Mandalay Resources Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 23, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Mandalay Resources Corporation Q4 Year End 2023 Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. This call is being recorded on Friday, February 23, 2024. This call contains forward looking statements, which reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the company based on information currently available to the company.

Operator

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 elsewhere in the company's annual information form dated March 31, 2023, available on SEDAR and the company's website. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Fraser Boucher, President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining me on this 4th quarter and year end 2023 financial results conference call today is Ryan Ossaberry, our Chief Operating Officer Nick Dwyer, our Transitioning Chief Financial Officer and Chris Davis, our Vice President of Operational Geology and Exploration. Mandalay Resources released its financial results at market close yesterday. You can find our consolidated financial statements and MD and A on the Mandalay Resources website or under our profile on SEDAR. Look Mandalay showcased resilience and the effectiveness of various strategic initiatives by mostly overcoming numerous and various production challenges we encountered predominantly in the first half of twenty twenty three, including production interruptions from weather events, loss of some key mobile equipment, labor shortfalls and mill throughput reductions.

Speaker 1

However, both sites demonstrated stronger second half year performance and on a consolidated basis, we finished with a much better 4th quarter, concluding the year on a positive note and enabling the company to meet its revised 2023 production guidance, yielding a total of just about 90,000 gold equivalent ounces. The continual operational improvements throughout the year to get back on track were complemented with an impressive safety record, maintaining lost time and medical aid incident rates below industry averages. In 2024, we are anticipating a steady operational tons and ounce production profile within an annual production of between 90,000 to 100,000 gold equivalent ounces. And 2024 will be a critically important year for the company as we build upon the stable operating platform of our company's 2 underground mine gold producing assets in Tier 1 geographies. A primary focus remains on tracking key lead operational metrics to effectively preempt potential risks to the 2024 plan.

Speaker 1

The goal for the year is to enhance our operational success and cash flow generation. And another key objective in 2024 is to replace mine depletion at both mines and extend the mine life again at Costerfield. Opportunities remain for expansion in existing mineralized areas and the discovery of new near mine deposits exist at both sites. The strategic emphasis remaining on organic growth coupled with promising external opportunities position 2024 as an exciting year for Mandalay. Now reverting back to and reflecting upon Q4 2023, I would like to hand the call over to different members of my team to recap this past quarter for Mandalay, starting first with Ryan, our Chief Operating Officer.

Speaker 1

Ryan?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Faiza. So reflected on our key achievements and results in the last quarter, we achieved a consolidated production of 26,900 and 41 sales of gold equivalent ounces, marking our highest quarterly production for 2023. In comparison to the preceding quarter, there was a significant 42% increase in Costerfield's gold equivalent production reaching 15,383 ounces. This contributed to Costerfield concluding the year with a total of 47,661 gold equivalent ounces produced. The substantial growth in quarter 4 can be mainly attributed to elevated gold grades as well as increased mine tons in our underground mining operation.

Speaker 2

This mine grade increase was due to overcoming previous delays to mining higher grade so in Central Yule rather than the periphery of the ore body. Additionally, challenges that led to a reduction in mill tons due to processing transitional ore from Mule to Sheppard have been largely addressed with ongoing plan improvements to enhance the plant's consistent throughput. The off sale showcase sustained improvements for the 3rd consecutive quarter, achieving a production of 11,558 gold ounces. This represents its highest quarterly output since quarter 1 of 2022. Over the year, Bealsdale yielded 42,100 and 48 ounces gold, reflecting a modest improvement over the full year results from 2020.

Speaker 2

This advancement is mainly credited to improve grades from the Eastern Extension Zone in the second half of the year and the steady production from the mine after the Q1. Looking ahead to 2024, at Costerfield, both Yule and Sheppard deposits maintain crucial roles in shaping our production profile with predominantly stoping in Newell and development in Sheppard. As Bjorkdal, our emphasis remains on prioritizing the extraction of gold from higher grade areas within the mine. We also anticipate at Bjorkdal reaching our target annualized rate of processing of 1,450,000 tons for our mill conversion project by quarter 2 of year. I'd like to pass the call to Nick, our Chief Financial Officer, who will highlight Mandalay's financials.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ryan. So again, as a reminder, our numbers the numbers mentioned are in USD and following with the Q4 highlights. Our consolidated revenue was up 22% as compared to the same period last year, reaching $51,000,000 And it's worth noting that Bjorkdal had its strongest quarter for revenue since Q1 2022, generating just over $22,000,000 Mandalay generated a consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $23,000,000 reflecting a 15% increase as compared to Q4 2022. This translated to $15,000,000 $6,000,000 in cash flow from operating activities and free cash flow, respectively. Regarding our Q4 unit cost per gold equivalent ounce production, consolidated cash cost was $9.79 and all in sustaining cost was $12.96 This was an increase of 8% 3%, respectively, as compared to the same period last year.

Speaker 3

For the full year 2023, Mandalay generated a consolidated net income of $8,000,000 which translates to US0.08 dollars per share or CAD0.11 per share. Over the year, our realized gold price was CAD19.63 per ounce, which was an 8% increase compared to 2022, while the antimony price decreased by 7% to $12,120 per tonne. Mandalay's year end cash position stood at $27,000,000 with a net cash position of $3,300,000 It is important to highlight though that the year end cash and net cash positions were adversely affected by delayed cash receipts from shipments, which were received early in the New Year. It's also worth noting that our January 2024 ending cash position had risen by $10,000,000 to approximately $37,000,000 I'd now like to turn the call over to Chris, our VP of Operational Geology and Exploration. Thanks, Chris.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Nick. Earlier this week, we provided updates on the mineral resource and reserve for the Coffeyld mine in Australia, along with an interim mineral reserve update for the Bjorkdal mine. At Kossfield, we saw a drop in mineral reserves roughly in line with depletion. Drilling on the Sheppard sorry, drilling on Sheppard in 2023 confirmed high gold grades in a network of sheeted quartz veins with complex interactions. And although defining Sheppard has bolstered mining confidence, extending the mineral resource has proven somewhat challenging.

Speaker 4

The current mine life at Costerfield is now 3.5 years, which is a return to historic norms for Costerfield. The main focus of exploration during 2023 was on near mine and regional target testing, where we have been successful in reporting our first mineral resource on a satellite deposit. The True Blue deposit lies approximately 2 kilometers to the west of fuel. And although small so far, we have strong hopes that this will turn into another extensive corridor of veining. Regarding Bjorkdal, an interim update was conducted, considering the depletion of mineral reserves for 2023.

Speaker 4

We have also implemented an updated scheduling methodology to better represent the optimal better represent optimal mining practices needed to extract the complex veining at Beorgyel. A comprehensive mineral resource and reserve update for Bjorkdal as at December 31, 2024 is scheduled for release in Q1, 2025. As for exploration activities in the quarter, at Costerfield, the drilling focus shifted from Shepherd and Yule to the south of the field, where drilling commenced on several extension targets as well as testing the potential Westwood extension of Shepherd. Drilling of the Brunswick Deeps program was temporarily halted, whilst the focus shifted to the prospective panel located to the east of the Brunswick deposit. In early 2024, near mine exploration will continue to focus on external sorry, extensional drilling testing at Cuffley and Brunswick.

Speaker 4

Drilling will also commence on the Westwood progression of the Sheppard veining system. The regional focus remained on TrueBlue, where resource extension drilling was conducted as well as step out drill testing along a 1 kilometer strike length to the south. Drilling here continued into 2024 and will be the main focus in Q1. To Bjorkdal, near mine drilling concluded on infill programs drilling to the east of the central zone and to the north of the boreal zone, while continuing on the eastern and depth extension of Aurora. A new program focusing on the depth and northern plunge extension of Bjorkdal mineralization.

Speaker 4

These programs have continued into 2024 with a new skarn depth extension program set to begin in Q1. There was no regional drilling at Bjorkdal during Q4 2023. However, assaying and analysis were ongoing from the Q3 from drilling in Q3 on the extension of Norbariat mineral resource and the Storhita mineralization. Regional drilling is set to recommence in May 2023 sorry, May 2024. I would now like to return the call back to our President and CEO, Fraser Bauschiere.

Speaker 1

Thanks a lot for that, Fraser. Yes, thanks very much for that.

Speaker 5

Look,

Speaker 1

well, Q4 was our best quarter of the year. We know the full year did not meet our full potential and we intend to rectify that in 2024. So that being said, in 2023, we generated about $43,000,000 cash flow from our operations, dollars 67,000,000 in gross profit, dollars 60,000,000 in EBITDA. And we sit now at the end of January of this year with $37,000,000 in cash underpinned by a proven track record of 10 years operating experience plus. So since joining the company 10 months ago as the President and CEO, I have a much better understanding now of our assets, their potential respective organic development profiles, and I have generated and aligned with our Board of Directors on a very important growth strategy in generating much needed returns for our shareholders.

Speaker 1

With respect to our executive team, I've added additional bench strength. March 1, we have a new Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer starting, Hashim Ahmed. And I'd like to welcome Hashim, who has a proven history of success with over 20 years experience in our industry. And his knowledge, which is extensive and focused on capital discipline and strategic financial acumen, I believe make him an ideal fit for the leadership team. But I'd also like to thank Nick Dwyer for his invaluable contributions that were long before I joined the company over 9 years with Mandalay.

Speaker 1

And I do wish him both success with his future endeavors. And I want to thank him for allowing such a smooth transition in duties to our new CFO. In 2024, the focus remains on operational discipline by achieving consistent, reliable production at budgeted costs, while efficiently and prudently deploying all self funded $14,000,000 in various exploration activities, uncovering what we believe will be near mine and regional exploration opportunities to grow and extend reserves at both of our assets. And paired with this steady production, Mandalay is poised to enter a new phase, exploring currently numerous strategic initiatives, and I anticipate the company evolving into a significant player as a mid tier producer in the gold sector as well as improving our trading liquidity, market capitalization and strengthening our balance sheet. On behalf of management or Mandalay's Board and management, I'd like to express my appreciation for both the MineSite hard work, their loyalty and aligning our along our core values and their commitment to operational excellence.

Speaker 1

It's through the collective efforts of these talented individuals and our team that we believe will continue to strive and reach new heights in 2024. So with that, I thank everyone. I conclude this portion of the call. And I would like to open the lines for questions and hand the call back to our operator. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Kevin Tracy from Oberon Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Hi, Fraser. I got disconnected a bit through, so forgive me if I ask anything repetitive. My first question, well, first it was good to see the improvement in the results in the Q4. I have a question on the guidance given what we saw in the Q4.

Speaker 5

In the Q4, if I just kind of take the run rate production, it was 108,000 equivalent ounces. So that's well above the high end of the guidance you gave for 2024. And then all in sustaining costs in Q4 was $1300 an ounce, which is well below the range of the guidance you gave. So can you talk about what you expect to, I guess, get worse in 2024 versus what you saw in Q4?

Speaker 1

Sure. Yes. Thanks for that, Kevin. Look, at the end of the day, it's about Costerfield and the grade profile at that operation. So because so many of our costs are 65% of our costs are fixed, If we have lower ounce production and as a result both cash cost and asset cost go up.

Speaker 1

So the grade profile at our Coster field operations fluctuates over the years. It starts out high for the 1st 6 months, similar to what you would have seen in Q4. And then it peels off as we get a bit deeper and the grades get lower in both antimony as well as within the mine for that particular section. So it's very location dependent, timing dependent. And for a change, instead of having a hockey stick profile, we have an inverted one with a stronger first half than the second half.

Speaker 5

Okay. And is that explained by moving to Shepherd? Or I guess are you in for the Q4 and in the first half of this year, were you mining mostly Mule and you're moving to Sheppard in the second half and just Sheppard isn't coming on at the same grades? What explains that?

Speaker 1

It is that in part, but I'm actually going to hand over to our Chief Operating Officer, who at a high level can sort of just give a bit more color to

Speaker 2

that. Yes. Thanks, Kevin. It comes down to morning the central core of the ore body at Yule. So the first half of that year, we're back into the central area.

Speaker 2

And then after that, we're back out to the periphery. So we mine from the peripheries and we do a retreat to a central core, central pillar. And yes, so we'll be going stepping back out and then retreating back in. So sort of that the grade profile is a bit up and down because of that,

Speaker 5

if that makes sense. Okay. And specifically at Boerkdal, can you talk about the ramp up in production from the Eastern Extension area? Or can you give some sense of what the proportion of ounces produced in the Q4 from that higher grade area was? And how you expect that proportion to evolve as we go through 2024?

Speaker 1

Yes. Sure. I'll make a couple of comments and then Ryan can add a bit more detail. Look, the good news is when we got into the Eastern extension, once the permit was approved mid last year, we don't we do know there's higher grade sections in there. We were able to hit that.

Speaker 1

That helped us certainly in Q3. But because we didn't have the permit for a while, we're still catching up on some development. So we weren't able to get as much feed through there as we had hoped. But as for next year, Ryan, I'll let you give a sense roughly at a high level sort of what percentage we think comes from Eastern versus the rest of the ore body and why it's reflected in our guidance at Bjorkdal that we gave in terms of the 43,000 to 47,000 ounces for this year.

Speaker 2

Yes. To summarize, the start of 2023 when we didn't have the mining concession, it affected us a little bit in the second quarter and delayed that high grade area. So we sort of when we got that concession, mining concession in the second half of the year, you've seen the grades pick up. And I guess that we focused on mining that area from that point. For this year, it's around 25% to 30% of our tons of the operation is from that area.

Speaker 2

It's still like a it's a still limited area, and there's only so much equipment you can run-in there at a time. But we are looking at ways in the future to increase the productivity from these better grade zones.

Speaker 5

All right. And on the recent reserve report that you released yesterday at Costerfield, so very little reserve replacement over the last 2 years. And that's despite a pretty meaningful step up in the exploration budget versus where the company had operated historically. And seemingly, there were kind of lots of press releases over the past 2 years announcing drilling results and extensions of Yule and Shepherd. So how are we supposed to reconcile that?

Speaker 5

And then given what seems like pretty poor returns on exploration spending at Costerfield over the past couple of years, why are you increasing the budget even further there this year?

Speaker 1

Yes, Kevin, I'll take that first. It's an excellent question. And I guess I want to share a couple of things. The short answer is you're right. For the last 2 years, although sure there were good drill results in different places, once you pull it all together, ultimately it comes down to the reserve that we have and we mine.

Speaker 1

And it was not what we were hoping, but in the last 15 years under Mandalay's ownership, we have had this fluctuation that kind of varies between 2 to 5 years for the last 15 years. So we were disappointed. It dropped down to 3.5 years. We were believing it could stay at 5. But to your second question, in terms of why spend, look, that's an excellent question.

Speaker 1

We are very focused on terms of how we spend that stage gating it, making sure we're not just going to be spending left, right and center if we don't get success. So a lot of the spend will be in target testing. It's not infill drilling. So both what's happened in the past, etcetera, and going forward. And we have to make sure that we think we're going to get success there.

Speaker 1

And then if not, we'll make a decision accordingly. We do believe there's as good a chance in the regional, but the regional, unfortunately, is optimistic as we are about that. That is usually a 3 to 5 year or 3 to 4 year lead time before that comes into reserves. So we will be balanced on that. We will stage gate it.

Speaker 1

And we're not going to keep going if we don't think we'll get something. But based on the past 15 years, we seem to be able to cycle through this 2 to 5 year history of reserves across the

Speaker 5

field. Okay. And then a bigger picture question here for you, Fraser, given you've been in the industry for a while, I'm curious on your perspective. And if I just pull up a chart here of the gold price and the gold mining ETF going back to 2,007, the gold price has nearly tripled and the gold mining ETF is down 33%. And then the junior mining ETF, it's only been around since 2,009, but over that timeframe, the gold price has roughly doubled and the junior mining ETF is down 66%.

Speaker 5

So what do you think explains this huge underperformance of the industry over such a long period? And what are you doing different at Mandalay so shareholders have a better experience?

Speaker 1

Yes. So I suppose when I'll answer that question, I think what we have suffered from is partly related to that, but partly separate from what I think the general junior gold space is suffering from. So I want to make sure we separate those To give a more general high level answer on the junior gold space relative to the price, I think there's been a history of underperformance, capital blowout. I would say over promising, under delivering that's affected the whole sector. It probably permeates down to the juniors where that might share a lot of drill results and nothing maybe comes out of it or they presented projects that are not that economic or they go to build them and they blow the capital out.

Speaker 1

So that is maybe in the junior space part of it. I'm sure that's much longer answer required. For us, I would say there's somewhat of a different situation going on. As I've shared before, for all intents and purposes, we're a semi private company, not by desire, but we have 4 major shareholders that hold 80% of the stock. They're very supportive, but it's so thinly traded and volatile.

Speaker 1

There's no real trading liquidity. And that's what takes us down both the path of continuing to focus on our operations and in terms of what we can do, but also pursuing other strategic options for us to increase both market cap size, spread out the share registry and increase trading liquidity. So that's really part of the 3 pronged approach I've talked about in terms of operations, exploration, but also looking at combinations where other producers like us might be suffering from the same fate of being fairly small, not enough trade and liquidity and just no recognition in these markets. So as a side note, we do FX hedge to de risk. We've done that this year for our currency to help us out.

Speaker 1

And we believe that there'll be a turnaround this year.

Speaker 5

Okay. Well, just so the senior gold miners have hugely underperformed too, right? And they have plenty of liquidity and significant market cap. So I'll just share my perspective or it seems to me the only reasonable explanation for such a big underperformance is poor capital allocation by the industry as a whole and really bad results from business development. So I hope just given this really poor experience industry seems to have had historically, the bar for Mandalay in doing deals is pretty high.

Speaker 5

So I suppose you've kind of talked about hoping to increase the liquidity and increase the market cap and so on. And I'm sure you could do that, but what I imagine most shareholders are interested is in increasing the per share value. So with that, I'll pass it on to the next caller.

Speaker 1

Yes, 100%. I hear you, Kevin. And maybe we can take this offline afterwards and have a more detailed discussion about that. And we'll let a few other people ask some questions. But I appreciate your comments.

Speaker 1

I've heard you.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Frazier.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Baldini. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, good morning. I have two questions. First off, could you explain what in the world is going on at this lupine mine where the closure costs just go up and up and up? No, it's almost $20,000,000 to close the thing now. What in the world is going on there?

Speaker 6

Thanks.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks, Daniel. I'll give you some a few comments and I'll hand over to my Chief Financial Officer to add some additional color. Look, the Lupin mine, I know that came in part of the Elgin deal back in 2014. The plan had been to close that mine really just before COVID came in and there were a number of interruptions that delayed that for 2 or 3 years.

Speaker 1

There are we're fully bonded on that. We feel fairly comfortable about that in terms of getting that security back. But we have some remaining obligations there that still have to be fulfilled that we plan to do in the final field season of 2025. That's when the majority of it will be complete. And then after that, we believe that most of the work is finally done.

Speaker 1

So closing mines is never exciting and it's not great, but it's as important as opening them and operating them from both an ethical point of view and then for the industry. That's a commitment we've taken on and we believe it's manageable and doesn't impact our overall forward profile in terms of ultimate cash generation. And Nick, you can add some more color to that if Daniel has a follow-up on that.

Speaker 6

No, that's it. So my second question is sort of related to the previous caller's question. Could you point to deals that you or maybe this development person you've hired have done in your previous capacities that has that have been sort of big winners for shareholders?

Speaker 1

Sure. I'll go back to the one that I'll group 1 where both of us together were involved. I mean, I've got separate ones myself as does Scott. But probably the bigger one would have been Nevsun Resources, where eventually that led to a transaction that's different than what we're looking at in terms of combination. But that led to a transaction where Lundin initially came in and then Shenzhen Mining came and bought that operation.

Speaker 1

And that was after we built the asset, operated it and then did another acquisition of an asset in Serbia. And then once the company got to a larger size, it attracted a fair bit more interest. And that transaction happened, I think it was in 2018, where Finjan came and bought that out.

Speaker 6

Okay. All right. So presumably, selling Mandalay would be one of the alternatives in your strategy.

Speaker 1

This is what my strategy is. It's to improve the share price. If by growing the company and we become interesting enough for someone and it makes sense for the shareholders, I would certainly be open to that. I'm not a believer in leading with your foot to try and sell a company. You've got no leverage.

Speaker 1

It makes no sense. I'm into growing value for the shareholders and the company. And if along that journey, somewhere were to come in, then that's certainly an option. And if it made sense for the shareholders, I would totally be open to that. But it's not something I would lead with in terms of a standalone with no other story.

Speaker 1

So hopefully that makes sense to you then.

Speaker 7

Yes. All

Speaker 6

right. Thanks very much.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Operator

We have our next question coming from the line of Ernie Malis from PMG. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi. Congratulations on a great quarter. The solution is simple, go back to your 6% dividend. I believe that's what you used to do is 6% of the previous quarter's revenue went to dividends and that would help the share price, no doubt?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Ernie. Certainly an option in terms of how we get back to our shareholders, whether it's the NCIB, which does provide that flexibility to repurchase shares that we think are undervalued and give that back to shareholders. I'm not anti dividend, but I'll just give 2 colors on dividend. While it certainly guarantees a return for our shareholders, it's a balance with the available cash we have that we think we're going to need to both continue to grow the company, be it through exploration and or M and A. And I also have been involved with companies in the past.

Speaker 1

When you start a dividend, I believe you really need to maintain that and not stop and start it. So I want to have confidence in our cash profile going forward that it was so healthy that we can continue that ad infinitum, so to speak. I'm just not in that position yet as I still believe we have a few more pieces to work out in terms of how we grow the company overall.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's a good fair answer. I'd like to ask a couple of questions regarding the process at Bjorkdal. Could you break down the product type that you got this quarter, flotation concentrate, gravity concentrate, middling and Nelson?

Speaker 1

Okay. I'm laughing now because it's a bad question. It's just a bit more detail for me. So I'm going to hand that over to our Chief Operating Officer to share the different concentrates roughly we have there that go to both Bolivian and Aruba that we sell. And you are right, I mean, not only at Costerfield, all we produce in our company right now is concentrates.

Speaker 1

We don't do dore. So, Ryan, would you be able to answer Ernie's question in terms of that rough split between the different comps and Biorto?

Speaker 2

Yes. No worries Ernie. The gravity portion is about 50%, just under 50%, middling is around 25%, flotation is around just above 20%, and then Nelson is very small, under 5%. So they're the rough sort of breakdowns of the portions.

Speaker 7

Yes. I mean, in the old days, you used to provide that detail on the quarterly reports and now it's basically not there. Also I noticed that you had some open pit mined ore and that wasn't broken out in the financial statement either. So part of the problem at Bjorkdal is basically everything is back calculated from the end. So it's very difficult to track how well the mine is doing that way without the detail in the financial reporting.

Speaker 1

Yes. Just to be clear, we do report saleable gold, which means gold that we get paid for by the various smelters within our concentrate. That open pit, I mean fair point, but I should let you know there was a bit of open pit, but it represented like 1%. It was really a Most of our feed is about 70%, 75% from underground and 20%, 25% from the surface stockpiles from the open pit mine years ago that run about 0.6 grams a ton. Okay.

Speaker 7

That's good. And I noticed that, a Castro fuel that you had a nice improvement in the process there. You went from 4.84 ounces per ton of antimony concentrate to 10.71. What kind of change did you make to the process there?

Speaker 1

I might again ask our Officer, Chief Financial Officer to respond to those grades you're talking about in the concentrated cost of field.

Speaker 2

Are you able to repeat that question please, Ernie? Sorry.

Speaker 7

Yes. I tracked the ounces of gold per ton of antimony concentrate. It went from 4.84 ounces last quarter to 10.71 ounces this quarter. So obviously, there must have been some kind of process improvement to make that change Was it just higher grades?

Speaker 2

It might be wrong. Yes. It's generally grade related. Sorry, yes, go ahead, Nick.

Speaker 4

Yes. Okay. Well, that's good.

Speaker 3

It is grade related. And just to confirm, part of that ratio is due to the drop of the antimony percentage as an overall percentage of the production. So it's partly just due to the mining more of Sheppard, more of the Sheppard zone where the antimony dropped off a bit, which has got an impact on that. But yes, also process improvements as well.

Speaker 7

And then the other question related to that is, if you're mining 11 grams per ton, how do you come up with 13 grams per ton head grade on milled? Is there a concentrator effect in the process?

Speaker 1

No. That's Frazer. I'll answer that. There's always a bit of a lead lag depending on the small stockpile that we run when it's mined and when it goes through. So there is a little bit of a fluctuation in timing there.

Speaker 1

But net net with over 6 months, everything tends to reconcile pretty closely to what we have underground. Ryan, I don't know if you wanted to add a little bit more on that.

Speaker 2

Just to make sure you're looking at the saleable AUEQ, which is the antimony converted to a gold equivalent versus maybe a gold only. But as Fraser said, the other reason could be the visibly lag of a couple of weeks at least that flows over from the quarter to the next quarter.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's fine. And it would be nice if you could break out in your inventory report on the financials, what the inventory is by each mine?

Speaker 1

Okay. Thanks. I appreciate that Ernie. And again, if there's something clear, we can always take it offline and address your issue. So thanks again.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Bye.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lawrence Retail. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Yes. Good morning. I have a few questions to ask. And it's nice to hear that we're at $37,000,000 at the end of January. So that's a nice substantial amount of money.

Speaker 8

My first question is regarding the share buyback. That was announced last year. Was any shares bought back last year and terminated or?

Speaker 1

Yes. It's sorry, can you hear me, Lorne?

Speaker 8

Yes.

Speaker 1

Yes, Fraser here. There were shares bought back. In fact, we'll I believe we have a press release. If it didn't go out, it should go out today to show the annual renewal or reapplication of which we approved on that. And within that, we actually state how many shares.

Speaker 1

It wasn't very many. It was about $300,000 or so. That's a pretty small percentage when we have the ability to go up to $4,000,000 dollars But the reason we didn't buy a lot of shares back, although we always have the option to, is I really wanted to be careful how we manage cash until I got a better understanding of our future cash needs, capital needs going forward. So after we repurchased or sorry, I think it was 160 7,000 not 300,000 shares at about $2 just over $2 We have renewed that and it gives us the option this year for the same or even more if it makes sense.

Speaker 8

Okay. Because I didn't see any insider filings of those buybacks last year. So as you're buying shares out of the market, aren't you supposed to file an insider trading report?

Speaker 1

Actually for buying shares back, that's not necessary. We don't need to do that. But we do summarize

Speaker 2

and you'll

Speaker 1

see that the press release hasn't gone out, the 167,000 shares that I think it was CAD237,000,000 but we do reference it in the quarterlies as well. So again, I can take that offline if there's something else missing, but I'm pretty sure we're on-site from a governance perspective and it will be shared in the press release that went out today. Okay.

Speaker 8

I thought that all insider transactions had to be reported within a certain period of time, but it could be my mistake. So I apologize.

Speaker 1

Insider do, but I don't believe share buyback is considered part of that when the company's repurchases.

Speaker 8

From the company, yes. Okay. I do have a couple of questions on Costerfield.

Speaker 4

Is there going to

Speaker 8

be any exploration, continued exploration done on the Robinson Brown Corridor or has that kind of worked its course and you're moving over to TrueBlue?

Speaker 1

I'm going to hand over to our VP of Exploration. The short answer is, while we haven't given up on that, we just think with managing our exploration dollars, there's a better chance of success of something larger at TrueBlue, even though we had had some initial success at Robinson. But Chris, do you want to answer Lauren's question on that?

Speaker 4

Yes, sure. So I guess in short, we do have a small program at depth in the Robinson line due for this year. But I guess the sort of mineral horizon that we're looking for is closer to surface of TrueBlue. And so that's sort of the main focus of what we're doing this year. We're trying to sort of build on the resource that we put out and also have this step out testing to test the full length of the corridor.

Speaker 4

But yes, we had some extremely high grade results at Robinson last year or the year before. And these were in veins that were not as cohesive. And we think that they will come together at depth. But that is a little bit further down than what we're dealing with at Truplu. But it is still on the cards for us.

Speaker 8

Okay. That's good.

Speaker 1

With regards to

Speaker 8

are you still doing any deep hole drilling underneath Coffey?

Speaker 4

Yes. Do you want me to jump in, Basil? Please continue with this one. Yes, absolutely. So Caffley is becoming again a focus for us.

Speaker 4

And we are actually doing some deep drilling below Caffley into the South of Caffley at the moment. So that's an evolving story, and we're using our learnings from the Shepparton body to sort of bring down to the south there. It's sort of similar style mineralization.

Speaker 8

Okay. I'm looking at the geological structure on Slide 10. Is some of that kind of a projection on your part as to the fractures and the layering in there? Is there any like the different color banding in that? Is that based on some seismic readings and stuff that you did?

Speaker 8

Or is it kind of just more and just knowledge of geology of the area and how you think that the layers are represented under the 3 different mines?

Speaker 4

Yes. The geological interpretation there is of the geology that we're seismics and from our drilling, obviously. And it does have a relationship for us to mineralization and the mineral horizons. So it's probably a little bit too much to go into it all right now. But yes, those are the different geological units or sedimentary units that we

Speaker 8

think So do you think it's looking more and more like Fosterville with the nuggety gold at the lower layers?

Speaker 4

So what we found at depth is we're moving more into a turbidase sequence that Fosterville is within over to the about 30 ks to the west of us. So that's something that we're still looking at and some of our deeper cuffly drilling is heading into that area at the moment. So yes, I guess, sorry, in a nutshell, we're looking at a similar trap environment to Fosterville.

Speaker 8

Okay. As looking closer and closer to being a Fosterville style

Speaker 4

deposit at depth? Well, yes, these are deep holes that we have been doing over the last few years to understand the area. And so I can't say that we're getting close to a Fosterville under there at the moment, but we are hitting bits of gold that we've reported on previously. And we're still analyzing the area for the right track environment that we'll be targeting.

Speaker 8

Okay. Well, I'll send you a 4 leaf clover and maybe we'll get lucky there. How's that?

Speaker 4

Excellent. We'll take it.

Speaker 8

Yes, exactly. So will I being

Speaker 4

a shareholder. It's still a very tantalizing prospect there.

Speaker 8

Well, the grades are still good and the antimony helps out the I guess my only comment on that is I kind of missed the in the last couple of news releases, the AU equivalent for Fosterville or sorry, for Costerfield. I kind of like that in the report to see how the antimony adds the grade. I think it's about a 50% increase, but because usually you're reporting 18 grams per ton equivalent, which is always nice when you're looking at the numbers quickly. Got a couple of questions on Bjorkdal, looking at Slide 15. Just for my own orientation here, the Eastern Extension, is that the Aurora Zone and the newly discovered boreal zone?

Speaker 8

Is that what you're calling the eastern extension?

Speaker 4

No, sorry. The eastern extension that we referred to is the extension of the main and central zone, which is further back up the mine. Okay. And those plunge off to the east.

Speaker 8

Okay. So the drilling through the Aurora zone, was that done from surface or from underground?

Speaker 4

Predominantly from underground. Okay. And that's yes, so we are drilling just ahead of ourselves as we head down and we're not seeing a limit to this deposit at the moment. And I guess that's what's limiting us.

Speaker 8

Well, that sounds horrible if you can't see the limits of the deposit. So I was being facetious, of course. So the Aurora zone, will that be pitiable or is the grades too far or too below depth there to make it economical?

Speaker 4

Sorry, the Aurora Zone, we don't have any plans to put an open pit over Aurora at the moment. We are still planning to mine that from underground. And there is, I guess, a significant portion from what we believe is the top of Aurora to the surface.

Speaker 8

I see. Okay. So it's the grade obviously the grades are most likely higher underground as close to the surface. I'm going to go back in history. I've asked this question again.

Speaker 8

Is there any plans to put an ore sorter into Yorkdale operation?

Speaker 1

Yes, Mike. Yes, thanks for that, Lawrence. We have looked at options for ore sorting. Probably the if it does make sense, it's going to be more on the beneficiation side, not on the optical ore sorting for the stockpile. But we have done one study.

Speaker 1

We're thinking of maybe relooking at that, but the initial study did not prove that at the time to be beneficial to go over sorting, but it's not something we've completely discarded.

Speaker 5

Okay.

Speaker 8

Yes, just one more question here. Is there any plans to do any drilling on the southwest corner of the permitted area for Yorkdale? I'm thinking more along Granholm, if I pronounced it correctly and Rapsjar down in those areas where it's more a BMS copper gold deposits?

Speaker 1

Yes. Again, I'm going to hand that over just for time, I'll ask Chris to speak high level. But the short answer is the $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 we set aside this year. There is some regional, but probably the most excited about store heating. That looks like another significant system there that we're focusing on.

Speaker 1

But we are going to that area that you speak to, which is right adjacent to where Boledin is doing some drilling as well. We are going to be doing some targeting there, both field work. Do you want to speak to any drilling there, Chris, in that Southwest section?

Speaker 4

Not just yet. We have been active there over the last couple of years and we're going to be putting out a release soon on that side.

Speaker 8

Okay. Well, thank you very much for your time gentlemen and answering my questions.

Speaker 1

Thank you. All right.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Boucher for final closing comments.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much for that operator. It's been a long but informative hopefully everyone found that informative healthy call. I do want to share one last thing that happened during the quarter that may explain some of the issue we had with respect to Mandalay had been part of a silver ETF. I think it was the ETF Managers Group, probably close to 1,000,000 shares. And as most of you may have been aware, Amplify ETF, which is another big company took that out.

Speaker 1

And as a result of that, that new ETF went through some rebalancing and reworking in a number of companies, including Mandalay were deleted from that index. So that did have a you would have seen the drop in our share price because we're still thinly traded. That got bled out and has put a bit of downward pressure on. But based on where we're going forward this year, we're optimistic that now that that is no longer involved in our register as well as everything else we've spoken about that we'll be able to recover from that. So I just wanted to add that as one last bit of context, wrap it up.

Speaker 1

It's a full hour call. So thank you very much everyone for their time and both dialing in and webcast. And I hope you have a good rest of the day and weekend. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely day.

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Earnings Conference Call
Mandalay Resources Q4 2023
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