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Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the RNC Minerals Third Quarter 2019 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Thank you.I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Paul Huet, Chairman and CEO of RNC Minerals. Please go ahead, Mr. Huet.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to the RNC Minerals Q3 2019 Conference Call. In addition to me speaking on today's call will be other members of the RNC executive management team: Graeme Sloan, Managing Director of Australian Operations; Johnna Muinonen, President of Dumont Nickel Project; and Tim Hollaar, Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we issued a news release outlining third quarter 2019 results. Our MD&A and financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2019, have been filed, all of which are available on the RNC website or under RNC's profile on SEDAR. During today's call, the speakers will be referring to presentation slides, which are available for download through a link on the homepage of our website at www.rncminerals.com. Before I begin the presentation, I would like to remind you to please review our cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information and non-IFRS measures, which can be found in our management discussion and analysis, news release and in our presentation. It's already been approximately 100 days since I became CEO of RNC Minerals and a lot has changed. In fact, RNC is a completely different company than it was in the first half of this year. We have now focused ourselves as a gold producer, and our gold operations in Western Australia have also been transformed. At the end of the second quarter, we closed the acquisitions of the Higginsville mine and mill. During the third quarter, we began integration process to bring together our 2 mining operations, Beta Hunt and Higginsville. As a gentle reminder, Q3 is the first quarter in the history of RNC, where all of our production has come from our 100% owned Higginsville gold processing plant. As you are aware, up to this point, we were toll milling our Beta Hunt material at much higher rates, with very little ability to fully optimize the treatment of Beta Hunt material or take advantage of the results of the recently completed Beta Hunt resource upgrade. The results so far are very impressive, and I'm extremely proud of what our team has accomplished in just 90 days. Graeme will talk in more detail about the operational achievement. But what I can say is that while the impact of the Higginsville operation has transformed the company, the benefits to our company and our shareholders have only just begun. There is so much more to do, and I am confident the team we have assembled here at RNC is well on its way to delivering significant improvement in our operations and the way we do business that will drive value for shareholders and stakeholders. For example, over the third quarter, we delivered 3 consistent months of gold production at an annualized run rate of nearly 100,000 ounces of gold. And that's right out of the gate. Our milling costs are down 35% from toll milling previously. With milling now running approximately AUD 29 a ton versus AUD 45 a ton before acquiring the mill. All-in sustaining cash costs for the third quarter came in approximately $146 lower than the previous quarter at $1,183 per ounce. And again, that's the first quarter we have everything together. And that does not yet reflect the impact of several additional cost reduction initiatives that are already underway. We have identified and are actively pursuing several areas, including working with our vendors, increasing productivity rates, royalty reductions and reductions on G&A. All of these are expected to drive production costs materially lower over the next several quarters. In the near future, we will announce our first 2P gold reserve at the Beta Hunt mine and have made great progress in expanding the potential of our Baloo open pit mine at the Higginsville operation. This is great news and increases confidence in the stability of our near-term fee for the mill. We are now filling 100% of the capacity of the mill from Beta Hunt and the higher-grade Baloo open pit at Higginsville. We are at capacity.With that introduction, I'm now pleased to provide you with highlights from our third quarter 2019 results as well as an update on our operations. Last month, we provided production and cost guidance for the second half of 2019. We expect to produce 42,000 to 49,000 ounces of gold in the second half of 2019 at an AISC, or all-in sustaining cost, between USD 1,150 and USD 1,250 per ounce. With consolidated third quarter production of 24,216 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,183 per ounce, we are well on our way to achieving these targets. This is the first time we have provided production guidance since acquiring our own mill, and it sets a strong baseline to expand and improve upon over the next several quarters. Our guidance reflects normal mine production at the average mine grade and does not include pods of high-grade coarse gold that are recovered from time to time at the Beta Hunt mine. Furthermore, these high-grade coarse gold pods are all tops in the Beta Hunt resource. High-grade pods when recovered can materially increase our production and since they are encountered during normal mining activities, almost all of the cash they generate will flow straight to the bottom line. In late September, we recovered an estimated 1,750 ounces of high-grade coarse gold. And again, in mid-October, we recovered an estimated 3,200 ounces of high-grade coarse gold for a total of nearly 5,000 ounces, setting us up for a very strong finish to 2019.Since acquiring Higginsville in June, we have been providing additional disclosures with respect to monthly production report. As of January 1, 2020, in accordance with established industry standards, we will be transitioning to traditional quarterly reporting of production and cost metrics. In 2020, we will also provide annual production and cost guidance.On the financial side, our balance sheet has been strengthened substantially. We ended the third quarter with approximately $25 billion in cash, working capital of $12 million and generated adjusted earnings of $8 million. Following our oversubscribed $18.5 million bought deal financing, we have a very healthy cash position. And importantly, we are now adding cash to the balance sheet from our operating activities. Coupled with the cost reduction efforts underway, I'm excited about the trajectory and momentum we are building across the organization. On our last quarterly call, I announced the appointment of Graeme Sloan as Managing Director of our Australian operations. Graeme has an outstanding operational record and has done an incredible job in a very short period of time with the integration of the Beta Hunt mine with the Higginsville Mill and Mine. Graeme has provided the leadership and is developing a culture across the Australian operations that has sharpened our focus on taking every opportunity to increase efficiency and productivity that I am confident will result in ongoing improvements in the coming quarters. Finally, I am pleased to welcome Oliver Turner, who recently joined RNC to fill the role of Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. He began his career as a Mining Engineer and spent 6 years as a mining equity analyst at GMP. The fact that Oliver chose to join RNC is a great endorsement to the company, and his appointment will further strengthen our senior management team. At this time, I will turn the call over to Graeme for a discussion of our operational performance.
Thank you, Paul. I'm very pleased to report that our first full quarter production from our combined Beta Hunt-Higginsville operations has gone extremely well. Our operating teams at both sites have made huge steps in the rapid integration of the 2 operations. There is a strong positive culture being instilled across both sites and the efforts of our personnel to affect this change in such a short period has been very pleasing.Morale and safety across both operations is tracking nicely with over 260 days LTI-free at Higginsville and 85 days at Beta Hunt. If you'd move to Slide 7, please, consolidated results of operations. For those not familiar with the scale of our West Australian operations. I bring to your attention the figure on Slide 8. You can see our tenements in blue and their proximity to Kambalda, where over 13 million ounces of gold has been produced. And to the south, Norseman, where over 6 million ounces has been produced. We now control 1,800 square kilometers of tenements in one of the most prolific gold jurisdictions in the world. The tenements host 1.9 million ounces of historical measured indicated inferred resource and multiple exploration targets. On a consolidated basis, for the third quarter of 2019, the Australian operations mined 206,000 tonnes; milled 296,000 tonnes; and produced just over 24,000 ounces of gold. Going forward, we expect the feed ratio into the Higginsville mill to progressively move to around that 50-50 that Paul mentioned, Beta Hunt and Higginsville. At the moment, given that we acquired approximately 100,000 tonnes of stockpiled material with the Higginsville purchase, we have the flexibility to use this material to keep the mill fed at capacity when required. Slide 8, operational highlights, Beta Hunt. Beta Hunt's contribution to the third quarter was 210,000 tonnes milled for 18,460 ounces, a 110% increase when compared to the second quarter of 2019. As Paul explained in his opening remarks, from time to time, we encounter additional high-grade coarse gold pods. And on Slide 9, you can see the location of these recent discoveries on the 15 and 16 levels. Stoping on the 15 level is systematically approaching the Father's Day Vein area from the south and from the north. We expect to mine in and around Father's Day late 2019 or early 2020. Before closing on Beta Hunt, work on the new Beta Hunt mineral reserve remains on track to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019. Slide 9 is operational highlights from Higginsville. The Higginsville operations contributed a total of 86,000 tonnes milled or 5,756 ounces for the third quarter. At the Baloo open pit, and you could see on the photo on Slide 9, Stage 1 commenced production in August this year and is expected to provide mill feed of around 30,000 tonnes per month at grades ranging from 1.8 to 2.8 grams per tonne into the first quarter of 2020. Mining approvals for Baloo Stage 2 remain on track to be submitted to the appropriate authorities during this quarter. A second fully permitted open pit has been progressed for immediate mining upon the completion of the Baloo open pit. Slide 10 is exploration highlights. As previously announced, the recent 40,000-meter drill program at Beta Hunt, added close to 1 million ounces to the resource inventory. It also highlighted a number of areas showing significant widths of mineralization within the Western Flanks and clearly show this mineralization remains open along strike and down plunge. Follow-up exploration post the release of this new resource included a 6 hole program that looked to extend Western Flanks and test the new Fletcher Shear. The drill program proves very successful by extending Western Flank a further 200 meters north and confirmed the existence of the Fletcher zone as the third major gold share at Beta Hunt. At Higginsville, exploration comprised of 5 reverse circulation drill holes, targeting the Baloo mineralization, which was previously thought to be truncated by a very large fault. Drilling intersected strong mineralization north of this fault, including 8.7 grams over 3 meters at 63 meters downhole. Further drilling is planned over the fourth quarter. So a great deal happening with a number of very pleasing results and certainly looking forward to the coming quarters. I'll now turn the call over to Johnna to outline the progress at the Dumont Nickel project.
Thank you, Graeme. Turning to Slide 12. The results of the updated Dumont feasibility study were announced on May 30, and the NI 43-101 compliant technical report was filed under RNC's profile on SEDAR on July 11. The study confirmed the economic feasibility of the deposit with a strong rate of return of 15.4% and a USD 920 million NPV at 8%. These results confirm that Dumont is a large scale, low cost, long life asset, producing an average of 39,000 nickel at C1 cash cost of $3.22 a pound with a 30-year mine life. Dumont represents one of the only large-scale, fully permitted nickel-cobalt projects in a low-risk jurisdiction that can begin to satisfy the significant growth expected from a limited supply and strong demand growth, including from the electric vehicle battery market. In addition, Dumont will produce some of the lowest carbon footprint nickel in the world with energy source from renewable hydropower and the ability of Dumont tailings and waste rock to naturally and permanently sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. With the completion of this positive feasibility study, RNC with our partners at Waterton, are well positioned to accelerate discussions with potential partners to advance Dumont project towards a construction decision. In addition, as manager and operator of the Dumont JV, RNC is moving forward to implement the approved compensation project to offset fish habitat losses related to mine development. A portion of the construction work was completed in the third quarter of 2019, with the remainder being completed in the summer of 2020. It's an exciting time in the nickel industry. In Q3, the nickel price rose over 40% from $5.50 a pound to over $7.75 a pound. LME inventory stocks have continued to drop. Currently, the LME inventory is sitting at under 70,000 tonnes, the lowest in over 9 years, and the nickel market has been in supply deficit for several years now. There may be some short-term price weakness from increasing stainless scrap and fair nickel coming on to the market during this current period of higher prices, but the medium to longer-term fundamentals are positive. In this rising and exciting nickel market, RNC continues to evaluate all opportunities to maximize shareholder value for our portion of Dumont. I will now turn the call over to Tim Hollaar for a discussion of our financial results.
Thank you, Johnna. I'll provide a few financial highlights from the quarter. Please see Slide 14. Q3 was the first quarter, which includes Higginsville results for the full period. The immediate impact has been reduced milling costs since the acquisition of Higginsville, which, along with other cost-saving initiatives, has resulted in a significant reduction of our all-in sustaining costs. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs were reduced by USD 146 or 11% to USD 1,183 per ounce sold in the third quarter compared to Beta Hunt, all-in sustaining costs of USD 1,329 per ounce sold in Q2. Q3 revenue was $43.1 million, up 151% from Q2. The revenue increase was primarily from the 100% increase in Beta Hunt ounces sold due to higher production and from sale of Higginsville production. Operating earnings for the quarter was $9.2 million. Cash provided by operating activities was $2.3 million. We finished the quarter with a healthier balance sheet, including $12.2 million working capital and a strong cash balance of $24.8 million compared to a working capital deficit of $19 million and cash of $1.3 million at December 31, 2018. After deducting $9.6 million in other expenses, our Q3 net loss was $0.3 million or nil per share. Our adjusted EBITDA was $9.1 million, and adjusted EBITDA per share was $0.02. Our adjusted earnings were $8 million, and adjusted earnings per share was $0.01 per share. I will now turn the call back over to Paul.
Thanks, Tim. In closing, with significant progress in the integration of our Beta Hunt and Higginsville operations already achieved, we can look forward to further unlocking value in a number of areas as well. In the near term, we look forward to delivering the first ever 2P reserve at Beta Hunt, expanding our pipeline of open pit feed at Higginsville and ongoing aggressive cost-reduction strategies. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the entire RNC team in Amos, Toronto and Australia for all the hard work they have been putting in to contribute to the massive positive change we've experienced over the last few months at RNC. Too often the difficult heavy lifting behind the scene doesn't get the recognition it deserves, but it forms the basis of all transformational changes we've made, and I am sincerely -- and I sincerely appreciate the effort that has made this possible and will continue to drive our progress on many fronts.Thank you for your time. And with that, we'd like to open the call up for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jürgen Kotowski with -- and he's a retail investor.
My questions are focused on the Dumont mine. I know Johnna gave a brief outline that say that construction was started this year. Could she give a little -- elaborate a little bit more with this on road access, rail access, electrical supply, buildings, construction equipment?
No, we have not gone under construction...
Johnna?
Yes. Sorry...
Go ahead and answer that...
No problem, Paul. Thank you for the question. Yes, no, I want to be very clear. Construction has not started on Dumont. What we are doing, is we are working on a construction project for our fish habitat compensation project. This project is required by the government as part of our environmental permitting for the project. And it is a dam repair and replacement outside of Ruwe in the Abitibi. It is not related to the main construction of the project, but it's something that we have to do in advance of construction.
So this will be completed by what you said sometime next year. Is that correct?
Yes, we -- yes, it is. Yes, we can't start-up again until Q2, Q3 next year. So it will be finished before the fall.
Okay. Okay. I have another question regarding that Dumont mine, and this goes back to when the initial plans were drawn up. Is there any -- the plan I take it is still to produce high-grade nickel.
Yes. The -- yes, the concentrate produced from Dumont is -- average is 29% nickel.
Okay. Are there plans in terms of how it's going to be shipped to Tidewater? And are there customers lined up already? Or is this still negotiated -- to be negotiated?
Yes, we have not -- we do not have an offtake signed. That is a very valuable piece of the puzzle for us. However, there are -- there's a lot of interest in the offtake from Dumont. So we are still in negotiations on that. And that is not something that we will be looking to move -- we move forward, but that will be sort of the last piece. We -- in terms of shipping to Tidewater, we both have a road and a rail option, and we can take it either way down to the St. Lawrence.
Matthew O'Keefe with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Good quarter. Just a couple of questions on some of the really actually on the Higginsville. If you could help me out here with Baloo. I know you've had some good results here now from the mining. You say you've got -- you'll be mining from that Baloo #1 pit through the end of the year. And then you talk about Baloo 2. I was wondering if you could give us sort of an idea of tonnes and grade with that? And then you referred to another pit, and I don't know, is that got a name? Is it part of Baloo that you're also talking about that's fully permitted and is going to be -- you'll be taking some more from there. Can you give us a sense of tonnes and grade there as well?
Thanks, Matt. I will turn that one over to Graeme.
Yes. Thanks, Matthew. Look, Baloo has been really a quite good pit for us. It's certainly come up very well with both the grade that we're mining and the tonnes that we're getting from there. We have actually a Stage 1 and Stage 2. Stage 1, we're mining, as you said. That mining will go through to the early part of the new year. And Stage 2, depending on the ability to the approval process, could either continue immediately after or in fact, be delayed some weeks. It doesn't matter because we have this second pit, which is actually closer to the mill anyway and has similar sort of grades to what we'll see at Baloo. So we have optionality, and that's what we always look for in the mining game, Matthew. And certainly, Baloo has optionality both from Stage 2. And this drilling we're doing to the north of Baloo, which is immediately north of Baloo. And if that continues to produce the results ahead, that may well be further addition to the Baloo mineralization.
Okay. So we've got a few months left or a couple of quarters left on Stage 1. Stage 2, is that a several years or several quarters? And then the second pit that you're talking about, is that also, like, what kind of scope are we looking at here?
It's a similar mine life as Stage 1. So it'll be around 6 months. And then there is a potential to go again a bit to the east as well. So Stage 2, around 6 months, and if need be we can add in that second one, and there's another number of pits starting to come up into our pipeline of projects. It's part of our reserve-resource definition program that's going -- undergoing as we speak.
So we'll get some harder numbers on that before the end of the year with the reserve update?
You will certainly get good reserve numbers from Beta Hunt by the end of the year. Higginsville might slip into parts of the early part of next year. But we'll have sufficient open pit lined up in front of us for certainly most of next year and even the following year.
From -- sorry, from Baloo, from Higginsville?
No, from Baloo. We have -- if you remember, Higginsville has 1.9 million ounces of historic measured indicated inferred resources. We are currently going through and reevaluating all of those resources. We'll go back and do a little bit more drilling to firm up those numbers and convert them into mineable open pits. That's what we're undertaking as we speak. And as we become more understanding of those resources, we'll release those results to the market. So at the moment, the open pit pipeline looks nice and strong for us. But we have yet to make any definite announcements to the market on mine life or grades.
Right. But we can expect that at some point in early 2020?
We can expect it in 2020.
Okay. Great. And then just one quick question on Beta Hunt -- it's sort of the same line of thinking. So you had more tonnes coming from Beta Hunt. Is that kind of the mix we're going to look at between Beta Hunt and Baloo -- or sorry, Beta Hunt and Higginsville. Is that the kind of feed -- proportions of feed, we'd expect going forward? Or is that -- can we expect that will change?
Now we'll progressively look to take that to around 50-50 for Beta Hunt and Higginsville. Remember that we had close to when we acquired Higginsville, we had close to 100,000 tonnes of stockpile material. So we've been able to blend in some of this material as we've been going just to maintain full capacity at the plant. But over a period of time, we're looking to get both open pits and Beta Hunt to pretty much feed in around 50-50. That's our aim over the coming months.
Derek Macpherson with Red Cloud Securities.
Congratulations on what is a very solid quarter. Just a couple of questions. Maybe first on sort of all-in sustaining costs. Obviously, a big improvement quarter-over-quarter. Can you give us, maybe a little more detail on how you're going to get those -- how you're going to drive those lower than where they are now to maybe a little more sustainable level?
Would you like me to add to that, Paul?
No, I couldn't hear the question, Derek. I couldn't hear what you said.
Sorry. Do you want me to repeat it?
Yes, go ahead, Derek.
Sorry about that. I guess, my question is on all-in sustaining costs. You provided a couple of metrics as to how you're going to get them lower. They -- can you provide probably maybe a little more detail on that? Obviously, a big improvement from Q2 to Q3. But obviously, where do you expect to get them to?
Yes. Thanks, Derek. I'll take this one. So obviously, we're -- again, I just want to remind people, Q3 is just like right out of the gate. This is as fresh as fresh can be. And you can see the results of owning our own mill already by the $146 per ounce AISC drop, we're targeting to be significantly lower than that. And there's 4 areas we're really, really focused on. And we've been making a lot of progress on all 4 areas. And again, just as a reminder, those basic guidances that we provided and the results of Q3, they don't include any of the coarse gold mineralization that we've encountered. So the 2 press releases we had in, one in September, one in October, those will flow into Q4. So a lot of things that we're doing to drive down costs, we know that we can get them significantly lower. So those 4 are, again, they're G&A, we're working on royalties. We've had some good success with those people. It's been progressing quite well. Our productivity rates with personnel and vendors. And those 4 things will start to flow in over the next couple of quarters, you'll start to see Q3, you see the mill. You see the 11% reduction in AISC and that's why we're integrating everything. We're putting in people, we're getting the mill in, we're sorting out all the front end of the mill throughout the operation. So there's been so much done to reduce it already. And obviously, we're not at the point where we want to be. We'll continue to strive to get it even lower than where it is by doing those things that I just said.
Okay. And then my second question, and you sort of -- you touched on it briefly. Obviously, quarter-to-date, there's obviously a couple of big coarse gold mines that are going to impact Q4. I guess, how are Q4 ops going so far? And then what kind of like sort of overall impact, do you expect that to have those 2 coarse gold mines to have on your results in Q4?
Yes. So I'll open it up, Graeme, if you want to add to it, it's fine. So Q4 has had no surprises. Everything are tracking well according to our plan. We -- those ounces that we discovered in the -- actually, the end of third quarter and in the beginning of Q4 will be monetized in Q4. We're not porting any of them. We're not keeping them for specimens. We're actually going to make sure that all of them get into the mill, which will have, obviously, a positive impact on our cost as well. So what we're really trying to do is we're making a big concentrated effort behind the scenes, trying to make sure we understand these better. Our goal is -- look, we have to have some reconciliation behind us, Derek. I've done this, several of us have done this in our past where we can reconcile backwards to look at using a factor to apply in these areas. Our main goal is to try to improve our understanding of the geology, but make sure that we focus on finding answers and solutions to apply a factor or having some predictability on these coarse gold specimens that's a big, big drive for us. All our numbers and guidance exclude them presently, but we're still economic. We make money without them. We know there's some more of them. We've just discovered some more. We know we're going to get more, but we are profitable without them. So hopefully, that stickhandles around your question or answers it, Derek.
It does. I guess the -- and I guess my last question, and this sort of relates to that. What's -- in the block model right now, obviously, you're starting to stope between the, the 15 and 16 levels in the A Zone -- or sorry, 14 and 15 levels in the A zone. What's the grade of that block between the 14 and the 16 levels around the Father's Day Vein in the block model right now?
So all our block models in the A Zone are capped at 60 grams. If you look at all those intercepts we have, they are capped at a 60-gram cutoff. Graeme, do you want to add anything to that, but that's very much the simple answer, right?
Yes. Yes, I think, Derek, that particular block in A Zone right the way through there is between the 2.5 and 3 grams, which is typical A Zone material. So that's without any of the grade -- any of the coarse gold additions to that. And that's what Paul was saying. And that's the way we've approached it is that, again, we know we've definitely found those because they're there, that will add to the bottom line this quarter. But the reality is that it means, if we take a very systematic approach to mining this, we'll get 100%, whatever that's there, we'll get it out. There will be none that will be left behind because of the way we're mining this. So average grade, typical of what you see at Beta Hunt around that 3 grams. And hopefully, we'll get a few more of those pods.
All right. Just to follow-up on what you're asking, Derek. The areas that we encountered the coarse gold in -- just to give you a good feel. Those areas that produced approximately 5,000 gold ounces, in our models would have had somewhere 50 to 60 ounces in them. Again, they're capped, we have an obligation to cap them. But with further reconciliation and understanding, we're going to be able to really be able to understand this much better going forward. And that's a huge, huge objective of ours. It would be nice one day to stand up on a podium or anybody say, look, we have so much confidence now going forward that we can predict this with this level of certainty, and we're not there yet again. But anyhow, those 5,000 ounces had about 50 ounces in the model -- in the mine plan.
Okay. And then just to confirm, these zones are being mined in late Q4, early Q1, right?
Graeme?
That's right. Yes, they're going to be mined later this year before or early part of next year. It just depends on the stoping sequence that comes through. Obviously, it's -- there are other areas in the mine that need to be stoped, and there's a sequence around the whole lot of them. But at this stage, end of this year, early next.
[ Dean Allen ], a private investor.
Yes. Congratulations on a great Q. It's good to hear that with just the bulk grade that you're cash flow positive in Australian operations. I was just wondering on Baloo, you had a 971 AISCs but you guys just started that up in August. So I have to presume you had some start-up costs. So for the fourth quarter, is it possible the AISCs would be even lower on Baloo?
I'll add to that, Paul, if you like.
Graeme? Yes, go ahead.
Obviously, there's -- AISCs got a number of variables that go into it, Dean. And certainly, mining rate, tonnes grade, so on that comes up to the annual cost. We had -- when we first kicked off Baloo, we came in at just a bit before the mining, a month or so before the mining commenced. And a lot of those costs that were normally attributed to an open pit like the pre-strip, like a causeway on the -- out to the open pit. Those had already been expended by Westgold. So we were able to come in and have a very good start. And hence, we've seen some good AISC numbers in the initial part. Going forward, it just depends on if we have to do some more pre-strip around some of these extensions that we're looking at, whether this to the north is going to -- it may take a bit of more work before we actually get into the -- to the ore. So there's a little bit of planning up in the air. So it's a bit too early to be able to give you that sort of detail at this point.
Got you. Got you. Thanks. Yes, it's very good timing on your guys' part. On the Beta Hunt, the 3,200 ounces, which happened in the previous quarter and this quarter, it's all going to get counted into October. So being at your current run rate, is it actually possible for the month of October that the Beta Hunt might be somewhere in the realm of 1,000 AISC?
Look, look, with that coarse gold, then the -- you have to be quite careful how you actually treat. It's a great addition to have -- don't get me wrong, but you have to be quite careful how you treat that through the plant. Given the fact that if you flood the plant and the tanks with a lot of gold, your recoveries will start to suffer. And you just -- no treatment plant is made to sort of fully treat that sort of material. So we have to be very careful how we feed it in to make sure we get it. So although we have this gold coming through, we may not treat at all in October and November. It may actually extend right out to December. So it just depends how we or -- and what other ore we've got going through. So we blend this material in. So obviously, it's going to have an impact on AISC and -- but AISC will also depend on what other -- what our final production numbers are for the quarter. And as we said, we've given some guidance around those numbers. And as Paul mentioned, we certainly look to hope to come in better. But look, it just -- it depends on too many factors, Dean, to be able to give you that level of detail.
Got you. On the A Zone, you've been setting up for stoping, and that's how you found these high-grade pockets. And looking at your plan there, it seems like you're going to be doing a stope about 25 meters above the Father's Day Vein and then later, doing a stope for about 25 meters below where you hit the Father's Day Vein. What are the current -- is that going on now? And if not, what's the plan for when stoping starts?
No, that's stoping. If you notice on that figure, I think it was figure 9. The plan there, we are actually moving from the right-hand side, and also from the left-hand side of Father's Day moving in towards Father's Day. So we'll be in and around that Father's Day Vein area on the 15 level sometime latter part of this year, early part of next. And then we'll be down below on the 16 coming back up sometime in the latter part of next year or mid- to the latter part of next year.
Very good. So you actually had -- go ahead.
You go.
Okay. So you've actually started stoping from the outside already, is that correct?
That's correct.
Good, good. Okay. That's exciting because being what you found just setting up, it portends well that you guys are going to be finding some more high grade. Very good. Again, where else are you stoping the zone?
Just to try to put -- sorry, I didn't mean to butt in there, just to put it in perspective. And this is the most difficult thing to explain is the fact that we've discovered these recent discoveries. There are 3 of those, and that's great. But -- and we've discovered Father's Day, and we're certainly hoping that there's going to be a lot more that we discover there. But remember, this is really quite intermittent, and you've got to be very careful and very systematic how you approach these areas. So as much as what I think we will find some more, the reality is we may not too. So -- that's why our approach has been so systematic. There's been a lot of questions around why we don't go directly to Father's Day and try to mine that. Well, it just doesn't work that way, and you've got a good chance of losing some of these pods if you do that sort of work. So our approach, if it's there, we'll find it. As for the other stoping areas, we're stoping also in Western Flanks, which is up on the 350 level, up around there. And so we have a number of stopes up there. So we have multiple areas we stope from plus we have development from on ore and on, obviously on waste. So the number of areas that we can source ore from throughout the month.
And that's all the time we have for questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Paul Huet for concluding remarks.
I just want to thank everyone for taking the time. I know people are busy in their life, and they have a lot on their plate. So thanks for taking the time to call in. I have to admit, as CEO, I'm extremely proud of the results of Q3. They're consistent, they're sustainable. We have control of the company. It's setting ourselves up to end the year with the most outstanding year this company has seen in its history. So we really look forward to Q4 as well on the heels of having a phenomenal Q3. And thanks to all our shareholders for believing us and supporting us. And have a great day.
This concludes the RNC Minerals Third Quarter 2019 Conference Call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.