Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAMGOLD Q2 2023 operating and financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then 0. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Graeme Jennings, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for IAMGOLD. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings. Thank you, operator, welcome everyone to the IAMGOLD 2nd results, 2nd quarter of 2023 results conference call. Joining me today on the call are Renaud Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer; Maarten Theunissen, Chief Financial Officer; Bruno Lemelin, Senior Vice President, Operations and Projects; Tim Bradburn, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary; and Jerzy Orzechowski, Executive Project Director, Côté Gold. Before we begin, we are joining today from IAMGOLD's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 9 territory, on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. At IAMGOLD, we believe respecting and upholding Indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on non-IFRS measures included in the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent MD&A, each under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Renaud Adams. Thank you, Graeme, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. The Q2 for IAMGOLD was an important period for the company, as our operating teams made significant strides at both Essakane and Westwood to bring our year-to-date attributable production to 220,000 ounces of gold at cash costs of $1,234 per ounce, while keeping a safe work environment. We will walk through the quarterly operating results in more detail in a moment, but I want to congratulate our Essakane team for their remarkable resilience to allow for the mine to resume both mining and milling at full capacity in a very complex environment. Secondly, we saw significant progress at the Côté Gold Project. In June, the site reached over 1,900 workers on site, working together to push the project to approximately 86% completion. We remain on track with the top end of our cost to complete guidance in line with the project planned capital. We are now seeing activities begin the critical transition from bulk construction to finishing activities and operational readiness. At Westwood, we continue to execute on our optimization plan with the objective to turn the mine into a positive cash flow producer in the near term. The Q2 was my first full quarter as CEO of IAMGOLD. My conviction has only grown that this is a company point poised to position itself amongst our peers. We are entering a transformational period for the company. I'm extremely pleased with the expertise, relevant experience, and leadership in place at IAMGOLD. Our Zero Harm missions continue to be our priority 1. We are looking at our corporate ESG strategy and execution. When we look ahead to 2024, once Côté Gold comes online and should Westwood take the next step, the next step up in production post-rehabilitation, the company will have a significantly higher production base and lower cost profile, providing a strong foundation of cash flow and growth opportunities in Canada. Yet, before we get there, the short-term goals for IAMGOLD are clear: Bring Cote online with a focus on achieving a steady and sustainable ramp-up of operations, and manage our operations at Essakane and Westwood to improve our margins while ensuring the safety of our people in the community in which we operate. Longer term, our goal is for IAMGOLD to become a high-margin intermediate gold producer with a strong operating base in Canada. Financially, we will prioritize returning our 70% position in Cote with our partner, Sumitomo, as well as use our cash flow to optimize our balance sheet and deliver the company to have a more efficient and balanced capital structure. With that, we will now dive into the operating and financial results and highlights for the quarter. I'm on slide 5. Starting with health and safety, the company has seen an improving trend year-over-year, with a Days Away, Restricted or Transfer duty rate of 0.39 and a Total Recordable Injury Rate of 0.66, based on 200,000 hours worked. Ensuring a safe work environment will always be our primary focus at IAMGOLD, and our goal continue to be Zero Harm. On production, in Q2, the company produced 107,000 ounces of gold on an attributable basis, putting us well on-... 410,000-470,000 ounces of gold this year. As we will get into a moment, the production results were driven by Essakane performing to plan and higher grades from recently rehabilitated underground zone at Westwood, which helped to mitigate the impact of some operating restrictions due to the poor air quality in the region from the forest fires in the quarter. The Q2 saw IAMGOLD report cash costs of $1,372 an ounce. An All-In Sustaining Cost of $1,912 per ounce. Our cost increase over the year prior, mainly due to increased costs of landed supplies, including fuel, higher power costs, and previously forecasted lower grades at Essakane, as well as an increased rehabilitation cost at Westwood. As a result, we expect costs to come in at the top end of our annual guidance ranges. On slide 6. Turning to Essakane. The mine reported Q2 attributable gold production of 88,000 ounces, bringing the year-to-date total to 180,000 ounces of gold. Mining activities total 13.5 million tons, a significant increase quarter-over-quarter, as the mining fleet returned operations to full capacity. Mining activity in the Q2 completed the transition to phase 5, resulting in a higher strip ratio, in line with the, with our plans as the operations move to new mining phases, and lower grades from the prior quarter, when grades were positively influenced from direct feed of material from the bottom of phase 4 from the bench. Mill throughput in the Q2 was 3.1 million tons, at an average head grade of 1.11 g/t, with throughput 42% higher than the Q1, as operations were able to resume at full capacity due to the improved ability to move necessary supply around the country. The mill reported an average recovery of 89%, which declined slightly from the prior quarter and the year prior due to lower grades, including higher concentration of graphitic carbon and sulfur. On a cost basis, Essakane reported cash costs of $273 an ounce, an increase from the Q1, as head grades declined 30% from Q1 at a higher strip ratio. Additionally, we saw sustained, sustained higher prices of consumables as inflation pressures ease, but with signs, with few signs of reversal. Increase of the landed cost of fuel due to the impact of the security situation in the supply chain, higher labor costs to depreciation of the local currency, and an increase in power generation costs as heavy fuel, normally used for power generation, was periodically substituted with more expensive light fuel in order to maintain operations during the period where supplies was limited. We are currently building additional tank at Essakane, which will increase the HFO head of storage capacity on site by approximately 50%. We expect that the extra capacity will be in place in early Q4. On an all-in sustaining cost basis, costs increased to $1,587 per ounce due to the higher operating costs as well as the schedule, higher volume with stripping as the mine enters the new mining phases. Looking ahead, Essakane is on track for a production guiding range of 340,000-380,000 ounces of gold. Mining activity is expected to maintain normal operating levels in the second half of the year, including increased level of waste stripping to open phases for 2024 onwards. The mill feed will consist of a combination of direct feed and stockpile as the mine fleet sequences through the targeted phases of waste stripping. Capital expenditure guidance for Essakane is unchanged at approximately $155 million. We increased volume of capital capitalized waste in the second half of the year, which total, while total tons moved are in line with the Q2, to provide to provide access to mine areas in support of the 2024-2025 production plan. It is worth noting that the mining activity and stripping programs assume no significant disruptions in the supply chain resulting from the security situation in the country and the region. The company plans to file an updated life of mine plan for Essakane and updated mineral reserve and mineral resources during the Q4 of 2023. This will include the details of assessing the 9.9 million tons of stockpile material through the CIL circuit, versus the prior plan to outline a capital-intensive heap leach scenario. On slide seven. Turning to Westwood, gold production was 19,000 ounces in the quarter, and 40,000 ounces in gold year to date. Westwood continues to be in a unique position, as IAMGOLD has been essentially rebuilding the underground mine at the same time as active mining operations are being conducted. The mine has made significant stride over the year towards taking the next step in production. Mining activity in the Q2 totaled 212,000 tons of ore, which was lower than the prior quarter due to the impact of heavy wildfire smoke in the vicinity of the mine operations, required for multiple underground shifts to be canceled to ensure the continued safety of our workforce. However, it is worth highlighting that underground mining activities returned 56,000 tons of ore at a grade of 7.6 grams a ton, which is the highest grade mine from underground in over 5 years, as we begin to see the benefit of rehabilitation activities reopening previously closed stopes. Mill throughput in the Q2 was 251,000 tons, at an average head grade of 2.52 g/t, and improved recoveries of 94% of the high, on the higher grade. Cash costs and all-in sustaining costs continued to rise at Westwood, with a very high sensitivity to mine output, and due to the increased levels of ground support required for development and rehabilitation work relative to the annual plan. Mining activity started at the satellite open pit Fayolle, with minimal productions in the quarter, yet adding $2.4 million of the Fayolle development capital to operating costs. Looking ahead, Westwood is well on track with our guiding grade of 78,000-90,000 ounces this year. Production levels and unit costs are expected to improve into the second half of the year, benefiting from the continued advancement of underground development, providing access to more and higher-grade stope sequence. Mill feed will continue to be supplemented from available satellite surface deposits, including increased proportion of ore feed from the Fayolle property in the second half of the year. On slide 8. I just want to take a moment to dive a little deeper into our activities at Westwood. Underground development here today is near record development rate, with 2,865 meters of lateral development completed to secure safe access to multiple ore faces, including high-grade past producing areas, which would allow for increased operational flexibility in support of the 2024 and beyond production plan. We have increased the sustaining capital expenditure guidance for Westwood by $35 million, as the underground rehabilitation and development has been progressing ahead of schedule due to better-than-planned productivity rates, moving some of the 2024 work into 2023, and reducing the work required in 2024, while some of the rehabilitation work requires more ground support, increasing costs. This work not only is allowing the return of mining into higher grade areas that were previously closed, but also opens the door for potential mineral reserve increases, should these areas be upgraded from resources as they are proven to be mineable. We will have an updated NI 43-101 for Westwood in the Q4. As production volumes increases and rehabilitation work decrease, we expect to see costs trend down, with the goal of positioning the asset for positive free cash flow for a better and profitable 2024 and beyond. Slide 9. Turning to Côté Gold, I am pleased to have our Executive Project Director here with us today to walk us through the development and progress in this quarter. Jerzy? Thank you, Renaud. The Q2, considerable progress was made at Côté Gold, achieving significant milestones in earthworks, processing plant, and operating readiness. It was a critical quarter as we started the quarter in the spring thaw or the freshet season. Water management systems have been put in place, handled the tasks admirably, and I must compliment the teams for their planning and management. At the end of the quarter, the project was approximately 86% complete, and as Renaud mentioned, we are now seeing activities move from the bulk construction to the more detailed and very important finishing activities. The physical changes at the site have been remarkable, and I'll walk you through some pictures in a moment. We currently have the over 1,900 workers on site, with the camp at peak capacity. Despite the crowds, our construction teams, contractors, and subcontractors have done a great job, and we have reached the 11.5 million hours worth milestone. On earthworks, we completed phase one on the TMF and have started to accumulate water in preparation for the plant startup. The primary and secondary crushing circuit made considerable achievements, with the HPGR arriving on site and installation progressing at a fast pace. Inside the plant, the installation of the boiler liners was ongoing, and the motors have arrived on site to facilitate the installation in early, Q3. We have deferred the completion of the leach tanks and installation of the agitators for approximately 6-8 weeks later than originally planned, in order to prioritize the workforce on the critical installation of the crushing circuits. The power substation is now being commissioned, with the connection to the provincial hydro grid scheduled for this month, which will allow the full electrification-... Moving to recent pictures, let me walk you through the main project areas of the site. Moving left to right, from top to the bottom. Here we can see the TMF as we are looking northeast to the plant. The first liner you see, the boundary was at 392 meter elevation, which was completed in Q1 in preparation for the freshet season. The second liner boundary at 396, which completes phase 1 and allows for accumulation of water for the startup, as you can see, it was also done. The next phase will see the dam rising to 409 elevation to allow for the full 12 months of operations. Next, in the middle top is the high voltage substation, As I mentioned earlier, the substation focus has shifted from construction to the commissioning to prepare for randomization and connection of 115 kV hydro grid. Top right is the view of the primary crusher, where the steel and auxiliaries are complete, we are now putting the roof decking in place to commission the bridge crane for the final few lifts of the crusher components. Bottom left, we have an HPGR area illustrating very advanced mechanical installation, The teams are focusing now on piping and electrical installation. The bottom middle is grinding, with the bottom mill erection very advanced. We are transitioning to the final stages of construction and early commissioning activities. On the bottom right, you see the leach tank farm area, where we are concentrating on finalization of mechanical erection, electrical, and completion of the piping installation. Moving on to the timeline. The Côté Gold continues to track well to the updated project schedule towards production in early 2024. We are working in close alignment with our partners, Sumitomo, and our contractors to ensure that Cote is built safely, on time, and in the current budget and scope. Our focus in Q3 will be on complementing the construction of the remaining portions of the plant and starting pre-commissioning activities. Q4 will be focused on finalization of pre-commissioning and preparation for the ore introduction early in the new year. With that, I will turn it back to you, Renaud. Thank you. Thank you, Jerzy. On Cote, I'd like to add that our goal is straightforward. We want to ramp up, we want the ramp up of Cote to be among the most successful major gold projects startup. That is not to say we are naive about the challenges ahead, but the team we have in place and continue to build have done this before. We are excited about the future at Cote and what it means for IAMGOLD. On slide 12. Of course, when talking about the future, we need to continue to highlight Gosselin. We are continuing to drill at Gosselin with nearly 38,000 meters complete so far this year. The deposit has only been drilled with a fraction of the meters compared to Cote and to half the depth, and remains open along strike and in depth. Our last batch of assays result earlier this year successfully intersected mineralization to the south, to the south of and below the current resource boundary of the deposit. The goal of the current drill program is twofold: continue to expand the mineralized envelope of Gosselin, as well as infill to support ongoing technical study to advance metallurgical testing, and to support mining and infrastructure study to begin reviewing alternative for potential inclusion of the Gosselin deposit into a future Côté Gold life of mine plan. We expect to have results for the ongoing drilling program in early Q4. We believe that Gosselin, with its initial resources of 3.4 million indicated ounces and 1.7 million ounces of gold, continues to be in the early stage of discovery. Considering its location immediately adjacent to the Côté Gold deposit, has the potential to add real value to the Côté Gold project. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through focus spending and financial review. Martin? Thank you, Renaud, and good morning, everyone. Looking at project spending, the Côté Gold UJV incurred $270.1 million in project expenditures on a 100% basis, or $189.1 million on a 70%, 70% basis during the quarter. It is worth highlighting that for accounting purposes, the JV funding and amending agreement does not meet the requirements under IFRS to recognize the dilution of the company's interest in the Cote UJV as a sale. So the company will continue to account and report for 70% of the assets and liabilities of the joint venture, as well as 70% of the incurred project expenditure. The company has recognized the financial liability on the balance sheet that approximates the current repurchase price, representing the $250 million funding contribution that Sumitomo made on IAMGOLD's behalf, that resulted in our interest being diluted to 60.3%, as well as the incremental funding that Sumitomo made due to their increased ownership and their accrued fee for the repurchase option. The liability will continue to increase with the 9.7% of incremental funding that Sumitomo provides, until Cote achieves commercial production. Since commencement of construction, 2.2 through the... $2.23 billion of the planned $2.965 billion of the project expenditure has been incurred. Looking ahead, the remaining cost to incur to complete Côté Gold is estimated at $665 million-$735 million at 100%, or $465 million-$550 million at 70%. The high range of the estimate to complete of $735 million will take us to the $2.965 billion for the August 2022 technical report. The table at the bottom outlines a progression of the quarterly cost to complete guidance with the actual spending amount incurred quarter-over-quarter. In order to convert the expected incurred cost to complete at 70% - IAMGOLD's actual funding requirements at a 60.3% joint venture partner, the incurred cost is adjusted for changes in working capital, lease funding received, and the decrease in the required cash balance held by the UJV when the level of expenditures reduces after the completion of construction. IAMGOLD need to fund 60.3% of this total going forward now that the funding arrangement and dilution has been concluded. During Q2, Sumitomo funded the remaining $61 million of the $250 million total, as per the agreement on behalf of the company, and an additional $18 million due to increased ownership. Sumitomo funded all of the joint venture cash flows up to May, and the company commenced funding in June and funded approximately $60 million to the UJV during Q2. IAMGOLD will now fund 60.3% of the UJV cash flows. That is approximately $425 million-$475 million during the construction phase. Turning to the Q2 financials, revenue from continuing operations totaled $238.8 million, from sales of 111,000 ounces at an average realized price of $1,973 per ounce. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $63.8 million for the quarter, translating to an adjusted loss per share of $0.01. In terms of our financial position, IAMGOLD ended the quarter with $747.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $452.5 million available via the fully undrawn credit facility, which equates to total liquidity of approximately $1.2 billion. We are investing excess cash and funds in Canada at rates close to 5%. We note that within cash and cash equivalents, $91.3 million was held by Côté Gold, and $770.1 million was held by Essakane. For Cote, the Côté Gold UJV requires its joint venture partners to fund in advance two months of future expenditures and cash calls are made at the beginning of each such month, resulting in the month-end cash balance approximating the following month's expenditure. For Essakane, the company mainly uses dividends to repay credit funds, of which the company will receive 90% based on its ownership, net of dividend taxes. Essakane gave a dividend during the Q2 of $120 million, which was received by IAMGOLD subsequent to the quarter end, net of minority interest and withholding taxes. We note that the full extent of the credit facility availability is subject to a net debt to EBITDA and interest coverage covenant. Therefore, the full extent of the additional liquidity of the facility is reliant on the ability of our operations to generate sufficient EBITDA to support the debt load of the company. This is one of the reasons why we announced the $400 million term loan in the quarter, which allowed the company to pay down the credit facility and use the term loan for the capital requirements of Côté Gold, and therefore delinking Côté Gold funding from certain items in the macroeconomic environment and our other operations. The term loan improves IAMGOLD's balance sheet and strength and flexibility, allowing the credit facility to be available to support working capital requirements during a pivotal year, where we are ramping up Côté Gold, as well as delivering the legacy gold by prepayment agreement, and gives us some measure of insurance in case of unforeseen challenges or changes in the operating or macroeconomic environment. IAMGOLD will fund its remaining portion of the Côté Gold UJV funding estimate of $425 million-$475 million from available cash balances and the remaining proceeds from the Bambouk asset sales. As we note, noted at the beginning of the call, as Côté Gold ramps up, we can then direct our attention to key longer term financial goals of returning to 70% position in the Côté Gold UJV, and delevering our balance sheet towards a more optimal capital structure. I will pass the call back to Renaud. Thank you, Renaud. Thank you, Martin, and I, I really want to take a moment here to thank everyone on the IAMGOLD team for their tireless efforts and dedication. This is an exciting time for this company. I should also note that we will be holding a Cote Mine tour for investors and analysts in October, and I encourage you to reach out to Graeme or myself to save a spot on the trip. We expect it will be very well attended, considering the progress at Cote today. With that, I would like to pass the call back to the operator for the Q&A. Operator? Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press Star, then one on your telephone keypad. You'll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, press Star then two. Our first question is from Lawson Winder with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead. Lawson Winder, your line is open. Thank you, operator. Good morning, Renaud and team. Renaud, it's very nice to hear from you. I wanted to just ask your, get, get an idea for your long-term vision for IAMGOLD, now that you've been in the role for about, about a quarter, a little over a quarter, particularly with respect to geographic focus, and could IAMGOLD look to potentially exit Burkina Faso once Cote's ramped up? Yeah, I, I guess I'll leave it there for now and follow up after. Yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate the questions, and as you, as I mentioned on the call, you know, our priority right now is definitely focused on Cote building a strong Canadian platform, continue to operate safely. As this is a significant mine for us, has generated and continue to generate cash flow. We appreciate the situation right now in Burkina and the region, Our efforts and focus continue to make the mine work well for us and a strong contributor. As we move forward in the future, we'll, we'll address on the step-by-step, you know, the building of this company. I, I would say at this stage, while we continue to focus on, on, on the strong and the safe operation of Essakane in parallel, as I mentioned, this is also to develop and grow a very strong base in Canada. This is, this is as we see the game. I also wanted to ask about the plan to, to update the life of mine plan for, for Essakane. I know it's, it's still early, and you haven't released the study yet, but is, is the thinking that the mine life might be reduced as a result of the move away from the heap leach? No, we're definitely not seeing a reduction. There was obviously questions about those tons, you know, that were previously previously meant to be on the heap leach. I believe, you know, the team has worked very hard and diligently to incorporate those. We've been capable as well to replace some ounces might. No, we are not expecting a reductions of life of mine. Okay, great. I wanted to touch on Westwood, just given that, I mean, you've had knowledge of this asset for just about as long as anyone. You, you've kind of painted a picture of, of an improved outlook going forward in the, in your prepared remarks and in the, and in the MD&A. I'm just curious, like, what is the upside for this mine? You would well know that when this mine was first conceived of, I mean, the thought was it could produce 200,000 ounces a year. We're far from that, but I mean, is, is, is even anything in the 100,000 ounce range potentially achievable in your view? Well, we already had a guidance of already, this year, you know, in the guidance 70,000-90,000, which we feel pretty strong that we're gonna meet, well, as we continue. You, you mentioned the 200,000 ounces. That's definitely not the goal in the near future, to push the mine to its limit. I would, I would rather see this mine focused on quality, returning to a very strong and higher grade underground, which will really lead the economics of this mine. In the short term, of course, we're using, you know, the, the, the, the satellite, the surface satellites. The real game here, as we continue to diligently prepare the mine, is to return to the higher grade area and focus on quality as we move forward. While we don't see this mine necessarily now returning to the 200,000, we're, we're definitely, feel strong that it could be a 125,000-150,000 ounces producer at a much, better margin. Then if, if I could just ask about Côté Gold finally and the autonomous truck haulage. Is, is the assumption that you will be operating at 100% autonomous truck haulage from day 1, or is there some flexibility built in there to sort of allow for potential hiccups? You know, the, the reason I'm asking is, is we've seen other, other autonomous truck programs roll out and take quite a time, quite amount of time to get up to sort of full run rate. Obviously, it's great you started early this year, but would just love to get your thoughts on, on, on that sort of ups and downs. Thanks. Well, I'm surely looking forward to the site tour in October to see the enormous progress and how it's been. I'll ask Renaud to add a bit to that question. Yeah, it's, hello, Lawson. It's, it was part of the original assumption to start from, from the get-go, with the autonomous fleet. Right now, what we see is, we see a ramp-up that is on par as target. Again, there's no need for an operation of the fleet via operators. Actually, we- are commissioning trucks, one after the other, and they are fully utilized, autonomously, and it works, it, it works real good. Okay, thank you all very much. Thanks. The next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, Renaud and team. A few questions from me. Just in terms of Cote, can you talk a little bit more about the process where you are, the leach tanks and that you said you were optimizing just to look for the critical leach tanks or to, to get those up and running? Can you talk about, like, how many of the, of the total leach tanks that you have that you're just, those are the ones that are gonna be running at the beginning, and how does that impact the ramp-up going into 2024? I would, I would ask Jerzy to give some details to it, but what I could tell you that overall, we are not seeing issues with with the tanks that would impact the commissioning of the mine. Jerzy? Yeah, thank you, Renaud. Maybe if we can go back to the slide we have shown with the leach tanks. As you can see, the installation is quite advanced. We are in a piping, electrical, installation work. Most of the agitators have been installed, and we have to reshuffle the workforce to deal with some critical areas, which is the crushing circuit. As I mentioned, we have at capacity right now, so we are making practical decisions of where to shift the manpower to deal with the critical pieces of work to move forward with the pre-commissioning activities. As you see from that picture, the tanks are in quite advanced stage, and we are basically getting them ready for the pre-commissioning work and the hydro tests. We will be starting with the first four or five tanks, and then we'll be gradually introducing more tanks into the circuit as the startup progresses. Okay. I have a second question with regards to the tailings facility. I think you gave us a little bit of color on that, but could you tell me how much capacity is in the phase 1, and then how much additional capacity were you looking for in the phase 2 of the dam? Well, phase two of the dam is the full one-year capacity of production. Phase one is about one and a half million cubic meters, which allows us to accumulate enough of the water for a startup and commissioning. Phase one is complete. That's why some color on it, as you mentioned, because the best way to visualize it is to look at the liner lines. What you see, the second liner is basically phase one completion. As you can see, this picture is from July, so you can see there's actually, if you look at the bottom of that picture, there is quite a bit of work which is already advanced on the phase two. Okay, the phase two is the full on, it's that my understanding is that you probably, you would definitely want that completed by Q4, right? I mean, it, it, is it it's center line dam, right? you need the, the retention, the time for the, the beaching to occur. Is that, is that the case? That's correct, yeah. Okay. then. We are okay for start. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, please repeat, Jerzy. We are okay for a startup. We have enough capacity to start up right now. Sure. Okay, then just in terms of, when we think about next year, you said early 2024. You know, with 6 months out, can you give us some color on what early means? Like, when do you expect to have first gold pour? Is that, like, the beginning of the quarter in Q1, in January, or is it the end of the quarter, or are we getting into Q2? It's like, I just want to try and get an idea of what, what 2024 would look like, considering we're 5 months out. I think, I don't think we're prepared to give you a much finer date than the Q1. I think this is. Yeah, I mean, one, one thing that is very important here, and it is, we had a chance to discuss that previously, is the focus is really on, on, on ramp-up and achieving and, and getting as close to the nameplate possible rather than focusing on this, on the single item of the gold pour. We want the gold pour to be incorporated as the most efficient way to reach our nameplate. Having said that, we're still pretty confident that the gold pour would occur early in the Q1. Early in Q1. Okay. All right, just wanted to circle back on Westwood. You talked about maybe getting to 125 to 150 ultimately there, and I, I think you said the Fayolle property is, should be, adding, contributing to the mix, in the back half of the year. Could you remind me what the grades are at that one in the open pit? Bruno? Hello, Anita. Fayolle is pegged at around 4-5 g/t. We intend to have close to 100,000 tons this year processed from Fayolle. Okay, have, have, how much have you done to date or, or zero to date on, on Fayolle, right? Just started. Okay, thank you very much. That's it for my questions. Thank you, Anita. Once again, if you have a question, please press Star then One. Our next question is from Mike Parkin with National Bank. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Can I just confirm the timing of the life of mine update for Essakane? When is that due out? Did you say the technical report of Essakane mine? Yes. Yeah. Q4, probably somewhere, you know, like mid Q4. We want to have everyone a chance, you know, to digest properly their report, prior to our early, 2024 guidance. Okay. Then you've guided to higher costs, and obviously, Essakane is kind of your bigger asset. It's been a bit lumpy, but it's been kind of tracking around $110 million over the last twelve months, with Q2 one being a bit light given the, the lower throughput. Can you give us a sense of, like, what's going to drive... You know, you were about $120 million of direct operating costs in Q2. What, you know, to get in line with guidance and kind of have a sense that it's got to come down a bit in the second half, and what changes there to get, get you into a slightly lower cost profile to get in line with guidance? Well, the, you would appreciate, of course, if you compare with the last couple of years, a big ticket is of course, the increase of spending around the security. I mean, it is what it is. We need to, to do what needs to be done, you know, to keep everyone safe, and, and the team has done an awesome job on this. One of the biggest ticket, of course, as mentioned, is fuel. If you look at the Q2, for instance, you know, the overrun and then LFO, LFO, using LFO to generate, to generate power is a very big ticket. You know, this is basically an $100 an ounce on overall impact on the Q2. Moving forward, having said that, even though the cost has increased, there was a significant decrease in the mining unit cost in Q2 compared to Q1, of almost $1 a ton. The mine is operating extremely well, but unfortunately, you have some inflation. If we, I think the extra capacity of storage as we move towards Q4 will be a big element of it. Having more storage inventory, you know, and providing us with more chance to operate power 100%, which HFO will be a big, big, big ticket to it. Other than that, I, I'm totally convinced this is not a performance, an operating performance issue, it's a procurement issues, is a, is a security, and it's a difficulty sometimes to, to provide HFO for power. As we advance, should we have better controls on the fuel supply and power generation being with HFO, those will be the big, big tickets to return to a better cost. Okay, thanks very much, guys. The next question is from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Great, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. just, wanted to know, when is the technical study of Gosselin coming out? You mentioned that you're working on that one as well. Yeah, the, I think that this stage is, you know, metallurgical studies is probably the priority. As we mentioned, more we drill Gosselin, more we grow it. I think, I think it's, I think it's relevant to say that, at this stage, we need to have a pretty good idea of, of the size of Gosselin and what it means, you know, before we, we dive too quick, you know, into, studies and so forth. I think 2023 and a part of 2024, we're going to continue to be very aggressive on the drilling and growing the deposit, doing our metallurgical studies. Renaud, you can add, but I definitely do not see the rush, you know, to any integration study, so probably even late 2024, 2025. Exactly. Hello, Tanya. This is correct. In addition with the metallurgical testing, we have also, the geotech, testing to, to perform and obviously the delineation drilling that is currently ongoing. Okay, so, you know, all of this combined, maybe late 2024, 2025 until the market gets some sense? Yes, correct. Yeah. That'd be fair? Okay. All right, so that's helpful there. And just on, on Essakane, I know Mike asked about the cost, so should we just be thinking the rest of the year? Because you mentioned Westwood, we are progressively getting, you know, better quarter on quarter and improvement in cost quarter on quarter. Is Essakane more evenly balanced for the rest of the year? So would that be a fair way of looking at that mine? Hello, Tanya. We should see our costs to be moderately lower in Q3 and Q4 as the situation with the fuel down gets normalized. We also expect capitalized waste stripping to pursue its current plan program as well. For, for mining as well, overall, to have relatively the same kind of cost pressure we see on the input indicators. Okay, production evenly split? Yeah. The, the grade, Tanya, is going to be also relatively the same. Okay. Okay, then can I ask, because obviously, you know, getting the cash flow, you know, getting cash flow from Essakane, you know, we've got higher risks with the security issues in, in, in country. Can you just remind me what you're doing there to try and mitigate the, this risk as much as you can with inventories on site? Can you just remind me what you have there? Should something, you know, occur, which we hope doesn't, but just an, an idea of what you're, what you have on site and, and inventory levels? Of course, Tanya, that as we're trying to secure supplies, we're increasing our working capital, will have a slight impact related to the additional capacity for fuel storage in Q4. We're trying to do the same for ammonium nitrate, for explosives. Maybe you want to talk a bit more about that, Martin? Good morning, Tanya. We are seeing a increase in the inventory at the site as we are trying to, to build more capacity, when there's good opportunities to bring supplies in. There was an increase in there. I think your question also asked about, cash, getting cash out of the country. We Essakane declared a dividend of $120 million during the quarter. They had about $170 million of cash at the end of the quarter because of buildup, and we received that dividend after the, the close of the quarter. We continue to be successful. No issues in moving funds from the country or having gold sales out of the country. Okay. I was just wondering more like fuel, explosives, you know, other consumables. Are you carrying inventory of the 6 months? Should I be thinking like that's sort of your inventory levels? 3, 6 months? Yeah. That a fair- Yeah. In fact, for, for fuel, we usually have an inventory close in between 15 days to 30 days. The expectation now is to increase that capacity close to 40-45 days. Okay. For some reason, I thought you had longer. Sorry. No, no, the... No, unfortunately, though, this is very much in line with, especially for fuel, you know, with best practices. Usually, like when you said, like, 20 days will be more than enough, usually, and it has been in the past. Now, because of the logistic of the convoy systems, rather than frequent and periodically, we, we accumulate trucks and then we, we convoy them. There is a need here to increase because we do not have as a, as a previously, you know, like a daily shipment and so forth. We accumulate, we convoy, so we need to increase the capacity, but it is very much in line with, as a matter of fact, and in Canada, you will have less than that. Yeah. Okay, great. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks. This concludes the time allocated for questions on today's call. I'd like to hand the call back over to Graeme Jennings for closing remarks. Thank you very much, operator, and thank you to everyone for joining us this morning. As always, should you have any additional questions, please reach out to Renaud or myself via phone or email. Thank you all. Be safe and have a great day. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.