Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Thor Explorations Limited investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged; they can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that is just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and will publish those responses where it is appropriate to do so on the Investor Meet Company platform. Before we begin, as usual, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to CEO Segun Lawson. Segun, good afternoon, sir.
Good afternoon and welcome to everyone. I'm pleased to be here presenting our Q3 results for the year 2025, for the financial and operating performance for the three months ended September 30th, 2025. There is our standard disclaimer: this presentation will include forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. You can read the details of this disclaimer, which can be found on our website in our presentation. For the new joiners and the people who aren't fully up to date with the company, here is an overview. Thor Explorations is a West Africa focus group producer.
We're advancing projects in three West African countries: in Nigeria, where we have our flagship Segilola Gold Mine, which is in its fourth calendar year of gold production, having produced 85,000 ounces in 2024. We're in Senegal, where we are advancing our Douta Project through to preliminary feasibility study. We are in Côte d'Ivoire, where we went in in 2024 and have assembled a very exciting early-stage portfolio of gold exploration licenses. The Segilola Gold Mine is based off a DFS open pit reserve of just over 500,000 ounces, rating at 4.2 g per ton. In 2025, we have reduced our guidance to the top half of our initial guidance, and we expect to produce between 90,000 and 95,000 ounces this calendar year. We have also narrowed our all-in sustaining cost guidance to between $900 and $1,000 per ounce.
We think we're well positioned to achieve this. In Senegal, we have two contiguous licenses that make up the Douta Project and have recently added an early-stage contiguous exploration license. The Douta Project's current resource is 1.78 million ounces, of which 875,000 ounces is in the indicated category, rating at 1.3g per ton. We have a new discovery that we have made, the Baraka 3 discovery in the Douta West license, which makes part of the Douta Project as well. This project is being advanced to preliminary feasibility study, which is now at the final stages, and we are still aiming to have that released in a matter of weeks. In Côte d'Ivoire, we have the Guitry Gold project, which we own 100% of in the south of the country, the Marahui Gold license in the northeast of the country, and the Boundiali Gold license in the northwest.
Ongoing exploration has been going on on all three, with a target made of resource on the Guitry license and drilling ongoing and kicking off across all three. We also have, not as a priority of ours, an early-stage lithium exploration portfolio in Nigeria, which consists of over 600 sq km. We've carried out our initial exploration drill programs on these licenses. We are listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and also the TSX-V market of the Toronto Stock Exchange. We have just over 665 million shares outstanding. There are no options and warrants outstanding either. Based on yesterday's closing price, we had a market capitalization of CAD 791 million.
We've had a very strong share price performance year to date and over the last 12 months, and we still believe, and I still believe, there's still significant upside potential that lies within the company, and I'll be pleased to take you through that in the presentation. In terms of our shareholders, our largest shareholders are Africa Finance Corporation, and we have been getting gradually more institutionalized, both in North America, the U.K., and in Europe over the last 12 months. You can see some of our target prices. We're covered in the U.K. by Canaccord, Hannam & Partners, and Alternative Resource Capital. Regarding Q3 2025, I'm pleased to state we delivered another solid, successful, profitable quarter with strong production at Segilola. We're now on track and very well positioned to end the year at the top half of our guidance.
We generated a net profit of $43.1 million in the three months, and this was supported by the continued high prevailing gold price and our ongoing operational and cost efficiencies. During the period, we poured 22,600 ounces of gold, of which we sold 19,650 ounces, at an average price of $3,535 per ounce, generating revenues of just under $70 million with an EBITDA of $51.8 million. Our adjusted net cash position has now grown to $81 million, reflecting robust cash generation. Exploration activity continues to advance at Segilola. Drilling was focused on extending this mine life, and we've initiated a review of underground potential and also expect an updated resource at the end of the year with publication in the first quarter next year. In Senegal, we increased our ownership in the Douta Project to 100% of the original Douta license.
This is an important milestone as we work towards a Douta PFS release in the coming weeks. We're also pleased to announce that the drilling program at Baraka 3 returned positive results, and we expanded our project footprint via the acquisition of an initial 65% interest in the Boussac-Koba permit, which lies contiguous to the east. In Côte d'Ivoire, drilling at Guitry was completed, an initial program, and it enhanced our geological understanding. While further geochemical work at Marahui has generated additional high-grade targets ahead of a major drilling program, which we're kicking off in a matter of days. As we approach the year end, in addition to our narrowed 2025 production guidance to the upper end of 90,000-95,000 ounces, we've also narrowed our all-in sustaining guidance to $900-$1,000 per ounce.
Looking at our financial highlights, we've completely de-levered our balance sheet, which happened at the end of last year, and this has resulted in clear working capital inflection from our position last year, where we had a negative working capital deficit of $27.8 million to where we are now of $96.6 million in a working capital surplus. You can look in the top left-hand chart; the gold prices have continued to rise, and Q4 to date, we are averaging gold sales well above $4,000 per ounce. We are also being very disciplined with our costs and keeping our costs below $1,000 per ounce. Our cost profile and margins have been efficient and growing on a per ounce basis, and we expect that to continue into Q4.
Our liquidity and cash flow generation, we also expect to increase through Q4 based on the high gold price and maintaining the same costs. In Q3, we paid our third dividend to date, making it a total of $11.9 million so far in 2025 returned to shareholders. From a financial point of view, we are positioned for a very strong performance in Q4 with higher average gold prices, increased gold sales than we had in Q3, a lower projected all-in sustaining costs, all resulting in higher margins for the company. From an operational point of view, the total material mined is less than and will continue to be less than it has been, even though we are mining more ore. We are mining less waste as we continue to mine in the narrower southern portion of the pits.
We continue to stockpile ore that's below one gram per ton, and now our stockpile sits at over one million tons, 1.65 million tons, which equates to 44,000 ounces of gold, grading at 0.8 g per ton. That's over a year's worth of processing material sitting on the stockpile at a $4,000 gold price with a headline number of over $170 million. In terms of ore processed, we have seen since Q3 last year a gradual and trending improvement in our recoveries from 88.5% in Q3 last year to 94.3% at the end of Q3 this year. We recovered 23,600 ounces of gold, which was 1,000 ounces more than the gold we poured. Our golden circuit now is around about 4,000 ounces, and this is also contributing to a very strong financial and operational performance in Q4.
At the end of Q3, we had in gold, dory, and bullion approximately 4,500 ounces, which were sold subsequent to the end of the quarter at an average gold price above $4,000 per ounce versus $3,500 per ounce that was achieved in Q3. Regarding our social responsibility and community development, we continue to prioritize this as a first mover in the country. We had one LTI injury in the period, zero fatalities, and this was over almost 2 million man-hours that were worked. Our water, energy, and emissions intensity levels were down. However, our greenhouse gas emissions were up due to higher equipment use. In terms of our CSR, we continue to deliver projects to the three host communities that fall within our mining license. This quarter, that has included completion of a school scholarship program and a women's initiative.
We've started construction on a community school redevelopment and a new bottled water factory. We've launched a chronic healthcare support program, and we have a workforce of over 2,000 people at the project. Outside Nigeria and Senegal, where we are finalizing our preliminary feasibility study, we have had our environmental impact assessment submitted and validated by the relevant authorities. Looking at our growth potential, the first point of call has been underneath the pit in Nigeria at Segilola, really because this is and will continue to be the biggest bang for our buck. We have committed to extending this mine life, and we have taken a long-term view of being in Nigeria as a gold producer. All our capital that we have sunk in the country has been repaid.
We are, again, reiterating that we are sitting on a completely de-levered balance sheet, and every ounce we produce is essentially what I like to refer to as a super ounce with no significant CapEx requirements. We had initially an inferred resource that existed underneath the pit of over 150,000 ounces. We have carried out a drilling program to improve our confidence in these ounces, and the drilling program has been a success. The drilling program is ongoing. There are now five drilling rigs drilling at the various targets we have underneath the ground, underneath the pit, where we have a much better understanding of the structural controls and the geology. Currently, we are targeting a resource that's going to take us that's going to take to the end of the year to complete, and we look forward to announcing this resource in Q1 next year.
Our drilling is targeted at well-constrained mineralized loads, which we have defined through structural studies and through reinterpretation of the historic drilling and carrying out petrography studies. The other study we are carrying out at the moment is an option study looking at deepening the southern end of the pit, where we have previously assessed it at a much lower gold price. At today's gold price, we're with gold above $4,000. We are looking at our options in terms of optimizing the pit and changing the inflection point from transitioning from an open pit to an underground. This effectively means mining out more pits in the open pit whilst we are at the bottom of the pit. I think I would, on this slide, the final point to emphasize is that what is clear from our drilling program to date is that mineralization remains open at depth.
Our deepest holes have continued to intersect minable high-grade widths, and we look forward to continuing to take these deeper and getting to a critical mass in terms of an updated resource. Our exploration does not end underneath the pit. We are also revisiting the satellite pits, which we had previously discovered, trying to extend the strike length of them drilling along strike and down dip. Our focus has been on the western prospects, where we are currently drilling, and also on the southern prospects. We are actually, at the moment, carrying out a pilot program, which consists of permitting and going through and mine design and mine planning, which is aimed at excavating the first southern prospect, Kejola Lawla, during the course of next year and stockpiling the small high-grade deposit at the plant.
We look forward to updating the market with this, and this will also be included in our updated mineral resource. Moving over to Senegal, where we have the Douta Project. This is a strategic landholding of ours with a global resource of 1.78 million ounces, of which 875,000 ounces of those are based in the indicated category. The Douta Project, which initially consisted of one license, has now been expanded into two licenses, and we've now added a third early exploration license to our portfolio. The work streams in support of the preliminary feasibility study are being finalized, and as I mentioned earlier, we believe we're on the home straight and aim to release the preliminary feasibility study in a matter of weeks.
We believe that this is the first opportunity we've had to exhibit any financials and economic value to this project, and we're very much looking forward to this. The preliminary feasibility study we've been carrying out has been carried out alongside our existing contractors that we have used in Nigeria to build the mine. To obtain real quotes, we want to be in a position, and we believe we will be in a position to fast-track this preliminary feasibility study to a final investment decision. We would like to be in a position where, and we believe we will be in a position where we are ordering the long lead items in the not-too-distant future as early as the first half of next year. We believe the upside potential for the Douta Project is still very exciting.
If you look at this slide, the Boussac-Koba license, which we acquired, lies between our Makosa resource that contains the bulk of our resource and the Baraka 3 discovery, which we have drilled this year. There is a 30 km strike length of gold anomalism in between these two licenses, these two discoveries, sorry, which are characterized by significant high-grade gold-in-soil anomalism. This has only been partially tested through drilling with some encouraging initial RAB drill results: 5 meters at 4 g per ton, 5 meters at 2.71 g per ton, and 4 meters at 2.08 g per ton. It has also got trench results just in two areas, which included 1 meter at 52 g per ton and 2 meters at 11.
Needless to say, we think the exploration potential here is blue sky, and we are already, as we speak, on the ground there carrying out the necessary work to generate drill targets. That includes geological mapping, further soil sampling, and auger sampling. These are areas we are looking to test with RAB drilling in Q1 next year and then subsequently RC drilling. We hope that this now contributes to a longer-term Douta Project once the project is up and running, being able to contribute from the three licenses and contribute to the extension of any initial mine life that is defined in the preliminary feasibility study. Finally, in our third jurisdiction, we are in Côte d'Ivoire, where we have our three licenses. We are active on all three. Côte d'Ivoire has just come out of a presidential election. We are now back in the field there.
There have been several world-class gold discoveries made there the last 5 to 10 years. We're very excited to be there as of round about this time last year when our exploration work progressed. Starting off with the Guitry license in the south of the country, we acquired a 100% interest in this project, which had historical drilling of over 11,000 meters. During the quarter, we finished our drilling program, which was 4,600 meters in 41 holes, and the drilling intersected and confirmed previously untested deeper bedrock mineralization, which encouragingly remains open in several directions. In addition to this, significant areas of this license, which have very similar geochemical signatures, remain untested, and we have work programs, including a large drilling program kicking off this month in Côte d'Ivoire. We are looking to publish a maiden resource.
There have been delays in getting back into the field due to a prolonged rainy season and a presidential election. However, we believe we're well positioned to deliver this in Q1 next year. Taking a closer look at the Guitry project, we have now defined six parallel mineralized lodes, which all remain open along strike and at depth. These mineralized lodes have been characterized by high grade and only consist of a small portion of the entire license. Our drilling program is going to aim to extend these mineralized lodes, but also target them at depth. We have also carried out soil geochemistry, rock chip sampling in various other areas of the license, and have designed drilling programs which will continue there.
In Côte d'Ivoire, we have just come to the end of a rainy season, and we believe now, once we kick off these drilling programs, we will be continuing here for the next eight months non-stop. Our second license in Côte d'Ivoire, the Marahui project, has been extremely encouraging for us. If we look at the image on the left-hand side, the yellow polygons you see are soil geochem anomalies, which are being worked into drilling targets. I was previously extremely excited over the 5 km anomaly we had found and validated with rock chip sampling. However, in the quarter, we got further encouraging results with a parallel structure being mineralized at extremely high grades for a strike length of 3 km. Some of the grades here include 17.3g per ton, 7.1g, 4.4g, and 4.3 g per ton, all stretching over this 3 km long geological contact.
This project now has 8 km of targets that have been proven in the soils, have been proven in terms of geology and in the bedrock, and has a drilling program kicking off in a matter of days as well. This is a project I believe once we start drilling in a few days, we will also continue drilling through to July, and we're very excited to see where this takes us. To summarize, our full-year production has been narrowed to the upper half, 90-95 thousand ounces of gold, and correspondingly, we've narrowed our all-in sustaining cost guidance to $900-$1,000 per ounce. We're positioned for a financially robust final quarter of the year, where we have more gold to sell at higher margins and a higher gold price.
We have now entered a new drilling season in all three jurisdictions, and we will be drilling at a faster rate across all our projects. In Nigeria, the underground drilling will continue to target and grow the underground resource. We are currently drilling the scout satellite targets near mine and regional. In Senegal, we very much look forward to the preliminary feasibility study release, after which I will most likely do another detailed investor webinar to talk through the project's economics, and we are restarting our fieldwork there where we are carrying out extensive RC and RAB drilling programs on Baraka 3 and an auger drilling program at our new license, Boussac-Koba. Finally, in Côte d'Ivoire, exploration is being advanced in all three licenses with the RC drilling program, testing the new targets at Guitry and kicking off our initial maiden drilling program at Marahui.
In summary, we continue to be underpinned by our strong cash flow in Nigeria, which gives the ability to fund all our activity across the three jurisdictions, and we very much look forward to the upcoming catalysts in the preliminary feasibility study and the drilling results we are going to generate over the next eight months. Thank you very much.
Perfect, Segun, that's great. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab that's situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. While Segun takes a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted already, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can all be accessed via your investor dashboards.
Segun, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions that were both pre-submitted ahead of today's event, as well as those that have made their way through throughout your presentation this afternoon as well. Firstly, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. Segun, at this point, sir, if I may just hand back to you to read out those questions and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so. If I pick up from you at the end, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go through the questions now. All right. First question says, "Given the amount of cash on hand, will likely be enough to cover continued exploration for the coming year and enough to cover a majority due to phase one?
What plans do you have in terms of capital allocation and, in particular, increasing the dividend given the 30% increase in the gold since the maiden announcement? Yes, we certainly will have enough cash to cover all our objectives across the portfolio and keep a buffer. Our dividend announcement is a minimum dividend announcement. This will be reviewed following the year-end as we look into going into next year. It's clear that we do have more cash than we anticipated. However, we do have very aggressive, ambitious plans. Our exploration spend are going to be increased across all three jurisdictions, particularly if the results come back encouraging. It's something we would like to move aggressively. Obviously, we're going into, hopefully, a build next year, which is going to require a contingency as well. The underlying message is that we're well funded.
We believe our balance sheet will continue to grow. Our dividend policy is currently at a minimum, and we do have the ability to increase that, and we will be reviewing that early next year prior to the year-end financial release. You mentioned that the Segilola resource update will now come in Q1 2026, but will be defined by year-end. Will this include satellites or just the underground pit the consultants have brought in to work? Do you have a more refined estimate date within Q1? It will include, I think I mentioned this in the presentation, it will include the satellites that we plan to bring in. We plan to mine, but on the other satellite targets, we are continuing to drill, and those will be excluded. I can't give a more refined date just yet, but we are targeting Q1.
You often refer to the Marahui as the prospect you're most excited about. What about the prospect? What about the prospect? What other prospect is exciting you more than others in the portfolio? Yeah, Marahui is certainly extremely exciting. I mean, those rock chip results we're getting at surface, extremely encouraging in the geological setting. However, I'm very encouraged by what we see underneath Segilola. I don't think we've closed out this resource by any means. I'm looking forward to a step-out program. I'm looking forward to drilling deeper and seeing what this updated resource looks like. Which satellite deposit in Nigeria would you be first to mine? How many years would that happen? Will you need permits for that? I mentioned in the presentation in the southern prospects, there's a target called Kejola. We've already started the permitting process. We've already been given a license.
We're doing the other remaining regulatory permits. The timeframe for that is during the course of next year, and we're already carrying out a mine design on that. Without adding any additional resources to Segun Lawson, how long can we carry on mining 20,000 plus ounces per annum? Will the production rate significantly fall as the mine life comes to an end? We still have, up until 2026, 2027, 2028, we still will be producing well above 20,000 ounces through to late 2029, and that's assuming we don't find another ounce of gold. We'll be having our updated guidance out early next year, and with the updated resource, we'll have more concrete numbers for that. It was previously said by the company that the Douta PFS would be more advanced than normally expected in terms which reduces the extent of the final study.
Is this still true, and can you give some insight into when this further study would be completed and final investment decision made on the project? I think I answered that in the presentation. There are some aspects of it which will still need refining, which will not be quite at the DFS level, but there will be some aspects of it which are very advanced, like I mentioned, particularly on the EPC side. We have been working alongside our EPC contractor throughout this process for well over a year. The costings are going to be not materially different to what we expect to end up paying. With that in mind, we are aiming to be in a position where we can make that final investment decision in Q2 next year. What is your thoughts about financing around Douta?
With cash generation so strong at the moment, are you going to try and minimize that finance if it's to be included? Can investors expect much more favorable deals than the one struck with the AFC to build Segilola? First of all, we can certainly put up a much bigger equity component, and we are positioning and aiming not to raise any equity to build this Douta Project. This will be done entirely from our balance sheet and from financing through debt. We believe that the fact that we're generating strong cash out of Nigeria puts us in a much better position in terms of our financing options, in terms of our debt options, whether it's conventional project finance or a hybrid of project finance and a corporate loan or revolver.
We certainly expect it to be on much more beneficial terms than it was when we were essentially a startup in Nigeria with no track record and no cash generation. Yes, we do expect better terms. Even if it is with a third party or with the AFC themselves, we believe our full, strict five-year track record of generating cash, timely repayments, and a strengthened balance sheet should all enhance our proposition. The next two questions we've already answered. I'll go to the AISC appears to have crept up in Q3. Is this as a result of holding back in Q3 to sell in Q4? If not, has the AISC continued into Q4, and should we expect this to be the new normal with an increased gold price? No, we don't expect continued increases in the AISC.
The AISC, like it was rightly mentioned, is calculated based on the gold sold, of which we had over 3,000 ounces, close to 4,000 ounces, unsold in Q3 and moved into Q4. Like I mentioned, that's been sold in Q4. We're aiming to sell more in Q4 at higher gold prices. Our costs have remained materially the same. So averaging through the course of the year, we expect to fall below $1,000, and we expect that to be the same in Q4. Okay. Given that Sabodala-Massawa next door has low biotic recoveries, and you mentioned before challenges with metallurgy yourself, can you provide some color when it comes to the sulfide part of the ore in Douta? Yes. Look, it's been no secret that we've been working hard on the metallurgy of the much deeper fresh material. It hasn't been a straightforward processing.
It hasn't been a straightforward processing flow sheet, should I say. It's certainly not the same problem as Massawa. It's not a sulfide problem that we've had. We believe we now have a solution which is going to generate a strong economic outcome in the preliminary feasibility study, and that certainly does not require the CapEx used in BIOX. Just to give a back-of-the-envelope number, we still think the estimate for this CapEx will lie between $250 million and $300 million, and that will be for the oxide phase of the plant and the second phase of the plant, which targets the fresh. Two questions. Congratulations to you and your team. First question, what are the challenges you're facing right now? Can you discuss your approach to the dividend and the size of the dividend over the next 12 to 18 months?
At the moment, I'm pleased to say we are essentially in a steady-state operation. Our challenges are the regular day-to-day challenges, managing supply chains, making sure the operation hits the targets, making sure we have a good maintenance culture, good cost discipline. Secondly, the second half of the question was our dividend policy. I think I covered that in the presentation. We are looking to—we will review that. Our dividend policy was set up for a minimum of two years and was given a minimum dividend amount of $0.0125 per quarter, which was $0.05 per year. That was prior to the gold price rise. We are very open to reviewing that when the board has its discussions following the end of this financial year-end.
Regarding the permits in Senegal, could you outline which key permits are required to bring the Douta into construction and what typical timelines there are to obtain them? I'm pleased to say that we have been working on the permitting for a matter of months now. We have done all the necessary work and submitted everything to the government in terms of converting from an exploration license to a mining license. One of the missing pieces was the final flow sheet on the metallurgy. We're now in a position to submit that. One of the final approvals we require also is submitting of the environmental impact assessment and having that validated. I'm pleased to say post Q3 over the last few days, in fact, we've had our environmental impact assessment validated.
In terms of timeline, we are hoping and we're aiming for, based on feedback and the stakeholders we're working with, to have everything fully permitted by the end of Q2 2026. My understanding is that you're scheduled to start processing stockpiled ore in the second half of 2026. If so, I guess this would imply lower production volumes while you expand the open pit transition to underground. Maybe satellites could come into play. Are you able to add some color on how you see this transition developing? No, at this moment, I'm wary of providing too much color here. It's an evolving process. Even the fact that we're carrying out studies to extend the open pit beyond the original design will come into play. I think that question will be probably better answered in Q1 when we've drawn a line and we have an updated resource.
The next question is the same as the last, pretty much. Okay, next question. Are there ways of hedging these higher gold prices to guarantee a proportion of future revenue, for example, agreeing to X number of ounces for X dollars over 12 months? At the moment, we don't see the requirement to hedge. We hedged in Q1 last year, a quarter of our production for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, we did so to cover our debt repayments. Unfortunately, it meant we weren't as profitable as we would have been had we not hedged. I think we would like to maintain our exposure to the gold price for now. That can always be reviewed, particularly as we don't have these debt repayments to make. Do you have any thoughts for ounces of gold sold in 2026? Production, 90-95 thousand ounces.
We're hoping ounces within 2,000 ounces or so of where we land in terms of production. Any updates on your plans to exploit lithium, or have those been sidelined given the strong rising gold price? The lithium venture has been put down the priority list. We have been focused on the gold, not just because of the high gold price, really because we are putting all our resources into extending the mine life. We already have the lithium portfolio in the back pocket to revisit and carry out a strategic review of early next year. We have all hands on deck, drilling underneath the pit, drilling satellite targets, also carrying out grassroots exploration on our licenses in areas we haven't explored previously. It's something we certainly will revisit. It's something we haven't discarded, but now we just think it's just simply too important to prioritize the gold exploration.
Does the improved volume average recently and strong balance sheet allow for buybacks in the future, given undervalued shares? This is something we visited earlier this year. We thought the dividend was the most efficient mechanism for a company our size, having the AIM listing as well with the various restrictions. It is something that we'll continue to review and discuss as a board and management. In all three jurisdictions, have Thor got good relations and are content with tax levy? Simple answer is yes. In Nigeria, we're a first mover, and we have good relations with the stakeholders. In the other two, so far, we maintain a very good cordial relationship with the ministries who have been very supportive of our progress in these countries. You mentioned Segun Lawson has 500,000 ounces at 4g per ton.
You've never achieved this level of grade in your operations to date. Can you comment on the discrepancy, please? Yes, our throughput rate is blended. In some areas, we get super high grades, well above 5g, 6 g per ton. As you can see in the stockpile, we can maintain a stockpile of about 0.85 g per ton. We believe our optimal production for recovery and for processing is trying to maintain a head grade just over 3 g per ton. What is the royalty and duty levied in Nigeria? Yeah, combined, the royalty and duty rates are around about $16, between $16 and $20 per ounce. I think the 20,000 ounces might have been in reference to a quarter production. Okay. Okay. Thanks for the clarification. I think that's from a previous question.
Can you provide an update to the company's relationships with the government and respective countries you're working in and any concerns, if there are any? I think I covered parts of that question. At the moment, we don't have any concerns. We have a cordial relationship in the countries we're in. A personal question. You've been with Thor for a long time. What drives you, and what do you want? Sorry. What drives you, and what do you want? This must be a tight word to take. Where do you want to take the company? What do you see in the horizon? Look, I think there's a very good value proposition here. We're producing gold with no debt and all-time high gold environment. I believe we can build three mines in the next five years.
We can move to that level of being a mid-tier with three mines in three different jurisdictions. That is based on our existing portfolio. The fact that we have all this prospective ground also means that there is upside that we do not know is there. We think we can create significant value organically through the drill bit, and we will continue to hope to do so. In the near term of the next five years, transition from a single mine junior producer to a multi-jurisdiction operator with a significant mid-tier status. That is the last question. Thank you very much.
Perfect, Segun. That is great. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time and addressing every single question that came in for investors today.
Of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended. Segun, perhaps before really now, just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'd be great.
Yeah, I would gladly reiterate my closing comments from earlier, which is that we're now positioned for a very financially robust Q4. Should we hit our targets in terms of production? We're on top of our costs. We had a much of $500, on average, $500 price increase per ounce of gold from Q3. We're certainly expecting an economically robust Q4.
Across all three jurisdictions, we see a lot of growth, particularly drilling underneath the Segilola pit. I think, in particular, it's worth noting we have just kicked off an eight-month period where previously in our history, we've never been in this position. We're fully funded, no debt constraints, no requirement to raise external equity. We're going to be drilling for eight months straight on three very exciting projects, which I say three very exciting jurisdictions across all our very exciting projects, which I personally believe are going to deliver some very encouraging news flow for the next eight months on a periodic basis. Lastly, yeah, look, after the incredible hard work that's gone into the Douta preliminary feasibility study, we're getting closer and closer to releasing that. It's a project, like I always say, we're not just doing this feasibility study for academic purposes.
It's a project we're very much looking forward to building, and we believe can deliver significant value to our shareholders. Thank you.
Perfect, Segun. That's great. Thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? It will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Thor Explorations Limited, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Good afternoon to you all.