TRX Gold Corporation (AMEX:TRX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Stephen Mullowney: Thank you, Andrew, for that.

Heiko Ihle: Got it and you preempted my next question, which was going to be the not so obvious focus areas for next year. And then talking a little bit about costs and also supply chain bottlenecks, and I’m cognizant I’ve asked you that same question in person not too long ago. But is there anything that maybe we should worry about or that you’re concerned about in things that are hard to get?

Stephen Mullowney: Yes, right now, look, we keep an eye on this on an ongoing basis. So we purposely had a lot of things done in Tanzania, which limits the risk from a supply chain perspective and has been very good. Right now, like on the expansion, we know where the ball mill is available, so we’re pretty comfortable on that even on the sulfide project, we’re pretty comfortable where to get resources and potential, if that lines up on the flow sheet ball mills for that as well. But right now, I don’t think there’s anything that’s overly pressing from a supply chain perspective. We have all equipment on-site. Tanzania has thankfully a lot of skill sets and equipment in country to develop assets and to do contract mining, things like we do on-site.

So right now, there’s not an abundance of concern as we expand. There may be a one thing that has popped up with the war in Ukraine as diesel generation that could be a concern, but that will be an industry concern given how Russia is pounding their electrical networks.

Heiko Ihle: When you say diesel generation, you’re talking about the fuel as opposed to the generator?

Stephen Mullowney: No, no, I’m talking about just the gensets.

Heiko Ihle: Okay. You are talking about the gensets. Okay, got it. Perfect. That’s all for me. Thanks a lot.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Niehuser with ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Mike Niehuser: Yes, hi —

Stephen Mullowney: Hi, Mike. How are you?

Mike Niehuser: Hi, guys. Congratulations on a — good, good full-year for sure. I’m looking forward to your first quarter of €˜23, which should be out, I hopefully pretty soon. Follow-up question on the plants to address the sulfide, I’m getting the picture that this is a pretty good sized ball mill you’re going to be bringing in time? And will that allow you with your other existing capacity to — are you at a depth where you can start maybe processing from a test level, some of the transitional or sulfides to get a feel whether you can use the same recovery regime without doing — without having to spend additional capital to boost recoveries?

Stephen Mullowney: Yes. So you’re reading by mine, Mike. That question is imposed to the team. And we’re not currently at that depth of the sulfides, but we should — we do have ways going and getting some perhaps trenching the bottom of the pit or doing some really wide our sea holes in order to obtain a bulk sample to put through the small test plant that’s on-site that’s around five tonnes per hour. So we are going to be commencing on that, sort of, program in the next couple of quarters.

Mike Niehuser: I imagine that would be a pretty important and a critical item for you to complete your study. So I guess 2023 is going to be really digging down and figuring out how you’re going to get after the sulfides?

Stephen Mullowney: Yes, correct. Well 2023 is focused on growth and production, as well as growth in resources. And the growth in production is the large component of that is. What is the long-term plan for the asset? How is that going to be developed? And that will be a core part of a lot of the technical teams work over the next year. Yes, absolutely.