Torex Gold Resources Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 7, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Torex Gold's Third Quarter 20 24 Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in a listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now pass the call over to Dan Rollins, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. On behalf of the Torex team, welcome to our Q3 2024 conference call. Before we begin, I wish to inform listeners that a presentation accompanying today's conference call can be found under the Investors section of our website at www.torexgold.com. I would also like to note that certain statements to be made today by the management team may contain forward looking information. As such, please refer to the detailed cautionary notes on the Page 2 of today's presentation, as well as those included in the Q3 2024 MD and A.

Speaker 1

On the call today, we have Jody Kosanko, President and CEO Andrew Snowden, CFO as well as Dave Stephanuto, Executive Vice President, Technical Services and Capital Projects. Following the presentation, Jody, Andrew and Dave will be available for the question and answer period. This conference call is being webcast and will be available for replay on our website. Last night's press release and the accompanying financial statements and MD and A are posted on our website and have also been filed on SEDAR Plus. Note that all amounts mentioned in this call are U.

Speaker 1

S. Dollars unless otherwise stated. I'll now turn the call over to Jody.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dan, and good morning to all in the line. Q3 was another consistent quarter of strong operational results, backed by yet another record quarterly average realized gold price, which in turn fueled record revenue. We are solidly placed to deliver production guidance for the 6th year in a row. Costs are trending downwards quarter over quarter as expected, yet still tracking to be at the top end of guidance for the year, primarily due to higher royalties and profit sharing that come along with the strong gold price. Our liquidity position has not changed quarter over quarter, this is notable.

Speaker 2

This is a result of the strong cash flow from ELG essentially funding the entirety of the $114,000,000 of capital that was spent through the quarter on Medialuna. This is a testament to the free cash flow and capability of the asset that further bolsters our expectation that we will return to positive free cash flow by mid next year. Starting with an update across our strategic pillars, which are shown here on Slide 4. As you will have seen in the update last week, the Medi Luna project is now 87% complete across engineering, procurement, underground development and construction and surface construction. We announced that we rescheduled the tie in period to February 2025 given the timing of the delivery of the switchgear and our associated state of readiness to take the time in period.

Speaker 2

While we all want the project done, the done, the overriding business priority has always been to keep the tie in period to no longer than 4 weeks. Whether it happened in Q4, Q1 was much less of a concern given the contingency production buffer we developed with the open pit pushback. The revised tie in schedule will boost production in 2024 and support de risking the commissioning period by allowing us to test key process equipment like the DSD ball mill motors ahead of the tie in period during our regularly scheduled December maintenance period at the plant. This also comes with the further benefit of potentially reducing the tie in period to less than 4 weeks and allows us to continue to build stockpiles ahead of commissioning given the rescheduling has no impact on mine production from Medialuna. Dave, when he gets into his commentary, will provide more details on the project.

Speaker 2

On the next pillar of our strategy of integrate and optimize Morelos, we released the results of an internal pre feasibility study on EPO in September, which on the reserve case alone demonstrates the ability to maintain annual gold equivalent production of at least 450,000 ounces through 2,030. With a scenario taking into account potential resource conversion, indicating a clear potential to maintain this run rate through at least 2,033. Our goal was to fill the mill for 10 years and we're getting very, very close. On disciplined growth and capital allocation due to the strong margins and ongoing cash flow from ELG. Funding for the Medialuna build is well in hand and we have more than ample liquidity to finance the remainder of the build and support our strategic objective of maintaining $100,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet.

Speaker 2

Andrew will provide more detail on our financial position shortly. On Gro reserves and resources, drilling activity has picked up since the first half of the year and we expect to have several press releases out over the next couple of months discussing the results of this drilling at both EPO and ELG underground. On talent, recruitment of personnel for Medi Luna is progressing well with 55% of our Medi Luna workforce transferred from previous ELG operations. The transition training program now stands at 40% complete and will ramp up even further as open pit production continues to wind down. And finally, on ESG, although it occurred after quarter end, I want to use this call to acknowledge our team at site for being awarded the Silver Hard Hat from the Mexico Mining Chamber for the safest mine in Mexico in 2023 in the category of open pit mining with more than 500 workers.

Speaker 2

This award speaks to the world class safety culture we've built at Torex. For me and my entire executive team, there's nothing more important than the safety of our employees and contractors and a heartfelt congratulations goes out to the entire team in Mexico for this accomplishment. Turning to specific quarter highlights on Slide 5, with production of 119,000 ounces in the quarter and nearly 300 and 50,000 ounces year to date, we're well on pace to achieve the new annual guidance. Cash costs of $9.26 per ounce and all in sustaining costs of just over $1100 per ounce are both down by approximately $100 per ounce compared to the prior quarter, driven by slightly higher process grades and the lower strip ratio at the open pits, partially offset by further gains in the gold price as well as ongoing elevated cyanide consumption. While the gold price has put pressure on royalties and profit sharing, the record gold price has allowed us to generate robust margins and that plus our cost discipline has given us an AISC margin of 52% during quarter 3.

Speaker 2

Record quarterly revenue of $314,000,000 helped drive robust EBITDA and cash flow, placing us on solid financial footing to finish Medialuna with only a modest level of net debt, which we will repay quickly next year as we return to strong free cash flow by the middle of the year. Over to Slide 6, this just speaks to the operational consistency at ELG production this quarter was delivered by slightly higher grades and recoveries in quarter 2. The top right chart clearly illustrates the reliability of the mill, which had yet another quarter of processing in the 13,000 tonnes per day range. The bottom left chart shows the gradual increase in grades we've seen quarter over quarter this year, while the bottom right chart demonstrates that ELG underground mining rates are delivering the expected steady state of 2,000 tonnes per day. Moving to Slide 7, this is just a snapshot of how we're tracking against our annual guidance.

Speaker 2

Our 2024 guidance remains intact with the exception of the increased annual production guidance because of that 4 weeks of additional production with the tie in period rescheduled. Gold only production guidance has been increased to 450,000 to 470,000 ounces compared to the previous guidance of 4,000 to 450,000 ounces. As noted earlier, we expect to end the year at the upper end of the guided range on total cash costs and all in sustaining costs. And I'll turn the call over to Andrew, who can give more details on that.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thank you, Jody, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by just summarizing our financial highlights. You can see shown on Slide 9. And Q3 was really an exceptional financial quarter for ForEx.

Speaker 3

Our discipline on cost containment achieved an all in sustaining cost of about $1100 an ounce and when combined with the record gold prices produced an all in sustaining cost margin of 52% during the quarter, and that's up from 44% achieved in Q2. With this strong cost performance in Q3, as Jody touched on earlier, we continue to track near the top end of our cost guidance for the year. And as I mentioned on our last call, the price of gold, although, of course, a positive for us in supporting margin expansion, the gold price also increases our cost base through higher royalties and PTU or profit sharing requirements. With the realized gold price being about $2,200 an ounce through the 1st 9 months of the year compared with the $1900 an ounce assumed in our guidance, we have seen this cost pressure year to date. Recall, for every $100 an ounce move in the gold price, byproduct cash costs and all in sustaining costs are impacted by about $12 an ounce, all else being equal.

Speaker 3

$3 of that is due to royalties and the remainder due to the profit sharing. Offsetting this cost pressure from the higher gold price though is the relief we have finally seen from the peso, which is now trading around $0.20 to $1 and that compares to our budgets of about $18 to 1. Year to date, the peso is now almost in line with the budget at $17,700,000 and this has offset some of the cost pressure we saw earlier on in the year. On capital, spend on the Media Luna project was about $115,000,000 in the quarter and is expected to decline in Q4 and then again in Q1 as the project enters the final months of construction. As the tie ins for the processing plant will now be taken in February and therefore pushing out the declaration of commercial production, certain capital expenditures primarily related to accelerated underground development will now be classified as non sustaining for the pre commercial production period versus sustaining of the prior plant time schedule being maintained.

Speaker 3

Outside of this really reclassification, we expect the capital impact for the new schedule to be immaterial and Dave's team is working diligently to find any offsets required. Finally, on overall free cash flow, as Jolie highlighted earlier, you would have seen that strong cash flow generation from our operations fully offset Media Luna Capital this quarter, resulting in available liquidity remaining consistent quarter over quarter. Really a sign of things to come and the free cash flow generation ability of our operation, particularly if gold prices hold at these current levels. Turning next to Slide 10, I'll speak briefly just about our unit cost performance year to date, which you can see on this slide as compared to our full year 2023 performance. Firstly, on open pit costs.

Speaker 3

As our open pits start to wind down here in the coming months, maintenance costs have increased as we extend the life of the aged fleet to avoid costlier capital replacements. We're also seeing less efficiencies as we get down to the final benches. And additionally, as our open pit miners transition to the Media Luna underground mine, we are backfilling these positions with contractors, which does result in a marginally higher cost. Next on underground mining costs, the costs we've seen here in 2024 to date reflect additional backfill requirements and underground development year to date. We see the potential to reduce costs going forward though as we start mining a portion of ELG underground through long hole, although the majority of the ELG underground mining will continue to be cut and fill.

Speaker 3

Our processing costs, the change there compared to prior year is really just driven by the higher levels of cyanide consumption seen, reflecting the high levels of copper and iron in the open pit ore as it reaches the end of its mine life. And currently, we have less flexibility on the blending of that material. Next, on-site support costs, these are generally in line with 2023 with the increase to date, driven primarily with the strength of the peso we saw through the first half of the year. And finally, you can see the impact of the higher gold prices have had on our Mexican profit sharing year to date in the bottom chart, which when this will expand further in Q4 if current gold prices continue. Before I move on costs though, I'm sure there is some interest in for those on the line in directionally what to expect on costs in 2025.

Speaker 3

Now I have been flagging for some time that 2025 costs will be temporarily elevated due to the media Luna ramp up, and I'd talk to an estimate of about $13.50 an ounce. Just to highlight, that estimate was based on the 4 week media Luna plant tie in having occurred this current quarter through Q4 2024. And so rescheduling this to the Q1 of next year will lower production and increase costs in 2025. In addition, our plans were built on an assumed gold price of $1900 an ounce. And so as I referenced earlier, the higher gold price environment we are operating in does have an impact on our costs, albeit with good margin expansion.

Speaker 3

Back now to, I suppose, Q3 2024 and turning now to Slide 11, our cash balance once again remained above our strategic objective of $100,000,000 and closing the quarter at

Speaker 4

about

Speaker 3

$115,000,000 This benefited quarter over quarter just given the strong earnings in Q3. Given the cash flow generation of our underlying operations, we only drew an additional $5,000,000 on the revolving credit facility during the quarter, and so closed the quarter with about $60,000,000 drawn on that facility. While on cash flow, I do want to again just turn to 2025 and remind everyone of our cash flow seasonality as we approach the New Year, and that's shown here on Slide 12. With the strong gold prices, cash flow seasonality will be more amplified than it has been in recent years, and so I'll walk through my current expectations here. Firstly, on our monthly tax installment payments, these will continue in the region of about $20,000,000 a quarter through at least Q1 of 2025.

Speaker 3

But I expect these will increase from April of next year as monthly payments are based off the prior year's taxable income and that installment rate is reset once we file our Mexican tax returns in March. There's also a trip of our monthly income tax installments to our final tax return and that's settled each March. And I currently expect that will be approximately $40,000,000 and that will be payable March 2025 and it's higher than the prior year just given the stronger profitability with the higher gold price. Next, the annual 7.5 percent mining tax. This is accrued through the year, but that's also just paid annually in March of each year.

Speaker 3

And so March 2025, I expect this will be roughly $40,000,000 again higher than prior years just with the metal price strength. Additionally, there's the 0.5% royalty, which was related to the proceeds from gold and silver sales. This is also accrued monthly, paid out annually in Q1 and I expect that Q1 payment to be about $5,000,000 And finally, there's the Mexican profit sharing payment or PTU, again, accrued monthly, that's paid out in May of each year. And I currently expect that the amount for 2020 4 year to be paid in May 2025 will be in the range of $30,000,000 to $35,000,000 I'll just note that these values are all my current estimates and we'll provide an update with our Q4 results. And also just while we're on seasonality, just to point out, this is all again in the context of softer production planned for Q1 with the Media Luna plant tie in expected through February.

Speaker 3

Turning next to Slide 13, you can see our balance sheets and liquidity position shown here at September 30, where we ended the quarter with $347,000,000 of available liquidity, which is unchanged from Q2 despite the significant media spend in the quarter. This $347,000,000 in available liquidity consists of the $115,000,000 I mentioned earlier in cash as well as $232,000,000 available on the revolving credit facility. That revolving credit facility availability is after the $60,000,000 that's been drawn and another $8,000,000 utilized through letters of credit. Our current consensus metal prices, we now expect to only draw between $5,000,000 $150,000,000 on the revolver through the build with a maximum draw expected to occur in Q1 of next year. This forecast includes maintaining $100,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

And so you should see us exit the build period or exit Q1 with between $25,000,000 $50,000,000 of net debt if you're excluding leases. This liquidity position is shown again here on Slide 14 and this time just a comparison against the needs of the business. Our $347,000,000 of available liquidity compares very favorably against the $111,000,000 left to spend on Media Luna and $100,000,000 minimum liquidity strategic objective. After taking these into account, we're left with a funding buffer of $136,000,000 and that's improved quarter over quarter despite the spend on Media Luna in Q3. The gold bar on the right here also shows our free cash flow over the last 12 months before spending on the Media Luna project, sitting impressively at $336,000,000 and that's based on an average realized gold price of about $2,100 an ounce.

Speaker 3

With funding comfortably in hand, the focus is now on the cash flow generating capability of the business, as spending on Media Luna draws to an end and we look to the next chapter at Rellus. Finally, I'll speak briefly to our hedging position shown on Slide 15. With Media Luna close to the finish line, Q4 does mark the final quarter of hedged gold production. We only have about 27,000 ounces of forward contracts settled through Q4 and there's no gold forwards left in 2025 and no plans to add commodity hedges going forward. We will, however, continue to look at prudent ways to manage current volatility in the Mexican peso and have added some additional collars to 2025 to support our peso denominated operating costs.

Speaker 3

About $84,000,000 of our 2025 operating costs are now hedged through 0 cost collars, and you can see the detail of that on this slide. And so with that, I'll turn the call over to Dave.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Andrew, and good morning to everyone. I'll start the project update on Slide 17. Jody has spoken to the executive team's thought process behind rescheduling the tie ins to the processing plant and its impact to the overall business. In terms of what this specifically means for the project, we now have a window of opportunity for our project team to conduct advanced testing on key plant systems. This should ensure a smoother tie in process.

Speaker 5

Additionally, we planned to utilize the maintenance period for mill liner changes in December to test the ball mill VFD systems, derisking the mill restart and potentially reducing the overall schedule

Speaker 4

to less than 4 weeks. The new

Speaker 5

schedule also ensures that all surface and electrical The new schedule also ensures that all surface and electrical infrastructure will be installed well ahead of the time period, setting us up to achieve 1st concentrate production in Q1 and commercial production shortly thereafter. Importantly, the processing plant tie in is separate from the ramp up of the Media Luna mine itself. This means that the new schedule will have no impact on ore production from Media Luna, which will be stockpiled ahead of wet commissioning of the mill. Production from ELG underground and the open pits will continue unabated. The overall project sits at 87% complete with engineering now complete, procurement at final deliveries, underground development and construction and surface construction at 77% 70% respectively.

Speaker 5

Teams have made significant progress on definition drilling with all drilling for 2024 complete and a head start underway on 2025 drilling. Initial tonnes and grade to date are reconciling well to the block model with some spatial variation, which is to be expected with the new mine. Importantly, our workforce recruitment and training is progressing well and operational readiness activities are tracking to plan in preparation of handover of the balance of the surface assets to operations. As noted in our press release last week, underground development rates have been strong with monthly lateral development rates in excess of 1300 meters over the last few months, including over 1400 meters in October, relative to the original budget of 1200 meters per month. We plan to continue our aggressive definition drilling and underground development programs in 2025 with the target of having all stopes in the 2026 minutee plan drilled off by the end of the year the end of next year.

Speaker 5

Turning to Slide 17, shows the significant progress that has been made on the surface infrastructure at site. Both eHouses have been installed in the flotation area, which you can see in the top left image are the white rectangles on the left hand side near the dome. The top right image shows work progressing at the water treatment plant where detoxification tanks were installed during the quarter and pre commissioning has begun. The 230 kilovolt substation shown on the bottom left is substantially complete and the transmission line between that and the 230 kilobytes switchyard is now in place with connection to the switchyard expected to be made later this quarter. On the south side of the Balsas River, the pace plant construction is coming along nicely, which you can see in the bottom right picture.

Speaker 5

Despite the timing for the new processing plant tie ins, the project is progressing nicely. Some of the key risks that we communicated previously related to steel and electrical equipment deliveries have been mitigated as we now focus on final installation and commissioning. I'm proud of the work the team has done at site to keep our construction schedule intact. With that, I'll pass the call back over to Jody.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Dave. Really nice to have everything we need at site to finish the project. Before I ask the operator open up the call for questions, I wanted to touch on one last achievement from the quarter set out here on Slide 20. The EPO pre feasibility study represents years of hard work from both our exploration and technical teams and the results of that were shared with the market in September. EPO sits pretty close to Medialuna infrastructure and the deposit will be accessed through a 6 50 meter access ramp off the Juarez tunnel.

Speaker 2

In total, only about 2,200 meters of initial development are required to be built for the project. Because it will utilize existing Medialuna infrastructure, capital costs and these are estimated at the PFS level now. They're a lean $82,000,000 We plan to begin spending modestly on the project next year following the completion of the feasibility study by mid year with investment increasing in 2026 before first production expected by the end of that year from EPO. In September, we reported the inaugural reserve for EPO at 781,000 gold equivalent ounces at over 4.8 gram a tonne gold equivalent. An important point to note here is that there are over 1,100,000 ounces in gold equivalent and M and I there.

Speaker 2

So we see lots of future upside as we move forward with EPO. Now Slide 21 speaks to this future upside. Recall that the 2022 technical report, we faced a production dip in 2028 that we knew we needed to address. It was the next new challenge and it can be seen here on the gold line on this slide. EPO combined with the success we've had replacing reserves and extending mine life at ELG underground has really addressed that concern providing us with steady state production of between 450,500,000 ounces of gold equivalent through 2,030.

Speaker 2

Now with a solid foundation set over the next several years, our attention is turning to the future, which is shown here on Slide 22 as the resource scenario. As I mentioned, there are over 700,000 ounces of inferred resources at EPO. By combining that with the resource growth and reserve replacement we've seen at ELG Underground, we believe we have the ability to maintain our production profile of 450,000 to 500,000 gold equivalent ounces through at least 2,033. Once enough drilling has been completed to upgrade these resources to reserve and bring them into the mine plan. Drilling is also ongoing to expand resources at both EPO and ELG underground and we're seeing some exciting results and you can stay tuned for those in the coming weeks, as we issue some press releases on that.

Speaker 2

This really is just the tip of the iceberg that we see for prospectivity on the south side at the Morelos property with a solid foundation now laid, you can expect to see our exploration budget increase next year as our teams turn their attention from shoring up near term production to paving the pathway for mining at Morelos for decades to come. With that, I'd like to ask the operator to open up the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And our first question today comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you, operator, and good morning, Jody and team. Congratulations on a strong quarter. First question, could you elaborate on how the tie in deferral to February might shorten the time required to complete the tie in?

Speaker 5

Hi, Don. This is Dave Stefanuto here. Yes, two things. One, we're going to take advantage of a planned shutdown period that we have for maintenance in December. So during that planned shutdown period, we're actually going to install the ball mill motors and test the VFD set points in advance of the tie in period.

Speaker 5

If we had done the tie in in Q4, we would not have had the opportunity to do that in advance. What that will do is that will really help stabilize our ball mill ramp up as we put it under load and that will have potential to shorten the shutdown by maybe days.

Speaker 6

Okay. Okay, great. And so next question then, what are the implications on 2025 production by duty to tie in in February? Like obviously, you're going to lose approximately 4 weeks of production. But are there other impacts from an associated delay in a production ramp up?

Speaker 6

I mean, I understand there's no impact on mining. And then just following up to this, is there is positive free cash flow still on track for maybe year?

Speaker 4

So I'll

Speaker 2

start with your last question first Don because that's the important one from our perspective. Positive free cash flow is still very much on track for midyear. And what you can think about in terms of the impact on production is we were essentially swapping Q4 of this year for Q1 of next year. It really is just that simple. 4 weeks that we were going to take in quarter 1 in quarter 4, we're going to take in quarter 1.

Speaker 2

The rest of the mine plan is on track for Medialuna. Development is occurring quite aggressively. We hit another new record in October in Medialuna, so feeling very comfortable with that. And the process plant ramp up schedule remains unchanged. It just has a different start date.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thank you very much. That's all for me. Good luck with

Speaker 2

the quarter. I would add one more point. We talked about the potential for shaving off a couple of days on the 4 weeks. What happens with having that additional time in December, it's a long shutdown. It's 80 hours in December.

Speaker 2

So Dave and the project team have additional time to test other systems, which will further de risk that ramp up. So we haven't shortened the ramp up period at the process plant, but we're more comfortable about it than we would have been if we had taken the time period in November of this year.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Well, maybe I'll just add another question to that. I mean, with regard to the tie in, I mean, there was a number of factors hurricane season, supply chain interruptions, vendor deliveries for the switchgear. I mean, we're all happy to see the production in 2024 go up. But why February in particular couldn't have done it in say January?

Speaker 6

And when do you expect to receive the switchgear? Like looking at those reasons for the deferral, is there any time risk on receiving the switchgear?

Speaker 2

Yes. What I will say, Don, and one of the things we're most delighted about is that risk associated with taking delivery of the electrical equipment is now behind us. We have everything we need to do the tie in. So it's down to over the next 3 months, our team to execute on the final construction and wiring plan essentially connecting the cables to the electrical. And I mean, could we have done it in January?

Speaker 2

Could we do it late January, early February? We're talking a shift of a matter of days here now as we did the detailed review of the project schedule, particularly given contractor schedules over that late December, early January holiday period, we wanted to make sure that we gave ourselves enough time to do it. It may end up coming in a couple of days earlier. It won't change the impact of Q1.

Speaker 6

Okay. Okay, well thanks for that and good to hear that free cash flow is on track. Good luck to next step.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

And our next question today will come from Jeremy Hoi with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thanks, operator. Good morning, Jody, Andrew, Dan and Dave. I think I'd like to touch on the new Mexican administration. I know it's still early days, but Scheinbaum has now been in office, for a few months. Could you comment on whether you've seen any developments or if level of discussions with the administration have increased, whether you're still feeling cautiously optimistic or if there's any changes in your viewpoints on the new administration's relationship with the mining industry?

Speaker 2

Yes, Jeremy, I'll take that one. I think that cautious optimism continues to remain the description as I think about the Scheinbun Administration. Developments post election and pre inauguration while Claudia Scheinbaum was President-elect were such that we were able to set up a number of meetings with her new administration and post her inauguration we've also had a number of meetings with new sub secretaries who are assigned to the mining file. Now what I would describe is that those discussions have been productive. Less political, more factual, clear administrative goals or administration goals on infrastructure, clear administration goals on direct foreign investment.

Speaker 2

Both of those tie nicely into the need for amplifying mining in the country. I would say decisions have not yet been made about things that are important to the industry, the mining law reform, new concessions, the open pit mining ban. The important part is that they haven't been made to the negative and we're still talking. And so, cautious optimism, I think, continues to be an appropriate description for the Sheinbaum administration.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that color and that's it for me.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Jeremy.

Operator

And our next question today will come from Eric Windmill with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, good morning, Jody and team. Thanks very much for taking my question. Just quickly on the stockpiles, nice to see the balance growing here. Is it fair to say some of that growth is from Medi Luna development ore or any comments there in terms of Medialuna?

Speaker 2

Yes, some of that growth, Eric, has attributed to Medialuna development ore. We have about 120,000 tonnes on stock today and that stockpile will just continue to grow. And once we commission the Waha's tunnel conveyor which is coming up here imminently, that stockpile will grow faster. The idea for us as we're commissioning the flotation circuits, we want to have a good steady stream of Medialuna feed, so we can get all of the balances and all of the work done on our metallurgy, to de risk that ramp up of the flotation circuits.

Speaker 7

Okay, fantastic. Thank you very much. Just another one on EPO. I know you said you're looking to do the feasibility by middle of next year. Will that be released to the public, do you think?

Speaker 7

Or what do you expect to be able to provide, I guess, in terms of EPO?

Speaker 2

Yes. We'll do something similar that we did to the PFS, Eric. I mean, it'll be an internal feasibility study. It is not a complex mine. It's not a complex addition to Medialuna.

Speaker 2

So we will not do a full NI 34,101. Our technical team is fully focused on completing Medialuna on the technical team

Speaker 4

is fully focused on completing Medialuna on the schedule identified and putting the finishing touches

Speaker 2

so that we're satisfied that we have the appropriate plan to start to build out EPO.

Speaker 7

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Maybe just lastly on M and A, obviously, I know it's always a topical subject. Anything there? I mean, in the past, you've said that you would look creative deals, possibly development assets in Mexico.

Speaker 7

Anything we should be thinking about that on the M and A side?

Speaker 2

Nothing's really changed, Eric. We're still doing the work, and we're committed to doing the right deal at the right time that will create value for our shareholders.

Speaker 7

Okay, fantastic. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate the color and I'll hop back in the queue. Cheers.

Operator

Since there appear to be no further questions, this will conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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Torex Gold Resources Q3 2024
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