your range that you provide, 275-425 in the 2026-2028 period. Is that appropriate?
Yeah, that's correct. And as you can imagine, Phase 1A doesn't come on until the end of 2026. So yes, 2026 is at that lower range. We just wanted to give a good indication. We're not coming out with formal 2026 guidance yet. That'll come soon. But we wanted to give a good indication with this expansion period. And obviously, in 2027, we'll be running an 8 million tonne or more as we optimize. And then for 2028, we start to feather in the EP2 as that comes online. And obviously, that will be the higher gold production. And you can think about the cost guidance that we also gave in this 800-900 range that with the lower gold production, it would be the higher cost guidance and vice versa as we get more gold production. So you can think about it in those terms, Pierre. Yeah.
Okay, thanks. And so you're talking about the BC Hydro . Can you just outline what you anticipate cost-wise and how much power this is going to require? How does the power ramp up through to Phase 2?
Yeah, I'll just give some high-level color on that. We currently don't use all of it, but we have contracted power. And I'll just use nominal terms, but we have contracted power for about 70 MW long-term. And in order to support EP2, we need about another 50. So it's not we have more contracted power now than we're using. Just very high level gives you a flavor. And so we just need long-term commitments from BC Hydro on that additional power. I think it's important to flag that we don't need major upgrades for our transmission line and no upgrades. It's capable of supporting those rates. And the Glenannan Substation, our current view is that needs very little, if anything, to upgrade as well to wheel that power in. So I think we're sitting in pretty good shape, and we're progressing well on our discussions with BC Hydro.
Okay. And what cost is that?
Sorry, I didn't catch that, Pierre.
What cost?
Oh, it's at standard industrial rates, and that's, I'm being very nominal, but CAD 0.05 or CAD 0.06 a kilowatt-hour for power supply is where current industrial rates are.
Okay, great. And then just as you're thinking longer term, do you have a sense of just what kind of contribution you could get from some of the power-saving measures that you anticipate? Or is that just too far in the future at this point?
Yeah, I think it's significant, and as well, I mean, we have cheap hydroelectric power, so the more we can take advantage of that, the better. We also have a downhill haul, and so our fuel consumption is low, but yeah, I just think it's a real opportunity to convey when we have fixed conveyors on our mine and our stockpiles and on our tailings to further save fuel costs to drive our greenhouse emissions down and take advantage of this cheap hydroelectric power, so our current plant design for Phase 1 is to be on 100% hydroelectric power, and Jeremy, you can confirm, but I think our Phase 2 design, our EP2 design is very similar, so it really is virtually 100% electric.
Got it. Okay. Okay, thanks very much.
We are now out of time. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Meg Brown for any closing remarks.
Thanks, operator. I just wanted to quickly note that there were a few people in the queue that we didn't get to. We are, unfortunately, out of time at the one-hour mark, but we'll follow up individually with those people. And Dale, did you have any closing comments?
No, I just want to thank everyone for joining the call. I hope we answered all your questions, and if you do have any follow-up questions, we are available for that follow-up. Really look forward to reporting on our optimization and growth progress. It's really exciting to embark on this EP2 journey and together with our upside that we're continuing to focus on, and yeah, look forward to updating everyone on the progress. Happy holidays, everyone, and we'll see you in the new year.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.