PDI Gold

Thanks for Luke and Rusty to attend, double the audience. Uh, [chuckles] we are PDI Gold, so we're the result of the merger between Robex Gold and, uh, Predictive Discovery. Um, we came together and closed the deal in about midway through April this year. Right now, we're, we're two operating assets. One smaller, Nampala asset in, um, Mali that generates about forty to forty-five thousand ounces a year. And Kiniéro, which is, uh, currently on track to meet or exceed, uh, top end of guidance at about a hundred and seventy-six thousand ounces for the year.

We've got a, I think probably the finest exploration, sorry, development asset in, um, West Africa at the moment, in Bankan, where, um, we've had some very positive steps towards, um, getting that permitted, uh, including the meeting with the president in the last two weeks. So we're, um, we think we're really on a path to starting that probably next quarter of, uh, this year and, uh, bringing it into production first quarter twenty twenty-eight.

So, uh, that's track record of me and my team through, through West Africa. You see, we started with Nordgold, um, in about two thousand and ten, building Bissa. I went through as General Manager of Lifa for just over twelve months, uh, Project Director of Buli, Project Director of Grosse in, uh, southern Siberia in, uh, in Russia. CDO and, um, Project Director of Sembrato, um, COO and MD of TIEDO Minerals Averaging Project, and, yeah, now most recently MD for Robex and, and now MD for PDI Gold, which is the merger of the two companies.

That's our register, and it's our, our performance against the GDXJ, uh, the, you know, sort of the in-indexes we're included in. You know, we've outperformed the index over the last twelve to fifteen months, and we're hoping with the announcement of our permitting, which we think is imminent at the moment, that we're gonna have a, a reroute on that news. And, you know, we still, still aim to be in construction later this year.

That was our last quarter performance. We poured over sixty-four thousand ounces, uh, at an all-in sustaining cost of just over fourteen hundred dollars. Uh, Kiniéro's sustaining, all-in sustaining was, uh, twelve hundred and fifty odd dollars, um, which puts us pretty much at the lowest end of all the all-in sustaining costs in West African sphere. We-- At the end of last quarter, we had three hundred and sixty-four million cash, um, and bullion in bank. Uh, we, we made a ten million dollar investment in Oualli, in Côte d'Ivoire. And we're, yeah, we're having a great quarter so far and hoping to announce those results at the end of the quarter.

That's where we sit in comparison to our peers. Um, we are... I was actually surprised to see we're the lowest cost producer in the, in the region for gold at fourteen hundred and eight. That's, uh, slightly increased by our, um, our small operation, Nampala in Mali, which, uh, as Chris explained earlier, is a difficult jurisdiction to operate in. And, uh, it's, um, certainly drags the cost curve up a little bit. We've, um, we've done well to control costs in our first six months of operation at, at Kiniéro. And, uh, we're really looking forward to having a, a producing mine in Kiniéro. That's our flagship, at least until Bankan is in production.

That's where Kiniéro sits, and you can see there it sort of borders right on the Bankan deposit. There's, there's four major operators in Guinea at the moment, um, that being Nordgold, AngloGold Ashanti, uh, Managem, and, and us with, um, a smaller operator in Mansa Resources, uh, just in the Karissa, just to the north of our Kiniéro deposit. So, um, we've had a pretty good time in Guinea. Like, uh, obviously, the permitting situation has been slower than we would've liked, but, um, we, we built Kiniéro on time and on budget during possibly the most busiest time in Guinea that's ever existed with the construction of the Simandou Gold Mine.

So they, they put in, you know, over five hundred kilometers of rail and I think seven hundred and fifty bridges to, to... And, you know, port and, and road facilities to get that whole thing into production. Meanwhile, we were building, we were sort of spending... Our entire CapEx was a weekly spend for Rio Tinto during that project. So it was, um, we were the small project that, that got built while, you know, they were working through it.

But, uh, we had a, a fantastic ramp-up in production. Um, January, we're really still commissioning. We only got the sag mill, uh, sorry, the ball mill going, uh, halfway through January. We ramped up very quickly to over nameplate, and now we've, uh, reset nameplate to, you know, slightly over eight million tons per annum. Mostly processing very soft sap a lot. We've got sap in the blend for at least the next seven years. We'll probably add that well past ten. We've got, um, an incredible amount of exploration potential through the whole thing and, you know, we're just gonna be, you know, finding more gold and, and, and making more gold for the receivable future.

We, we just did a reser-reserve update today between economic factors and drilling. We've, uh, managed to add about five hundred thousand to the reserve, which is slightly depleted by the hundred thousand we mined in the first half of the year. But we, um, we had a very, very good startup. Uh, we think we're gonna be able to run in this sort of nameplate indefinitely, and we're, um, really happy to be operating in Guinea, which is a very safe jurisdiction, and it's, uh, working pretty well for us.

As you can see there, they're the, they're the two mining licenses of the two companies with Bankan in the north. Kiniéro's in the south, and you can see, um, the Monsignor one, which is currently under application at the moment. I won't try to point, but yeah, um, there we go I'm not gonna bother with that. Um, the Montfini one is just to the south of, uh, Kiniéro. That's an extension of our current Sibali pit. It should join up to create a pit that's approximately two and a half kilometers long. The ore body's five hundred meters wide. It's, it's... The ore body's at surface. It's, it's a one-to-one strip ratio life of mine pit. Uh, starts off with basically zero strip. It's all oxidized to about a hundred meters, and it's just-- it's gonna join up with Sibali to create, like, what's a super pit in the region. You know, that's a one-kilometer long and, you know, just a massive easy ore body to mine, which will continue to fill our mill for the foreseeable future.

We've had a lot of exploration over the last, um, three to six months, where we were hoping to bring you some exploration updates today. But that got delayed. But that, that should be out later this week. But we're, we're really looking for some very high-grade shoots that extend under the Gabelli cluster, which is where Semafo mined for just over ten years at three and a half grams per tonne in oxide. So that's, um, there's some very high-grade extensions there. We've hit them recently, and we're, you know, hoping to bring you those results very shortly. We're looking for some really good oxide targets around Zone C and some high-grade shoots down in Faraba and Kobani. So it's, um... And then there's just a lot of greenfields exploration potential up the north, you know, in Filumblu and Mankem. So we've, yeah, we've got enough gold to find to continue to increase our reserves much faster than we deplete for the foreseeable future. Um, and yeah, it's, it's just gonna continue to deliver for us.

Now Bankan's obviously, I think, the best development project in West Africa, bar none, probably in the world. Uh, it's, it's a massive thick ore body that's, um, extends at depth into an underground and in an open pit. It's got, you know, fantastic development ground around. There's currently five point five million ounces of reserve-- of resources and, and just, just under three of reserves. Uh, we're hoping to start commence drilling there again in later this year, by the end of the year. Hopefully finding some more saprolite to add to our mine blend and increase our DFS nameplate throughput.

So, um, the DFS had us at a, you know, a twelve-year average production rate of two hundred and fifty thousand ounces per year. We're redoing that DFS, um, sort of playing with the optimization of the mine plan and, um, the size of the mill. And we're hoping to reduce that CapEx number and, uh, increase the, the milling throughput and the overall production rate. Um, we, we're aiming to have that out December of this year.

That's what Bankan looks like. As you can see, it's just a beautiful, big, wide ore body. Mining's gonna be really simple. We'll have one side of the pit that's ore, one side that's waste. You'll be doing whole ore bl-whole ore blasts and whole waste blasts. You know, it's a big, thick underground, sort of four grams a tonne. It extends at depth. At, at this stage, we don't know how far down, but it, it continues at depth. Uh, we are playing with that optimization now. We're really looking to potentially push back the underground to maybe year three or year four. Uh, increase the overall size of the open pit. Put that crown pillar slightly deeper in the, in the mine and, um, yeah, obviously increase the milling throughput to, to make up for that in the blend. So we're working through that now. We're hoping to have it complete by the end of this year.

In the meantime, we've been pretty busy. We've, um, started detail engineering. We're about twenty-five percent through. We've, um, put down initial purchase orders for the mills and the power station. Um, working with well-known partners that we work with. We, we've tendered almost all of our mechanical equipment now. We've, uh, we've actually received our structural steel tenders back. Um, so we are really as shovel-ready as a project can possibly be to, um, to start work as soon as we can. The wet season's finishing in the next two weeks. We're hoping to put shovels in the ground pretty soon after that, permitting, um, allowable, and then we'll, we'll be moving into what we think is an eighteen-month construction period and hopefully pouring gold in the first quarter of two thousand and twenty-eight. So it is an exciting project, and we can't wait to get started.

That's the exploration potential. As you can see there in the blue, I'm not gonna attempt to point, but that, that's the current resource shells. There's a lot of really interesting results that, you know, we-we're sort of haven't really been included in any resource yet. And, you know, there's some, some excellent hits in that thing. So we're then getting some RC rigs busy sort of towards the end of the year. We can certainly add to the overall saprolite blend in the mill, sort of increase the first few years of production to displace the underground ore that doesn't come-- probably not gonna come until later now. You know, we've just had a stellar record of discovery. This was discovered... First hole was drilled in twenty-twenty, so it is really only six years from first hole to what we think is gonna be the first concrete, and it's, um, it is just an outstanding project.

That's our Nampala operation. We have managed to operate in Mali relatively undisturbed through the last few years. It's obviously been a challenging operating environment as a lot of, uh, as, you know, a lot of people will tell you. But, uh, Nampala's managed to generate free cash flow month on month through the whole thing. We're still sort of pulling over twenty-five million a month-- a year out of Mali. It's still cash generating. We just increased, increased the overall reserve today. Uh, and yeah, it's still an asset that's well supported by the government, it's well supported by the community, and it's well supported by the workforce. So we're still, we're still operating it. It's, um, it's relatively low grade, all saprolite, no blasting required, so we haven't any problems with explosives supply. But we are, you know, continue to operate in Mali, and we continue to make money there, so

Awale is where we've, um, invested, you know, a relatively small investment. We, we put ten million dollars US into, uh, eleven point six percent of Awale. It is kind of a crowded register with Fortuna and obviously Newmont dominating. Like, our opinion is Newmont will eventually, um, look to exit this asset and, you know, we'd really like to be there when they, when they do. It's, uh, it's a tremendous asset, uh, asset that's been led by Andrew Chubb, and it's, um... We're hoping it grows into something bigger and, uh, yeah, one day possibly get the chance to, you know, to bid for it and, and possibly build it. So it's, um, it's a great asset in Côte d'Ivoire in the, in the Guinean border. It's in a safe jurisdiction and as, you know, it's been mentioned earlier today, Côte d'Ivoire is a great jurisdiction. Great infrastructure, great power, great everything really. It's, uh, it's a grown-up, mature jurisdiction that's, um, you know, we're quite interested to operate in again.

In terms of our sustainability, we're over ninety percent, um, local employees in Guinea already. We, we've only been in operations for just over six months. Our Malian operation's over ninety-seven percent. Um, Guinea-- Oh, sorry, Malian operated with the, the three percent of expats there all coming from the West African sphere. So it is very much an African-operated asset. It's, um... Overall, we've got about two thousand, you know, contract and, and direct jobs. Uh, we probably generate another two thousand employees during the construction of Bankan and another a thousand direct jobs post that. You know, we've got an excellent safety record at all our operations and, um, you know, what we see is development, you know, the development of Bankan and, um, [lip smack] and Monsunia should add over five billion dollars to the Guinean... Not just to the economy, to their actual, to their state resources in, you know, royalties, free carried interests, and, and corporate taxes over the next twelve years. So it is a massive contributor for the Guinean economy, and we see that's one of the r-main reasons we're pretty confident it's gonna be permitted very soon.

This is our objectives for this year. Um, we are on track to meet or exceed both cost and production guidance at, um, Kiniéro. We, um, we're somewhere in the middle of guidance at Nampala. Um, we are very much advancing towards both those permits, and we've had some very good news of recent and hopefully that'll be shared in the next couple of weeks. Um, you know, we really wanna get Bankan, you know, compensated and construction underway this year if, if all, at all possible. And then, uh, yeah, work to continue drilling to extend the mile offs at both Kiniéro and Nampala and Bankan as we do that. So it's, uh, it's a great, you know, sort of pathway towards four hundred thousand plus ounces a year, which, uh, we think is gonna happen.

It's our board and management and just quickly, we just look at the reserve update as of today. You know, we added just over four hundred thousand ounces to the Kiniéro reserves. Uh, it was, uh, just over a hundred thousand in depletion, twenty-five thousand of that still in stockpiles. But yeah, we, we went from one point four million ounces at the start of the year to, to over one point seven five at the, at the moment. So we've... And we did that, you know, through, I guess, economic factors in, in setting gold price for the reserve calculations at twenty-two hundred and the resources at twenty-four. And it's, you know, and we've obviously had a, a fair bit of drilling success in Nampala and have extended those ore reserves out. We haven't attempted to update Bankan. There is a lot of drilling to do there, and we, we'll hopefully do that sometime next year. So that's it from me. Um, open up the floor to questions.

[clears throat] Excuse me. Does anyone have any questions from the floor? Oh, we've got one here in the front row. Oh.

Do you foresee that any of these operations either currently producing or will be producing will have higher average ore grade? Have-

Higher average ore grade? I guess, I mean, it's possible. I guess with the higher gold prices we've been experiencing lately, it, it, it's economically better to process a lot more, um, a lot more tons, uh, you know, at lower grades, especially in saprolite. So, you know, as gold prices climb, I think, you know, the average grades globally are gonna drop and that's just a function of straight economics and pit optimization. So I, I doubt we'll be mining them at higher grades, but they, we'll definitely be producing, I mean, um, well, we'll hopefully pro- over-producing on our gold forecast and, and obviously cash accretion.

Any other questions from the floor? Uh, maybe just on the permitting, uh, at Bankan. You're expecting that imminently. Are you ready to execute on that project and what have you done to prepare?

Yeah, we're, we're very much ready to execute the project. Our team's in place. We've been building gold mines in West Africa for twenty years on average and, you know, we're, we've already started design and procurement activities. We'll hit the ground running. And I said it'll be an eighteen-month start to finish construction. So it, it'll be quick and, um, and easy and we're expecting a fast ramp up into full production as well.

And if, if there is, uh, further optimization that you're working through with the DFS and exploration potential proves positive, uh, what, if any, do you need to do to permitting to get more production, expand the mill?

You, you don't need to change the permitting at all. There's no permitting updates required for over-producing in Guinea.

Any last questions from the floor? At this stage, I'd just like to thank Matthew Wilcox for presenting from PDI. Thanks very much.

Thank you so much. [audience applauding]