Ammar Al-Joundi: No, no we have information in between and we already had some loose drilling that were showing some economic intercept. And we already have something that do not yet qualify because the drilling pattern is to lose. But we were pleasantly surprised although with that we were kind of seeing a pattern to the East of East Gouldie that the zone was getting a bit narrower anymore in the 10 or 5 to 10 meters, still a decent grade. What we were pleasantly surprised to see is that the zone is getting back to 30 to 33 meter between 3 and 4.5. So that was a bit unexpected because I was thinking that the tech was within the plans of the typical or shoot of the ore body. But we were kind of pleasantly surprised to see the system swelling again though with some good grades between 3 and 4.
And we have information in between so eventually you can see on our graph that there’s already some reserve and then we move to resources and then some mineral inventory and all of that we’re going to continue to drill because as you remember, we only have 9 million ounces in the plan for Odyssey. But on total, there is 16 million ounces on the ground plus in Malartic. So all of that is in lower category and we’re going to continue to tight fill the area between the current reserve and this area with a specific attention to this area where it seems to be thicker again.
John Tumazos: So there is undulating [ph] pinches, and swells. And you have to drill you just can’t project?
Ammar Al-Joundi: Well, but it does. But at the large scale, you know the core of East Gouldie is typically very, very tech up to 50 to 55 meter. And it was kind of progressively getting from 50 to 60 towards that same 10 meter, and all of a sudden it’s going back to 30 meter. But it’s not turned on. It’s not binging and swelling on small scale. It’s kind of very kind of large scale, progressive binging that is back swelling.
John Tumazos: Wonderful. Thank you.
Ammar Al-Joundi: You are welcome.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Your line is open.
Tanya Jakusconek: Oh great. Good morning, everybody. And congrats on a good quarter and good exploration results as well. I’m going to start with Natasha if I could. Good morning Natasha. On Detour, a couple of questions there. I just want to understand Natasha, what exactly is happening between the ball and the sag mill, I just want to understand getting that balance what needs to be done? And then I’m trying to understand this grinding media. Have you resolved the issue there with these grinding media, getting caught in the middle?
Natasha Nella Vaz: So good morning, Tanya and thanks for the question. So let’s start with the grinding media, so the grinding media is just basically these 5-inch steel balls, they’re consumables that are going into the Sag, and it’s grinding the ore. And so what we’ve seen it’s very abnormal, is that these balls are pretty much chipping and flaking. And so it’s accumulating steel in this mill. We’re working with our suppliers. This is a supplier that we’ve used for 10 years and they’re on it and working with us on this. We have new grinding media that was introduced sometime in mid-March. And so far, it’s yielded favorable results. But it’s still early days. But we’re working with them and we’re looking to resolve this issue fairly soon.
Tanya Jakusconek: And then is this media — or was it just a bad batch that maybe you got or it’s I don’t know?
Natasha Nella Vaz: It is still inconclusive. We’re doing an investigation with our suppliers and a third party.
Tanya Jakusconek: Okay.
Natasha Nella Vaz: And then and then this year with respect to Sag and ball mills, we’re just optimizing the grinding efficiency and trying to find that old balance between the sag and the ball mills. And there’s a few things we’re doing in here, we’re introducing new instrumentation in the sag mill, just to stabilize the operating conditions where optimizing the screen and great sizing to improve the flow and the distribution of the load. And we’re also testing new aligners basically, just to extend the line of life. That’s basically what we’re doing on the front end.
Tanya Jakusconek: Okay, so just trying to get that balance between the two to just make it consistent, is that a fair view?
Natasha Nella Vaz: Yes.
Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. And then the second part on Detour is we do have that study coming out at the end of the second quarter. From a conceptual basis, should I be thinking that it’s going to be based on that 1.6 million ounce resource of the underground that was released in February plus some additional ore or additional resources are inferred that are coming in from part of the pit?
Ammar Al-Joundi: Yeah, you’re right Tanya. Yeah, so we are relooking at within the out bip [ph] that you described, so the infer that we produced out here and also when you look at the larger resource bip that we show in blue on the long section. So what portion of that could we mind quicker by accessing underground. So it will be a combined nine of what could be within the resource bip what is outside to the west, you’re right.
Tanya Jakusconek: So it’s not going to be any new additional ounces within your resource envelope that…
Ammar Al-Joundi: No we are still — the deal we will be producing will still be based on the number we produce at year end. But obviously we are still working on the next scenario that continues to integrate all of those nice drill holes. We have those, let’s say in an additional kind of mineral inventory that stood out and enhancing. What we will be looking in the PA will be most of the number from what we’ve added and at the year-end 2023. So as you are going to picture shot at certain point in time that we’re going to continue to update over time.
Tanya Jakusconek: Okay, now that’s great. Thank you. And then my second question maybe for Natasha and Dominique, I just wanted to ask on just the analysis for Newmont yesterday, as well as just on the costing side, margins — we are finally seeing margins, strong margins out of the gold companies. And I just want to get an idea on the costs, the inflationary pressures if any, have they eased, or are you seeing any relief, any pressures on your cost structure?
Dominique Girard: Good morning, Tanya, it is Dominique. I will say on the inflation, it is stabilizing, and maybe getting down a bit on the workforce contractor. I will say, so this is a good news. But I think what we need to protect, to keep the margin is that — so this is the part where I think we need to be disciplined to keep the margin. And I don’t see any big inflation coming because of the gold price increase. I see just the danger that we need to be careful that we don’t play too much with the current weight or we stay stable. It is more our philosophy.
Natasha Nella Vaz: And same on my side, Tanya, we don’t see any rise in costs. We’re pretty stable from an inflation point of view. But we’re continuing our efforts with negotiating with our suppliers and finding the best optimal pricing that we can.
Ammar Al-Joundi: We just had our board meeting yesterday and really, Tanya, the emphasis there was, how do we reduce costs? I mean — so we’re working hard on making sure that the margin goes to our owners. And Tanya, maybe it’s a smaller drop in the overall cost structure within the drilling industry as well, which is an old contractor base. We’ve seen some easing into the cost, there’s a bit less activity, and we’ve seen some reduction in costs in the drilling. So overall, we’re quite pleased with that.
Tanya Jakusconek: And can I just ask about cyanide and steel, Newmont mentioned yesterday that they thought slight increases there, I’m just trying to see if that’s the same for you guys?
Natasha Nella Vaz: We haven’t seen anything material.
Tanya Jakusconek: Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you so much for that. And if I could just put one last exploration question then from Guy. Guy, there is a lot of interesting results that you’re getting and looks like these things are getting bigger for us. So when do you think the market is going to be ready to get some results, some conceptual views of what this could be, I think we talked about Hope Bay maybe having something in 2025, is that still fair that we would have something…?
Guy Gosselin: It is still here. So we’re going to be obviously focusing and bringing that new area to infer and indicated as possible. That’s really what we are all over at the moment so that we can put that so you’re right. Hope Bay have some wins in 2025, we should be in a position, especially with those better results recently to provide you with an update.
Tanya Jakusconek: And then can I ask about Odyssey, we’ve got obviously up right to the East, up right to the West. And I know it’s all drilling dependent. But when do you think you’d be ready, is it a couple of years that we need to wait to see something conceptual, I’m just trying to put a timeline?
Dominique Girard: Yeah, it is really drilling driven. We’re going to have internal scenario coming in the second half of this year. I cannot commit to when we’re going to have something more published on that.
Ammar Al-Joundi: It’ll be drilling driven, as Dom said, so your timeline is not far off, Tanya.
Tanya Jakusconek: Great, congratulations and thank you for answering my question.
Operator: Thank you. And that concludes the Q&A portion of today’s call. I would like to turn it back to Mr. Mr. Ammar Al-Joundi for closing remarks.
Ammar Al-Joundi: Thank you, operator and thank you everyone for participating this morning. As a reminder, we are hosting our Annual General Meeting today at 11 AM at the Arcadia Court in Toronto, and we hope to see some of you there. Thank you everyone and have a great weekend. Bye-bye.
Operator: Thank you presenters and ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
