Aura Minerals - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. This conference is being recorded and a replay will be available at the company's website at auraminerals.com/investidores. The presentation will also be available for download. This call is also available in Portuguese. To access, you can press the globe icon on the lower right side of your Zoom screen and then choose to enter the Portuguese Room. After that, select Mute Original Audio. [Foreign language] Portuguese Room. We would like to inform that all attendees will only be listening to the conference during the presentation, and then we will start the question and answer section when further instructions will be provided.

Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any statements that may be made during this conference call regarding the company's business prospects, operational and financial projections, and goals are the beliefs and assumptions of Aura Executive Board and the current information available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should be aware of events related to the macroeconomic scenario, the industry, and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in their respective forward-looking statements. Present at this conference, we have Mr. Rodrigo Barbosa, President and CEO, and Mr. Kleber Cardozo, CFO. Now I will turn the conference over to Rodrigo Barbosa. You may begin the conference.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Good morning all. Good morning all the investors and good morning investors from Brazil, Canada, Europe and also I welcome the new investors that recently joined us, i.e., the IPO we had on NASDAQ a couple of weeks ago. As we all do in the earnings call, we divided this in two separate presentations. First, myself, I will present and give an overview about the company, about the progress we made during the quarter and some of the highlights of the results. In the second phase, Kleber, our CFO, is going to go more in detail about our results and cash flows and also the net debt, the levels and dividends. This was again an extraordinary quarter as the fourth quarter, secretary partner, that Aura has, reaching record high results in terms of EBITDA.

We started with a production of 64,000 ounces of gold equivalent ounces, which was more than we produced in the first quarter, the same as we produced a year ago, but with the constant price it's higher than we produced also a year ago. Another important factor is that not only are we growing production, our cash costs are being stable along the last quarters and higher production, stable costs and also higher gold prices. We've been able to reach a record high EBITDA at $106 million on Q2. Understanding that this quarter we had a gold price of $3,185, that also drove us over the last 12 month`s EBITDA to $344 million with the gold price of $2,800.

That means that we still, if gold continues at this price now hovering around $3,400, we continue to have room to improve our EBITDA by only gold price on the top of that. As we will see, we should have increased production along the third quarter and then in the fourth quarter, which could push even further our last 12 to finish the year with very strong results. As I will see, our all-in sustaining cash cost on the quarter was $1,449, very much in line with our guidance, very much in line with the performance on Q1 and very much in line with 12 months ago if you use constant prices. One thing that I would highlight is that we have a copper production. Around 20% of the production comes from, the revenues come from copper, and then we convert that copper production into gold equivalent.

Basically, we divide the sales, the revenues of copper through the gold price, so that would mean a gold equivalent. We publish all in gold equivalent ounces. The higher the gold prices, the lower is the conversion. That's what we'll see, some of the numbers being stable on the screen. As you use constant price, you see that we are increasing production and also being able to maintain the same all-in sustaining cash cost. Despite the higher gold prices that we have to adjust to market to market, on our callers, Kleber is going to explain details. We finished the part with $8 million of net profit, while the net income adjusted is $37 million. Probably going to go more in details about this. Very importantly, on the strategic agenda, we are also moving very strong on the growth of the company.

Just a quick reminder, we started the year with the construction on the final phase of Borborema and also planning to close the acquisition of Bluestone. We closed in the First Quarter the acquisition of Bluestone. We finished the construction of Borborema. We are now in the ramp-up phase. In this second quarter, we already produced 2,500 ounces of gold. Of course, now we are gradually increasing production, gradually increasing capacity, and gradually increasing grades. We should see in the third quarter higher production to declare commercial production expected now in September this year, and then after that also a higher production in Q4. Also on the strategic agenda, we made two other significant progress points. One, we signed the contract to acquire MSG from Mango, and the spending should close during Q3 this year. We also published the PEA of Heradorada, the former Cerro Blanco.

It's a high-grade underground mine in Guatemala that can provide us additional 95,000 ounces of production per year in the first four years with a CapEx of $265 million. Returns at 24% per year with the gold price $2,400. While from the PEA to the feasibility study, which we expect to finish by the end of this year or early next year, we see also room for improvement in terms of cost, production, and then return. We are working on that and we should be releasing the feasibility study by the end of the year or early next year. Very importantly, we obtained the agreement to acquire MSG, published the PEA, and also, very important, did our IPO in NASDAQ. This was strategic for us.

Once we always share with the market that on the third avenue for us to deliver value to our shareholders, we had to tackle the multiple. The multiple that we are discounted compared to our peers comes from basically two main reasons. Number one, we need to continue to increase and being in the higher production. Second, we had to address also our daily trading volume. Moving to the United States and NASDAQ, we could increase the float of the company and tackle our markets. That can provide better liquidity to our shares. We should continue to see this improvement along the year. Recently, we also announced the decision to start with the process to delist from TSX so that we can focus and concentrate all our daily trading volume in NASDAQ from now on. We also made progress on the three avenues.

Most of our investors and analysts know that we have three avenues should deliver value to our shareholders. Number one, should deliver the greenfield projects to build them on time, on budget. Borborema is there almost rebuilt on time, on budget. That's why we fully production. Borborema is now in ramp-up, final ramp-up phase. We made acquisition of Bluestone. We made acquisition of MSG. We also increased our investment exploration. We released the new AIF by March of this year, increasing our resources and reserves. Then on the third avenue to continue to address our multiple, we did the delisting. We are moving very gently into the three avenues that we disclosed to the market since 2020. On the top of that, why we would be able to pay dividends.

If you see a track record in terms of paid dividends, we are among the top dividend yield in the world in the gold sector. This dividend that we announced today of $0.33 per share put us on the last 12 months of a dividend yield of 7.4%. When you add also the share buybacks guaranteeing us are also a top dividend player in the world without jeopardizing our growth story. Next slide. On this slide we always like to share our safety records. We are very glad also that we are now over 2.5 years with only one single lost time incident that happened in Apaena slightly over a year ago. Also finishing the construction of Borborema without any lost time incident.

We now are over a thousand days in Borborema building the project and now ramping up without any lost time incident, which underscores our focus to guarantee safety standards to our employees. Also on the geotechnical structure, we monitor them with external parties and audit them on a constant basis. I recently did a new auditing. All the geotechnical structures are in satisfactory level. We have no issues with any of them to guarantee the safe operation for everybody. In terms of production, as we can see on the bars on the left side of the slide, we are the quarter production on the top of the line. We have the last 12 months of production. We see that in Q2 we produced 64,000 ounces compared to 60,000 ounces in Q1.

When you compare Q2 2024, as I was mentioning, it seems the same, but there is a negative effect of production because of the higher gold prices and the lower conversion of copper into gold equivalent. If it were not for this, we would be over close to 10% higher and now performing at 260,000 ounces of gold equivalent production in the last 12 months. Understanding that now we should see an increase in production due to Borborema and some better production also in the second half in some of the operations. In Q1 and Q2 in compared operations, we see almost very much the same and very much also in line with our projections. Minosa is very much in line with the projections as well. Internal projections are up slightly below Q1 but yet slightly even above or below expectations during the quarter.

That is as well an increase compared to Q1. Despite the negative effect of a higher gold price or constant price, that increase would have been even higher. We are also now adding small parts here which we are very proud to show to the market at the 3,000 ounces from Borborema during Q2. Of course, now we are progressing on the ramp-up. We should see incremental production during Q3 and then also in Q4. In terms of all-in sustaining cash costs, as I was mentioning at the beginning, there is very strong management concern and focus on containing any kind of inflation and any kind of price pressure. As you can see, in Q2 we reached $1,449, very much in line with Q1.

When you compare to Q2 last year and you use constant prices, we will see that we are also on the same level of our all-in sustaining cash cost of last year. Understanding that this year we also have a pressure up on our all-in sustaining cash cost because of the investment phase that we are going through at Apoena, pushing back the pit, creating a super pit so that we can resume higher production after 2026. With that, we can also see our all-in sustaining cash cost going down. We now have Borborema coming online that has a below our average all-in sustaining cash cost. Of course, almost the same as we've been able to show the market. We have Matupá and Heradorada. Both also have a below the average that we have all-in sustaining cash cost.

While MSG, no, MSG should start with a higher than our average all-in sustaining cash cost. We believe that we can gradually decrease the all-in sustaining cash cost from MSG after we close the transaction. We are moving very much in line with expectations. We have no changes in our guidance to the market since we released early this year production in the first half of 124. When you compare to 266,300. Since that, we are behind. Of course, in the second semester now enters in commercial higher production, commercial production for Borborema. That will put, we are very keen to achieve and be between the guidance that we gave to the market in terms of cash costs. On the other hand, you see that we are very much close to the low level of our guidance.

In the second semester, we expect to have better production in some of operations and also about Borborema coming online. We should be very much in line with the guidance, if not slightly below the guidance, either on the cash cost but also on the all-in sustaining cash cost. We performed and we could finish the construction of Borborema within the budget. We are also maintaining the same guidance for the market in terms of CapEx for sustaining exploration and also the new projects and expense. A highlight that we believe is important to share with the market is the successful ramp-up of Borborema. We still, of course, have two months or a month and a half before we can declare commercial production. Those very instructional things within the mine have been proven and been successful. Number one, the mine is consolidating very well. The grades are there.

The grades are consistent. We also are utilizing very strong capacity from the crusher. Very strong capacity also from the mill. `We used also the CIL. The recovery has been very much also in line with what we projected. CIL has been, this is where we've been slower performance than we projected since the beginning. We are now going more a lower grade than expected. At the same time, all the adjustments at the CIL have been already done, four CIL tanks already adjusted and a few other more to adjust in the next couple of weeks. The performance is going up as we continue to have expected commercial production through September. Also, the fuel is working very well. Also, the humidity of the tailings is being very much 16%, 18%, very much in line with the project.

All the process of the gold, the way the gold performs around the plant, has been well proven, checked. Now we just need some adjustments at the plant so that we can continue to increase capacity and declare commercial production by September. Just a quick, there was the slide of Heradorada, can go back one slide as we released the PEA. The information is widely available for all shareholders. This is a very important project that we are now adjusting the PEA. We released the PEA without reviewing all the mine sequencing. That's what we are doing right now, and also detailing all the engineering and the mining sequence so that we can have the feasibility study. Nevertheless, this project already generating a half billion dollars of NPV discounted at 5% with a gold price of $2,400 without any improvements, with 24% internal rate of return at $2,400 gold price.

We believe we can also improve those results through the feasibility study that we expect to release by the end of this year, early next year, and the CapEx approximately $264 million. That's`` one important thing about Aura, that we've been able to increase our capacity and to have right returns through project that has contained and a very not that large NPV, which means a higher risk. Biomass we built for $80 million. Now we built a bar volume of $188 million, and now Heradorada we expect to be at $260 million. That will continue to move our production up without compromising a lot of CapEx. That also allows us to continue to pay dividends.

Kleber Cardozo (CFO)

Okay, thanks Rodrigo. Good morning everyone. Now we're going to jump a little bit more in details on the summary of the main financial results for the second quarter.

We start with a page that. Brings a summary of the main financial KPIs for the second quarter, the last few quarters, and accumulated last 12 months of these financial KPIs at the end of each reporting periods. Start on the top left with the net revenues. We see a significant increase in net revenues in the second quarter of 2025. Net revenues achieving $190 million on this quarter, benefiting from the increase in production compared to the previous quarter and the increase in gold prices. We see a very positive trend in the last few quarters. Our accumulated last 12 months revenues increasing quarter after quarter. Moving to the right side to the adjusted EBITDA, a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA, new record high. As well as Rodrigo pointed out, our adjusted EBITDA increasing by close to 30% compared to the previous quarter as a combination of increasing production as we saw additional 4,000 ounces.

Second, we saw a slight decrease also in the all-in sustaining cash costs. Third, of course, the increase in gold prices. Now our last 12 months adjusted EBITDA, also we see a similar trend of increasing quarter after quarter, achieving $344 million at the end of the second quarter with an average gold price of about $2,800, the market price for this last 12 months, which means that only considering gold prices we should see a similar trend going forward. Not putting on top of that, expecting increasing production from the new projects. Moving to the net income on the bottom left of the page.

As some of you who follow the company a longer time might remember, we have seen no cash impacts in the last few quarters in our P&L related no cash losses related to the gold hedges derivatives, which we have to account for mark to market at the end of each accounting period on this quarter. We also are going to show later more detail. Fortunately, gold prices continue increasing, which is very, very positive. We are going to see also a non-realized loss with the gold derivatives. Despite that, in this quarter the operating results more than offset those losses, and we are reporting a profit of $8 million on this quarter. When we look here at the bottom to the adjusted net income, we see a similar trend. Our net income also making progress this quarter, reaching $37 million.

Moving to cash, net debt, and financial leverage of the company, in the bars we see our net debt remained almost stable in the quarter. We closed the quarter with $280 million in net debts, which means that cash flows from operating activities were enough to pay for both the expansion CapEx that we're going to see in more detail. Some annual income tax payments were significant, mostly in Honduras, and dividends that we paid in the second quarter as well as a combination of mostly stable net debt and an increase in the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA. We see that our net debt over the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA ratio reduced from 0.9 to 0.8x and not including yet the proceeds from the NASDAQ IPO which was in July.

When we factor in the proceeds of the IPO, of course all these KPIs improved, our cash increases and that reduces and also the financial leverage also reduces. Now moving to understand in more detail the main items between the adjusted EBITDA and the adjusted net income for the quarter, starting with the adjusted EBITDA, going more detail how was the contribution by each busines`s unit. We see Arenza, Zoo, and Inoza with very strong results, about $36 million and $34 million each, contributing to our adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. Almost a strong quarter as well. $25 million, despite being in an investment phase, contributed with $16 million adjusted in any quarter. Pretty decent number in Burborema. Of course, a small number as we have just shipped one shipment in the quarter, but also positive and we are proud of already reporting the EBITDA from Burborema.

Amortization depletion of $15 million came consistent with what we're seeing the last few quarters. No surprise on that. In terms of financial expenses, million is most explained by the losses with our outstanding derivative gold collars that we generate an expense in the quarter of about $35 million, of which $24 million are unrealized, which are, as I mentioned before, the mark-to-market recognition we have to do in our balance sheets for outstanding gold collars that expire between 2025 and 2028. $11.7 million were realized losses that did impact our cash, most related to the final outstanding collars of the ALMAS hedging program. Income tax expenses of $23 million, that's most explained by the strong results from the operations, bringing our net income to $8 million. Here to the right side, we bring back to build the digest and adding certain items that have no cash impacts.

First is the non-realized losses with the gold derivatives. $24 million FX was a smaller number this quarter. $2 million FX impacts in Brazil, Honduras, and Mexico also have no cash impacts in our deferred tax assets and liabilities. All these quarters, the FX fluctuations benefited our deferred tax assets in $7 million. Here we excluded an impact. Finally, this quarter we had a one-time item loss in Europe NL. That was this loss on settlement of liability with equity instruments. This is basically the company, when we acquired Bluestone, we received Bluestone with a debt of $20 million, outstanding debt with the London family. That $20 million was mostly settled. We paid $15 million out of those $20 million in the second quarter with the shares of Aura Minerals.

This $5 million is the appreciation of our shares between the date we signed the agreements and the date we closed the agreement. Excluding these items, our adjusted net income achieved $37 million in the second quarter. Here we bring a detailed analysis on the change in the cash and cash equivalents of the company throughout the second quarter. We start here on the left side of the page, the cash position at the beginning of the quarter. On this left side, it's the free cash flow that's generated by the mines in commercial production, not including the investments we're doing to grow the business. It's basically only the investments to keep the current level of production of those mines. We can see it was a strong quarter in terms of free cash flows.

That part of the business generated $60 million in cash, despite, as I anticipated before, $23 million in income taxes paid, and most annual income taxes paid in Honduras, which should be, of course, a lower number in Q3 and Q4, and already deducting $12 million they realized the losses with the gold derivatives. That $60 million was used mostly to fund the investment for growth and dividends. In the quarter, we see investment for growth consuming $38 million, of which most of that was Borborema, which includes both some obtainable payables related to the construction and capitalization of some costs of the ramp-up phase. As the ramp-up is expected to complete now in September, this number, also the expansion with Borborema, is expected to reduce from Q3 and Q4 onwards. Here to the right side, how much of the cash was used.

Financial items highlighting maybe the dividends we paid in the second quarter, $30 million, bringing the cash at the end of the quarter to $168 million, and again not including the proceeds from the NASDAQ IPO. With this, we end the presentation and open to questions.

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

We are going to start the question and answer section for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question, please click on raise hand. If your question has already been answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on put hand down. Our first question comes from Edgard de Souza with Itau BBA.

Edgard de Souza (Associate of Sell Side Equity Research)

Congrats on the solid quarter results and all the best luck in this new phase following the NASDAQ listing. Rodrigo, I understand that the highlight of the first half of the year was the strong M&A activity and also the delivery of Borema. Moving forward, now that you have an even stronger balance sheet position, all eyes of the investors will be on the development of your growth project. I need to start discussing a little bit Guatemala and Matupá. You have been mentioning that this final investment decision between Matupá and Guatemala would be made by your hands. Probably, if you are able to move with the licensing, the social licensing in Guatemala, you will bring Guatemala forward.

I wanted to hear from you which is the timeline or the best timeline that you expect in terms of having this final decision and when starting building one of the projects, when will be the deadline? For example, if you are not able to get all the social licenses in Guatemala, that you will decide to move with Matupá maybe before. I want to hear about you. How are you seeing the timeline for those two growth projects? The second question on MSG, we understand that the asset is running at a very low efficient rate. I don't know if Glauber is connected, but I know that Glauber has worked there before, so maybe he could help answering this question. I want you to understand which were your first impressions from the site visits you had. What are the low hanging fruits?

You mentioned that there is need for equipment upgrades, CapEx that you could put there to improve efficiency rates. When do you expect to deploy that CapEx? How long it might take to improve the plant utilization and also on the cost side, which the company is running at very high costs. What are the opportunities in SG&A, sustaining CapEx optimization and so forth. Those would be my questions. Thank you.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Thank you, Edgard. First question about Guatemala or Matupá. I think we are progressing, understanding, making interesting assessments at the communities, starting conversation also with the federal authorities. Things are progressing well, yet we need a few more time to make sure that once we push the button to start, we will guarantee that we will be able to operate in a very smooth way.

We are still up to the end of the year, maybe a little bit sooner. There's no exact date. It's just about information that we get from the local team and from the local assessment that we have. Right.

I would expect something by the end of the year or slightly earlier than that. That's not super scientific. It's a lot of sensibility that we need to gather at the local level. I think for your projections, I would say that we would like to make a decision until the end of the year. The second non MSG, we cannot yet go in details. Of course, after we close, we will share with the market our plan. We will have to include the guidance of the production for the year. We'll talk about our plan for 2026. What I can say at this moment is that we did our analysis based on the 2024 numbers where Anglo, etc., Energy produced 80,000 ounces at close to $2,000 per ounce following all-in sustaining cash costs.

From that number, we see room to increase production, increase productivity, and of course decrease our all-in sustaining cash cost. It comes from a few variables. Number one, and perhaps we even slow a little bit the production in the first months that we are there so that we can focus on underground development. We need to advance a lot of underground development to start mining from bottom to up, not top to down. That will increase productivity, but that takes six months to a year for us to be exactly what we need in terms to have the right productivity. There's also, of course, other assessment that we have, doing through increased availability of the equipment, increased maintenance, and all of that combined, we believe we'll be able to reduce the all-in sustaining cash cost, perhaps between what it was last year and what is over at that moment.

We don't believe yet that we'll be able to bring all-in sustaining cash cost to the current level that we perform in other mines. If we can be in between with increased production, I think that would be a very good outcome for the mine. More details will be disclosed after we close the transaction.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Marcelo Arazi with BTG.

Marcelo Arazi (Equity Research Associate Director)

Hey guys, two questions on my side as well. The first one, given that the company should improve the cash position with the recent US listing process, I would like to understand if there's any space for additional M&A. We know that you guys are always looking for potential acquisitions, but given that you are already focused on two major projects in the short term, I would like to hear about if there is any space for you guys to do another one, eventually developing more than one project at a time. Just an additional point here, if you guys are also looking for copper projects, we saw some developments in Serra da Estrela, but I do believe that this is something for a while. How are you thinking about potential copper acquisitions?

Finally, if I can make another one, just a quick one on Borborema, you guys mentioned the potential road relocation. I'd like to hear you guys about how you are feeling, if the outcome will be positive, if you have any timing on this announcement as well. I think these are my questions. Thank you guys.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Hello. I think I lost.

Operator (participant)

No, we are hearing you.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Okay. All right. So the first question that you said, M&As. Of course now we have a stronger position, but the strategy continues the same, very clear ways to build value for our shareholders. Number one, build the projects, greenfield, on time and budget. That's what we'll be doing. Now we have two more to build, the Guatemala and also Matupá. Second, continue to do exploration investments so that we can increase our resource and reserves. We've been able to do that along the last few years. We want to continue to build more resources and reserves while we are also increasing production. Number three is to continue to grow through M&As. Right now we just spoke to the market that without Heradorada and without the acquisition of MSG, we would reach 450,000 ounces of production.

Heradorada now adds on the yearly base in the first four years an additional 95,000 ounces, and MSG last year produced 80,000 ounces. That's already put us on the higher level of production. We believe we want to continue to grow through new M&As. Of course, we have to understand how complex we are getting so that we do M&As that are accretive, that we understand that we can build value. That's one of the reasons that the acquisition of MSG, we gave a priority to MSG because we have two greenfield projects to build. Either we're going to be on the next year at Heradorada or Matupá, and MSG is not a new construction. It's a different team. It's a turnaround team that will go there to implement efficiencies, or the two different teams that will not compete for attention so that we can do both.

We continue to monitor the market, either in copper, as you mentioned, but also in gold. We want to continue to grow through M&A. We always look at alternatives. I don't expect anything in the short term, but we will continue to monitor, we will continue to engage, we will continue to participate and monitor and see if we can do something perhaps next year or in 2027. While we, as you mentioned, we will continue also to advance on the exploration for a second. We do like copper. We participated in other potential acquisitions in copper. Copper in the end, it's a bigger project and has fewer alternatives to grow. Also, the prices are higher compared to what you can find in gold. Normally in gold we've been able to see more attractive returns and more attractive RNPVs, and there's more alternatives for M&As.

That doesn't mean that we will not pursue M&As also in copper. At the same time, as I was mentioning, that's one of the reasons it's so competitive, more for the copper asset. This is the only one asset that we entered in a more earlier stage, Serra da Estrela, it's copper. We just finished the acquisition and made the final exercise, the final option. We acquired with an additional $3 million. We acquired now fully the exploration rights for Serra da Estrela. We plan additional 10,000 m of exploration during the second semester. The formations are being very encouraging for us. It takes time, right? This is an earlier stage. That's not a mine that we can be able to build in the next two or three years.

With more exploration results that are coming, perhaps in three or four years, we can get to a closer PEA and then feasibility study so that we can build a mine from that. Also, the whole area of Carajás has a very interesting potential for copper that we will continue to monitor and see what would be the alternatives also to increase from Carajás our resource base. Thank you, Rodrigo. Just on the roadmap. Yeah, thank you. Borborema, things are progressing with the National Authority for Transportation. It's a bit slower than I expected. We were expecting to have these discussions approved already by Q2 this year. However, it's not halted, right? The basic design has been approved and now we are working on more detailed design back and forth so that they feel comfortable and then approve.

From that, we already have the plan to expand capacity of Borborema and then also do all the road movements.

Marcelo Arazi (Equity Research Associate Director)

Thank you, Rodrigo. Very clear.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ricardo Monegaglia with Safra.

Ricardo Monegaglia (Equity Research)

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions.

First, congrats on the IPO. I have three questions. On Borborema, there was a small but positive contribution in the second quarter with less than 2,000 ounces being sold. Could you discuss the target plant utilization or sales levels expected for this mine in Q3 and Q4, since you have the production guidance? My second question, in Heradorada, just so you can confirm with the PEA out, you expect the feasibility study to be published by the end of this year? Are there any pending licenses or discussions with local government or communities?

My third question to Kleber.Kleber, could you give us a sense of the cash impact from gold hedges in the coming quarters? Thank you.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

If I got the question, is the expected production Borborema then pending license, but the mallet and Kleber, the more financial, right? Yes, we already produced this 2,000. Of course, we'll see gradual. We expect to reach around constantly over close to 80% by September, which means commercial production. In the fourth quarter, continue to increase to reach 100% by the end of the year, early next year. Already at commercial production stable from September. The production is what we have on the guidance. As we are now running more lower grade than we expected due to this adjustment that we are doing in the CIL tanks, we would expect to be more towards the lower end of the guidance on Borborema, while other operations are at the high end or even above the high end.

On average, we are very much in line to be at the guidance on the company. On Turban, yes, but also Guatemala. That's right, Guatemala. We have all the license to start the construction during the second semester. There needs a final approvement from local authority, but all the license already been granted. This is more, as we say, it's a social license because you want to make sure the project is being well socialized with all the communities, well socialized with the government. We feel we have the support to start the construction of this project. There's no pending license that we need to obtain for the underground mine, right? For the open pit, although it's already fully licensed, the license for the open pit is being questioned. That's why we also considering do the underground.

Kleber Cardozo (CFO)

On the gold hedges, it varies depending on the quarter, the amount of outstanding gold derivatives. In this case, we will have it between the second quarter of 2025 and the first semester of 2028. Roughly 80% of the estimated production from Berborema G. That can give you a good indication in the second semester. It should be a little bit higher, not materially higher because of, in July, we had a final about 4,000 ounces in the Almas program, was the last month. Now we have about 4,500 in the second semester for the housing losses for the APOEMA program. Mostly, materially, it is this hedging program going forward regarding Tuberoma. It's 80% of the projected production. Varies again, varies quarter by quarter. In our MDMA, in the last earnings call presentation, we show like for the second semester of this year, 2026, 2027, 2028.

You can get the precise numbers of delta enabled colors. The strike price is $2,400. Then it's just doing the math of the difference.

Ricardo Monegaglia (Equity Research)

Sounds good. Thank you guys.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Guilherme Nippes with XP.

Guilherme Nippes (Equity Research Associate)

Good morning, guys, can you hear me? Yes, good morning, Rodrigo, Kleber, and Natasha. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on another great quarter and for all the achievements during the quarter as well. My first question is regarding the current assets. Could you share more details on your ongoing exploration areas like the drilling campaign in Pequizão, Pezon, in Matupá, the underground mining in Almas, and the studies in Carajás as well? My second question is on Almas. We actually were expecting slightly higher production and lower cost, but we'd like to hear your thoughts on when you expect production costs to return to the levels we saw last year, perhaps returning to 15,000 ounces production and cash cost close to $1,000 per ounce for Almas. Thanks. Those are my two questions.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Thank you. Just to remind me, the first question, the line cut off a little bit.

Guilherme Nippes (Equity Research Associate)

It was regarding the current assets, details on the exploration areas.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Exploration, okay. Thank you.

Those exploration, of course, we release when we have important information to the disposal of the market. What we can say is that we've been drilling those targets. The results, that's why we finished the acquisition of Pezon, Pequizão, and then also Salda Salés, because we had very positive information and perceptions confirming in Pezon, Pequizão what we expected, and also confirmed the trend, confirmed the grades. Yet it's not mature enough for us to disclose this information to the market. We are now working on consolidating more information from Matupá, including those other targets, to release a technical report early next year. Also, for Carajás, maybe something by the end of this year. Things are progressing well with very interesting information, but not yet enough for us to do and publish a press release.

It takes time, those kind of investments. You asked about Almas, right? Almas, we should see a second semester stronger than the first semester. That will also translate into a better cash cost and all-in sustaining cash cost. Yet the all-in sustaining cash cost we had by the fourth quarter last year was a combination of a higher grade and low separation. We don't think that the mine will perform on average with that all-in sustaining cash cost. I believe the average of this year and some improvements. Until we do our new investments on the underground and our expansion should be what we will perform in the next year. The two things that happen in Almas is as you pointed out, we are drilling and getting more information about underground, confirming the veins, confirm good grades. We are ready actually.

We are now consolidating the information to have a technical report. At the same time, we are so encouraged by these, and we know that this is going to turn to be an underground mine that we already started developing the ramp to start doing the underground development and from that to do more drillings. You also use for into the mine plan. If everything goes according to our plan and the speed that we believe we can reach, we still a year and a half or maybe two years until we can have an underground, maybe two years underground production. Yet things are progressing well. Of course, once you have this production from underground higher grade, perhaps that will also increase production at the plant that can decrease all-in sustaining cash cost. There's also a plan we already increasing capacity. We started this plant from 1.2 million tons.

We are now operating close to 2 million tons. There are some scenarios that we would like to reach at 2.5 and perhaps even more with minor investments capacity that also will increase our production. That can also decrease our all-in sustaining cash cost. I would say with the current capacity, the current mine plan, all-in sustaining cash cost, maybe this year is going to be the average of the next year. Yet there's so many upsides that we can take from Almas either to increase production, that also to reduce our all-in sustaining cash cost. We're just in the beginning of that mine. Exploration potential around the mines is very significant. We believe this is a mine that not only will significantly increase the life of mine, but also will be able to significantly increase capacity, increase production, and keep all-in sustaining cash cost at a lower level.

Guilherme Nippes (Equity Research Associate)

Very clear. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, you can click on Raise hand. If your question has already been answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on Put hand down. Please hold while we pull for questions. The Q and A section is over. We would like to hand the floor back to Mr. Rodrigo Barbosa for the company's final remarks.

Rodrigo Barbosa (President and CEO)

Thank you all for participating. We are super proud to be delivering in what we promised to the market since 2020. There are new investors now jumping in with the IPO in NASDAQ. The story and the strategy that we share with them is exactly the same story that we disclosed when we issued the BDIG Brazil 2020 and is to grow through these three pathways. Number one, deliver the greenfield project on time, on budget. Number two, increase exploration, increase resource and reserves. Number three, continue to increase production through M&A and also address the daily trading fund so that we can improve our multiple or multiple per NAV. While doing the three, we would be able to pay significant dividends. The track record is strong.

I don't need to go all the way down to 2020, but what you see in order, what is happening is that we built Almas on time, on budget. We acquired the Borborema, we updated the feasibility of our Borborema, we raised the capital of Borborema, we built, we are now ramping up and now post commercial production. We also increased investment in exploration. We could increase our resource and reserves. During the last four to five years we made acquisitions. Recently we did this IPO in NASDAQ also to address the daily trading volume on top of enhancing our balance sheet so that we can continue to grow.

We are, and in the meantime we paid, were the top dividend yield in the world that we paid in 2021, 13% in 2022 and 2023 each year individually plus the share buyback, 6% in 2024, close to 9%, and now on average 7.4% with this new dividend yield. We expect to continue and we should expect already to continue to perform these three. We will continue to increase production. We have now Borborema coming online September. We have the closing from MSG. Then we have the construction of Heradorada or Matupá, but both will be built along the next year. We will continue to increase investment in exploration to increase resource and reserves and our daily or multiple houses now are gradually being addressed. We're still discounted compared to our peers.

We believe now with the NASDAQ and with the results we are present, we might at least be on average over peers. We want to change the peers as we want to continue to grow through M&A, and we know that the sector trades at price per NAV and all the multiples are also responded to the size of the company. Of course, it needs to be a very cautious growth, very cautious acquisitions, but the size is important for us to continue to increase and then increase our daily trading volume. Thank you all.

Operator (participant)

RL's conference is now closed. We thank you for your participation and wish you a nice day.