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Thanks, Ashley, and good morning to everyone. Thank you all for joining Resolute's March quarter activities updates. I'm joined in the Perth office by -- with our CEO (sic) [ COO ], Dave Kelly. And Dave and I will just have a quick run through and overview of the quarter's performance before handing it over to you for any questions.Just to start off, I think it was really pleasing to see the continued improvement in our safety performance, particularly in light of the issues that we continue to deal with from a COVID perspective. There's no doubt that we still got some work to do in terms of bedding down some of the key improvements that we want to push into the sites, but it's been great. We've had a really good take-up from a relatively new management team on both the sites, and both of those management teams have brought renewed enthusiasm to our operations. So we're looking forward to continuing to see improvements from a health and safety perspective.Turning to our performance for the quarter. It's an interesting quarter to try to describe. I'd say that it was okay and that we still got some work to do. So as we look at the total numbers, we produced at 85 -- just over 85,700 ounces for the quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,239 per ounce. So that was broadly in line at the -- in line with the lower end of our guidance. And as I said, there's a bit of work to do. And when we look at the Syama sulphide performance, it was really great to see that it was our best performance since 2016. But we certainly know that there's room for improvement there, and our guys are really focused on site in terms of delivering that improvement. The oxide at Syama, though, was disappointing. We were unable to recover from the materials handling issues that we spoke about in the last quarter. So that ultimately resulted in us having to blend with some lower-grade stockpiles, which ultimately push the grades down there. We're keen to get into the Splay and Gap pits at Tabakoroni in the second quarter, around about now in actual fact, to look at recovering on those grades.And then Mako, look, it was another really good quarter for Mako. It's running a little bit ahead of expectations, and we're really pleased with the performance and outlook from Mako.We achieved a gold price on average of $1,729 per ounce, and that compares to a spot average for the quarter of $1,800 an ounce. We're continuing to see an improvement in our hedge book, and you can see that improvement is set out in Table 6 of our presentation. We're making small inroads into our debt, and we can see roughly a $7 million reduction in our net debt position to $223 million, whilst we maintained our cash balance of $106 million. I'll come back and talk about the balance sheet and cash in a moment. And look, our focus clearly remains on generating cash and improving our overall cash position. And ultimately, that starts with production and achieving our production targets. That will see us in a position to be able to work through and manage all of the upcoming debt repayments, and we're certainly still targeting to be ahead of our payment obligations for this year.We're also really pleased to get an update at our overall life of mine out on the 7th of April this year, so there's obviously quite a lot of work that went into that from an exploration and planning perspective. And this clearly shows the long production life that we have, particularly at Syama and the gold endowment that's at Syama. We continue to have good exploration and drilling results, and I'm sure that those drilling results will continue to see our life-of-mine grow, particularly at Syama. So with that intro, I'll hand over to Dave to run through his summary on the operations side of things.
Thank you, Stuart. So overall, I think as Stuart said, a reasonably solid result operationally. Most notably, there were improvements at Syama in both the oxide and sulphide operations. Although as Stuart mentioned, we had some shortfalls on the oxide front from both a grade and processing perspective relative to our expectations. And Mako continues to very much track according to our internal and external forecasts. From a sulphide perspective, we continue to see the improvement that Stuart alluded to that occurred throughout 2020, so a modest improvement again on the September quarter. The underground tonnages that we mined increased throughout the quarter, and we're now running at around 200,000 tonnes per month, both in March and April. And that's also the case for the processing plant. So we're in much back at the sort of long-term targets that we've set for the mining and processing rates for that asset.We did have an issue in February, March, as is described in the quarterly, where the main drive shaft and bearings that drive the main -- or the primary fan for the roaster failed and required nursing through the latter part of the quarter. That meant that we were able to sustain throughput through the roaster, but it meant we had suboptimal air induction into that roaster, which meant that it affected carbon combustion and then CIL recoveries consequently, not to a dramatic extent, but it was reflected in the overall recovery we achieved in the March quarter. Overall, a solid result from the sulphide operations. As Stuart says, there's further improvement expected and required for us to meet our overall long-term production aspirations for the asset. And there's quite an extensive process in train on-site to deliver those improvements. On the oxide front, we had a significant increase over the December quarter, which is sufficiently encouraging. But it was really below our own internal expectations because the materials handling issues that we experienced at Cashew took us some time to rectify. And we were forced to blend that material down with lower-grade stocks, which meant that the overall introduced grade to the mill was lower than our internal expectations. The good news is that we've begun pre-stripping on further extensions of the Splay pit at Tabakoroni, and we are looking to significantly extend the oxide mining at that Tabakoroni complex over the next 6 to 12 months. That will give us material that's both easy to manage and handle and process, but also higher grades over the remainder of this year and into next. And so we expect further improvements in oxide production in the subsequent quarters. And the other thing that's worth mentioning at Syama before moving on to Mako is that we -- substantially through the commissioning of the new power station at Syama, it's actually a very significant development for the company. It's been several years in the making, and we've had a number of attempts to reduce and improve power supply at Syama -- reduce cost and improve power supply at Syama. So we now have a situation where 2 of the 3 10-megawatt thermal engines are commissioned. The third should be commissioned very soon. The battery is also in the final stages of commissioning, and that combination of the 3 large HFO-generating units and battery will give us a significant reduction in fuel consumption and a consequent reduction in electricity costs compared to prior years. So that's a significant development, and it's been a really tremendous effort to get that built in the face of a pandemic, a coup d'etat, industrial action and a somewhat difficult wet season last year. So it's a really tremendous result and a credit to those who are involved, particularly our project team.Finally, at Mako, we've had another very solid quarter. It's obviously down to the December quarter, but that's driven entirely by grades and is very much as expected and in line with our guidance. Essentially, what's occurring at the moment is the open pit is simply presenting lower-grade material to the mill and at lower volumes than was previously the case. What is very pleasing is we're making very good progress on the cutback, and that's really the key to maintaining continuity of ore supply to the mill over the next 5 years. To put it in context, we're moving about 27% more material in the March quarter this year than the equivalent quarter a year ago, and that's been due to some increases in fleet that AMS has brought in on our behalf, and that's allowed us to get stuck into that cutback and allow us to access ore further into the pit in the subsequent years. The mill tonnes were down a little in the March quarter due to a planned shutdown. We are continuously working on squeezing more throughput through the mill. We've got significant stockpiles of ore at Mako, so we've got the capacity to process more material if we can push it through. And most of that effort is around the debottlenecking study, which doesn't entail the advantage of any capital. But it's really about configurations of the mills, control systems, mill-grade discharge arrangements and cyclone configurations. And that work is ongoing, and we expect that will yield small but useful benefits over the next few months. So that really covers the operational performance for the quarter. So I'll hand back to Stuart.
Yes. Thanks, Dave. So look, I'll just briefly touch on our balance sheet and a little on Bibiani before handing it over for questions. But as usual, from a balance sheet perspective, we've presented a little cash flow waterfall, which sets out specifically how things have gone from a cash management perspective, which is clearly our main target, is managing our cash. We were able to maintain our cash and bullion balances at $106 million and decreased the overall gross debt down to $329 million during the course of the quarter, which obviously results in a net decrease in our net debt position. The exploration CapEx that we spent during the quarter of just over $22 million was broadly in line with our guidance numbers. And I would just like to point out that, that includes, that $22.2 million, includes project capital and exploration, but it also includes our sustaining CapEx, and sustaining CapEx as part of the all-in sustaining cost. So please don't take that $22.2 million and add it on to your all-in sustaining cost because you'll get the wrong number, but I think this reflects the breakdown of our business actually more accurately than what that all-in sustaining cost number does. But here, you can see the operating cash flows, excluding any royalties and taxes, were $55 million. Royalties, we continue to offset our royalties and other taxes, which are payable at Syama against our VAT credits. So that's one way of us recovering those VAT amounts that we've paid. So that's working reasonably well. The $3.2 million that you're seeing there is basically related to the Mako activities. So VAT and taxes were essentially down a little bit and mainly represent the withholding tax, which was payable on dividends that we paid for Mako.As I've noted, exploration CapEx, in line with our target and our guidance. We saw a little bit of an outflow on working capital. That's pretty much just a timing thing, which is associated with our overall accounts part of repositioning. So that will move around a little bit. But I think, again, as I've said before, we're broadly where we should be from a working capital perspective. So we shouldn't see too many movements there. We continue to work, of course, with the government in Mali to resolve both our VAT position and also the tax disputes. It is slow going. We are working really hard, but I think it's probably affected by the fact that we're working with an interim government at this point in time. So they've announced elections for February next year. I would hope we'd get to a situation where we'd be able to resolve our position before that, and that's certainly our target, but it is slow going.And finally, I obviously couldn't get away from this call without touching on Bibiani. And obviously, the events of late March were obviously very disappointing in relation to the proposed transaction that we had with Chifeng. What was pleasing is that we were able to sort things out with the Ghanaian government. And as we stand here today, then we've got a mining lease at Bibiani, which is very clear on the ownership status of that, and we're working through the situation with Chifeng. We've refunded the $5 million deposit to Chifeng, which is in line with our agreement, and we will continue to look, to determine the best way forward at Bibiani. Whether that's through a sale or whether it's through development, we're considering all of those positions. But certainly, there's been some keen interest in the lease that we've experienced from other parties who would be keen to get to Bibiani. So I think with that, that's a reasonable wrap-up of our quarter. So I'll hand over to Ashley for any questions.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adam Baker with Global Mining Research.
Just wondering if you can give us an update with regards to the CEO position. And how come it's taken the board over 6 months to come to a decision?
Still going, Adam. And obviously, it's a process that needs to be given due consideration, and I'm hopeful that there'd be a resolution on it fairly shortly. There's been a look into now.
Sure. Just a second question on Bibiani. Just in the announcement a couple of weeks ago, one of the conditions of the restoration of the mining lease was providing a plan for the redevelopment of the mine to the Ghanaian Minerals Commission. Just wondering if you can -- what you can say about that. If it's been done or if that's something that's going to be released to the market, et cetera, et cetera.
Yes. Look, we've satisfied all of the conditions now, Adam. So the things that we -- I think we had 7 days to provide and update the status of the operations at Bibiani, our care and maintenance activities at Bibiani and also our redevelopment plans. So those 2 pieces of information have been provided to the Minerals Commission in Ghana, so that's all been done. And broadly, it's in line with the previous development plans that we've previously put forward at Bibiani. Obviously, timing is a question and we've obviously extended our time frames associated with that.
Sure. And maybe just a follow-up to that. Can you guide us to what the care and maintenance costs are approximately per quarter at Bibiani?
Look, they change a little bit, Adam, depending on where we're at. But you could look at it as being, call it, $5 million to $7 million a year.
Your next question comes from Kate McCutcheon with Citi.
It's great to have an updated Syama sulphide life-of-mine plan. I guess versus the original DFS, we're looking at a much higher life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs. Are you able to talk through the key drivers there and your confidence in those metrics moving forward?
Yes. Sure, Kate. I think as we've gone back and we reviewed our position with regards to all of that, I think we're in a -- much more confident around those numbers. So that's based on the latest position that we've come up with. Dave, I don't know whether you've got anything specific you wanted to add around the outlook and the costs, specifically what might have changed. But I'd say that's broadly where we're at, at that sort of $1,000 an ounce type number.
Look, I think there are a couple of drivers. We've probably taken a more conservative view on, in particular, metallurgical recovery. We had some fairly ambitious targets in previous manifestations of the study, and that has the biggest single effect on all-in sustaining costs. If you can imagine, we had expectations of high Au recovery. Our expectation is now around 80%, and so that reduces ounces and, therefore, increases costs unfortunately. There obviously has been some just general cost inflation in the period since the original release. Revenues per tonne, I think they are the main drivers.
Okay, Dave. And then just remind me, are you liable for any break fees with the Bibiani transaction?
Well, look, there were break fees incorporated into the agreement, and there were some specific conditions that would result in those break fees being payable. But it's not our expectation that we would be paying break fees, Kate.
Your next question comes from Reg Spencer with Canaccord.
Firstly, at Syama sulphide. Have you any comments on how the grade reconciliation is tracking to date? Just looking at those mine grades versus the reserve grade over the last few months, seems to be a little bit lower. Is that just a sequencing thing? Just wondering if you could help me out on that front.
Yes. Look, Reg, I think I'll hand over to Dave in a sec, but I mean, I think these things always vary quarter-on-quarter runs. So as you put grades out for a whole of mine, it's never going to be aligned to what's happening on a quarter-by-quarter basis. So we should always expect to see some variations each and every quarter around that. But there's nothing specifically that we're seeing that should cause you any alarms in terms of the reconciliation. But Dave, your thoughts?
Yes. Look, that's correct. And to be more precise, our current reconciliation -- life-of-mine reconciliation from the underground is about 96% on grade and around about 100% on tonnes. So the differences are fairly minute and very much within, if you like, industry norms. We are looking quite carefully, now that we're getting into the cave proper, on overdraw strategies to make sure that where we take out a primary ring and would, therefore, draw in broken rock above that ring, we don't over pull, which has always the risk of introducing low-grade material into the draw point. So there's some sampling protocols and other things we're doing just to give us a bit more assurance on that front. I think that's always the biggest issue with running a cave, Reg. Apart from the in-situ resource reconciliation, there's the management of the flow of material in the cave to ensure that you're neither underdrawing and leaving gold behind and overdrawing and diluting the product that goes to the mill.
Understood. Maybe one for you, Stuart. The offset of the royalties and taxes against that VAT claim, are you in a position to say what the balance of that VAT claim would be now net of the royalties and taxes that you've used to offset over the last 6 or so months?
Look, we generally come out with those sorts of numbers, Reg, on the half and the full year. So we're probably speaking a little bit out of turn. But we were sitting at about $70 million in terms of VAT, or $68 million to $70 million or $69 million, I can't remember exactly what the number was, but in that range in terms of VAT recoverable from the government. So therefore, you could assume whatever the gold sales were at a 6% royalty, which is going to be the majority of it for Syama, would roughly give you the balance. But at the same point in time, we continue to pay VAT. So there's some ins and there's some outs, which probably it's one way of recovering it. But at the same point in time, we continue to pay VAT. So I don't think we'd have made a hell of an inroad into it, to be honest with you.
Okay. And just one associated question with that. And this is one that you probably are not going to be able to answer. But if we have a look at the disputes that Randgold had in Mali, that actually went on for about 5, 6 years from memory. Should we expect something similar here, to have this hanging over your head for such an extensive period of time? Clearly, you guys are doing what you can to have these results sooner rather than later. But is there the risk that this continues to drag out?
Well, I guess what we're talking about here is some assessments that the government have levied upon us. So that's, whatever that number is, again, sort of $65-odd million worth of assessments, interest and penalties through the end of last year. So very clearly, we are working and we have delivered on all of our obligations in terms of fighting that position. So the ball is very much in the government's court in order to come back to us and give us their views around those, the positions that we've taken on those tax demands and assessments. So yes, we are hoping that we'll get it sorted out as quickly as we can get it sorted out. It doesn't make sense for these things to drag on. But I'm not -- I couldn't give you a comment, Reg, on where we're at in terms of ultimately getting it sorted out. We're doing as best as we can. We've got our people in country who are talking to the tax office on a weekly basis. We are supporting them from the Perth office as much as we possibly can. And we have regular communications with the Minister of Finance, who is the ultimate sign-off in relation to that. So we're doing everything that we can, and we want to make sure that we do it properly. But I'm not prepared to sit here and say, well, it's going to be done near the end of this year or it's going to be done in 5 years' time like it was with Randgold or anything like that. It's just -- it's too difficult to position, particularly, I think, when you're dealing with an interim government.
[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Jon Bishop with Euroz Hartleys.
Just regarding Bibiani and the reinstatement of that license, are you able to provide any sort of color as to, I guess, government time frames or expectations about restarting operations there?
Look, we provided a fairly detailed time frame to the government, Jon, in relation to what it might look like. But obviously, the asset has been on care and maintenance for a while, so it's going to take a bit of a time before we could bring that asset back up into production. So we're undertaking and have been undertaking for a little while, things like dewatering and looking at how we can expediate the time frame around bringing Bibiani back into production. That was -- of course, that was the beauty about Chifeng. They had a fairly accelerated time trying to bring Bibiani back into production. Anyway, that's something that we continue to work on with them at this point in time. But it's certainly -- it's not this year, and it's certainly towards the end of next year before we'd be in a position, if we were to develop it ourselves. I'm not saying we will develop it ourselves. I'm saying that that's the time line that we've had in place in terms of the overall redevelopment. So it's been pushed out basically.
Yes. Okay. And the government is obviously comfortable with that sort of soft time frame, whether it's yourselves or, as you say, aspirationally, a third-party to undertake that on your behalf or on their own.
Yes. No, that's right. I mean it's -- they were certainly the discussions that we had when we were in Ghana a couple of weeks ago now to talk through all of those scenarios. And we will have to see if there are other parties who are interested in it, what their time frames look like. There's obviously people who have already done due diligence on it so have a reasonable understanding around what the expectations would be. And we will continue to work through all of those options.
Okay. And just one final question, perhaps for David. There was a fair amount of effort from the previous management to pursue automation at Syama underground. Are you able to comment as to how that's currently at play in the operation and what the plan is going forward?
Sure. So look, I think the push for automation underground has really been expanded to the entire business, and we're actually putting a lot of emphasis on the automation and retrofitting of superior control systems into the processing plant interestingly. So that effort hasn't diminished. What we have done has been probably a bit more selective at the moment in this application. So we're really focusing on particularly production drilling, where we've seen really significant gains through automation, both in terms of productivity and accuracy. And at the moment, that's where most of the effort has gone. But what we've done is extended the philosophy somewhat into another area of the production cycle, which is the blasting cycle. So we actually have completed the trial and are about to implement the WebGen technology that Orica has developed, which allows us to do wireless blasting and have a number of rings precharged and sleeping, which actually improves the cycle time in that part of the production cycle substantially and probably has more impact than perhaps automation of mobile machinery. So we've shifted the emphasis somewhat. The key thing is we have enough communications backbone in the mine, which is very high speed, and it allows us to do more or less any activity that we wish to in automated or in manual mode. And we really judge the application of automated technologies on the productivity or safety gains they provide. And that's certainly the case with the WebGen blasting system and certainly with production drilling in particular. So it's very much a, I suppose, a -- we're looking to maximize value from the implementation of automation rather than apply it, if you like, universally.
If I could just add to that. I think that the reality is we've got to focus on production. So it's a production-first focus and how do we get the best production out of it. Whether that's through automation or through having a nonautomated, if that's the right term, operation, that's fine. We'll continue to make sure that we push from a production perspective. That's the key.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Gale for closing remarks.
Thanks, Ashley, and thank you all for joining us for the quarterly review. I think I'll just wrap it up and say the quarter was a little bit mixed for us. It had some positive signs, and it certainly has the building blocks for us to grow into the rest of 2021. So we're really pleased that we have been able to hit some of the targets that we wanted to hit at the Syama sulphide operations, which is good, and we're very keen to get back into Tabakoroni and the Splay and Gap pits from an oxide perspective. Great to have the power station up and running and delivering as we expect it to deliver, so it's nice to tick that off as well. And what's really important as well is that those new management teams that I spoke about as well have brought a renewed sense of enthusiasm to our operations, and we're seeing the benefits of that as well. So as we stand here today, we've made a reasonable start to the year. We're maintaining our guidance, obviously. And as we have alluded to in previous announcements and also today, we remain very positive on hitting all of our debt repayment obligations, if not delivering a little bit ahead of that. So thank you for your time today, and I'll hand over to Ashley to close.