Mandalay Resources Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 11, 2023

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Marcella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Mandalay Resources Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

This call contains forward looking statements, which reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the company. Forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results of the company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the current expectations are disclosed under the heading Risk Factors and where in the company's annual information form dated March 31, 2023 available on SEDAR and the company's website. Mr. Boucher, you may begin your conference.

Speaker 1

Thank you,

Speaker 2

Marcella, and hello, everyone. Morning, afternoon or evening depending on where you are. Look, I'm very pleased that everyone could join us this morning, and I'm also thrilled to be able to speak for the first time in my capacity as Mandalay's new President and CEO. And over the remainder of this year in sharing my vision and strategy for our growth ambitions with you all as appropriate. In that regard and prior to discussing our Q1 2023 results, most of you would be aware that the Former CEO, Dominic Duffy, moved on just after Q1 2023 close in his executive capacity, but he will remain on our Board as one of our directors in a non executive capacity of which I'm grateful.

Speaker 2

I wanted to express my appreciation to Dominic for his contribution to Mandalay over his 12 years in various capacities and roles with the company, concluding as President and CEO. During his tenure as CEO, Mandalay made significant strides with a reset in 2019, followed by 3 successful years underpinned by operational improvements and most notably a strengthening of the balance sheet. Dominic's leadership was crucial to reestablishing the company's solid foundation and positioning it for our next growth phase. So thank you, Don. Look, as we transition to our next phase, I'm delighted to be leading Mandalay and I'm committed to identifying opportunities to drive this company forward to the benefit of all our stakeholders.

Speaker 2

There are huge opportunities in front of us, and I look forward to working closely with the Board on strategy and execution. This includes a focus on further strengthening our 2 current operations with with an accelerated near mine exploration program at both operations. And finally, identifying and assessing Best Fit Assets for Potential Inorganic Growth. On the call today is Nick Dwyer, Mandalay's Chief Financial Officer Ryan Osterberry, our Chief Operating Officer and Chris Davis, our Vice President of Exploration and Operational Geology. Mandalay released its Q1 2023 financial results at market close yesterday.

Speaker 2

And you can find our consolidated financial statements and MD and A on the Mandalay Resources website or under our profile on SEDAR. Look, to be direct, this was not one of Mandalay's best quarters. A number of mainly one off issues, coupled with a few recurring systemic issues led to an operational stumble to start 2023. At Costerfield, performance was hindered by the lower mined ore for a variety of trees and lower process grade in both gold and antimony as compared to previous quarters. At Bjorkdal, we faced supply chain challenges, which delayed the delivery of some critical underground equipment.

Speaker 2

Our COO, Ryan, will discuss these in further detail later in the call and outline the key actions we have taken to address and to rectify these issues in the coming quarters. However, Despite these challenges, Mandalay did turn a profit during the quarter, making it our 1st consecutive quarter of profitability. Moreover, at the end of the Q1 of 2023, we maintained a healthy balance sheet, supported by $42,000,000 in revenue, dollars 32,000,000 cash on hand and an EBITDA of nearly $13,000,000 with a net cash position of nearly $11,000,000 all while still encumbered by our current gold hedges, of which we paid $3,000,000 in the past quarter, but those hedges are finally set to expire by the end of quarter 2. I will now have Nick, Ryan and Chris to give an update on their respective areas, financials, operations and exploration. Over to you, Nick.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Fraser. So to build upon Fraser's earlier remarks, Mandalay ended the quarter with $34,000,000 in cash on hand and $23,000,000 in total interest bearing debt. This $11,000,000 net cash position is Mandalay's 2nd highest figure since coming into a net cash position this time last year. For the Q1 of 2023, Mandalay generated $42,000,000 in revenue and $13,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA. Due to the lower production rate, which Fraser touched on, we generated a smaller inflow from our operating activities as compared with previous quarters, which ultimately led to a negative free cash flow of $1,000,000 during Q1.

Speaker 3

Of those quarterly consolidated amounts just mentioned, Costa Field contributed CAD 23,000,000 towards revenue and $11,000,000 to adjusted EBITDA, with Bjorkdal making up the remaining $19,000,000 $4,000,000 in revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, respectively. As compared to Q1 last year, our realized gold price remained broadly in line at $19.43 per ounce, while the Antimony price declined slightly to 12800 dollars per tonne. Cash and all in sustaining costs per gold salable equivalent ounce during Q1 were $12.22 $15.96 respectively, which were approximately 34% 28% higher as compared to Q4 2022.

Speaker 2

These

Speaker 3

higher unit costs were a direct result from the lower production rate. So with the operational results in which Ryan will walk through shortly, we expect to get production back on track and anticipate that these unit costs will decrease in the coming quarters at both sides. And looking ahead towards the coming quarters, in connection with the prior credit facility, and metal hedging obligations of just over 4,000 ounces per month, which Ben Fraser just mentioned, will be fulfilled in June 2023, thus removing an encumbrance on our cash flows in the second half of the year. So we anticipate our cash flows to lift as a result, assuming a similar metal price going forward. I would now like to turn the call to Ryan.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Ryan.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Nick. So turning to our operations. Mandalay experienced Relatively Tough Quarter at Both Sites in Quarter 1 of 2023. On a consolidated basis, The company produced 19,986 saleable gold equivalent ounces, down about 22% as compared to Q4 2022. At Costerfield, process grades were below expectations and averaged 7.7 gram a tonne gold and 2.6 percent Antimony during Q1 of 2023.

Speaker 4

A direct driver for this Was the need to utilize a higher volume of lower grade stockpile material to supplement the lower level of mine ore tonnes during the quarter. As compared to the same period last year, mine tonnes from the underground was approximately 52% less. Like many other Australian operations, the site is working through a tight labor market and facing a few personnel constraints. The 2 biggest issues are a shortage of skilled operators and turnover at Costerfield. The turnover rate was artificially low during COVID, which has accelerated since the easing of restrictions.

Speaker 4

We anticipate this to normalize and become stable in the upcoming quarters. To shrink this productivity gap with hired support contractors, trained new employees and further invested in our current workforce. In addition to this constraint, there were a number of unique non systemic issues leading to lost production days, including a power failure, an LHD mobile equipment fire and the ground failure rehabilitation that's built over from the end of Q4 2022 into Q1 of 2023. We had a 7 day power outage at the start of the year due to a fire of an incoming power cable feeding the underground, resulting in a temporary loss of power. Although production ramped up shortly after this outage, January's production rate was adversely impacted both in terms of tons not mined and increased power costs from Required Temporary Power Generation.

Speaker 4

New electrical infrastructure has since been installed, which is more robust to reduce the risk of reoccurrence. As a result of these issues, the site produced 11,017 saleable gold equivalent ounces in the Q1 of 2023, lower as compared to the same period last year. In addition at Costa Field, there was a fire at site in the underground on March 4, 2023. Operations were stopped immediately and underground autonomous loader caught fire. All underground personnel were quickly accounted for and safely evacuated in accordance with our safety protocols and procedures.

Speaker 4

This event did not have a material impact on the quarter, but the loader was not repairable. This had a negative influence over mine tonnes due to a shortage of remote loader availability, which is a critical unit of our mobile fleet and the difficulty in procurement for finding replacement niche equipment. Fortunately, we have sourced a replacement, which should be operational at the end of Q2 2023. While unfortunate for this to occur, the safety and well-being of our staff remains our highest priority, and I'd like to extend

Speaker 2

and Exchange Commission. Our thanks

Speaker 4

to local mines rescues teams and external emergency services for their professionalism and assistance. Finally, as we've recently discovered and start to mine yet another new zone at Costerfield, The Sheppard Zone. Additional definition drilling will help us better define to the extent possible with ore bodies of this type, the gold rich bearing zones from the Moore Barrens zones along Strath. This is not an unusual occurrence with these types of ore bodies, but it does require additional costs and Preplanning to ensure efficient ore extraction. At Bjorkdal, the site produced 8,969 saleable gold ounces during the quarter, which was less than planned.

Speaker 4

Again, similar to the issue at Costerfield, Bjorkdal's productivity rates were also detrimentally affected by our shortage of skilled personnel in addition to some supply chain challenges. Training of new personnel has been ongoing, along with increasing contractor presence in the short term to fill labor gaps. Coupled with these personnel constraints, a delay in the scheduled replacement of the truck haulage fleet, A key potential bottleneck to ore haulage caused underground mine tons to be lower than planned. As compared to the same period last year, mined ore from the underground was down approximately 24%. The net result from this drop was that processed head grades for the quarter were lower at 1.05 grams a tonne gold.

Speaker 4

Due to the requisite in utilizing a larger volume of the 0.6 gram a tonne gold surface stockpile in the blend through the mill. Going forward, improvements are expected to come from increase in hold underground tonnes as the new trucks are commissioned, More tonnes from the anticipated higher grade Central Deeps areas to come online in the latter part of the year and the ongoing mill conversion project. It is progressing as planned with commissioning expected later this year. When fully ramped up, the processing plant throughput will increase by a planned 200,000 tonne per annum. I'd now like to invite Chris to speak on our exploration.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Ryan. During Q1, near mine exploration at Gosfield was focused on depth extension programs below the Cuffley, Brunswick and Sheppard ore bodies. Regionally, the focus remained on prospective ground approximately 2 kilometers to the west of the mine with continued drill testing of the True Blue and commencement of drilling on the neighboring West Costerfield prospect. In February, we provided an update on cost for its regional testing programs, which included a summary on the follow-up testing of Robinson. We also announced early success at the newly discovered depth extension to the historic True Blue mine with feign intercepts of comparable grade to those mined at the Augusta mine.

Speaker 1

This is exciting as the geological setting of the discovery is akin to the uppermost parts of Augusta and Yule, indicating the highly prospective depth extension environment at TrueBlue. For Q2, exploration at Costerfield will focus on the continuation of drilling below Sheppard and Brunswick, as well as the continued drilling on the TrueBlue and West Costerfield programs. Drill testing of prospective ground to the north of the mine will also commence. At Bjorkdal, near mine exploration focused on extending Veining into the eastern flank of the mine with extensional drilling of the Lake Zone and Aurora. Also targeted was Ascan Horizon within Lake Zone.

Speaker 1

In parallel to these programs, drilling continued on the western extension of the emerging North Zone resource to the north of the mine. In February, the company released an update on underground drilling, which discussed the continued extension drilling on the Eastern Plunge as well as an update on the significant veining found in the upper eastern extension to the Aurora system. Excitingly, consistent drill results from the Eastern Tung extension program continue to produce highly significant grades, the likes of which we would consider exceptional at our high grade cost to build mine. These include 7 83 grams per tonne gold over 35 Centimeters and 105 grams of tonne gold over 1 meter from the Eastern Plunge Extension. These are accompanied by a highlight of 89 grams per tonne gold over 30 centimeters from the Aurora Extension.

Speaker 1

Moving into Q2, the focus will be on the Aurora system, where high grade veining has been interpreted within the Hanging Wall Western Extension and a Foot Wall Eastern Extension. Excitingly, our 2023 regional drilling also commences in Q2, with the first program being with the 1st program testing the strike and depth continuation of the storheated mineralization to the northeast of the mine. I look forward to updating the market on these programs in the near future. Thank you. I'd like to hand the call back to Fraser.

Speaker 3

Farhisha?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks a lot, Chris. I appreciate that and wow. That's all I can say with respect to those grades Intercept, especially at Bjorkdal. It's very exciting.

Speaker 2

We're used to those sorts of intercepts at Costerfield. So it's nice to see that also happening at Bjorkdal. Look, I'm extremely excited with our organic pipeline of growth opportunities and we will continue to invest strongly in exploration. I'm a big believer in that to both extend mine life, especially the mine life at Costerfield where we can and extend that to what it is right now in both the known mineralized areas as well as the step out for potential new near mine discoveries. For 2023, we're anticipating still an approximate exploration spend between $10,000,000 to $14,000,000 at both operations combined.

Speaker 2

And operationally, the team remains hyper focused on addressing these non systemic and labor matters that were discussed that led to a disappointing Q1 production shortfall in order to achieve our annual guidance. Our go forward plan remains a focus on labor while improving site infrastructure and mobile equipment availability. So at this point, I want to thank everyone. This concludes this portion of our call, but I would certainly like to open up the lines for any questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer You'll hear a 3 tone prompt acknowledging your request. Your first question comes from Kevin Tracey from Oberon Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Great. Hi, Franser. It's too bad we don't have happier results to talk about on your first call here. But as usual, I have a a few questions. The first one is on just the Q1 production number.

Speaker 5

I think if other investors are like me, they were a bit blindsided by that. I was hoping you could give us time to the extent kind of multiple issues that impacted production at both sites In Q1 were resolved by the end of the quarter. And if we should see a material improvement in the Q2. Maybe you can even give us the April production number, so we have a sense of how things are tracking.

Speaker 2

Look, Kevin, thanks for that question. And well, the first thing is no, I'm not able to give you a bullet. I want to Make sure I'm on the correct side of governance here and disclosure. However, before I hand over to Ryan to give a more fulsome Answer to that. I think as you appreciated, both mines, It really comes down to mined ore tons.

Speaker 2

It's that simple. We have fairly significant stockpiles at both operations. So we're pretty well on plan for throughput. The issue is if you don't get those mining tonnes from underground, You're putting in lower grade stockpile through the mill, which ends up resulting in the gold ounce production shortfall. So to answer your question in terms of why the mined ore tons were lower and how those issues have been rectified, I would say most of them in Q2 and Q3, it will be spread out somewhat and that has to do with the mobile equipment at Costerfield and the trucking issue at Bjorkdal.

Speaker 2

But I'm going to hand over To Ryan to maybe break it down without over the top detail, break it down between the two operations on when we think that will be rectified, main issues at both sites. Brian?

Speaker 4

Yes. Just broadly, Mark, the Q1 was really disruptive. We had issues particularly at Costa Field that hold production on a couple of occasions. And with the staffing issues, Which we're starting to definitely see come through the other side of. Yes, and as mentioned by Fraser then, yes, the equipment's starting to come in, starting to be commissioned.

Speaker 4

Yes, things are definitely improving and we'll see that improve over the next couple of Few months.

Speaker 3

So, yes, that's pretty much that was it.

Speaker 2

And Kevin, the one thing I may add is, We don't obviously break down our plans quarterly. We just give a general annual guidance. But our plan always was somewhat back end loaded with respect to higher grade zones we get into at both our mines. So as we get back on track, we are expecting better grades That reason alone, just in terms of location. Okay.

Speaker 5

And then I'll just follow-up on that. So if I I heard that right. It sounds like Q2 won't be fully back on track. So just going back to that annual guidance, Just doing the math to hit the low end of the production guidance, you have to average around 28,000 ounces of production per quarter for the last three quarters of the year. Just looking back, that production level has only been achieved on a couple individual quarters in the past.

Speaker 5

So can you talk, I guess, more about what gives you confidence that The production really will rise. And I guess particularly I'm interested in, is the has the It doesn't sound like the mining permit has been received at 4th goal. Is that included in the full year guidance? And I suppose, is that the big driver of getting to those higher grade tons at work that's going to result into the and a better second half production.

Speaker 2

Yes, maybe again, I'll let Ryan speak to the permit issue at Bjorkdal With respect to that question, Ryan?

Speaker 4

Yes, it's correct that the morning permit hasn't been received yet, although it's basically to be expected any day now. So I was speaking to the general manager from Bjorkdal early and he's contacting the regulators again today to see what the holdup is. We don't anticipate any issues there and that should flow through. It's not halting us at the moment, so we don't see that slowing us down. Yes.

Speaker 4

And as Fraser mentioned, the year was somewhat back ended. So Yes, we're still confident we have been of achieving within our guidance. That's what we're aiming for.

Speaker 1

Okay. My final comment would be

Speaker 2

sorry, Kevin. My final comment would be, look, Relatively new in the chair, the team is exhaustively relooking at the plan and the forecast, which I'm reviewing over the next 3 to 4 weeks. So if there is ever a need for any updates, I will certainly be sharing that in the next quarter. For now, I want the team to exhaust all opportunities to ensure we get back on the plan. So it's Concierge for me at this point to be making any change to that.

Speaker 2

I certainly understand your concern on what has to happen in the next three quarters to achieve guidance, but we're very focused on doing everything we can there. I'll update the market in my Q2 call.

Speaker 5

Okay. Okay. And just lastly on the mine grade, I understand the process grade was lower because the mine tons were lower. On the mine, Greg, we saw a pretty big reduction really at both sides, but I want to ask about Costerfield. Sounds like the issue is mostly related to Shepherd.

Speaker 5

She doesn't keep in mind Too many tons there yet. So can you just talk a little bit more about your confidence that the realized grades We'll indeed be quite high there and in line with what we've seen in the reserve report.

Speaker 2

Yes. Again, I'll ask Ryan and Chris, respectively, to speak to that.

Speaker 4

Chris, are you considering this jolly question? You're probably

Speaker 1

Yes, sure. I can jump in here. So I guess with Sheppard, we are still learning about Sheppard. We're sort of running into an area of Nagaty Gold, which is sort of akin to what you'd see in sort of, I guess, more historic kind of Victorian goldfields like Bendigo and Ballarat, which is good in a way that we're seeing Lots of free gold there, but it is tricky. And we're just coming into the top of the Sheppard zone, and we're kind of learning a bit as we go.

Speaker 1

Well, I may have mentioned to further definition drilling that we're doing in Sheppard. So we are poking a few more holes in there to understand the structural complexity just at the top of the Sheppard ore body. But some of these issues have led us to mine along the vein and then Have to move across to another vein, as we sort of identify where exactly the hotspots of the Sheppard zone are as we mine. But we are confident in the Sheppard zone and we are, I guess pulling together our structural continuity story at the moment.

Speaker 2

Kevin, sorry, final comment for me, Kevin, is, again, I want to caveat that When we talk about the higher grades coming at Costerfield, that's not dependent on Shepherd. For this year, that is mostly the Yule area that we know fairly well. That's just getting to those areas. While Shepherd has had some pluses and minuses, Shepherd is really setting still up for better grades in the future years beyond 2023. So if your question is specific to 2023, I want to emphasize it's not dependent on Shepherd.

Speaker 5

Okay, got it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next

Speaker 1

Yes. Hello.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. My first question is for the Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to understand The holdings in publicly traded companies like BlueStar and if there's any accumulation or distribution of those shares.

Speaker 3

Go ahead, Nick. Frazar can answer that. So we don't actually have any holdings in that entity, but we do have a few other Excuse me, but we do

Speaker 6

Sorry, I can't hear you.

Speaker 3

Sorry, is that can you hear me?

Speaker 6

Yes, you're just you're coming in garbled.

Speaker 3

Right. Okay. I'll slow down. We don't have any holdings in BlueStar in that entity, but we do have certain holdings in other entities and They are available for sale from our point of view. They are non core from our point of view.

Speaker 3

But I can't give any information on whether or not we would sell them, but the value is there in the balance sheet and the possibility Off selling those is something that we have in the future.

Speaker 6

Okay. Have you sold your I gather you sold your position in BlueStar then?

Speaker 3

Yes, that was done several years ago. That's right.

Speaker 6

Okay. Has anybody there gone back and examine some of the drill results from Blue Star over the last year and what's what the program is this year.

Speaker 3

Fraser, I can answer this. We do keep an eye on past companies that we've dealt with in the past, but yes, it's the focus at the moment is on our operations, but it's something that we're cognizant of.

Speaker 5

Okay. Because it looks like they're

Speaker 6

hitting some pretty good grades there. And if that Grays Bay road goes through, that could be a major cost reducer for opening a mine there, Plus the dormant equipment that's sitting at Elgin right now that could be possibly reused if you rewired some of it. So anyway, that's good that you're keeping tabs on Clouistar. I'm happy about that. My next question is for to the COO.

Speaker 6

I'm kind of wondering why it's taking so long to get this permit for the Northeastern extension For Jarfdale, it's been over a year now.

Speaker 4

Yes, I can answer that. Okay, Brian. Yes. We expect that those permits take a year to get. So the actual due date was like it was only a day or 2 ago.

Speaker 4

So Yes. So we're at the time frame now. Yes. So that's it's basically on our time schedule, but a couple of days late at the moment. So we're following that up.

Speaker 4

We had no feedback saying there's any issues. So we expect no problems with that going ahead being approved.

Speaker 6

Okay. And my last question is for Chris regarding the drill program down by, is it Believin? It's in the Bjorkdal permitted areas. It's on the West West Southern Area. What is the drill program for this year?

Speaker 6

How many meters does he expect to drill?

Speaker 1

Yes. So we've started our surface drill program just in Q2. We started around the mine at the moment, but we're planning to move back down to that southwestern area there and follow-up on the drilling that we did last year late last year. So there's a significant amount of meters that we plan to put into that area. It is sort of contingent on the results from that area, and we've also got geophysics plans as well.

Speaker 1

So We haven't I haven't given an update on that area yet because we're actually Still waiting on some assays coming in for some of the results that we've got there. So I hope to give a full update on that area after our next drilling program, our follow-up drilling program. So yes, we'll look you should be thinking.

Speaker 6

It looks pretty exciting

Speaker 5

With your

Speaker 6

neighbor next door, it looks like a very exciting area. Another question for you, Chris. With regards to Costerfield and the equipment there. Do you does Mandalay possess a downhole geophysics type probe that you can use on the Shepard

Speaker 2

load. Downhole Geophysics.

Speaker 1

We don't have anything on file at the moment, but we have done trials with different sorts of downhole geophysics over the years. Mostly, we're found with this style of deposit. It comes back to a keen structural understanding Of the deposit, the veining. Antimony isn't actually very conductive, unfortunately. So we can't really light it up Like you kind of AMS.

Speaker 6

Oh, cool. That's interesting. Okay. Well, I learned something today. My last question is for the new CEO, Fraser.

Speaker 6

With regards to inorganic growth, have you reached to some of the bigger leaders in the mining arena such as Uncle Eric or Eric Sprott To find out if there's anything new and wonderful that we could bring into Mandalay Resources.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, Lawrence. Look, I know those gentlemen fairly well. To be blunt, no, because I want to make sure the Board and myself are aligned as we work through the strategy going forward and we have a framework that makes sense. So we're spending energy in the right areas when we look at these opportunities, but it won't be long before we start to Expand that network and have those conversations.

Speaker 2

And there's been a fair bit of activity before I got here looking at various opportunities. So I just need to refine that, put a framework around that and then make sure we have efficient effort going forward. So Yes.

Speaker 6

Well, then it's a major comment in one of our discussions regarding Uncle Eric throwing out a wide net with all his money and Not necessarily hitting big on some of his investments, but I believe with your team there, including Chris, you should be able to cherry Pick what's in that net to find out what which ones are the best ones to take a shot at. That's just my opinion. But given Eric Sprott's wealth, he can afford to Have a wide net, so to speak.

Speaker 3

Yes. Yes, you can.

Speaker 6

Well, I'd like to thank you very much, Fraser, for the call. And I'd like to express my appreciation to Dominic for turning the company around over the last 3 years.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Lawrence.

Operator

Your next question comes from Robert Ploom. You may go ahead.

Speaker 7

Plumpy, yes. Thank you very much for taking my questions here. The first one is, gentlemen, can you give me A little bit more color on the share repurchase program.

Speaker 2

Sure, Robert. I will Hand that actually over to Nick. He can give an update on our NCIB program.

Speaker 3

Yes. I'll keep it brief just because there There hasn't been too much activity in the Q1 as you would have seen due to the illiquid nature of our stock We do see some activity going forward with quite a small daily limit that we can have with that. It's been successful, but we are still somewhat experimenting with the best approach for that. So I guess we're going into this process just with a fairly quite, let's look so, fairly slowly. And then as the year goes on, we will be able to ramp that up We see bigger block positions to buy.

Speaker 3

But in the short term, it has been a slow start. But Yes, we're seeing how that goes as we progress. But overall, the strategy there is that we do see an intrinsic value in the company, and the NCIB program was put in place to get us to that position. So, yes, I'll leave it there.

Speaker 7

Okay, very good. Thank you. That leads me to my next question. I know I had Spoken very briefly with Mr. Duffy about this, but can you please elaborate?

Speaker 7

Do you have any plans for just general promotion of the company as a whole. Are you going to any investor meetings or just seems that I've been a shareholder for a number of years now. You guys have made such tremendous progress, but yet the investing community Has almost no knowledge of what you guys have accomplished or done. So, Yes. Can you speak to that a little bit, please?

Speaker 2

Sure, Robert. Short answer is Your point is very well taken. And I certainly planned on working with the team to, let's call it overhaul and upgrade our IR strategy, including branding, outreach, as well as dealing with the main for shareholders that we have. So the answer to that is yes, that will progress as the year goes on.

Speaker 7

Okay, very good. And then I guess my last question is, are there any plans for capacity expansion at Costerfield? And what are you at like 90% or 100% there right now or what's going on there? Can you Give some color as to that, please.

Speaker 2

Yes. By capacity expansion, I assume you're Turning to an increase in mill throughput that process plant throughput at Gloucester Field.

Speaker 5

Yes.

Speaker 2

Yes. I mean, look, my general takeaway on that is we always look at that opportunity. But I want to make sure first Certainly not the mill. There is a surface stockpile, I agree with that. But the economics right now wouldn't justify and increase in that mill throughput for that not overly large stockpile.

Speaker 2

However, my vision in terms of increasing mine life at Costerfield and as we debottleneck the underground operation, basic economics would certainly then that require us to look at that opportunity to move forward. But for now, that's not the main focus for you.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us. And I wanted to reiterate that Mandalay is well positioned financially, allowing for optionality Thank you very much again for your time.

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Mandalay Resources Q1 2023
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