First Quantum Minerals Ltd
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2018-Q2

from 0
Operator

Good morning. My name is Julie and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the First Quantum Minerals Second Quarter of 2018 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Mr. Clive Newall, President and Director of First Quantum Minerals, you may begin your conference.

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Thanks, Julie, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Joining me in London are Hannes Meyer, CFO; Juliet Wall, General Manager, Finance; Simon MacLean, Group Reporting Controller; and from Cobre Panama project site, Zenon Wozniak, Director of Projects.As usual before we proceed I'll draw your attention to the fact that over the course of this conference call we'll be making several forward-looking statements and as such I encourage you to read the cautionary note that accompanies our second quarter MD&A and the related results news release as well as the risk factors particular to our company which are detailed in our most recent annual information form and available on our website and on SEDAR. A reminder that the presentation which accompanies this conference call is available on our website and can be accessed either on the events section or on the Q2 2018 results conference call button under the News section of the home page.So I'll get it started and with some opening remarks before Hannes reviews with you of the financial results. After that, we will open the lines to take your questions.It was a solid quarter on first 6 months in this important year for First Quantum. Operationally, our copper production once again exceeded last year's comparable as Sentinel turned in yet another good quarter as the drier weather conditions in Zambia returned. Las Cruces had a better than planned quarter as the maintenance shutdown originally scheduled for the second quarter was deferred to later in the year.While talking about Las Cruces, some contracted workers went on strike for a 4-day period from last Friday until yesterday. During that time while there was some disruption to services, critical production activities did continue. I would also note that the 85% of workers on strike as quoted by the media is an exaggeration. The issue is about payment of allowances. Las Cruces' management has reviewed the claims and are satisfied that the allowances are being paid.Turning to Kansanshi, compared to last year the mine's output was affected by lower throughput in all circuits and lower grade in the mixed and oxide circuits. Higher recoveries in all 3 circuits, however, provided some offset. Among the various optimization projects we'll be working on in the second half of this year is one aimed at enhancing the recoveries in tarnish material. So we could see some improvement in this area when the project is complete.Copper recovery at the smelter was strong averaging 97%. Throughputs in production, however, were affected by 2 short maintenance shutdowns that were brought forward from later in the year. While the shutdowns were short, their impact was spread over several days with the necessary cool-down and heat-up processes.We established a new quarterly record for copper sales aided by strong year-over-year volumes at Sentinel and Kansanshi and the catch-up at Çayeli where first quarter shipments were deferred into the second quarter. We're maintaining a low unit cost of production with an all-in sustaining average of $1.76 a pound of copper less of byproduct credits. A slight uptick in the quarter reflects mostly the growing contribution from Sentinel which is a higher cost operation and the timing of some maintenance expenditure.Looking out to the third quarter, note that we're expecting reduced power provision to Kansanshi and Sentinel for about a 31-day period to facilitate maintenance and upgrades for Zambian electricity network. We're focused on minimizing its impact on operations and have at this point left our overall production guidance unchanged. In addition, we have a 7-day maintenance shutdown at Las Cruces; about a 3-day shutdown for crusher and mill maintenance at Guelb Moghrein and an 11-day shutdown at Pyhäsalmi.Further to the assessment we received from the Zambia revenue authority in regard to duty pay on the import of capital items, consumables and spare parts we use at Sentinel, we made very good progress. Working together with an external international accounting firm and our shipping agent, we have substantially completed our review which covered some 290,000 pages of information covering 22,750 import items.As you can see it was a detailed and extensive process. Our findings have not altered our position which we have made clear since the very beginning. We continue to refute the agency's assessment. We remain engaged and committed to open and transparent dialogue.Turning to Cobre Panama, all parts of this mega project are really coming together quite rapidly. I spent time at site last week and am impressed with its progress since May when we hosted a number of guests. I encourage you to look at a page on our website under project and Cobre Panama where we show even more photographs from the one in the -- the ones in the presentation along with 2 short videos. If you were among those guests back in May, I'm sure you'll be just as impressed as I am.In fact, phase commissioning is now well and truly underway, right on plan. Additionally, we received some -- achieved some important milestones during the quarter. The first of 250 megawatt generating sets of the power station was commissioned and synchronized to the Panamanian electricity grid. It's been ramping up and operating consistently between 75 and 125 megawatts as a number of tests and fine-tunings are being completed. The second equally-sized generating set is on schedule to follow into operation during the fourth quarter this year.Recall that this sequence was planned so that we can apply learnings gained from the commissioning of the first set into the process for the second and identical one. Adjacent to the power station is our ports where we also achieved an important milestone. During the quarter we successfully received and unloaded our first full Panamax-sized vessel bearing coal for the power station.Today the number of deliveries received and unloaded is now 3. Just after the close of the quarter, we started first commissioning activities at the process plant. A number of equipment drives have been electrically energized and rotationally tested and are ready to be put into service. This is a significant commissioning step which leads into progressive commissioning of process plant systems such as air circuits, water circuits and ultimately all circuits. In other areas of the project, we're advancing well at peak construction levels which will continue for a number of months. Substantial progress has been made in the overland piping between the process plant, the tailings facility in port and in the conveyors, piping and electrical at the process plant.In terms of project completion at the end of Q2 the project overall was 76% complete; procurement essentially a 100% committed; engineering is all but complete with some -- just some final wrap-up items over the next month or 2; construction of the power station is effectively done with commissioning of the second generating set being the main remaining work front. At the mining site, the mine pre-strip is at 82%; tailings management facility embankments at 70%; our overall mine and process plant works at 65%; and very importantly our construction for first all systems is at 77%.You may have noticed that the completion percentage for the tailings management facility embankments is lower compared to Q1 of this year. Following site visits to some other operations, we decided to incorporate some of their operational learning, so they're making some scope additions in areas external to the start of all embankments. There are mainly additional roads and drainage; final waste drop platforms; and additional clearing of total of the embankment.In addition, the works associated with the expansion of the 85 million tonnes per annum capacity is planned to be implemented progressively and are expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter of 2019 with commissioning due in the fourth quarter.So in summary, Cobre Panama is making strong progress towards startup in what we expect will be a very receptive market. We do believe the fundamentals for copper are strong; global urbanization; evolution of electric vehicles in the mainstream is happening at a rapid pace. These are all copper-intensive activities. While government -- global political concerns are impacting our current metal prices, we're selling our production into a market where demand remains strong. So in this context of short-term uncertainty, we elected to continue our copper sales hedge program.So with that, I'll hand over to Hannes to take you through the review and the prudent steps we're taking to manage through the period.

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Clive, and good day to everyone. Heading to Slide 10 in the presentation head as quarterly production, copper production was 6% or 9,000 tonnes above Q2 2017. Sentinel's improved ore supply and process performance resulted in higher plant throughput and recoveries. These improvements led to production of 56,000 tonnes which was 12,000 tonnes higher than Q2 2017 and 6,000 tonnes above the previous quarter, quarter 1 of this year. Kansanshi smelter production reached 326,000 dry metric tonnes of concentrate and produced 80,000 tonnes of copper anode and 291,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid in the quarter.Turning to Slide 11. Comparative EBITDA of $466 million was $199 million higher and gross profit of $271 million was $205 million above Q2 2017, reflecting higher realized copper prices as the underlying market rate increased and the price profile of the sales hedge program improved. Net debt of $5.9 billion was $290 million higher than the previous quarter due to the planned capital expenditure program.Turning over to Slide 12, quarterly unit cash cost. Copper C1 cost for the second quarter of 2017 benefited from the impact of review of price provisions at Kansanshi which reduced the C1 cost by $0.08 a pound. Excluding this impact, copper C1 cost was higher by $0.08 per pound for the second quarter. C1 was impacted by $0.08 -- sorry, $0.04 per pound for an increased weighting of Sentinel contribution, as well as $0.04 per pound for the phasing of maintenance and an increase in fuel prices. All in sustaining cost of $1.76 per pound for the quarter increased $0.26 against the same period in the previous year. Increase in underlying all-in sustaining cost reflects higher Zambian royalties of sustaining CapEx as well as the change in the C1. Copper C1 and all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year remains unchanged at $1.20 to a $1.40 per pound and $1.65 to $1.85 per pound.Next slide, Slide 13, strengthening the balance sheet. This outlines our debt maturity profile and our current liquidity profile. We continue to proactively manage our balance sheet to ensure we have strong liquidity and appropriate covenants. We have no significant debt maturities until December 2020 and the senior notes maturing in 2021 and 2022 are callable at the company's option. At Q2 2018 the company was in compliance with all its existing facility covenants and ended the quarter in a strong position with $1.5 billion of undrawn committed facilities and $682 million of unrestricted cash.Turning to Slide 14 and the hedge program. With the short-term uncertainty and level markets, we've elected to continue with our copper hedge program into the first half of this year. In the quarter before the recent fall in prices, we entered into a further 30,000 metric tonnes of zero cost collars for the period July 2018 to June 2019. The price floor at $3.10 per pound and [ license ] average ceilings of $3.48 per pound. We also entered into a further 15,000 metric tonnes of forward contracts for the period July to December of this year at an average price of $3.28 per pound. The chart shows the improving price profile of our hedge book with a relatively low volumes and a higher weighting to zero cost collars than in the past providing protection whilst being able to benefit from any upside.Moving to the next slide on capital expenditure. Cobre Panama project capital guidance remains unchanged at $6.3 billion with $800 million of total capital expense to completion. Expenditure for the first 6 months of the year was $781 million or $547 million on a net basis. Guidance on other group CapEx also remains unchanged.Thank you. And I'll now hand you back over to Clive.

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Thank you, Hannes. So Julie, could you open the lines now for questions, please?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Ralph Profiti with Eight Capital.

R
Ralph M. Profiti
Research Analyst

You mentioned the site visit back in May. When we were there we had talked about electrical instrumentation being on the critical path and with that, there was sort of more personnel needed to get where the project needed to be, just wondering if I can get a specific update on that?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Zenon, could you deal with that?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Yes, I can -- yes, certainly. In terms of the personnel we had ramped up our electrical to a peak, so it is peak out and electrical vehicle engaged on the project. We've made very good progress. We've been hitting our targets on cable pulling implementation and very importantly, we've now energized 3 main substations and moved into commissioning and all 3 are the first 3 nodes, so the substations for the first 3 nodes is now energized and under commissioning and the substations for [ raffle ] floatation and cleaner floatation. So what we did identify as a critical path on the site visit and it has been addressed quite strongly and is progressing well.

R
Ralph M. Profiti
Research Analyst

Okay. And I just want to confirm whether or not sort of we have some interesting milestones in the near term. We had talked about first ore production being January of 2019 and first concentrate shipments in around March 2019, wondering if those are still holding strong.

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

No change to those. At the moment we are moving much more quickly than we were in the first half of the year. So, for example, we start pulling conveyor belts in August which is only in a couple of weeks and we have about a 5-month program to pull all of the conveyor belts. And -- so we're feeling very confident about the first ore delivery, there’s a photo in the pack that you might have seen which is the sort of 10-feet crusher, and it's essentially complete and we're just working on the conveyor. So there is no change and we're actually feeling quite confident with what we've said.

Operator

Your next question comes from Matthew Fields with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

M
Matthew Wyatt Fields
Director

I wanted to ask just sort of about your liquidity position, with the draw on Kalumbila term loan in the quarter and the sort of recent work you did on the refi a number of months ago. Do you feel like you have adequate liquidity, like everything you need kind of in place as your investment cycle kind of winds down over the course of this year and into next year? Or do you think that there's additional sort of steps to be taken on the balance sheet?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

We've got sufficient liquidity. If you look at that slide that we presented, it's $2.2 billion of liquidity available. On the Cobre Panama capital spend, we're looking at a total of $800 million and net of a little bit less than $600 million for us to go. So we've got sufficient liquidity.

M
Matthew Wyatt Fields
Director

Okay. And then as you -- as Cobre Panama comes online and you're in a significantly higher mode of EBITDA generation, do you -- how do you think about your mix of secured and unsecured debt? Right now you're predominantly unsecured, do you think that there's a -- more of a place for arguably cheaper secured debt in your structure?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

Matt, we continue to evaluate that and there probably is some place. I mean, overall we've stated that we need to reduce our leverage, so we'll be aiming to reduce our leverage ratio as a first target and then also reducing our absolute amount of debt. So I think in future we'll consider all of those options.

M
Matthew Wyatt Fields
Director

Does that mean potentially when the 21s are coming due or earlier as they're callable, you may pay them down with cash as opposed to terming them out and refinancing?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, that's certainly a possibility. I mean it all depends on the quick ramp up of Cobre Panama on the metal prices, so there is a possibility.

Operator

Your next question comes from Lawson Winder with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

L
Lawson Winder
Associate

Just on Kansanshi for me, so -- and Sentinel as well, just looking out to this -- the reduced power for I guess basically starting this week for up to 31 days, do you guys have a sense specifically of how much power you will be getting versus your full requirements?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Zenon?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Yes, we have a sense of it, but look, it's only marginally below what we need to run pretty optimally. So it's not -- as we've said in the MD&A, it's not going to have a material impact on our guidance going forward and we're doing what we can to make the most of the power that's available.

L
Lawson Winder
Associate

And then also if I might second chance to you, so the recoveries were quite good overall. I'm just curious maybe if we could get a little bit of guidance on what you expect for recoveries end of H2, so what we had for Q2, is it -- are those levels that can be sustained over the next 2 quarters?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Yes, I think those recoveries have been steadily improving and with work that we've been doing on treating tarnished ore, we hope we'll get to see some small increases going forward as well.

L
Lawson Winder
Associate

And then what that tarnished ore to -- and I know the grades were a little lower like 0.9 versus 1.2 last quarter. I mean is 0.9 the level that you would expect going forward with that or should that pick up?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

There or thereabouts. No, we can't predict precisely at this point, but something like that, yes.

L
Lawson Winder
Associate

And then also just on the asset sales, so those actually stepped up quite a bit in the quarter, so $8 million versus $2 million last quarter. I noted that you were planning to build a fixed asset storage facility. Just curious, are you expecting those asset sales to continue ramping up or would $8 million a quarter be sort of a good run-rate for now or at least for 2018?

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

Yes, around $30 million for the year approximately.

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Going forward.

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

For this year, it will be roundabout $30 million full year that we...

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Okay, but that's kind of steady state, do you think? Yes.

L
Lawson Winder
Associate

And then just one final thing on Kansanshi and that will be it for me. You noted that the gold plant had some processing constraints. I was just curious maybe you could just elaborate a little bit on exactly what those were and what the resolution was that you noted in your MD&A?

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

They've been looking at the different types of tables and the different types of gravity.

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Yes, I think they're just -- they're all about just improving gold recovery. There was nothing particularly wrong with the gold plant, it's just we were always working to improve efficiency.

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

And optimize the process.

Operator

Your next question comes from off Oscar Cabrera with CIBC.

O
Oscar M. Cabrera
Former Director of Equity Research

Just looking at the -- your comment on the covenant ratios, can you remind me what facility you have this covenants on? And is it like a step down like we used to have before or is it just like 5x until you finish Cobre Panama?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Oscar, it is on a main corporate facility. There's a 5 -- the best ratio is at 5x for this quarter, I think it steps down to 4.75x for the next 4 quarters and then to 4.5x and eventually to about 3.5x in about 2020 or something like that.

O
Oscar M. Cabrera
Former Director of Equity Research

Now with respect to the hedging, was that just having the fiscal late entry which I think is -- are creating a little bit of concerns in the market with regards to copper price. Were you looking at that or is it -- are you concerned with any part of the commissioning of ramp up in Cobre Panama and as such you put this in place?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

Oscar, we don't have particular insight as to upcoming events, so those were done before the trade wars as well, so I think had we known of this we probably would have done a bit more. But it was done roundabout -- so if you look at the strike swaps, they were down at about $3.28 and the collars about $3.10 and nearly $3.50. So it was done when the price was about close to $3.30. It's a relatively small amount. It's about a month's production in total. You're looking at 30,000 tonnes on the collars, 30,000 tonnes and about 15,000 tonnes on these swaps. Look, it's just to maintain that protection on the copper project whilst we are in the bold phase at a modest level.

O
Oscar M. Cabrera
Former Director of Equity Research

In terms of the completion of the pre-strip and thank you for clarifying the advancement that you had in the tailings and embankment, do you have an estimate as to when you will be finished with pre-strip and the tailings and embankment and will you put at 70% now?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Zenon, do you want to do that?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Sure. We've got targets for pre-strip by the end of quarter 3 and the end of the year and the pre-strip rate increases as we put the larger fleet on the ultra-class which is being phased in. So the pre-strip -- I haven't got the percentage in front of me, it's currently about 80% -- 82% complete I think and so we're on target to meet those targets by quarter 3 and the end of the year especially with the commissioning proceeding. In terms of the [ PNS ] embankment, the PNS was basically a constant construction work we're building at the moment in the starter embankments and the basis for the sand pads that continue through operation and for those who were on the site visit, we looked at one particular sector that was under construction. The eastern road is completely finished and complete and we're working on 3 sections in the northern road and 2 other sections are complete. So as progress those, and we're making reasonably progress, we get to the levels we need and what we're looking at the moment is where we would actually start depositing the payment and the methodology is where exactly we will start on the PNS and where we would deposit tailings quarter by quarter. So we are pretty comfortable with the project and the startup plan even if we're still working on finishing off some specific sections or areas because we have got as we said 70% of the PNS is complete, we've got large areas already where we could start the deposit tailings if we needed to. So by the end of the year, we'll be in much better shape.

O
Oscar M. Cabrera
Former Director of Equity Research

Are you concerned at all that you're going to start running into the rainy season in Panama as you're finishing of the pre-strip? Is it...

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

I think it's the...

O
Oscar M. Cabrera
Former Director of Equity Research

Sorry, go ahead.

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Yes, that's okay. I think it's the opposite, we've actually had a very wet start of the year, so if you look at the first 6 months of this year, statistically it's been easily 50% greater than previous years. I think if you look statistically as well the second half of the year through to November it's quite dry. So what I'm -- I don't say expecting, but if you look what you had phased out, we made really good progress in very heavy rains and the second half of the year is normally much better than the first half of the year. So the opportunity for making very good progress is actually over the next 3 to 4 months in particular. And we had a peak on our construction [indiscernible], so you would be in a position to optimize over the next few months where work has been carried out of the PNS. We should be able to do much more in the next few months than we were able to do in the third part of the year.

Operator

Your next question comes from Craig Burns with TD Securities.

C
Craig Burns
Research Analyst

Zenon, back to you again. You've got 6 percentage points of project -- overall project completion in Q2 and it sounds like you think that's going to accelerate over the second half of the year. Can you give us some kind of sense of where you think you'll be by the end of year by overall -- in terms of overall project completion?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

In terms of the overall project completion, I won't try and describe it in a percentage. What we're aiming to do is have the drive plans that keeps crushing conveying through the stockpile complete so that we're able to bring out our stockpile [indiscernible]. We are focusing on priority areas because it's a 5-year project with policy we have done 7 mills at launch. So we'll be starting up 3 mills and following with subsequent trades and the final mill will then follow after that. So I think it's actually -- we're looking very closely at the phasing of how we can start and how we would be re-commissioned and how much we can commission? One of the things we had done is we've increased quite significantly in the last 2 months and now we talked about commissioning team because where we think we can actually make up time quite easily is if we overkill it in the commissioning team because then we can actually solve problems more quickly and commission more areas more quickly. So as I mentioned, we experienced 3 areas now. We are in the first 3 mills and raffle flotation and cleaner flotation and one of the reasons for that is because they're increasing the size of the commissioning team and bringing a number of [indiscernible] as well. So I think we're going to make faster progress than what was envisaged in the commissioning of the plant.

C
Craig Burns
Research Analyst

Just to clear then, Zenon, you anticipate starting up the first 3 mills or into the mill, I think it was January was the original target? Is that what you're planning now, these 3 mills on startup?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Yes, 3 mills on startup is the plan, yes.

Operator

Your next question comes from Alex Hacking with Citi.

A
Alexander Nicholas Hacking
Director

I just wanted to follow up on something on Cobre Panama if that's okay. On the site visit earlier this year, it seemed like one of the critical part items was importing a huge number of electrical contractors. Could you maybe give us an update on how you stand on that item?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Sure, we're at a peak now. So I mentioned earlier we've got 2,000 electrical workers engaged and we've bolstered and strengthened the electrical side of the commissioning team. So where we recognized we had an issue during the site visit, we said it was a critical part with reaction to it and at the moment we're steady. So we're not increasing the electrical resources more, we are steady as we are. And we'll actually be looking at reducing them in due course. So we went up quite quickly to a peak and we got on those commissioning resources and we're steady on those EMI manning and expertise for construction and commissioning.

Operator

Your next question comes from Ian Rossouw (sic)[ Izak Rossouw ] with Barclays.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

Just on the CapEx spending so far, Cobre Panama, looks like you've already spent about 66% of your guidance for the full year. Does that imply your spending will reduce or I mean it just seems at -- slightly at odds given your peak construction period at the moment?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

We are at peak construction. We're planning to be at peak for another couple of months. We didn't do a couple of things that maybe don't follow transactional, so one example is we focused on an expedite on all of the space processing. So we wanted to make sure that we were receiving sales I would say late or later than what we like. So that is a big push on the space. We normally leave an air freight allowance at the end of the job; we judiciously use some of that to bring some specific task and in fact that expedited completion of some areas. And I think they also -- we acted pretty strongly in critical task activities such as the [ E&I ] where we ramped up more quickly which means we get through our [indiscernible] and then we'll ramp down before the end of the year on E&I for example. So we'll be bringing some things forward which we balance to some extent at the end of the year.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

I mean, how much of the -- how much pre-commercial production spending do you have that's not included in the CapEx guidance?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

Hannes, do you have that at all?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

I'm trying to think what it was.

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

I mean, I would give guide on about 100, 70 to 100.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

For this year or for next year?

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

That's in the set of this year.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

And then there will be I guess another in addition to that before you get to commercial production for next year?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

That's correct, yes.

J
Juliet Wall
General Manager of Finance

Yes. But that's not -- that did -- actually comes down a bit next year.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

And just on the second question, just on the asset sale, the Kansanshi, just wanted to get an idea of your thinking on that, I mean I guess the plan originally why you built the smelter was to employ all this cheap and free asset to I guess treat all the high sort of gang consuming assets -- sorry, sort of asset consuming ores. And I'm just surprised that you're actually selling asset now, is it just those stockpiles have run out or was it just -- yes, just trying to get thinking around that?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

I think the Kansanshi operation is in a steady transition from sort of half and half, so far it oxide to predominately so far, so the asset consumption is declining, while fixed production maintain -- continues at the same level.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

When do you planning to reclassify some of those mixed into oxide just given the cost of asset was going to be a lot cheaper, or it's just...

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

We're continuing to do -- we're continuing to do that as well.

I
Izak Jan Rossouw
Director

And you're still generating more asset than you need?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Yes.

Operator

Your next question comes from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

J
John Charles Tumazos
President and Chief Executive Officer

After Cobre is fully commissioned and met tactical standards et cetera, how long of a period do you expect will pass before First Quantum embarks on Haquira or Taca Taca or some new project? Do you think there'll be a period of 1 or 2 or 3 years to rebuild the balance sheet and everything down or some of the other projects getting closer to being ready?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Well, as Hannes has said, it will be period of delevering -- deleveraging both from on net debt and gross debt. But we are a growth company and we are -- our biggest shareholders follow us for that growth. And I think that we -- so we work -- we are looking at particularly Taca Taca, the most likely because it's a more straightforward project. And we're continuing to move that forward. And that will happen over the next 2 or 3 years. But we haven't set a sort of fixed timetable yet.

Operator

Your next question comes from Anita Soni with Crédit Suisse.

A
Anita Soni
Research Analyst

My question is with regards to that tailings dam change in -- or addition in scope. Is there any sort of a ballpark figure on how much that's going to -- I don't want to say impact but impact the overall CapEx budget?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

No, I don't have that --

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Do you have that?

Z
Zenon Wozniak
Director of Projects

No, I don't have that figure for it. I think what we did is we've taken the operational learning as we said and applied them here, so we've actually had to readjust some of what we were doing as well. So it's -- sometimes it just goes change [indiscernible] additions. And for example, after the site visits, we actually re-gigged some of that piping instead of being in certain locations we need to because operational learning showed that we're better in another location. So we go and we do some work or change some of our design not necessarily just in addition.

Operator

Your next question comes from Orest Wowkodaw with Scotiabank.

O
Orest Wowkodaw
Senior Equity Research Analyst of Base Metals

Just curious about Kansanshi. You've had pretty strong production of first half of year. You're tracking above the annual guidance on a run-rate basis. Are you anticipating their grades are going to fall in the second half of the year or is there potential that maybe do better than the guidance?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

No, I think we're always a little conservative with our guidance, so we always hope we can do better than the guidance. But -- so, no, it's other than the thought of the maintenance shutdowns we've talked about, we're expecting steady state really.

Operator

Your next question comes from Karl Blunden with Goldman Sachs.

K
Karl Blunden
Senior Analyst

Just a bigger picture question, a lot of mining companies say that copper assets are in very short supply right now. I don't see your comment on the types of conversations you've had historically with majors, potentially folks who like your assets. Has anything changed in the current environment where it feels like there's not a lot of development assets and anything you can share there on kind of the M&A landscape would be very helpful?

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

No, look, we don't comment on things like that on conference calls. Obviously we've got a portfolio of very nice operations and assets. So I'm sure there is some interest out there, but that's inevitable and -- but we can't comment on specifics.

K
Karl Blunden
Senior Analyst

Understood. And then just on the ZRA inquiry, it looks like you've made steady progress according to the timeline you'd initially outlined. As we think about next steps, are there milestones or key dates we should keep in mind as we think about the risk associated with that investigation?

H
Hannes Otto Meyer
Chief Financial Officer

I think that will just take some time to -- because it is an awful lot of documents like I've said 290,000 documents, but I think ZRA will take time to work through some of those documents and will eventually get to some resolution. So I don't think you could have exact timetable that you can pin this to, but it will get resolved and I mean our position remains unchanged from what we said before.

Operator

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Newall for closing remarks.

G
Geoffrey Clive Newall
President & Director

Well, thank you everybody for your call today and your participation. If there's any follow-up questions, please call myself or Sharon Loung and we'll do our best to get back to you. So look forward to talking to you all again in the next quarter. Thanks. Goodbye.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call, you may now disconnect.