Mark, what am I supposed to take away from this free cash flow mess here?
Alex, I think you take away the fact that we had a softer production code and
we still delivered free cash flow because of the gold price being higher.
Our quarter was always going to be soft regarded that we've got some big
maintenance programs.
We've finished the big gold strike. Maintenance on the roads to quarter one.
That's our biggest mine, one and a half million ounces.
And and we we started the second one, the gold quarry roadster, which we
finished in April. And then we've got some work to do with
the Turquoise Ridge autoclave. So but I think the key is that this is
not a hockey stick shaped year. We step up in quarter 2 with the ramp up
of Pueblo VFR and Dominican Republic on the back of a new big expansion.
And that'll deliver some very steady, larger production out of that operation
in quarter three and four. And the same with Nevada.
Once we've got the maintenance behind us and I think that's important to us, that
as we develop our business, we get back into proper maintenance schedules and
we've got to do them. And so then you have these long steady
runs, post maintenance. So second half looking, you know,
intact. OK.
So so the second half intact, just can you quantify that for me, Mark?
Great to see you, by the way. First off, a little bit soft Q1, little
soft Q2, a little bit better Q3, Q4. How big a difference are we going to see
in Q3 and Q4, you know, to make up our four point four million ounce target?
So does he step up and it to all the other operations through Africa,
all in a steady state already? It's just the big growth is the
Dominican Republic in quarter 2 and then solid and then Nevada only Colin and
Cortez mark a much stronger second. Second off, Mark talked to us about what
the money flow is like right now. Costa Capital is going up all over the
world. Have you noticed credit constraints?
I mean, I know you're not going to far from a regional bank, however, that's
going to feed through. Are you noticing those credit
constraints and what do you think make of it for us there?
You know, Alex, this is such a good question.
You know, remember the first thing I said when we did the merger with
Randgold was we had a we had a balance sheet that was highly geared.
We have no net debt to speak about today.
So that's that's important. And particularly if you're going to get
the full benefit of gold in a market that's risk cotton, you need to be,
you know, have a solid balance sheet. And we certainly have probably the best
balance sheet in the industry. Mark, what about your suppliers?
Suppliers. God, that's a you know, that's a big
challenge. You know, if you look at the world
today, it's a very different place than four years ago.
It's not a global world anymore. It's d globalizing.
So we're seeing a softening in some of the input costs.
Certainly transport costs, but the efficiency of the global supply chain is
still a challenge.
So just to jump in. Sorry.
Oh, your suppliers feeling the credit crunch.
Yeah. Well, you know, in certain parts, like
in South America, particularly in Argentina.
Because, you know, this whole crisis is complicated, a currency crisis within
that country. And so there are some aspects to it.
But at the moment, you know, the the luxury we have is you've got a strong
balance sheet. We can support our suppliers as far as
ensuring that we have the working capital within the supply chain to make
sure that deliveries are off. So that feels like maybe a mark resto.
Yes, they are feeling that the crunch. So if I can infer that, does this make
like your cost of doing business on inflationary level consistently a little
bit higher? For looking at decolonization, your
suppliers having some problems? Yeah.
So so definitely the cost of doing business is higher and less efficient,
particularly on a global basis. But at the same time, I think we've we
are growing Barack's production, both copper and gold.
And with that you drop your margins and we've got very solid margins.
You know, you can't work on the all in sustaining cost or cost of sales for
this quarter. But, you know, for the year we were
bringing that down and the margins are good.
And and we building. And again, Alex, as you've seen our
dividend, we've really been disciplined on delivering against our policy.
Our dividend policy. Not being seduced in overpaying
dividends. Yeah.
And now we're you know, we're in good shape.
We've got organic growth within our production portfolio.
We've got a vested a lot in people. Yeah.
When people other people were just obsessed about dividends.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I could go a long time
with that conversation. Um, before we let you go, though, as
last question, I'm looking at Goal 2013. Tell me what the high is in this cycle.
I think it's quite a bit higher and that's quite a bit longer.
And herself and we have a the Gulf for us.
But definitely the risk is on the upside.
I've been saying this for a while. It's been bumping around the 2000 dollar
for a long time now. And when you look at, you know, the
whole debate around banking, global financial systems, it's it's all a bit
of a mess. And and and, you know, everyone's
starting to talk about a weaker dollar. And so, you know, I think there's lots
of upside in the gold price.