3 quarters - 3 events Briefly, the last 3 quarters could be summed up by "3 particular events".
2020-Q2 is for the containment of a limited number of human resources at the Nampala site. At that time, we were at the height of the crisis and the whole planet was trying to better understand the behavior of this virus and how we should react to this danger. In the face of this uncertainty, the decision of the management team was to confine enough employees to continue operations at the site in order to maintain the plant's production efforts. For this quarter, Robex successfully produced 13,921 ounces of gold.
2020-Q3 is one of a very intense rainy season. This quarter started in a very specific context. Containment of employees in 2020-Q2 meant that usual preparation for the rainy season could not be completed. As a consequence, the initial mining plan could not be respected, forcing the processing of surface ore and consequently, a gold production of 10,706 ounces of gold.
The 2020-Q4 is that of the stripping of 4 new pits. This quarter began with mining for richer ores but continued with mining for much poorer minerals from the surface of the stripped areas. For your information, this ore is of the worst quality. Surface ore is not just the one with the poorest gold content, it is also the one processed by illegal miners for hundreds of years and is made up of multiple debris. In addition, these areas are made up of tunnels designed by the artisanal miners, which can affect production results as we can imagine, it is these tunnels that contained the richest areas. Even so, Robex managed to produce 10,803 ounces of gold.
Despite all these events, Robex produced for the year 2020, 50,348 ounces of gold while the forecast was 51,100 ounces. Considering all of these events, I consider the overall results to be astounding and we can be proud of the results achieved. The management team was very responsive, which helped protect the health of employees while minimizing the impact on production results.
As mentioned, the stripping of these 4 pits resulted in the results obtained in 2020-Q4 being below those I had estimated. For this gap, I apologize even if in the end nothing is lost. The processing of this low grade gold ore had to be processed sooner or later so what is done will not have to be redone. The richer ore from these 4 pits is now accessible, which already allows us to anticipate better production results for the coming quarters, see the next few years. For those who are disappointed with the operating results for the year 2020, you can always take comfort in this financial asset contained in the ground and which will soon be extracted. Whether the ounces of gold are mined now or later, it should be understood that at maturity, they will all be mined.
Luckily you might say, the weaker production results are consistent with the slide in the value of gold in the markets from the peak reached in July 2020. A positive recovery in the value of gold for the coming months , combined with better production results, could therefore contribute to better financial results. As you can see, sometimes we are lucky.
Regarding the Robex stock price, the yield is still 109% for the last 12 months. If we compare this yield to other gold mining companies present in Mali, we cannot complain. For the same period, B2Gold has a return of 16%, Endeavor 26%, Kinross 31%, Iamgold 15% and Galiano -11%. In addition, Robex is the one that gave the best dividend yield.
Regarding drilling results, we now have 663,000 ounces of indicated and measured resource grade gold. The 2020 drilling campaign, compared to the 43-101 technical report of May 2019, increased mineral resources by 342,000 ounces of gold. Considering that Robex produced 82,884 ounces of gold during this period, regardless of what was produced in 2021-Q1, we can conclude that the 2020 drilling campaign demonstrated the presence of more than 424,884 new ounces of gold. These results are great because it presents the ability to demonstrate the renewal of mineral resources much faster than what we can extract. As a result, the sustainability of the Nampala factory is guaranteed for a decade and an increase in production capacity is increasingly possible.
In conclusion, we can be very confident for the future. We now have a large amount of mineral resources; a production capacity enhanced by the improvements made in recent months; a cone crusher in operation for the last few days that will process harder and richer ore; the availability of the bottom of the main pit richer and which can be treated with the objective of reducing production gaps; the consequences of the pandemic in control and ultimately the time and capacity to prepare adequately for the next rainy season.
Let us be confident, the quality of what in front of us deserves our attention.