West African Resources Ltd
ASX:WAF
Earnings Call Analysis
Q2-2024 Analysis
West African Resources Ltd
West African Resources detailed the successes of the last quarter in 2023 and revealed plans for the future in their December quarterly call. Led by Richard Hyde, the Executive Chairman and CEO, who's currently in Burkina Faso, the team celebrated achieving the upper end of their annual production guidance. In the last quarter, they produced 58,047 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of USD 1,030 per ounce. Throughout the year, they outperformed their cost guidance, producing 226,823 ounces at USD 1,126 per ounce, against a projected USD 1,175.
Open-pit production at the Sanbrado mine increased significantly by 54%, benefitting from a 38% rise in tonnes and an 11% improvement in grade over the previous quarter. The underground mine saw a slight reduction in mined ounces but maintained higher grades. Their workforce achieved 5 million hours without a Lost Time Injury in 2023, marking the year as the third consecutive one to meet cost and production guidance.
While the Sanbrado mine continues to perform, West African Resources is focusing on its second project, Kiaka, expected to commence in the second half of 2025. With an investment of $50 million in its development, construction is underway, and the company remains on budget. A 10-year production outlook forecasts over 200,000 ounces of gold annually before Kiaka's production boost. Additionally, progress has been reported at the M5 South deposit and Toega, a satellite mining operation developed to complement Sanbrado.
CFO Padraig O'Donoghue reported a robust end-of-year cash balance of AUD 135 million and an operative cash flow of AUD 50 million, which has positioned the company strongly for future expenditures. This financial health is further fortified by a USD 100 million drawdown from their Sprott and Coris loan facility. In terms of revenue, Q4 saw gold sales of 66,059 ounces at an average of USD 1,978 per ounce, amounting to AUD 200 million in sales revenue. The next drawdown for Kiaka's construction, projected to occur between Q1 and Q2 2024, is estimated to be between $30 to $50 million.
In response to investor inquiries, the company addressed questions regarding sales receipts inconsistencies, affirming it was primarily due to the timing of transactions at the quarter's end. They also laid out timelines for releasing updated guidance for 2024 and a revised 10-year plan, both expected before the end of February of the same year.
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[Audio Gap] I'll now hand over to West African Resources' Executive Chairman and CEO, Richard Hyde. Thank you, Richard.
Thanks, Nathan, and thanks for joining our call for the December 2023 quarterly. I am in Burkina Faso at the moment. I'll be heading to site over the weekend, to both Sanbrado and Kiaka. I'm also joined here in Ouagadougou by Lyndon Hopkins, our Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. In Perth, joining on the call is Padraig O'Donoghue, our CFO and Company Secretary; Matt Scully our Project Director for Kiaka; and Todd Giltay, our General Manager of Finance.
So as you can see in the quarterly report, we achieved another solid quarter of low-cost gold production at Sanbrado in Burkina Faso with 58,047 ounces produced at all-in sustaining cost of USD 1,030 an ounce. This performance in the last quarter saw us achieve the upper end of our calendar year 2023 production guidance, which is very pleasing. We finished the year with 226,823 ounces, produced at an all-in sustaining cost of USD 1,126 an ounce, and that outperformed our cost guidance of USD 1,175 an ounce.
In terms of mining and processing, at Sanbrado, open-pit production increased by 54%, which reflected an increase in tonnes, which grew up 38% and grade, which improved by more than 11% on the previous quarter. Underground mined ounces from M1 South decreased slightly, but achieved grades more than 16% higher than the previous quarter, which has offset this. Processing at Sanbrado continued to perform well with 857,000 tonnes milled at an average head grade of 2.2 grams per tonne and a recovery of just over 94%. Our quarterly gold production was 4.1% increase compared with the previous quarter, reflecting a 4.6% higher head grade. The closing ROM stockpile inventory of 72,693 ounces that contained gold was 25% higher than the previous quarter.
Our combined workforce achieved 5 million hours worked without a Lost Time Injury in 2023, underlining our continued commitment to safety across our operations. I congratulate our team and partners for their efforts in building and upholding this safety culture. 2023 was the third consecutive year that we achieved cost and production guidance, which is an impressive feat for a company of our size and time and production. I thank all of our staff and contractors on site, again, for working hard to deliver this.
We look forward to releasing our 2024 guidance in the coming weeks. Our unhedged 10-year production outlook estimates production of more than 200,000 ounces of gold in the year ahead before our second project at Kiaka comes online in the second half of next year. To that end, post quarter end, we made our first drawdown of USD 100 million under the USD 265 million loan facility we have with Sprott and Coris. This has strengthened our cash position for the construction of Kiaka in which we invested $50 million of CapEx in the development of Kiaka during the fourth quarter last year. In terms of progress, construction of the main camp is now complete. Our first concrete pour was completed after earthworks for the key infrastructure, including the crusher, reclaim, mills and CIL. We expect a fair bit of progress over the next quarter with mills due to be shipped to major earthworks for the tailings storage facility and Water Storage Dam to get underway. Overall, the project remains on budget, and we remain on track to pour first gold at Kiaka in the second half of 2025.
Elsewhere, we completed a mineral resource and scoping study for our M5 South deposit or the Southern part of M5. The inaugural mineral resource estimate for M5 South is just under 300,000 ounces of gold -- at 289,000 ounces of gold, and we completed a scoping study, which envisages annual gold production of 35,000 ounces per annum over a 5-year study life. We believe we can develop that project using the same sort of fleet that we're currently using at M1 South. And there's also a potential to extend the underground mine life as we've set an Exploration Target for M5 beneath the resource area. And we will be working on this area over the next 12 months. At Toega, which we're developing as a satellite mining operation for Sanbrado, we've progressed resettlement planning and compensation with local communities, and this has been progressing quite well. I'll now hand over to our CFO, Padraig O'Donoghue, to discuss our financial performance for the quarter.
Thank you, Richard. In terms of cash, WAF closed the year with a healthy cash balance of AUD 135 million and a notional net cash position of $89 million. This balance excludes the first drawdown of USD 100 million under our Sprott and Coris loan facility that we received in our bank account just after year-end. WAF generated AUD 50 million of operating cash flow in the quarter, inclusive of AUD 17 million of Burkina Faso income tax installments that were paid. AUD 62 million of cash was used in investing activities in the quarter, which included $53 million for construction of Kiaka.
Cash used in financing activities remains at a relatively low level in Q4 with AUD 2.5 million expended. In terms of gold sales, we sold 66,059 ounces of gold in Q4 at an average price of USD 1,978 per ounce. This equates to AUD 200 million of gold sales revenue in the quarter, and the company remains unhedged. I now hand back to Richard for his closing comments.
So overall, it's been another solid quarter performance, finishing off a great year for West African Resources. I'm really pleased with what we've been able to achieve and the manner in which we continue to operate. With the construction progressing on schedule and on budget at Kiaka, we remain on track to become a 400,000 ounce gold producer in the second half of the next year. Thanks again for your interest in West African Resources and for joining us on the call today. I'll now open it up to questions.
[Operator Instructions] We've had a question written in from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey. He's asked how long until the second drawdown of the Sprott and Coris facility and the size -- and what will the size of the next drawdown be?
Padraig, do you want to look after that question?
Yes, sure. We have an S-curve projected cash expenditure for Kiaka that will -- that does indicate that we'll be drawing -- making a drawing probably towards the end of Q1 or early Q2 in 2024?
[indiscernible] on the size. We'll -- it will be as required. So probably installments of somewhere around between $30 million and $50 million.
There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Richard for -- sorry, sorry. Sorry for that. We've just had one come through from Andrew Bowler at Macquarie. He asked, just wondering on the sales receipts shortfall compared to the implied sales for the quarter. $200 million versus $175 million, is this purely timing at the end of the quarter?
More likely, but I'll hand it back to Padraig or Todd.
Yes, this -- that has to do with how we manage our cash receipts from our gold sales. So when we ship gold, we have the option of taking a prepayment or waiting until the gold is actually sold. And at the end of Q3 in 2023, we had a prepayment on that final shipment. So the -- you'll see a similar offsetting relationship at the end of Q3 where cash received from gold sales was higher than revenue and then offsetting -- almost exactly offsetting in Q4 where sales were higher than the cash received.
Your next question comes from Mike Millikan at Euroz Hartleys. He has asked -- said Kiaka appears to be progressing well. How much have you spent to date? And he's also asked for a rough timing on the life of mine update and the calendar '24 guidance as well.
I think if we answer the second question first, and then I'll hand over to Matt and to Todd. But we're expecting to make the update for 2024, so production guidance and also an updated 10-year plan, updated resources and reserves before the end of Q1, but we'd expect it probably before the end of February. We're working on that presently. I'll hand back to Matt and to Todd just to comment on the progress on the schedule and also on expenses to date.
Thanks, Richard. Yes, progress on the schedule, as Richard mentioned, things are tracking per budget and on time. We're about 20 -- 25% to 27% complete as at the end of December. So we're looking forward to a big next 6 to 8 months where we will complete another 40% to 50% of the project. So earthmoving equipment about to mobilize or major contracting earthwork. We have a smaller contractor on-site at the moment, but we'll be heading into the big works of the TSF and Water Storage Dam in the coming months.
The camp, as mentioned, is complete. That's a good win for us. Places in the rooms are always at a premium. So that's bedded down and that's good. So we're looking forward to moving into shed in infrastructure [indiscernible] works as well as the second lot of buildings and the major earthworks. And obviously, concrete, steel works, CIL tank which starts being progressed in the next -- this quarter coming up. So everything is tracking very well. As far as the money spent to date, USD 120 million so far to the end of December.
Your next question comes from Phil Matthews at Mathews Capital. And he's just asked if you could sum up the political situation in Burkina Faso?
Okay. Well, there's not much to report on, really no change since last quarter. We believe the government and the military are making good progress in country. They have made good progress towards the end of 2023, securing the North and Eastern region of the country. So we're seeing positive progress. That's not always reported as such in Western Media, unfortunately. We also -- we know that there's been significant support from countries that are not, I guess, Western countries. So we're seeing strong support from Turkey, from Russia, from China, Unfortunately, we're seeing very little support from Western countries. Australia has just almost invested AUD 1 billion of support for the Ukraine. And I think we've seen zero support financially for Burkina Faso.
So we've arrived in the country today and life goes on in Burkina Faso, you wouldn't know there's any issues here. So unlike last year, we had another fantastic year of production. So we're not seeing any impact to our operations. Yes, we've got a number of meetings over the next few days with senior people in the government. And we've got very strong relationships, and we've got a very good track record of being able to work with the government here in Burkina. So I think to sum it up, we're overall seeing improvements, and we hope that trend continues.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Richard for closing remarks.
Thanks, Nathan. So look, we've got a big year ahead of us, obviously, with major construction works and the rubber hitting the road at Kiaka this year. We've got -- we made our first USD 100 million drawdown from our facility, which is going to help accelerate the construction time line at Kiaka. Another solid year of production will be coming up at Sanbrado. We will release our 2024 production and cost guidance in the coming weeks. Along with that will also be our 10-year production outlook, which not many companies can do that, and we certainly can because of the quality of our assets and also we'll update our resource and reserves for depletion and also for some of the exploration successes that we've had in the past 12 months.
So if investors can stay tuned for more updates from the company over the coming weeks and months, and we look forward to the situation in Burkina continue to stabilize.