B2Gold Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
B2Gold (TSX:BTO) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
B2Gold Corporation reported a strong third quarter with over 193,000 ounces of gold produced, aligning with its full-year production guidance.
The company lowered its all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year by over $100 per ounce, reflecting improved business performance and cost management.
Free cash flow for the quarter was $48 million, with significant future cash flow expected due to completed major spending and gold prepaid commitments.
Key operational highlights include receiving the Menankoto exploitation permit at Fekola and completing phase one upgrades to the Goose crushing circuit.
B2Gold returned $59 million to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in the quarter, indicating a strong focus on shareholder returns.
The company is optimistic about a strong fourth quarter and anticipates several catalysts in 2027 to boost production and cash flow, including contributions from Fekola Regional and continued upgrades at Goose.
Revenue for the quarter was $836 million, driven by significant gold sales at an average realized price of $4,287 per ounce.
Net income attributable to shareholders was $409 million, with adjustments for non-recurring impacts leading to an adjusted net income of $183 million.
Operational highlights include strong performances from Masbate and Otjikoto, with Goose continuing to ramp up effectively.
The company has a strong liquidity position with $294 million in cash and significant credit facility availability, providing flexibility for future growth.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the B2Gold Corporation’s third quarter 2026 financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Cinnamond, President and CEO of B2Gold. Please go ahead.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Thank you, operator, and good morning. Good morning, everyone. I think this third quarter, it was a strong quarter for B2Gold and I think it reinforces the progress that we’ve made in strengthening the business over recent months. You saw we delivered solid operating results with more than 193,000 ounces of gold produced and I think it puts us well on track to deliver our full-year production guidance. And also, based on that strong year-to-date performance, I’m also pleased enough that we’re also lowering our consolidated all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year by more than $100 an ounce at the midpoint, and in the period we generated $48 million in free cash flow and that reflects the improving trajectory of the business.
I think with the major construction and ramp-up spending in Goose now behind us and our gold prepaid commitments completed by the end of June this year, we’re entering a period of increasing free cash flow generation for the company. I think that the third quarter also was highlighted by a couple of important achievements. As you know, the first one: at Fekola, we received the Menankoto exploitation permit and have since commenced drilling activities there.
And this definitely represents an important step forward to bring Fekola Regional ore into the mine plan, which we’ve given guidance that we expect to commence earlier in 2027, and at Goose, completion of the phase one crushing circuit upgrades shortly after the quarter ended. That represents another important step in the ramp-up of that operation. And those are the two of the key objectives that we kind of laid out earlier in the year, and I’m very pleased to see that we’re making progress as we go there.
So you’ll hear more from Bill, get more detail on the Fekola Regional permit and the Goose crushing circuit plans shortly in Bill’s comments. And we also continued returning capital to shareholders. We distributed $59 million through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter, and that included $33 million in share buybacks. So we’re continuing to pursue that program. I think as our free cash flow profile continues to grow we’ll remain focused on a disciplined approach, I’d say, to capital allocation, with balance: returns to shareholders with investment in our existing operations as well as, as we’ve talked about before, exploration opportunities across our portfolio.
And actually on exploration news, at the end of September we released results from the ongoing exploration program at Goose and the Back River district. And in addition, in those results there were some excellent infill results at Llama and Nuvuyak, which increases our confidence in the underground resource base there. But we also announced a discovery of high-grade mineralization on the western limb of the banded iron formation at post Nuvuyak. And this discovery, which is about, I think it’s about 150 meters down plunge from the known mineralization, the discovery’s been named Tatuk, and the grade, the width, the host rock of Tatuk intersection were very encouraging, I think, and it also signifies the first new discovery at Goose since we acquired the project. So very excited about that and you’ll see us continue to pursue exploration there.
Looking at the balance of the year, I think we expect an even stronger fourth quarter driven primarily by Goose, where mill throughput is expected to benefit from the increased crushing capacity that we’ve now seen with the commissioning of phase one of the crusher upgrades. And, you know, when we look forward to 2027, we see several important catalysts that should really continue to strengthen both our production and our cash flow profile. So we’ll have Fekola Regional is expected to begin contributing earlier in the year.
Phase 2 upgrades at Goose are expected to further increase throughput around the mid-year. Development work at the Antelope deposit at Otjikoto, that’s progressing well, and we’re also exploring opportunities for mine life extensions at Masbate using, in a sense, perhaps higher gold price assumptions there. So there’s still some work to do on that but we’re looking at that and hope we’ll pursue that as we go through next year. Final comment I’d make, I mentioned the prepaids are delivered into by June already and we have some remaining gold collar contracts, but the last of those is scheduled to roll off in January ’27. So I’d say overall I’m very pleased with the direction we’re headed in as a business. We’re delivering against our operational objectives, our financial flexibility, our balance sheet strength is improving and, as I just mentioned, we have several important catalysts ahead of us for ’27.
So together I think these position the company well to generate stronger free cash flow and to continue creating value for all our shareholders. So I’ll now hand over the call to Michael McDonald to discuss the financial highlights for the quarter. So over to you, Michael.
Michael McDonald
Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Revenue for the quarter was $836 million driven by consolidated gold sales of approximately 195,000 ounces at an average realized gold price of $4,287 per ounce. Importantly, as Mike mentioned, this was our first full quarter of sales at spot gold price following the completion of the gold prepaid deliveries in June 2026, a big milestone for the company. Net income attributable to shareholders was $409 million or $0.31 per share.
Net income benefited from a $253 million impairment reversal at the Fekola complex driven by the receipt of the Fekola Regional Permit in August of this year, as well as $40 million of unrealized gains on derivative instruments and $14 million in insurance recoveries. After adjusting for those items and other non-recurring impacts, adjusted net income attributable to shareholders was $183 million or $0.14 per share, a very strong result in what was always forecast to be, compared to, the lowest gold production quarter for the year for B2Gold.
It’s important to note that adjusted net income was also reduced by $47 million of realized losses related to our gold collar contracts during the quarter. Excluding those realized losses, adjusted net income would have been materially higher. The remaining gold collar contracts finish in December 2026, at which point B2Gold will be completely unencumbered by both gold prepay and gold collar contracts for all of 2027. Operating cash flow before working capital adjustments was $387 million or $0.29 per share during the quarter, while operating cash flow after working capital adjustments was $239 million.
As expected, we are beginning to see the benefits from the completion of the gold prepay contracts, which allows us to fully realize prevailing gold prices on all ounces sold. Free cash flow for the quarter was $48 million. This result reflects continued investment in Goose as the operation advances through ramp-up, while also benefiting from stronger realized gold prices and improving operational performance across the portfolio. It is worth noting that Goose’s all-in sustaining costs this quarter were impacted by approximately 10,000 ounces of production that had not yet been sold at quarter end, as well as approximately $29 million of costs associated with the mobile crusher purchase and fire remediation work. These included approximately $12 million for the mobile crusher and $17 million for remediation work related to the fire from earlier this year.
Our balance sheet remains very strong. At quarter end we held $294 million in cash and cash equivalents, had working capital of $497 million, and had approximately $705 million available under our revolving credit facility. This liquidity position provides significant flexibility as Goose continues to ramp up and as we advance growth opportunities across the business. Looking ahead, as Mike mentioned, we have lowered our consolidated all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year to between $2,230 and $2,410 per gold ounce sold. The improved outlook reflects strong year-to-date operating performance across the portfolio, particularly at Masbate and Otjikoto, together with lower expected cost at Fekola. The improvement at Masbate primarily reflects the strong production performance we have seen throughout the year, which has allowed the operation to benefit from greater fixed cost leverage on a per-ounce basis.
With that, cash costs have been lowered to $800 to $900 per gold ounce produced, $100 per ounce below the previously guided range, and all-in sustaining costs have been lowered to $1,250 to $1,400 per gold ounce sold, where it was previously between $1,430 and $1,580 per gold ounce sold. Similarly, at Otjikoto, strong production performance has translated to lower unit costs and we have reduced all-in sustaining cost guidance by $200 per ounce to between $1,630 and $1,780 per gold ounce sold.
At Fekola, all-in sustaining cost guidance is now $2,350 to $2,500 per gold ounce sold, compared to the previous range of between $2,670 and $2,820 per gold ounce sold. The lower costs are mostly a factor of lower royalties paid as a result of a lower gold price than what we had assumed when we set guidance at the start of the year. It is a good position to be in at this stage of the year and reflects both the strong year-to-date performance of our operations and our confidence in delivering through the remainder of 2026. With that, I’ll now turn the call over to Bill for an operational update.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Thanks, Michael. From an operating perspective, the third quarter was largely in line with our expectations. We remain on track to achieve our full-year production, cost and capital guidance. Consolidated production totaled approximately 193,000 ounces during the quarter. Strong performances from Masbate and Otjikoto, together with continued improvements at Goose, helped offset lower production at Fekola as mining activities progressed according to plan.
At Fekola, production of approximately 78,000 ounces reflects the transition of open pit activities from ore to the Phase 8 waste stripping campaign that will continue through the rest of the year and the majority of next year. On August 7, we received the Menankoto exploitation permit, which allows us to begin mining at the Fekola Regional. Shortly after the end of the third quarter, stripping activities commenced at the Fekola Regional and we are now underway unlocking this important ore source for the Fekola Complex.
The company anticipates mining pre-stripping activities and finalization of a tolling agreement will be completed in the coming months, and ore production from Fekola Regional is expected to commence in early 2027. Following a ramp-up year in 2027, we continue to estimate production from Fekola Regional will add approximately 150,000 ounces per year at steady-state production levels from 2028 onward. At Goose, the team continued to execute on the repair and upgrade work on the fixed crushing plant. During the quarter, we successfully commissioned a mobile crushing unit, which provided additional processing flexibility and supported increased throughput while work in Phase 1 of the fixed crushing circuit upgrades continued. While that work was ongoing, Goose produced approximately 40,000 ounces in the quarter. Importantly, shortly after quarter end, we completed the Phase 1 upgrade of the fixed crushing plant.
With the Phase 1 upgrade now complete, throughput was averaging approximately 3,200 tons per day following commissioning mid-October, and we expect those rates to continue to support Goose delivering a significantly stronger fourth quarter to achieve our production guidance range. Beyond 2026, we are still on track for Phase 2 upgrades to the crusher in the second quarter of 2027. Just as a reminder, this will include a 10-week shutdown of the fixed crusher, at which time we expect to feed the mill with stockpiled crushed ore. We plan to build this inventory over the winter using the mobile crusher, which is being winterized to support reliable operation throughout the winter months. When Phase 2 upgrades are complete mid-year 2027, we expect the crusher to consistently deliver an average of 4,000 tons per day going forward.
This will be an important deliverable for us to be able to progress towards our targeted annual production of 300,000 ounces per year. Goose, Masbate and Otjikoto both delivered another strong quarter of operations, continuing the excellent performance in 2026. These operations remain key contributors to the company’s production profile and cash flow generation across the portfolio. Our teams remain focused on safety, operational discipline and cost. We continue to expect full-year results to be within our guidance.
Michael McDonald
Bill, I think we’ve lost you there. The line seems to have cut out. So I think, for the benefit of the callers here, I think Bill was reiterating that, based on year-to-date performance and how we see the remainder of the year, we expect full-year results to be within our guidance ranges, as we put out there in our results. I think the other thing Bill was going to comment on was just a quick update on the Gramalote project in Colombia. You know, as we’ve said before, we’re steadily working our way through modifying our permits there, de-risking it, doing the resettlement work that we expect to continue really into the middle or even the second half of next year. And until we’ve done that, which I think you can look to second half ’27 when we’ll have sort of finalized that stuff, we’re not going to—that’s when we’ll look to come back to whether a construction decision or at least what the next steps are for Gramalote.
So that’s kind of what you can expect second half of next year at some point. So overall, I think from Bill’s comments, we’re confident in our operating outlook. Fekola, Masbate, Otjikoto all performing well and Goose is entering the next phase of its ramp-up following the Phase 1 crushing upgrade. So we’re really looking forward to a stronger fourth quarter and a really solid finish to the year. So with those comments, I’ll turn them back to myself, and thanks Bill and Michael for your comments. Operator, that concludes our initial comments and I turn it back to you for questions.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
Okay, thank you. We will now begin the analyst question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Ralph Profitti from Stifel.
Please go ahead.
Ralph Profitti (Analyst)
Great. Thanks, operator. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a little bit more would be helpful on the nature of this toll-milling arrangement. I think by Bill’s comments you said that sometime in Q1 ’27 is when you’d expect that to be finalized. I’m just wondering, is this more of an administrative process at this point or is there anything that is guidance-dependent and there’s some sort of negotiation on terms still going on?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
No, I think I’ll address that one. I think it’s an administrative exercise. We’ve got the agreements drafted. It just goes through the normal process, I think, as you deal with the state—the various steps to set up a new company, in this case put a tolling agreement in place for Fekola Regional. So I think we’ve given ourselves plenty of room to get that done. As you know, we took out regional guidance from ’26 and we expect it to start early ’27, and we’re currently working our way through each of the steps that you have to do to bring all that online with the state.
It’s going as planned. So I think it’s, like you said yourself at the start, mainly an administrative exercise at this point.
Ralph Profitti (Analyst)
Okay, great. And just as a follow-up, I appreciate the answer on that. We’ve had Goose temporarily at 3,200 tons a day. It’s going to stay there until middle of ’27. Just wondering if you’ve had continuous days operating above that. Is there any upside to that number, and how are you thinking about any potential weather-related or temperature-related disruptions or risks between now and the middle of 2027?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Perhaps I’ll turn it over. I think Bill’s—there’s a little bit of a problem with Bill’s line, but we’ve also got Peter Montano, our VP Ops who’s got responsibility for Goose, on the line. So perhaps I’ll turn that one over to you, Peter.
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
Yep, thanks, Michael. Yeah, on the question—so the primary crusher, now that we’re done with Phase 1, that maintains 3,200 tons per day consistently, and then we also have the mobile crusher still available and that gives us some flexibility above that. Then the mill side has demonstrated that it’s been tested up to 4,000 tons per day—a couple different grind tests there—and that’s been successful. So really that gives us the flexibility that we need to get our 2026 targets and then also build stockpiles for next year.
As far as winter goes, the Phase 1 primary crusher, that’s an all-weather facility, so that has no issues now. And then the mobile crusher—we’ve put a tent over that—so it probably won’t get the full capacity that we had during the summer season, but it will be operating consistently through the winter as well.
Ralph Profitti (Analyst)
Great, thanks for those helpful answers.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Thanks, Ralph.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
The next question comes from Anita Soni from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
Hi, good morning, Michael. I just wanted to ask a question on Fekola and the grade that you expect going into the back half of the year and into next year from the open pit. So I guess it was a little lighter than I was looking for this quarter, and I think that relates to you guys said not being able to pull regional ore. But is that specific with the 0.85? Is that kind of what we would expect even in Q4, or was that just specific to the sequence?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Well, I think Bill’s back on the line again. Bill, do you want to take that one?
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, it’s hard for me to hear you guys. I don’t know if you can hear me, but Peter, maybe once again if you got it handy.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
Sorry, I misspoke as well when I said 0.85. I meant 1.35 gram per ton in the open pit.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Okay, I can kind of hear. I’m just looking through real quick here. Are you there, Peter? Can you hear me?
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
I can hear you, Bill, but I don’t have that information at hand.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
I can comment here. So yeah, I think, Anita, I think the grade that we mined in the open pit and that we put through the mill should be consistent through Q4. Again, we had highlighted at the start of the year that the first half of the year was going to be stronger than the second half. And then we revised—if you recall—we revised our guidance to a modified range once we took Fekola Regional out. So I think for Q4 you can assume very similar parameters as Q3 and that will get us to within our guidance range for the year.
And then I think for next year, as we get into ’27, we’re just finalizing budgets at the moment right now, and so that’s something that we’ll daylight more in February when we come out with our 2027 numbers.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, and maybe I’d just add to that as well. As you know, we’re in predominantly waste strip in Phase 8 in the Fekola pit now. So, you know, we’re in that now and we’ll be in that for the majority of 2027 when we run mainly low-grade stockpile through the mill, plus the contribution initially—certainly initially—from Fekola underground until we get Regional online.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
Okay, yeah.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Maybe—so I can kind of hear now—1.2 grams is kind of what I think we’re talking about for Q4.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I think I had something like that for 2027, but not in Q4. And then the other question I had was on Goose. So pretty good grades delivered to the mill and a lot of, you know, high-grade areas in that pit and the underground—can’t really even differentiate between what’s underground, what’s open pit. So just can you give us an idea of what the Q4 open pit and underground grades would look like? I think you kind of need even slightly better than the 7.3 that you delivered this quarter to the mill to kind of hit the bottom end of the guide.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Yeah. Once again for Goose, over to Peter Montano for that one.
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
Yep. So, yeah, your math is correct there, except we do have some flexibility with the added crushing capacity that the mobile crusher has. So basically we’ve got that 3,200 tons per day as our baseline and then we can vary that up as we need to manage the grade and the tonnage throughout the year. As far as the open pit and underground, they’re basically going to be kind of similar to what we’ve seen before. The real difference is that it’s going to be a full quarter of consistent production rather than commissioning the crushing circuit.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
Okay, and so with the flexibility—meaning that you can, you know, basically over-mine and then selectively feed the mill some of the higher-grade material? Is that what you are implying?
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
There’s kind of two things. First of all, yes, on the mine we can produce more and then selectively process the higher grades. But also we can crush more by using some of the mobile crusher capacity and increase. The mill can run at about 4,000 tons a day is what it’s demonstrated. But we have that window between 3,200 and 4,000 a day that we can work with to manage the tonnes, grade, and ounces.
Anita Soni (Analyst)
All right, thank you. That’s it for my questions.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Thanks, Anita.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
The next question comes from Don DeMarco from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Thanks, operator, and good morning, Mike and team. First question on Goose. I mean I see that the AISC and sustaining capex was elevated. Not surprising. You got the crusher repairs, underground development, delayed spending and so on. But what would be a reasonable, and maybe Michael for you, reasonable normalized annual AISC and sustaining capex level once the operation reaches the design throughput?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Yeah, no, good question, Don. So I think for Q4 where you’ll see is all-in sustaining costs will be significantly lower than where we’ve been throughout the year. As we highlighted in Q3, if you normalized for selling what we had produced and if you had backed out some of those one-time costs that fell into sustaining capital related to the mobile crusher purchase and the fire, we would have been much closer towards the top end of our yearly range.
And I think on your question around where the path forward is, as the site ramps up the gold production on a quarterly and annual basis, you truly see a large benefit from that larger production base. As you can imagine, Goose has a fairly steady fixed cost that it incurs throughout the year. So growing that production base you get the benefit of scale. And I think we’re absolutely targeting slightly just above $2,000 per ounce on a steady-state basis based on the mine plans and the sequencing that we see moving.
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Okay, great. Just moving across the assets then. Fekola. You know, with Phase 8 waste stripping continuing through most of next year and the Fekola Regional ramping up at the same time, can you just discuss the production variability quarter over quarter? Anita had talked about grades but presumably we’re heading into a back-end loaded year. But what would we expect in terms of variability by quarter?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Well, we’ll put that out as part of our guidance for next year, obviously. But I think what we have been saying is remember it’s a ramp-up year for Fekola Regional, right. So I think you can expect, if we think steady state, once we have it up and fully run in post 27, we’ll average somewhere around 150,000 ounces a year. So I think as a rule of thumb you probably take somewhere around half of that amount for next year for Regional’s contribution as we ramp up.
But we’ll give guidance for the full year in early Feb.
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Okay. And on that target, 150,000 ounces annually from Fekola Regional, what mining rates and grades support that target, and how much additional capex remains before you get to that steady-state run rate in 2028 or beyond?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Throw that one out, Bill. And do you want to…
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Well, once again I would say, Peter, you were involved in that study. I don’t know if you have it. Andy, where we wound up on the mining rates and the grade?
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
Yeah, I don’t have that study available with me.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah. Is that something we can get back to you on?
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Yeah, yeah, it’s coming through. Yeah, we can definitely get back on that one.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
We’ve got some details we can talk to on the capital side. Yeah, yeah. So I think, Don, you know, clearly as we’re doing waste stripping, that’s the most significant capex portion that we see in Q4. As you’ve seen throughout the year, we have purchased equipment for Fekola Regional. But ultimately, as you recall, we had done a lot of the capex investments and infrastructure build back in 2023 when we thought the permit would come imminently. So when you think about Fekola Regional moving forward, a lot of the capital would just be equipment rebuilds as the various fleets depreciate.
Plus there’ll be some capitalized stripping moving forward, but nothing of a significant quantity. So really, as you think about Fekola next year, as Mike highlighted, Phase 8 is a big stripping campaign, but then we get multiple years of much lower strip ratio, much better grade, much more contribution, and then Fekola Regional stays at around 150,000 ounces. But then as you get into the mid-2030s, as Fekola open pit starts to come down, then Fekola Regional open pits start to ramp up. So we look at it on a complex basis and there’s variability on a sort of year-to-year basis.
But happy to take that offline for further discussion if you want.
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Okay. And do you guys plan on publishing an updated mine plan at any time to kind of reflect some of these dynamic pieces and integrated parts?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Yeah, I think that’s something that’s absolutely on our radar. We recognize that the existing Fekola complex technical report is older and obviously it forecasts at a different timing for the startup of Fekola Regional. So it’s absolutely on our radar to give an updated version to better give you visibility into what we see internally.
Don DeMarco (Analyst)
Okay, well, we’ll look for that when it comes. It’s very helpful, guys. Thanks a lot, Michael and team, good luck with the rest of the year.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Thanks, Don.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
The next question comes from Fahad Tariq from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Fahad Tariq (Analyst)
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just want to clarify, in the second quarter of next year, when the Phase 2 upgrades at Goose are happening, I believe the last commentary was a 10-week shutdown. Should we still be modeling the 3,200 tons per day that quarter? Thanks.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Peter, over to you on that one, I think.
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
Yep. Thank you. Yeah, good question there. Yes. So that’s part of what we’re working with with the mobile crusher stockpiles, is that is also starting to produce a crushed ore stockpile for use during that shutdown. Also, it will continue to operate during the shutdown. So it’s not that the full stockpile needs to be available before the 10 weeks. Basically, we want to get—you know, the maximum would be about 200,000 tons, but really we need far less than that.
And then we would keep processing, or keep crushing, with the mobile crusher throughout that 10 weeks.
Fahad Tariq (Analyst)
Okay, got it. And then…
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
To go back to your question, yes, 3,200 would be a fair assessment in your model.
Fahad Tariq (Analyst)
Okay, thank you. And then just because the sealift just happened, can you talk a bit about the diesel prices that you, I guess, pre-purchased for Goose relative to what your budget would have been at the beginning of this year? Thanks.
Peter Montano (VP, Projects)
You want to take that one, Michael?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Yeah, yeah. So ultimately, the Goose diesel purchase was made in Q3. It is at elevated prices, as everyone is aware, based on where global oil prices sit. I think the fortunate part for us was that, and we’ve highlighted this before, operationally the site is consuming less fuel than what was previously anticipated. So our actual cost this year to purchase and ship fuel to site was very similar to last year, but it was because the quantum that we purchased was less than last year.
And so relative to what we did last year, it was probably around 50 to 60% higher. And that’s just based on the global move in fuel prices that we saw based on where global prices sit at the moment of purchase or the time of purchase.
Fahad Tariq (Analyst)
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star one. The next question comes from Carrie McCreary from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Carrie McCreary (Analyst)
Good morning, guys. Just maybe another question on Fekola. Just on the underground, can you just remind us how much tons you’re pulling out from the underground and has that fully ramped up to steady state at this point?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Bill, do you want to take that one on?
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, so I’ll answer it and maybe Peter will correct me. I think we’re around 4,000 tons per day right now and it has fully ramped up. And once again, the underground is really the highlight of the Fekola project right now. Very high grades compared to the open pit and operating very well.
Carrie McCreary (Analyst)
Just remind us of what the grade there looks like.
Bill Lytle (Chief Operating Officer)
Oh, I think we’re definitely around three to three and a half grams.
Carrie McCreary (Analyst)
Great. And then maybe just a question on cash taxes at Goose. Any thoughts on when those would be payable? I assume you’ve got a bit of a buffer there.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Yeah, yeah, we do. And so, you know, Goose definitely through the rest of the decade, a lot of it, as you can imagine, depends on what gold price gets realized. But based on what we see at $4,000 gold, Goose won’t be cash tax payable for around five years. So into the early 2030s is when it works through its losses and ultimately becomes cash tax payable.
Carrie McCreary (Analyst)
Okay, great. And I know you’re working through your budget, but just is there an outlook on cash taxes for 2027? Is that going to be higher than this year assuming $4,000?
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
If it’s $4,000 gold, I would imagine it would be lower because, again, Goose will see a significant ramp up in its production, but it’s not cash tax payable. And so, yeah, I mean we got to go through the budgets, but I would imagine it would be slightly lower just based on what we see preliminary for 2027. So likely, hopefully a little bit less than $600 million on the year when you include withholding taxes as well, too.
Carrie McCreary (Analyst)
Great. Thanks, guys.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Thanks, Carrie.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mike Cinnamond for closing remarks.
Michael Cinnamond (Senior Vice President Finance and CFO)
Well, so thank you team here. Thank you everyone for attending the call and for good questions. I think just to summarize, again, I think we had a strong quarter. I was pleased with the results that we saw. You know, in-line production overall, better cost. You know, we’ve lowered our all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year, so pleased with that. I think we are executing on the things that we said we were going to execute on as laid out earlier in the year.
I think we’ve shown good, good progress there moving forward. So I’m energized to see what we can do here in Q4. Expecting a strong Q4 and then, you know, a strong year in 27 and beyond as we put all of these actions into full force both at Fekola Regional and at Goose. So thanks again for your time and look forward to catching up with you individually. Thank you.
OPERATOR (Conference Operator)
This brings to an end today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
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