Cerrado Gold Inc

Cerrado Gold Inc

2.21
CAD
+0.02
(+0.91%)
0.05EPS
32.79P/E
212.04MMarket Cap
Nov 26Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptApril 2, 2026

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Cerrado Gold Q4 and year-end 2025 financial and production results conference call.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session.

To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press *11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today, Mike McAllister, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Mike McAllister

Good morning, and thank you, operator. I'd like to note that today's call may contain forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates, and beliefs.

Please review this slide and the other forward-looking information contained on page two of today's presentation, as well as in the company's Annual Information Form, which is publicly available on SEDAR+ and the company's website. The accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download from the company's website at www.cerradogold.com.

The accompanying press release is also posted on the website and on SEDAR+. Please note that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

Following management's presentation and remarks, a Q&A period will follow. Joining us on the call today are Mark Brennan, our CEO and Chairman; Jason Brooks, our CFO; Cliff Hale-Sanders, our President; Ed Guimaraes, our Executive Vice President; Andrew Croll, our Chief Technical Officer; Carl Calandra, our Vice President and Legal Counsel; and David Ball, our Vice President, Corporate Development.

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mark Brennan.

Mark Brennan

Thanks, Mike, and I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. I'd also particularly like to thank the Cerrado financial team and our auditors at McGovern Hurley and Grant Thornton for the delivery of the year-end results a full month in advance of the statutory requirement.

We've come a long way in last two years on the financial reporting, and we're thrilled. 2025 has been a very successful transitional year for the company.

Not only did we make a lot of money, leaving our treasury and financial position very strong, but we've also made significant investments into each of our three projects, setting this stage for future success and growth for '26 and beyond. Our EBITDA for 2025 was $46 million, with our closing balance of cash at over $22 million.

This has grown materially in the first quarter, and our prospects for 2026 look significantly brighter, with gold trading at the $4,600 level. The results achieved in the fourth quarter and for the full year demonstrate Cerrado's ability to maintain production at our MDN operation, with stable operating costs as we transition from solely heap leach-driven production to production sourced from underground, the heap leach, and existing low stockpiles.

This process is continued throughout the first quarter 2026, and we expect the underground to reach stable production levels in the latter part of 20 of Q2 of 2026. Not only was 2025 a success operationally, but organizationally, we have invested in people and systems to improve everything from cost control to reporting, which is, as stated above, we are very proud to say has enabled us to release our financial results one month ahead of schedule.

With elevated gold prices, we continue to generate significant cash flows supporting our continued optimization and exploration efforts at MDN, which we expect will lead to an extension of the mine life and increased production. We expect to see robust economic potential with the completion of the bankable feasibility study at Monte Sorcier, targeted for Q2 this year, and we continue the development process at the Lagoa Salgada project, while at the same time reducing debt and building a strong cash position, improving Cerrado's overall financial strength.

Following robust levels of adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter 2025, we continue to see strong cash generation into this quarter and throughout the year, especially now that the majority of our growth CapEx programs are nearing completion and the prior hedging program we had in place has been completed. Looking forward to 2026, operations at MDN are performing exceptionally well, and we are benefiting from continued strong gold prices providing strong margins, leaving us to expect that the year will be another strong year for Cerrado.

We are providing our '26 2026 production guidance of 50,000 to 60,000 oz GEO oz, with an ASIC of $1,800 to $2,000, with production weighted towards the second half of the year when the underground is expected to reach expected capacity. Our focus for the coming year will continue to be on developing MDN, extending mine life, increasing production, and continuing to develop future cash generation by completing the feasibility studies at both our development projects in Portugal and Quebec with limited dilution.

I'd now like to turn the call over to Jason Brooks to take us through the financial highlights.

Jason Brooks

Thanks, Mark. Turning to slide three.

In 2025, the company produced 50,238 gold equivalent ounces, with 13,806 gold equivalent ounces produced in the fourth quarter. Operational results for the full-year 2025 showed stable production relative to the previous year.

2025 was a transitional year, as the company shifted to rely on production from the heap leach operations at Calandrias, while the underground continued to ramp up towards the end of the year. Production rates would have been higher, however the heap leach pad was irrigated less than usual due to water availability constraints caused by very dry summer conditions late in the year.

The all-in sustaining costs for the full year came in at $1,746 per ounce, with Q4 all-in sustaining costs of $1,391 per ounce, which was the result of the higher production in the fourth quarter. The company continued to focus on operating costs.

The company's continued focus on operating costs enabled all-in sustaining costs to remain at a relatively low levels, despite inflationary pressures and higher water purchase costs in Q4. In 2026, the company is guiding gold equivalent ounce production between 50,000 and 60,000 oz, as the heap leach operation stabilizes at higher levels and more ounces come in from the underground this year.

We expect that all-in sustaining costs will continue to moderate due to a reduction in water purchases and higher feed grades from the underground. Production rates are skewed higher in the second half of 2026 due to mine sequencing, as more underground ore is expected to be available in the second half of the year.

In 2025, driven by stable operating costs and much higher gold prices, the company generated adjusted EBITDA of $46 million for the full year and $22 million in the fourth quarter. Going into 2026, Cerrado's production will be unhedged, allowing MDN operations to reap the benefits of the completion of its recent expansionary capital expenditure program to grow production through its new heap leach operations, as well as the availability of additional high-grade ore from underground operations.

With the hedging program completed in 2025, Cerrado is now substantially exposed to record gold prices. Additional investment plan for 2026, including an expanded heap leach pad, a new tailings area, additional fleet enhancements, and ongoing exploration activities, is positioning MDN for long-term success.

Finally, the company finished the year with over $22 million in cash. Moving into 2026, given the current gold price environment, the company expects to continue improving its cash position, above and beyond capital allocated to project growth plans.

With that, I would now like to turn the call back to Mark Brennan and take us through some production highlights and outlook for 2026.

Mark Brennan

Thanks, Jason. Turning to slide four, as we progress through 2026, we have a strong exploration program in place.

We are targeting a surface exploration program of approximately 50,000 m that does not include underground exploration. To accomplish this, we have acquired three owner-operated rigs.

We now have three diamond rigs and one RC rig turning as we speak, with initial results continuing to be encouraging. While drilling performance is now on target, we continue to see some delays with assay results.

We're in the process of certifying our internal lab to shorten turnaround times and improve exploration performance and targeting. We'll be releasing results to the market when we can demonstrate critical mass and new ore bodies.

Cerrado's target is to expand the current mine life to at least 6+ years and grow production. We also plan to have a fifth drill arriving in August that will focus on exploration at the Paloma underground site, which is open at depth and along strike, where exploration success has the potential to increase grade to the mill and potentially materially boost production rates.

As we progress into 2026, our focus remains on ramping up underground production during the second and third quarters. As water availability returns as we enter the rainy season, heap leach production levels should recover to nameplate capacity and contribute to lower costs.

We also have extensive operational optimization programs underway at MDN. As these programs are completed, we expect it will result in reduced unit costs and expanded production capabilities.

As previously mentioned, 2025 was a very successful transition year for the company, with significant investments made to advance our projects and set the company up for future mineral resource and production growth at MDN, and advance our development projects with optimized feasibility studies and a production decision at Lagoa Salgada in Portugal expected in Q3. As previously announced in early '26, we are working with various government agencies in Portugal to resolve the current impasse with respect to the granting of the environmental impact approval, given the Cerrado received a notice that the Portuguese Environmental Agency had purported to issue an unfavorable opinion for the Lagoa Salgada project contrary to what we believe is contrary to applicable laws and regulatory framework.

We expect to be in a position to provide greater detail in the coming weeks as to the resolution of this matter. Also, at Mont Sorcier in Quebec, we are nearing completion of our feasibility study, expected by the end of Q2 '26, and the submission of the environmental impact assessment by year-end.

In 2026, we completed just under 18,000 m of drilling to support upgrading the resources to reserves. As highlighted in Q4, the project is set to be developed into a phased 8 million ton per annum project, producing over 67% high-grade, high-purity iron ore concentrates in two phases of 4 million tons per annum.

This should also lead to more optimal phasing of capital costs, where we were seeing some upward pressure. The market for high-grade iron concentrates remains robust, with a significant premium seen in the market for Mont Sorcier's high-grade, high-purity material, which we anticipate will translate into strong support for the project in the global iron ore market.

We continue to see that a strong value proposition for Cerrado remains in place, with significant cash flow growth and minimal shareholder dilution needed as we advance all three projects, targeting higher cash flow and production rates. We continue to believe our shares are trading at a material discount to our peers, and to anticipate we can close this gap as we continue to deliver on production, capital cash flows, and project development.

This concludes the present portion of the call. I will now turn the call back to Lisa to open the call for the Q&A portion of the call.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press *11 on your telephone.

You will hear that automated message advising your hand is raised. If you would like to remove yourself from the queue, press *11 again.

We also ask that you please wait for your name and company to be announced before proceeding with your question. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster.

Our first question will be coming from the line of Ross Doerr of Red Cloud Securities. Your line is open.

Ron Stewart

Good morning, Mark. Good morning, everyone.

Congrats on getting the news out. Mark, I might have missed it, but do you have guidance of sustaining capital, development capital, and exploration spending for '26?

Mark Brennan

Hello? We dropped again.

Ron Stewart

I'm sorry, did you get my question? Hi, we're

Mike McAllister

on here. We just dropped.

Could you please repeat that question one more time?

Ron Stewart

No worries. Do you have guidance on sustaining capital, development capital, and exploration spending for '26?

Mark Brennan

We'd be using an all-in sustaining cost guidance of $1,800 to $2,000 per ounce. Basically we're targeting 50,000 m of surface drilling with additional underground drilling.

We have ordered an underground rig. That should be delivered July, August.

It's a very difficult time to find rigs right now that are on for underground exploration. We'll have that on-site by July, August.

We expect that we could see an additional 10,000, 20,000 m of drilling underground.

Ron Stewart

No, I've got that. I was wondering whether or not you've provided guidance as to the costing, and whether or not the drilling is going to be capitalized or expensed?

Mark Brennan

The drilling for underground will probably be capitalized. In terms of guidance of costs if you're looking for guidance on We're probably looking at around, because they're our own rigs, they'll probably be around $250 a ton a meter, all-in.

Ron Stewart

Okay. Okay.

Mark Brennan

Does that answer your question?

Ron Stewart

The total development capital spending that you're anticipating for advancing the projects?

Mark Brennan

Oh, excuse me. We're We're spending 30 approximately $30 million of CapEx at MDN this year.

Ron Stewart

Thank you.

Mark Brennan

Thank you, Ross.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for the next question.

Our next question will be coming from the line of Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Your line is open.

Heiko Ihle

Hey. Excuse me.

Hey, everybody. It's Heiko Ihle from H.C.

Wainwright. Two things, with the water availability at MDN, first of all, what have you seen recently?

Second of all, how should we think of this going forward? Is there presumably more variability going forward?

Or should we really just look at this as getting better with time?

Mark Brennan

Are you speaking specifically on the second point, Heiko, to the water or in general?

Heiko Ihle

I thought with just the water, but if you want to answer both, by all means, go ahead.

Mark Brennan

I guess for the 2025, 2026 summer months in Argentina, we've had a particularly dry season, and combined with that, we also saw one of our water wells had depleted. Our usual capacity requirement is 45 m³, and basically, we're having to bring in, with the dry weather that we experienced, we're having to bring in about 60 trucks a day to provide water in order to continue the operations.

Now, this had an impact, as highlighted, on the heap leach irrigation and, therefore, production. What we're finding now is that we and that was costing us, about $850,000 a month for that water.

I'm very pleased to say that on the water reservoir perspective, we've actually drilled a hole that a borehole that has basically about 30 m³, which fulfills, 70% of our production requirement. Then on top of that, we're also moving into the rainy season starting in April, late April, and so we're expecting that we're not going to have the same issue.

Our water costs have dropped down to about $250,000 a month from $850,000 a month. Again, this was a fairly unusual and unique dry I guess summer that we've had, that we've experienced.

From that regard, we're obviously being very careful with what and looking forward to what's potentially in the fall of '26. We're hopeful that we won't have a repeat of the dry season that we've experienced.

That kind of puts in place the water situation. We are looking at other ways to, we are looking for other water reservoirs that we can tap for our all of our water needs.

Then as it relates to the project in general, I think what you've seen at the site, and when we mentioned that last year was a transitional year, it really took us away from being, fighting a fighting our way through deposits and we've now really come much more into a management of the asset perspective, as opposed to continually driving projects that had to give contain our continue our sustainability. I'm seeing much more efficiencies, much more attention to long-term value add, like increasing our fleets, increasing the fleet, two increasing, the loaders, and then the trucks that are transporting from 30 million 30 tons to 45 tons.

We're seeing operational advantages that we we're implementing now that'll have long-term implications. I fully expect that, we'll be to continue to see our as the second half rolls on, we'll continue to see lower costs.

Again, our objective with our drill program, with our corporate development, is that we will continue to see resource growth and potential for expansion of life of mine and production levels.

Heiko Ihle

That was comprehensive. Thank you.

I'm trying to figure out how we should handicap Lagoa. If you were in my shoes and you know what the analyst community goes through, Mark, how should we handicap this thing, model this thing?

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Mark Brennan

I would say this. The I think that as mentioned in the core of the discussion and we're very confident in our case, and that we feel that there've been irregularities in process and timing, and in conclusions that were not regular.

We're hopeful, Heiko, that within a period of two months, certainly by the end of the quarter, that we will have we're hopeful we'll have a resolution that's satisfactory to all parties. That's being accommodated and being inter the inter with the intervention of the Portuguese government, who are dealing with Lagoa and Cerrado, and dealing with APA, the regulatory agency, on the other hand.

There is negotiations, discussions going on. Again, we're hopeful that there'll be a resolution within the next two, three months.

I guess in terms of how do you handicap this, that's a tough one, and the reality is that what I would perhaps, just sort of stand, I would defer the decision if you can till the end of the second quarter. In the absence that you can't, I think you determine what, whether you handicap it, 20 to 80 20%, 80%.

That really is going to be on your perspective of risk. What I would say is that, when I look at the valuation for Cerrado right now, forget about Portugal or even Quebec, for that matter, we stand on our own in terms of our value proposition with MDN on its on its own.

I can't imagine, or I don't believe that Lagoa has, has is having, should have the impact with respect to the potential that we see for MDN in the coming few months. I wish I could give you something more definitive, but it really is going to dep- depend on your risk tolerance and how you feel that people should how people pursue it.

Our internal view is that we're still looking to enter into the construction phase in the first quarter of next year.

Heiko Ihle

Income. Fair enough.

I will get back in queue. Thanks for the two comprehensive answers, still my friend.

Mark Brennan

Thank you, Heiko. Really appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press *11 on your telephone.

One moment for the next question. Our next question will be coming from the line of Colin McClelland of The Northern Miner.

Your line is open.

Colin McClelland

Good morning. Thanks for taking a question.

Most of it's been answered. I was interested about Lagoa.

It appears like you guys were blindsided on the water issue. I just wondered what happened there.

You were surprised. How come you didn't know that there was an issue with it?

Mark Brennan

Technically, there wasn't. What what's very unique and and when we speak of irregularities, in in May, we were informed by the the APA that of their technical evaluation committee, we had the first project in the history of Portugal that had unanimity with its evaluation of of 17 strong divisions that that look after the the the technical evaluation for APA.

That that we had, again, that we had unanimity with all members of the 17-strong committee approving the project. Now, at that time, we we also were considering looking at leaching our our precious metals, we we we had a a a small component of of of cyanide usage, which the president of APA did not want us to to to proceed with, which we we kind of understood.

Even at that stage, when in May of last year, we had already moved to to flotation and of the precious metals and and we're not going to use cyanide anyway. In their in their in their second point that they made to us in May was that they wanted us to to enhance the the protection of of the of the aquifer, but only the aquifer that that was being utilized by the local by local community.

In our instance, there's three aquifers. There's one aquifer at at say 10 m, which is used for the agricultural community.

If there's rain, they use it. If there's no rain, they don't get it.

At a depth of of 35 m is the main aquifer that's used by the local community, and and that aquifer is is what they asked us in May to to continue to protect. In in in the third aquifer, which is actually where we're drawing our water from, is already contaminated by by by sulfides and acid drainage, and so that can't be used by the agriculture community, it cannot be used by the local community, and and so we we never had any problems or or no no issues commented to us in May about the deeper aquifer.

When they came back with the the decision in in January, they did not refer to the two upper aquifers. They only referred to the the the deeper aquifer, which they which they had never suggested any issues with in the past.

Now, I'll mention that that I believe that, Colin, that that we have probably one of the most sophisticated hydrological studies conducted in Portuguese history, and the reason for that is that we we have an expert in Spain who who's renowned as as one of the the leading experts on on water resource mining water resource management. He actually runs the International Mining Resource Water Agency, and and the fact is is that we had very comprehensive layout and plans as it relates to all three aquifers.

When they when they asked us for for When they gave us the the the final decision, which related to to only the deepest aquifer, first of all, that was a contravention of permissible permissible questions allowed under the under the rule of law. Second of all, they didn't give us an opportunity to respond to their to their question with respect to the deeper aquifer.

Basically, we we we had our our fellow in in Spain provide a 120-page response to their question, which, again, we feel is sufficiently answered any questions that they may have or any issues that they may have, and they did not even take the time to review that that that that response before they gave us the negative opinion. It's our strong belief that that there have been irregularities not only in the timing and but also in the process, as well as the the technical evaluation of the project, and we think they're they're quite we think that they're quite evident.

As a consequence, we're hopeful that we will have a a a positive forward dialogue with the Portuguese government and and the development of Lagoa Salgada moving forward.

Colin McClelland

Okay. Just a quick follow-up, then.

One of the mayors over there seems to be, he's jumping up and down a bit about it. You guys are reaching out, trying to persuade him or talk to him about the issues?

Mark Brennan

What's very interesting is we had a very positive relationship with that mayor up until the last election. Obviously, as you can imagine, a mining project in anybody's backyard is highly contro- will arise with high controversy.

The funny thing is that with this particular mayor, we had a tremendously strong relationship with him. What was interesting is that up until the inauguration date, let's say, which I believe was in September, let's say it was the 15th of September, which is a Saturday, there was an official and formal inauguration, which we were invited to, which we participated in, which we were, kind of of fêted, I guess, for lack of a better word.

Then, at that Saturday, the there was a meeting set up for the following Friday, and at that point, the mayor went dark, and he went on a totally different course than he had with us. We had a phenomenal We've had a, just so we have had a phenomenal, over the course of the past eight years, we have had a phenomenal relationship with the local community, with the federal community, and we've never had any injunctions, we've never had any issues with any of the local community until this mayor frankly, had a totally 180 d- 180° change in his perspective, which we don't understand.

We're still trying to understand how that perspective came about and why that perspective came about. We know that there's a real estate community of called Comporta that they're developing two golf courses and very luxurious homes, and perhaps we're an inconvenience to that to that development.

Again, what we would say, we would say that there are high irregularities in the whole process here.

Colin McClelland

Right. How far is that luxury development away from you guys?

Mark Brennan

In terms of distance, it's about 35 km, really we don't feel it should have any impact, although it is still within the Grândola jurisdiction. Then second of all, most probably more importantly, is that the project is almost completed its selling process, and so once that sales process is completed, my guess is that people are going to change their tune on Lagoa fairly considerably.

Colin McClelland

Great. Thanks very much.

Mark Brennan

Thank you, Colin. Appreciate the question.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, there are no more questions in the queue, and I'd like to turn the call back over to Mike.

Please go ahead, Mike.

Mike McAllister

Thank you, operator. We're just going to check the webcast just to see if there's any questions that have come in through that.

We do have a few here. The first one is from Matt Crabbe.

He's asking when, if we anticipate any release of the drilling results at MDN?

Mark Brennan

We're proceeding with the drilling, and we've had some very interesting progress there. We have two areas that look highly prospective, and we have We're drilling with the area called Sauro S, which is just east of and south of the Paloma underground pit.

Then on top of that, we're also looking in the southern zone called Barretina and Chulengo, which looks very interesting as well. Now, the issue that we have in terms of producing and publishing results is that what we need to do there is to really end up with have a density of drilling that we can actually come out with what we would consider to be resource-worthy kind of size, and that's really what we're looking to put out.

I would say that by mid-year, we'll be able to come out with hopefully, some greater progress and discussion on that, certainly before mid-year. Also, we are looking and we are looking to to be able to, within that timeframe, to also provide evidence to the market that we can expand our life of mine, and look to potentially double that life of mine, and that's something we're still focusing on in the midterm, short term as well.

Then

Mike McAllister

we also have one other follow-up call question from Matt regarding the company's buyback. He's asking if the company bought back, and if so, how many shares during the quarter?

Mark Brennan

We've bought a total in our buyback of about 380,000 shares or just under 400,000 shares of a total buyback of 6.4 million. Our treasury is building up very nicely, and we're buying shares on a daily basis.

However, what we're kind of contemplating, we're waiting for is to see if the markets have any significant sell-off, and looking at that as potentially an opportunity to come in and buy a larger bulk of shares. We tend to think that the hostilities in the Middle East are probably going to continue a little more than people were looking for as of yesterday.

Today, it's a different day. We think that there's still probably some capitulation in the markets, and potential for capitulation in the market, and we think we can use that as an opportunity to buy our shares at that time.

Then

Mike McAllister

just one follow-up question he's asking in terms of Tim Tremblay is asking, will you receive any funding or grants from the Canadian government for the development of the Mont Sorcier project?

Mark Brennan

I think it's an avenue we could pursue, but as we really tried to highlight to people, we don't need the money from the Canadian government. One of our strongest positions here is that we have the support of UKEF, which is the UK Export Credit Agency, and we believe in conjunction with another development agency, that we'll be able to fund this project to the tune of about 70%, and then on top of that, we believe that the other two remaining sources of funding which would make up the 30%, we believe offtake and a potential stream could help us a long way towards completing that, and then by '28, when we anticipate being in construction, we believe we'll have a cash position that can furnish the balance.

In terms of our mantra, as you guys are well aware, as per the same response for Portugal, we really believe that there's a strong possibility that we can develop these three projects from our own cash flows, as well as through means which are non-dilutive, and predominantly through offtake agreements or potential streams, although we know the long-term costs of streams. Again, we're building a very strong cash position.

We're seeing that expand, with Lagoa potentially coming on stream in 2028. That would put us in the position where, if I'm looking at today's market, we're probably generating a couple hundred million dollars of cash flow.

We're really building up some momentum here that I think will be able to sustain and grow these projects without the requirement for dilution.

Mike McAllister

Great. Then one other one.

The company has stated that the production is back-end loaded in the year. How many ounces do you expect will come from the underground in the latter half of the year, and estimate on that grade of those ounces?

Mark Brennan

My my guestimate would be that we're looking at something in the region of about about 1,000 oz a month or so. Now, remember, we're we're not going The the the purpose of the underground development was not to go and and we we have a plan where we see about we we published a PEA that that basically had a a that had a a 30,000 oz resource underground.

I believe that that, the objective that we have is is not to to really go underground to to to to produce the existing resources that we have, really is to go underground and start drilling aggressively to grow the resources. That's what we've seen at our neighbors at Cerro Negro, at Cerro Moro, at Cerro Vanguardia, Cerro Negro.

Really underground is where you start to see the the rubber hit the road. For the most part, in and on the massif, you tend to see, fairly fairly vein vein structures that are that are dispersed, that they're small, but multiple, but but are but but are are but are very they're very a large number of them.

The fact is is that as you move underground, you tend to find vein structures that are are more complete and and and larger, and that's what we're we're anticipating that we'll see. We really need to go down there and drill aggressively, which we'll do as soon as we've received the rig, which will be in July or or August.

It it leads to the question that, with a little bit of success and and and our average grade that we're contemplating is about 5 g in our budget per per per 5 g per ton. When we were mining the Paloma pit above the underground, we we were averaging around 7 to 8 g.

I think that that, the the potential here is is that, that that we can see with with any success with the drilling with the with the open pit with the open with the surface drilling, the underground, we can really see our production expand fairly dramatically, and we have all the infrastructure in place to to to develop it. It really is just resource management that we need to to develop and and expand the expansion of the resources, which we're obviously focusing on now for the first time in in in our history of being at the mine.

We're very optimistic that that at some point, the shoe will drop. We're just not sure when that will be.

Mike McAllister

Follow-up question from Stijin Smits. He's mentioning that we have mentioned limited dilution multiple times.

What dilution do we foresee, or could we do these advance these projects with no dilution?

Mark Brennan

My preference would be for no dilution, obviously, but one has to consider the variabilities of market conditions and we the mining sector, as we all know, is a very volatile space, and what we're seeing now, for example, in Portugal, just to give you a little bit of color on our position with funding of Lagoa Salgada is basically, we have again, the support of the UK Export Credit Agency for 70% project funding. The additi- on let's call it a for example, a $200 million CapEx.

If we're looking at $140 million coming from from UKEF and Santander Bank, who are working with UKEF, basically, the $60 million that we require, due to the fact that Boliden has acquired Neves-Corvo, and a large number of the trading groups and even Boliden, for that matter, are looking for more ore to go into their smelters, we believe that the dynamic, current dynamic is that we can use traders to actually help us fund the development of the balance of the capital required. Therefore, I think there's a strong belief that we have that we could fund that project with third-party money.

If we need to put in a little bit of capital, we'll be more than strong enough in our own cash position to actually supply that capital ourselves. That means we're not contemplating substantial dilution.

If we look at a much bigger capital program in Quebec, we believe the same is true. We may have to rely a little bit on a stream, if necessary, but we believe through project funding, offtake, and our own cash position, we should be able to cover the majority of the funding required.

I can't make the promise we won't dilute, and that's why we don't say we will never dilute, but our hope is that that'll be the ultimate end point.

Mike McAllister

Great. Then this one last question regarding recoveries for the heap leaching.

They noticed 32% for the year. Is that what we expect going forward, or could we be expecting increased recoveries from the heap leach?

Mark Brennan

It really depends if whether you're producing the sulfides or the oxides. You correctly highlight that we've been producing from the sulfides, and so the recoveries have been a little bit lower than normal than what we anticipate.

I would expect that those recoveries will improve, as we move through into other areas. I would expect, for the sulfides, we're probably running 35%, 40% recoveries, and then for the oxides, we're probably closer to 60%.

Obviously, the oxides are probably running lower grade than what we see in the sulfides.

Mike McAllister

Great. There's no more questions in the from the webcast portion of the call.

I'll now turn the call back over to Mark Brennan just for any closing comments.

Mark Brennan

Thank you, everyone who joined us today. As a reminder, the recording of this call, along with the presentation, will be available on the company's website at cerradogold.com.

For any follow-up questions or concerns, you can find our contact details on our website. Thank you very much for your support, interest, and following the Cerrado story.

With that, operator, thank you very much. I think that concludes our call.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's program.

You may all disconnect.