Reunion Gold: 2023 Recap and Looking Forward to 2024

0:07 I just wanted to welcome everyone to today's event. Thank you so much for joining us. Today will be Reunion Gold's live event hosted by 6. I'm pleased very much to introduce our speaker today, Reunion Gold CEO, President and Director, Rick Howes. Hello, Rick. Hi, Romeo. Rick will be reviewing a presentation, afterwards we'll be taking questions live. We'll be starting with those that were submitted in advance over email. Remember, you can submit your questions at any time today in the Q&A panel on the right-hand side of the screen, truly at any point during the presentation. As always, this event is being recorded. I will be available on six.com afterwards, but without further ado, I'll hand it over to Rick to get started.

0:46 Yes, thanks, Romeo. So welcome everyone, and thanks for joining us today. So I would like to just kind of run through a little bit of what's been happening at Reunion over the last year and then update you on some of the key things that are going to happen in 2024 as part of our continued plans to advance our Oko West project. I think to start with, I'd just say that we probably well recognize now as emerging as one of the top new Gold discoveries globally. This project certainly is moving quickly. We've got strong momentum and we're on track to rapidly advance the project through to production ultimately.

1:34 We're well-funded in terms of being able to do that. We're in a jurisdiction that gives strong support for mining, which In these days of difficulties in different parts of the world, this is a very fortunate situation with our advancing of the project, very supported by the government and by the people in the country. We've certainly got a very experienced management team and we're continuing to move down the path of taking the project through its exploration into development and ultimately to a producing mine. I think for investors, the timing of investment is still good for us.

2:24 As everybody knows, the junior development space is probably at the lowest point it's been in decades. So we're still relatively undervalued even as a development stage project. So it's a good entry point for anyone who's looking to see some upside on a project and one of scale and one of quality, which and one that can rapidly turn into a cash flowing operation in a short timeframe. So I think I'll just run through some of the highlights that we achieved in 23, and then bring you up to speed on what we're planning to do in 2024. Back in June of 23, we completed the first Maiden Resource Estimate on the deposit.

3:14 That came out at roughly 2.5 million ounces of 1.8 grams of indicated material and 1.8Moz of 2g of inferred material. We continue to convert that inferred into indicated as well as to continue to extend and deepen the deposit below the pit elevation, or below the bottom of what we think will be the pit. We're adding ounces continually, and we are certainly in a stage where we'll be able to announce an updated resource coming up as part of the work we're doing on the PEA on both the open pit potential and the underground potential that we have on this property.

4:04 Metallurgical results have been completed, or at least the initial metallurgical results are complete and they indicate very positive metallurgy, typical of the Archean Greenstone deposits but 94.4% average recovery of fresh rock. In all the test work we did, we did 18 different samples looking at different weathering profiles, different rock types or lithologies, as well as different grades. The average recoveries of the fresh rock were over 94%. The rest of the metallurgy is straightforward, no real problems in terms of preg-robbing or those types of problems.

4:55 It's looking like a straightforward flow sheet for the metallurgy. We are well down the track in defining the scope of the process plant capital required to run this plant. The drill results that we've been announcing, particularly in the last 6 months of last year, were mainly related to filling in the areas to indicate it in the open pit, as well as adding ounces to the underground potential below the pit. The latest press releases were really about those successful drill results below the pip, all the way down to a kilometer depth.

5:43 We anticipate that we'll be able to finish off that drilling to an inferred category down to a kilometre by the first quarter of this year, and then complete an updated underground resource block model and estimate, and use that for the basis of looking at an underground mining opportunity, and how that might sequence with the open pit and the timing of all that, and how that will affect the overall project potential in terms of value to this project. It's still a growing resource and we haven't defined the bottom of the material yet below the pit.

6:29 It's down to a kilometer at least and open at depth. We continue to expand along Strike as well and drilling to the south in what we call Blocks 5 and 6, and that drilling is adding ounces to the open pit potential, as well as looks like there's some potential for underground below blocks 5 and 6 as well. So it's a good story in terms of growing the resource. We completed a financing In September of last year, which brought in about $70M into the coffers, that essentially put us in a very good position going into this year and completing the permitting and feasibility and all the engineering work needed, de-risking work, really all the way through to a construction decision.

7:22 I think we're financed pretty much all the way there. We do have some additional warrants coming due. So, in addition to the $70 million, we'd be bringing in warrants of close to $30 million additional to that if our prices hold. So this is really a rare position to be in for a junior developer to be funded fully from PEA stage 3 through to construction stage without having to look for additional funds. We recently completed a settlement agreement with Barrick Gold. As many of you may be aware, we had an alliance agreement with Barrick that we had entered into in 2019.

8:15 We terminated that agreement in end of 2022, but subsequent to that Barrick filed a lawsuit claiming that we couldn't terminate that agreement. And so That went down the road for about 6 or 7 months trying to resolve it with Barrick. We did finally reach a settlement late at the end of last year. Things are looking good in terms of that, which gives us the opportunity now to go back and look at acquiring additional ground around our properties in Guyana and to expand our project generation activities in Guyana and potentially in Suriname as well.

9:05 So we're looking at that potential. The company has begun building the capacity now to, to carry on the actual execution of the project. So we're increasing our team in terms of capability to carry this through its developments, study phases and into actual getting ready to into construction. So for 24, there's a couple of key milestones that we'll look to achieve through the course in 24, but the main one is, or one of the main ones will be to finalize our minerals agreement with the government, which essentially sets out the fiscal regime that we'll operate under, and also to cover off the stability clauses associated with that agreement and other obligations that both parties would have in order to carry out our mining activities.

10:14 That Negotiation has been underway for about almost a year now. We're getting close to completing that agreement. We expect to announce that sometime in early part of next year, in early part of this year. Complete the resource expansion program down to 500. As I mentioned that we're probably 80% of the way through that expansion program. So finishing off some holes early this year, which will take us to an inferred category all the way down to a kilometer below the pit. And that work is on track to complete. And then we'll compile the results from the drilling to produce an underground resource which will be used in the PEA as I mentioned earlier to look at the combined open pit and underground.

11:16 So leading into the PEA, so the PEA at this stage we expect to complete in the second quarter of this year and release that. That will certainly give a pretty good indication of what the value of the discovery is, and some idea of the project scope and capital cost estimates, et cetera. And given the level of detail that we've been carrying that study to will likely move from

11:53 the PEA through right into a feasibility because the PEA is at a level closer to a pre-feasibility. So that will speed up the timelines to complete the project, but feasibility study would start sometime after the second quarter and be completed early in the first quarter of 2025. So then the exploration activity on the property will continue as well. We will be exploring the surrounding

12:31 property that haven't been covered off yet. So the main discovery, which is on the sort of eastern end of the property boundary and runs along the shear north and south. And we've really focused on the top 2 and a half kilometers on the northern boundary of that shear, up to our property boundary, which crosses over into the G2 property as well. But then we've got to explore the southern extent of that, all the way to the southern extent of our property boundary, and that's work that we'll do this year, along with exploring the western part of the property, which we've done some early works on and seen some Geochem anomalies on. We have a number of targets we've been drilling and we'll carry on that drilling through this year. One of the key targets right now is what's called the North Drive target, which is on the northern edge of the western part of the property.

13:28 That is looking promising, so we'll continue that drilling. There are several other targets on the property that we'll be working on this year. We'll certainly announce as we progress that drilling what the results are as we get them in. We hope to add to the total available ounces that we can produce from on our property over the next little while. As I mentioned earlier, we'll also be looking at potentially adding to our property

14:02 in terms of additional properties surrounding our property, which could expand the exploration area that we can be looking at. So, lots going on on the exploration front. On the permitting side, we'll be advancing the environmental baseline work. We will complete the environmental baseline work early in this part of the year. By the first quarter, we should have completed the essential baseline work needed that will allow us to then move into preparing to file the ESIA, which we anticipate we'll be able to file by the fourth quarter of this year.

14:48 So we're currently working with the government and working through public consultation to finalize the terms of reference for the EIA. Once that's done, then we'll be able to start preparing the documentation for the submission of the EIA. So timelines are holding to our original plans of having the submission done by the fourth quarter and fairly quick turnaround we anticipate with the government on the approvals,

15:18 but sometime in first quarter of 25 or second quarter of 25, we would anticipate receiving the permit approvals, which would allow us to make the final construction decision and to, once the financing is in place, to make that final decision and the feasibility, of course, being completed.

15:46 So I think that's pretty much the main milestones, I'll say, that we anticipate for 2024. And so I'll maybe from here, Romeo, open it up to any questions anyone has. Yeah, thanks Rick. We'll start with a couple of the questions that came over on email, and then for those who submitted questions live, we'll get to those right after. So starting off with 1, it was interest if

16:20 there was any updates to potential conflict with Venezuela. There was a number of questions, we're kind of combining them into one. Yeah, I know that situation certainly, you know, later, latter part of 23 came to the forefront and it's not a new issue. Obviously the dispute over the boundary

16:45 between Venezuela and Guyana goes back quite a ways in terms of the history of it. Really, probably particularly in the 60s, the Venezuelans were contesting that boundary. It's an interesting history, but essentially what happened was they reached an arbitral award in 1899 and agreed on a boundary, and that decision was achieved through this arbitral award, which is an international decision. It went along fine until about 1960s when

17:23 Guyana got its independence from the British colony and then That's when Venezuela started to protest the decision that was made in 1899 and also started to push back on what they thought was their land on the East Essequibo, west of the Essequibo River, which is about two-thirds of the Guyana country right now. Boundaries exist. So our property is in that western region in the Essequibo, so certainly we're subject to that concern.

18:00 But the good news I think is number 1, obviously it was probably triggered recently by the successful oil and gas discoveries off the Guyanas offshore, which obviously are having a huge impact on the country.

18:15 But those oil and gas prospects obviously make it very interesting for the claim that Venezuela is making in terms of getting the benefits of some of that offshore oil and gas potential. But I think the thing that's clearer now, I mean it started off looking like Maduro was going to really push this issue hard and maybe even, you know, threaten to annex it, annex the ground without any sort of negotiation or settlement agreement with international courts.

18:53 But they met in December, all the parties met, including both parties, Guyana

19:00 and Venezuela, Maduro and Irfan Ali, who's the president of Guyana. And they agreed that they wouldn't sort of rock the boat by having any sort of intentional actions or creation of conflict over this, and that they would work towards either a negotiated settlement or some court-level decision

19:26 on the dispute on the boundary. So rather than getting into some sort of conflict that they agreed they would do that. And that settled things down quite a bit. Obviously, it doesn't solve the issue, of course, but I think what it does is it puts some calm in the waters again, And I think there were plans to go to the international court

19:51 and reach that decision. And Guyana was fully supportive of that approach and was working towards it. And recently, Maduro decided that he wouldn't respect the international courts and decided that he wouldn't do that, but he may be reconsidering that now. We're hopeful that that's the outcome, is that they'll go through the process of settling it through the International Court of Justice. Great, thank you. Another question that combines a few that we got in email and also Marco in the chat ties in your question a little bit.

20:25 Are there any additional details or potential concerns with the formalization of the conclusion of the alliance with Barak?

20:35 Yeah, there's no concerns. It sort of completes the arrangement. There's no obligations on either party. It's a sort of a no-cost kind of settlement. There wasn't any obligations on either side that had to be fulfilled. It was just a parting of the ways and a termination of the alliance agreement. So, yeah, it sort of opens the door for what we would like to do in the country and not be constrained by

21:00 the terms of that agreement in terms of what it meant, in terms of joint venturing, if you want, on projects from there on in. Great, thank you. Marco, hopefully that answers your question, but let me know in the chat if it doesn't. I'll jump into some of the questions from the live chat now. Steve asks, what is drilling season at Okawest and what's turning right now?

21:22 Yeah. So the, you know, the drill season, we, we take a small hiatus at Christmas, but otherwise we drill year round. We have a 6 diamond drills turning and a 2 RC rigs. So that program is a very active. And we've been in that mode for almost a year now. We'll continue that in 2024. We have a fair bit more drilling to do. 1, as I mentioned, to complete the deep extension drilling for the underground resource. 2, to start converting the inferred in that underground into Indicated for a feasibility study

22:05 and also complete the open pit conversion of Inferred to Indicated, which is now mostly done. Then the exploration activities on the property, which will involve drilling on different targets that we've got within the property boundaries. We'll be very active with those drills turning through at least the first half of the year, and then we might slow down after that, depending on what we find or don't find on the exploration side.

22:37 Great, thank you. Chris S. Asks a question that I've seen on previous webinars for you guys. So obviously, I answered just to the best of your ability, but he asks if there's any thoughts on the possible combination with G2 Goldfields. Well, certainly, I mean, we would, and I think G2 would say that camp, we're just next to each other, stone throws away and we actually share the same essential structural geology in terms of the deposit.

23:08 It makes sense to see how we can combine the assets together. It doesn't make sense to build 2 separate mines when they're right next door to each other.

23:20 That dialogue and that kind of conversation, I think, is and would happen at some point. I think they're still trying to get through a bit more drilling to update and refine their resource estimates so they can recognize what their share price value would be around an expanded discovery. Obviously, we're probably further down the track in terms of studies and de-risking and advancing our project. Ours currently would be a standalone project with or without G2,

24:00 But I think G2 would obviously need to add to their resource base to put them in a position of actually having a potential standalone project. But again, it's hard to say how this will play out. I'd say Common sense would say they will somehow figure a way to combine it, whether we did it or someone else did it, we don't know, but it's certainly a logical outcome that both parties agree needs to happen.

24:28 Great, thanks. Chris B. Asks, what would be the timing on final permitting? He notes that if the PFS is in Q125, then submit EIA and receive full permit in 6 months, maybe end of 25?

24:43 Well, no, so the submission would be in, for the EIA would be in Q, probably even the beginning of Q4 of 2024. And so that six-month period would take you into the first quarter of 2025 to get the permit. So, you know, that's just – and that's been the track record of other projects that have been permitted in the country. It's about a six-month time frame to get the permits when submitted, if you do everything properly on the submission. So We've got a lot of experience on the team in terms of doing this, because we've done a number of projects

25:25 prior to this in Guyana. We don't anticipate any surprises there. That would leave us in a position where both would have the permits in hand, the feasibility completed, and of course, then the financing would be the other piece. But those 3 pieces, trying to align them around being in a position in first quarter so that we could make a construction decision perhaps in the second quarter so of 25 that would be the target we're shooting for. Oh great thank you.

25:58 Tony asks when does Reunion expect of fiscal terms completed with the government of Guyana? I think fairly quickly. We've been at it for over a year and we're seen to be getting down to the short strokes in terms of fine-tuning the language and all the little nitty details that are in those agreements. So I would anticipate we'll see something in at least the first quarter, maybe first half of the year on a minerals agreement.

26:33 Great, Thank you. Ahmed asks, in terms of cash needs, does Reunion need more capital right now and if so in the future, by when? As I mentioned, we're kind of in a good cash position at the end of the year, we're sending $75 million in cash on our balance sheet. That and the warrants would bring in another $25 to $30 million, so that's over $100 million. We're really funded through to construction decision. We wouldn't be looking for money unless we decided to maybe do some early works to advance the timing of the project. I don't think that's likely anyway.

27:21 I think we're in good shape. And then the next financing would be related to project financing. Right, makes sense. B Gasper asks, Drawing on your knowledge and experience, are there any other gold assets globally that have permitting timelines as quick as what you're outlining here at Elko? Anyone want to know how important that is to major companies in your view? There are others who have had quick timelines, and it depends on the jurisdiction more than anything else. I think in West Africa particularly, there's a number of projects that have had fairly quick timelines, and some of the newer projects as well in West Africa are moving along on timelines similar to this.

28:09 But not many other jurisdictions, I would say, see this kind of timeline, so it's fairly rare. I think if you're looking at it from an investor's point of view, converting from how quickly can you create a cash-flowing business from those investments is very important. Time value of money is very important. So, you know, we certainly are recognizing that, you know, for investors it's everybody's best interest to move it as quickly as we can, and without making obviously errors or shortcuts that might result in further delays.

28:55 So that's why we're being very careful about it, but we are feeling confident right now that we will be able to achieve the timelines we're talking about. From discovery to production in 6 years is the timeline. That's fast. The average in the industry is about 17 or 18 now, so that's a third of the average. Makes sense. DVRathbone asks, are there any updates for drilling results outside of the Kairuni zone? Outside of our current property, you mean? I'm sorry, I missed that last piece. You said outside of the Kairuni zone.

29:41 Oh, outside the Kairuni. Yeah. So, well, we, We certainly have targets that we anticipate, we're hopeful that some of those targets will turn into new discoveries as well. So we're working on them as quickly as we can. I'm hopeful they will be. I think that the geologists that we've been relying on, and some of the consulting geologists that we rely on to provide us expert advice on this particular deposit and the area, have been telling us that it's very likely we will find more. It's just the nature of the size of the alterations, the size of the kind of gold deposition that's going on in the region, the activity around the alluvial mining which has spread out throughout this region, that there's likely to be more gold to be found yet.

30:47 So That's why we like the region. We're certainly trying to pick up more ground in the region because we think there's a lot more to find here. One question from the chat asks, What's the government's royalty on the project? That's part of the discussion you have in the minerals agreement, but the last project that was built was with an 8% gold royalty. The last couple of projects had an 8 percent gold royalty on them. So we certainly would like to see a bit better. And those projects have struggled to remain economic. So we're hoping that we can negotiate something a little better than that.

31:38 Great, thanks. Chris asks, what are your thoughts on Anglo-Ashanti buying into G2? He wonders if they see something in G2. Do you think they see a benefit in investing in Reunion as well? Yeah, well, I think, you know, Angle Gold is a major player in the space and they like – certainly they like the region, certainly they've actively looked at what's there And I think they're looking at it from the big picture point of view of what's the, whether this is a sort of an area of tier 1 potential deposits. And so I think they saw an opportunity because G2 was raising money or looking to raise some money that they could take a stake in G2. Of course, we haven't.

32:24 We completed our financing so we haven't been looking to add to our capital or additional capital. So, they really saw an opportunity to get in at least one of the properties as a good foothold in the door. And I think they like, obviously they like the combined properties as part of that. So their strategy, I can't say, I can't speak for their strategy, but my thinking would be they're looking for tier 1 camps they can get their fingers into. Makes sense. Time for a couple more questions. 1 from Greg in the chat asks, are you exploring or drilling other locations not connected to the Oko claim at this time? Well, we haven't because of the Barrick dispute, but now that that's settled, we will restart our project generation activity. We were active prior to this in French Guiana, a little bit in Suriname.

33:19 We shut all of that down while we were in the dispute and now we are looking to reactivate some of that project generation activity again. Great, thanks. One question I always like to ask when we do these, you know, looking forward to the year ahead, is what are you most excited for in 2024 at Reunion? We're very excited about this particular Oklahoma West discovery and how quickly we think we can move it into a producing asset. And 1 that I think is very attractive and the benefits obviously occurring to the country. It's a very important project to the country, even though it's a huge oil and gas play now. It doesn't employ a lot of people in Guyana in the oil and gas sector.

34:07 So the government desperately wants to see new opportunities for people to be employed. We see this project as being a project of scale, an opportunity to create jobs and an opportunity to create benefits to shareholders in terms of value creation, on 1 that we can move along on a path normally fast. So everyone benefits quickly from this. So that's what we're excited about. We're excited about being able to do that. Great, thank you very much. And thanks, everyone, certainly for joining us today. If you think of a question right after the event ends, as I often do, please do reach out.

34:52 We'll be able to get back to you as soon as possible. But Rick, thanks so much for going through a brief presentation and the questions today. And I'll leave it to you as a sign off before we head out. Thank you very much for joining us today and if anyone does have follow-up questions feel free to contact myself or Doug Flagg our Industrial Relations Representative and we'll try and get answers back to you as quickly as we can. Thank you.