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Resolute Mining Ltd
ASX:RSG

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Resolute Mining Ltd
ASX:RSG
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Price: 0.495 AUD 5.32% Market Closed
Updated: May 20, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2018-Q2

from 0
J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks very much, Kevin. And welcome to everyone to this conference call for a discussion on Resolute's December 2017 Quarterly Activities Report. Very pleased, this part of 2018 and very much looking forward to an exciting year. The December quarter was a challenging one for Resolute, as expected. Gold production just over 66,000 ounces, where we produced those ounces with an all-in sustaining cost of just under AUD 1,400. And we're focused on making sure that we make guidance, so we've confirmed that we're on track for published financial year full year guidance of 300,000 ounces and all-in sustaining cost of $1,280, and we're looking forward to increase production and lower cost in the second half of the year. And as we've identified on Page 2 of the quarterly, there are some specific reasons why we're looking forward to higher grade, specifically, at Syama with the development ore increasing with higher grade. For the Mt. Wright underground ore being produced at Ravenswood. And the ongoing reality that we are transitioning both of our long-life mines to long-life, robust, lower-cost futures. Very pleased with the operating team, and the development team continue to do a great job, as we transform this business. Some highlights of the quarterly that we've identified. Most obviously, we're very pleased to announce during the quarter a significant, almost 40% upgrade to the underground resources at Syama, which now total 5.7 million ounces at 3.2 grams per tonne. This is an asset that's already produced millions of ounces of gold. It's a 10 million ounce ore body and it's only getting bigger and bigger. I continue to identify that this is one of the great gold mines of Africa, and we're building a mine that justifies that geological endowment. The focus of this quarter, based on that resource, is to update our mining studies, and we're looking forward to publishing a new reserve in due course. The Syama underground mine remains on track. It's the main focus on-site as well as, obviously, the day-to-day activity of mining and pouring gold. During the quarter, we negotiated and signed a significant framework agreement with the Swedish global engineering group, Sandvik, and that's something that we're really excited about, as we continue to refine what's going to be a mine of the future as a cutting-edge, world-class underground mine, not just for Africa but for the globe. A couple of very specific things at Syama that we've identified. We negotiated and signed a workforce stability agreement with our local union at Syama, and that's kind of an ongoing refining of our relationship. People who are following the gold miners in Mali would know that there has been a period of industrial unrest in the country. It's associated with ongoing refinements of the mining code and the fact that this is, you know, the third largest gold producer in Africa. There are number of international operators there, led by Randgold obviously, B2Gold, Iron gold, AngloGold Ashanti and long term Resolute. There is a very sophisticated industrial relations landscape. And I'm extremely pleased and proud that Resolute, I believe, are leading the way in relation to very proactively engaging with the workforce union, and we're very confident that we reframed that workforce relationship and are moving forward in a very positive sense, and that's also part of our ongoing focus on our political relationships in Mali. We've updated our disclosures in relation to mining permit and mining convention. Obviously, the start of a new underground mine gives us an opportunity to negotiate with the government, the fiscal and regulatory environment in which we operate. And I'm really proud, having negotiated a number of mining conventions and agreements in Africa that at Syama, we are now getting close to the 30-year anniversary of BHP's original consolidation of a range of expiration portfolios in the south of Mali. And so even though we are focused on defining a new long-life and modern gold mine, the reality is that we have the privilege of operating on a very large scale, long-term asset with very positive relationships with both the local community and the government. At Ravenswood, we had a challenge there in relation to the operation of the Mt. Wright underground mine. So not only was our grade issues and operating challenges isolated to Syama, we also managed to deal, during the quarter, with a number of incidences at the Mt. Wright underground mine. Happily, that's now back on track and Ravenswood is actually producing very stable gold while we prepare for the approval process and ultimate development at the Ravenswood Expansion Project and converting that asset to a large-scale, open-pit future. We ended the calendar year 2017 with roughly $200 million in cash, bullion and listed investments, with no secured debt on our balance sheet. So we're in an incredibly strong position to continue to invest in the business and obviously, again, identify that we're confident that our current guidance remains accurate, and we will produce 300,000 ounces of gold this year, while we develop both Syama and Ravenswood, and that we'll deliver those costs at -- during the full year at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,280, and that's the challenge of the second 6 months and look forward to delivering it. Before I open up for questions, just a couple of things that I'll add a little bit of flavor to in addition to what you've read in the quarterly. We, again, continue to visually update the market on the progress at the Syama underground mine. So Figure 2 on Page 8 of the quarterly, people who follow Resolute will be familiar with this picture. We like to keep it up-to-date. What this graph shows is our total underground budgeted development meters per month over the life of the underground development. And then also the actual results that we've achieved, and then the black line and the gold line are that cumulative development [ meter ]. So it allows for the market to keep a track on how development is going and how we're tracking. As you can see, we're ahead of schedule, very pleasingly and particularly, if you look at the actual results during the December quarter, you can see that we are now arriving at the monthly development meters that we need in order to achieve this project, and we've never created a bigger gap between what our forecast was and what our actuals are. And that's a fantastic result from our operating team on ground and [indiscernible] our contractor on site. I'm very pleased to report that we currently had 18 headings open, and 10 of those are actually in ore. So when people are seeking to understand our confidence in relation to the effect that the higher grade development we'll have on the second half of the production year, you will be able to see that the increase in tonnes coming from the underground facility into the sulfide processing plant and obviously, a corresponding increase in gold production and a decrease in unit costs. The jumbo performance there in terms of the fully automated bore machine continues to produce 800 to 900 [indiscernible].It is [indiscernible] fantastic in performance from our team and our contractor there. Having reviewed the work, this is a really beautiful tunnel. If you are into underground mining, look forward to view -- visiting Syama or looking at our virtual reality site visits that we're working on. So you can see just the quality of the work that we're doing, an industry-leading lack of overbreak, very clean development and a mine that we're very much looking forward to commencing for stoping, you know, before December of this calendar year. Figure 3 in the quarterly is a snapshot of a 3-dimensional tool. You can go on to our website, we've updated that. It shows the real-time development of the underground decline and the commencement of the sub-level cave levels, and if you rotate that around, you get an idea of how this mine operates. It's a useful tool, and we continue to update that, demonstrating that we're on track for this underground development, and I'm also pleased to report that, that continues to be ahead of schedule in terms of time, and we are tracking very close to budget in terms of capital allocations. Something that we're very focused on. I've mentioned Sandvik. Just to cover up on that in a little bit more detail. We see an opportunity for Syama to be a fully-automated, load-and-haul mine in terms of the site material over the current life of mine, we're talking about 20 million tonnes of ore coming out of the underground. Sandvik, in our opinion, the leading provider of automated underground mining solution in the world. Basically, diversified global engineering group which was founded in 1862, and we're in the step to actually [indiscernible] into a partnership arrangement with Sandvik all of [indiscernible] Syama to become a technology underground mine. We're very familiar with the sub-level cave technology having mined Mt. Wright using a similar method, and we're working on every possible advantage we can bring to Syama to create a robust, low-cost, long-life mine, and that's something we'll continue to update the market on. Some other key projects at Syama that we've updated on is Project 85, and anyone who's interested in the efficiency and long-term viability, profitability and the value of Syama should be tracking our recoveries. Project 85 is a range of capital investment projects designed to guaranty that once we commence full operation of the underground mine, we have recoveries from main sulfide processing plant of at least 85%. And that's something that's going well, and remarkably, we're able to see the results of those as we commission those various projects. All of that comes together, of course, as we continue to refine our feasibility studies. The updated resource that I mentioned will lead to an updated reserve, and that allows us to look at not just automated solutions but a range of potential optimizations that we're looking to implement from the approved and published DFS that we're currently working on. And during the course of the remaining financial year, we'll be updating the market on improvements that we see to the life of mine at Syama. Turning to Ravenswood. I mentioned a stable production, despite the problems we had at Mt. Wright. A key highlight for the quarter was the trial and success we've had in the beneficiation work that we're doing there. And for people who've got a history of both Resolute's more than 10 years of operations at this asset or its previous owners, this is an asset with a Nolans mill we've built for 5 million tonne operation, and Sarsfield is mining the open pit. That's the future that we see here over the next 12 to 13 years of operations. The ore body is a disseminated, veritably low-grade ore body, and it lends itself to beneficiation and the success that we're having in these early trials is extremely exciting for the long-term value of this project. We continue to find low-grade stockpiles in and around the ore body, and we continue to find that the beneficiation will actually lead to a significant improvement in the operation of this asset compared to historical -- its historical performance. Currently, we're getting 95% recoveries at Ravenswood, from 1 gram ore. And at the same time, we're bringing down our processing costs. So all of which, all goes very well for the underlying economics at the Ravenswood Expansion Project. And again, this is an asset where, while we're working very proactively with the Queensland government on our approval process, we continue to refine the feasibility, and we are commencing an optimization study at that Ravenswood Expansion Plan. And that, as and when the approval pathway is certain, and we've been updating the market that we're expecting final approvals of Buck Reef West in April or May of this year, we expect to, at the same time, update any relevant work in terms of optimization as to the economics on the underlying project, and that's something that we're very busy working on at the moment. We continue to spend roughly $8 million a quarter on exploration. We're seeing that in, obviously, the upgrade of our resources at Syama, and the significant upgrade we've made to the Bibiani Mineral Resource in Ghana. And exploration is an area that we continue to focus on and look forward to updating the market on. In addition to the activity, we're making and looking at new opportunities both on our own account and also through a range of investing companies, all of which are doing well. Turning to Ghana and Bibiani, we had indicated that we were looking to complete the updated feasibility study in the December quarter. That will continue during the December quarter. We were also progressing the environmental approvals, the EIS in Ghana. That process was actually more comprehensive than we had anticipated through a number of factors, the change in political landscape in Ghana and changes to the Mining Department following the elections in Ghana. That resulted in the need for a full public review. It's part of our EIS that was completed in December. We had overwhelming national and local public support, and we're very confident that process is going well, but it has led to a delay in our approval process, and we've taken the time, therefore, to continue to refine our mining studies and continue to work on making sure that we can be very clear on our development decisions as to when and how we're going to deal with the asset. And we've updated the market that, that feasibility study and the environmental permitting is expected to be completed and published during the course of the current quarter. Corporately, pleased that we continue to pay dividend and paid that during the December quarter. That was a $15 million payment to our shareholders payable in cash or if you prefer, you can take that in gold through our partnership with The Perth Mint. We've also obviously updated our hedging contracts during the quarter, continued to during this period of time, where we're investing significant capital in building long-term businesses and at the same time, producing gold. We continue to predict our margins with short-dated, opportunistic hedging, and we currently have some U.S. dollar hedges forward at $1,330 an ounce and some Australian dollar hedging for Ravenswood at AUD 1,715 an ounce, and that represents roughly 30% of our production over the next 17 months, and that strategy will continue to be in place as we go through this transition period. Gold in circuit during the quarter went up 10,000 ounces. We actually had 20,000 ounces of gold available for sale at the end of the calendar year, and that's something that we'll reverse in the second half of the year, as we seek to pour gold and meet guidance. Very interested to see if there's any questions, and I'll pass it back to you, Kevin.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we have our very first question from Warren Edney from Baillieu Holst.

W
Warren Edney
Research Analyst

I had just a couple of questions on Syama. Could you just run through what's going on with the roaster maintenance? Is it [indiscernible] you had -- you're doing maintenance in December, and then there you're also going to do it again in March and April. And the other thing was just on the mining convention. In terms of other -- negotiations with other companies, have there been any changes in the recent times, which might impact you or follow through to you guys?

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Hi, Warren. Happy New Year, and thanks for your questions. On the Syama roaster, the shut we did in December was a regular 10-day shut, which is standard maintenance. Whereas the shut that we're planning in March is the 40-day shut we do every 18 months. So the efficiency the roaster requires -- [ a number have done ] maintenance and the updating at the refractory linings, and that's a program that's on a rolling, rotating basis. It's a bit like painting Sydney Harbor Bridge, it's the way that roaster operates. So that's programmed, there is some flexibility, it is quite an intensive program. We have, sort of, a team now who are very efficient at that, they arrive like shearers and they get it done, but it is a 40-day shut and it's part of our program and that's obviously been factored into our guidance. And all of that is just the standard operating procedures of the roaster. It also allows us obviously though to do the tie-ins we're doing with various other projects such as Project 85 and the low carbon roaster. So we used that 40-day shut to implement and commission various other parts of the circuit. Fortunately, obviously, I mean, our crushing capacity now at Syama totals 4 million tonnes across the 1.5 million tonne per annum oxide crushing circuit and the 2.4 million tonnes per annum sulfide circuit. Both of those circuits have various leach components, so even when the roaster isn't fully operational, we continue to be able to pour gold, obviously, at a reduced level, but that's all factored into the challenges of the second half. Moving onto your second question in relation to Syama and the mining convention. I suppose there has been some refinement on the mining code in Mali. And Mali is an interesting [ franked upon ] jurisdiction in that there are a number of different mining codes that the companies operated. Resolute and obviously our subsidiary company, SOMISY, has the advantage along with Randgold of relating back to a very advantageous mining code and that's something that we have a stability agreement on. We've been in long-term negotiation with government about how we can support the current regimes, quite logical approach to unifying all of the mining codes and creating a more coherent and transparent mining legislative environment, that's something that I support. I think one of the things to comment on your question is recent activity in relation to mining conventions. The key activity there was the negotiation and signature of the 2 golds mining conventions for their new Fekola mine, which represents obviously a long-term major capital investment and quite a significant producer even for a large-scale producer like Mali. And so that provides a framework for looking at the advantages and the obligations that the government and the mining companies are currently negotiating. We have a very long-term and successful history as Resolute in relation to our negotiations with the Mali government. And I point out, as we've tried to identify in the quarterly, there are 2 different issues here: there is the mining permit, which is from an Australian context, think about as your mining license. And then there is the convention, which in an Australian or West Australian context is a little bit like a state agreement, one of the biggest iron ore mines, which effectively regulates the operation of the relevant mining law for that specific project. Since -- and importantly, Resolute is in an 80-20 partnership with the Mali government, and it is very much a very positive partnership. But our mining permit is in the name of our subsidiary company, which we own 80%, but our mining convention is actually held directly by Resolute, and we've had a very successful history of negotiating and agreeing amendments for that convention in the more than 10 years that we've been operating in Mali. And as we've identified in the quarterly, we're very advanced in using the fact that our credibility in Mali, having taking on an asset that BHP and the mighty Randgold couldn't work and was actually lined in care and maintenance with the government not receiving any royalty revenue and having successfully operated it for more than 10 years. We -- and now investing a significant amount to build a new underground mine. There is a very positive opportunity for us in the landscape of an updated mining code and the opportunity of capturing new advantages to extend our convention. We do have a legal right to extend that convention and we're also using it to negotiate and clarify any of the issues that we have in operating an asset in the jurisdiction.

Operator

And the next telephone question comes from Chris Watson, who is a private investor.

U
Unknown Attendee

A question around cash flow and the impacts on available cash and so on. I expect that there was adverse impact as a result of only 66,000 ounces produced this last quarter. But the operating cash flow of those has been dropping for the last 2 or 3 quarters, and that's impacted your available cash, which is now sitting under $200 million. I'm just wondering, you are anticipating, I believe, or forecasting an improvement in your production to be able to meet your guidance of 300,000 ounces. But can you just explain why this quarter and the next quarter, you're expecting a turnaround with respect to not just production but also cash flow? And do you have any idea what that improvement in the operating cash flow might be, and therefore, the impact on your available cash as you move on?

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks, Chris. Well, yes, you've hit the nail on the head that when you produce less gold and sell less bullion, you don't generate as much cash. I -- it was interesting, actually, for me to look back at the December activity report that we published exactly 12 months ago. In the December quarter of 2016, we produced 91,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 835. So a significant -- you know, 12 months later we produced 30,000 less ounces at almost more than $500 an ounce more than we did a year ago. So demonstrates what -- the ability we had. A year ago, we weren't focused on building an underground mine. We were focused on the efficiency of the operation. We weren't open pit mining. We were processing high-grade stockpiles. And we were preparing for an investment size. And something that answers, in some way, your question is that the cash flow that you're identifying and the investment we're making in the business is something that we have prepared for, for 2 years. We did that in relation to strengthening the balance sheet, optimizing our operations, getting a development team ready and raising the capital and preparing the balance sheet and the operating capacity to build what is going to be a very long-term, robust business. So we've produced 66,000 ounces in this quarter, and we did it at a positive margin. So we generated roughly $30 million operating cash during the -- so we still remain a profitable gold miner. Now as you were saying, looking at available cash, we also have invested $50 billion in development projects during the quarter, and we spent $15 million on the dividend. So we've reversed around the previous activity of storing cash on our balance sheet and preparing for investment. We are now making investments in the long-term business, and I'd also point out something I mentioned in the narrative earlier, we also had 20,000 ounces of unsold gold at the end of the quarter, which would have further boosted that positive cash flow. So the first answer to your concerns around cash flow is that yes, we're in a challenging period. We're experiencing higher cost while we're in a transition period. The positive is that we continue to be a positive cash flow generator. We continue to add cash to our available resources while we continue to invest in the business. Specifically, your question about the return of the half year of 400 meter running-wise [indiscernible]. We're halfway around the curve, and we've produced 140,000 ounces at roughly $1400, and I just confirmed that we're going to finish the full year on track at 300,000 at $1280. So we've identified on Page 2 of the quarterly what that specifically means, which would cause out that we need to produce 160,000 ounces in the second half of the year at roughly -- at a cost below $1,200 all-in sustaining, and that's exactly what our forecast is, which is why we maintained guidance.To answer specifically your question, we called out in the quarterly why -- what's actually going to drive that. Specifically, a key element is increasing the grade in -- through the Syama sulfide circuit, so we -- there are 2 ways, obviously, grade results in gold production, but it is amplified at Syama because of the connection between recovery and grade. So not only do you -- that we get more ounces just because of the fact that there's more gold in the tonnes that we're processing, but we recover more, and so that obviously increases production and brings down unit cost. At Ravenswood, we've had some delays in getting Mt. Wright ore into the mill. So we've been really processing purely the low-grade, beneficiated, open-pit ore. And in the second half of the year, that just sort of 2-gram ore that we'll be able to extract from the closing stages at the Mt. Wright underground, we'll have a similar benefit at that asset. So that -- there are absolute logical reasons why the first half of the year was going to be more challenging in that we were processing lower-grade stockpiles, and the reality of gold mining is that there's always challenges that you need to meet, and I'm very pleased that the operating team are meeting them. And while we haven't upgraded our guidance since we did last year, we are confident that at this stage, as we look towards the second half of the year, that we're confident that we'll meet the guidance that we've provided the market, and that there are reasons why we're operating assets in the way that we're operating them.

U
Unknown Attendee

Just a follow-up on the ore clarification. Ravenswood is low-grade, and now you said that you had some issues there. Are you saying that as you move to open pit, it's likely to move from about the 1.5 up to 2 GT and therefore that'll have positive effect on your production and cash flows? Is that what you're expecting should the expansion be approved?

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

So the 2-gram material, I'm talking about is the underground ore we've mined from [ Mt. Wright ]. And so the ore that we have in the open pits, the various open pits at Ravenswood, which currently we're mining Nolans East. And then the 2 large resources are the historic Sarsfield open pit and the residual ounces there and then the new Buck Reef West deposit. All of those open-pit resources are sub-1 gram. So Nolans East is 0.7 to 0.8, Sarsfield is 0.8 and Buck Reef West is 0.8 to 1 gram a tonne. So the historic expansion...

U
Unknown Attendee

[indiscernible] expansion.

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Yes, and that represents the expansion. So the Ravenswood Expansion Project is a return to what the mine used to be, which is a very large-scale, low-grade, open-pit operation. And while there are high-grade shoots at Ravenswood and that's a disseminated ore body, and one of the heritage issues we have to handle is the fact that 100 years ago this was mined both open pit and underground by early-stage miners at that sort of 10 grams and above. The way we mine it in a modern bulk sense is to see it as one large, disseminated, low-grade ore body. So the key to operating Ravenswood is not looking for 1.5- to 2-gram dirt. The key, as I've identified, is very high recoveries of this low-grade material, 95% plus through the circuit. And second of all, being very efficient, very low strip ratio in the REP, 1.3 over the life of mine. And also the benefits of beneficiation being able to upgrade those low-grade ores and the distinction between a 0.7 and a 1 gram run of mine is very significant. And that's the key element that I've identified during the course of this quarter. So just to summarize your understanding, at the moment at Ravenswood, we are closing off what has been a very successful Mt. Wright underground mine. We've mined a 2 to 2.5-gram ore body, 900 meter underground at a cash cost of AUD 850 over that life of mine. It's is a spectacular achievement which continues to have overdraw and while -- when I joined Resolute 2.5 years ago, the mine was expected to shut during the course of that financial year. We now are confident that we will continue to produce ore for Mt. Wright through the rest of this year, and we have a closure plan that we're monitoring very closely. And the impact on identifying in the second half of the current financial year is that we will source 2-gram material from Mt. Wright, and we'll use that to augment the low-grade ores that we're currently processing at around 2.8 million tonnes per annum through the Nolans mill.

Operator

And the next question comes from Duncan Hughes of Bell Potter.

D
Duncan Hughes
Analyst

Three questions. One is gold in circuit. I know it's in the quarterly, at the 73,000 ounces. It says the majority are carbon enriched, and by that I assume that we'll need to wait till the carbon roast, low carbon roasters in mid-2019. So the question there is should we refine down our assumptions for the coming quarters on gold in circuit being pulled out? Next question is on Ravenswood, and that's really the -- obviously, with Buck Reef West, you're waiting on permitting, and as I understand it, Nolans East will sort of run out this coming year. How much of that low-grade ore will need to be augmented with stockpiles? And if so, apologies if I missed this, I'm not aware how much Ravenswood have in former stockpiles. And what sort of grade they might be? And the last one is just a general one. You've got a massive exploration budget. There wasn't an awful lot in exploration in this quarterly. Could you just give a rough outline of where you're looking and whether we might expect a bit of news in the coming quarter?

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Sure. So on gold in the circuit, you're correct. There's a significant proportion of the -- more than $100 million asset we've identified in gold in circuit represents what we're referring to as carbon-enriched concentrate. And intrinsic to that, as you've identified, processing that material is going to be most efficient and effectively completed once we've commissioned the low carbon roaster. And so you're correct that we won't be drawing down the sort of 40,000 to 50,000 ounces of carbon-enriched concentrate gold in circuit stocks that were currently, effectively are an asset sitting at the Syama until 2019, when that low carbon roast is fully commissioned. In relation to gold in circuit, I'd make the point that those of you who know, we've moved to a far more transparent recognition of production in terms of gold poured metric. So the -- when we guide, we're obviously guiding production in terms of gold poured and therefore gold available for sale. And so any gold in the circuit that we draw down is clearly included in our production number. And the -- just to give you a guide, I would expect that gold in circuit will come down between now and the end of the year, but you won't see a significant impact until we've commissioned the low carbon roaster and clearly, that will then be incorporated into next financial years' guidance in terms of the amount of gold that we produce, as in refine, recover and pour, will include a significant drawdown of that gold in circuit inventory of that [indiscernible]. Hopefully, that answers the question. In relation to Nolans East, I mentioned that we continue to discover low-grade stockpiles at Ravenswood, I mean, this is -- we are dealing with an asset that I mentioned, not only has been a mine for decades, but it's been mined by people for 100 years, and we continue to sort of look at hills that we certainly discover are actually low-grade stockpiles. So the actual quantity of material we have expands all the time, as we look around the Nolans East area. In terms of our current life of mine and the current budgets, we have more than enough material to transition through processing at Nolans East, the closure of Mt. Wright and the commencement of Sarsfield and Buck Reef West. And you be aware, we have the mining approvals to Sarsfield. We can start mining there anytime we like. Obviously, what we're looking to do is locking the Buck Reef West approvals and then redefine the appropriate staging of the project. Other than going back and looking at our mineral resource inventories, where you'll see the stockpiles that we actually missed. That's probably the most easy way to answer. Anecdotally, I can tell you that I know that without doing anything, we can process ore at Ravenswood through to May 2020 from -- purely from Nolans East and existing stockpiles.So in terms of the time delay, we have in actually pressing the button on the next stage of the Ravenswood Expansion plan. As you know, we've taken the mill capacity up to 2.8 million, we're mining Nolans East, we've got stockpiles, and we're working with the government. If nothing happens, Mt. Wright close tomorrow, we can still process ore all the way through to May 2020. So we've got some time up our sleeves, and I can come back to you on what that actual quantity and grade is, but that's the -- that's my understanding of our current position there.

D
Duncan Hughes
Analyst

Just on that then I guess, given in the context, Nolans East is 0.7 or thereabouts ore body. Low-grade stockpiles, I guess the obvious question there is what is a low-grade stockpile in this context? I mean, just from a modeling point of view? So it would be useful to have a rough idea whether low-grade means, 0.5 gram or thereabouts?

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Well, obviously, it's always relative, isn't it, Duncan? 1.5-gram dirt in a 4-gram mine is low-grade rubbish, whereas at Ravenswood that 1.5-gram dirt is a super-high grade material. So I mentioned the beneficiation as being very successful for us. Anything approaching 1 gram is high-grade at Ravenswood, nothing below -- at 0.7 or below is low-grade. Some of the stockpiles have previously been ignored, looked to be sort of 0.3, 0.4 of a gram and we're -- in fact, we don't classify it as rubbish. The reason that's changing is the ability to beneficiate them cheaply and easily. And if anything, we can get to 0.7 or above, we see as processable and obviously, the closer to 1, the better. So just as a reference point in my own mind, high-grade at Ravenswood is 1, low-grade is anything under 0.7.

Operator

There are no more further questions at this time. I would like to hand the call back to the speakers for any continued remarks, please continue.

J
John Paul Welborn
Managing Director & CEO

Okay, thanks very much. A challenging quarter, we turn at the half year, really excited about the developments of the Syama underground, looking forward to progress at both Ravenswood and Bibiani. And the summary that I'd like to leave everyone is we remained a cash flow positive, incredibly strong balance sheet gold-mining company. We have an incredible heritage and legacy as an African gold miner that we're celebrating this year's Indaba being our 20th Indaba as an African Australian gold miner. That operation, we'll experience is something that I'm very proud that we're successfully demonstrating and comes through in our quarterly results. This is not a short-term business. So if someone's interested in the fact that we produced 66,000 ounces of gold this quarter and produced 90,000 a year ago, that's demonstrating the fact that we are transitioning this business to very long-life, lower-cost gold mines and that's the start of building the new Resolute. Thank you very much for your interest. I look forward to a busy quarter and look forward to your interest in the future. Thank you.