RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Aura stock fallingPartial transcript from CEO on the 2nd quarter conference call:
Guidance increased to 264-294K ounces. Almas waiting for final goverment approval, I expect we should have an update on this process soon as I had expected an announcement before end of August on construction of Almas. Next catalyst after Almas will be the updated mineral reserves expected around or just after the 4th quarter. Aura continues to replace and increase reserves as they ramp up production. The higher end guidance I believe was based on $4.25 coppper and $1,750 gold prices. Plus expecting higher grades and better mine sequencing at exsisting mines.
As I mentioned, we updated our guidance for the year, coming from 250,000 to 290,000 ounces. Now we updated this to 264,000 to 294,000 ounces, narrowing the gap and also putting a little bit to the higher end, which means that we've been able to not only accomplish what we planned, but also due to a higher copper price also be able to increase our guidance for the whole year.
Almas we've been finalizing negotiations with the state of Tocantins in order to give some other benefits to the state, environmental social, that should be finished, I believe in the next couple of weeks. And once we do so then we are ready to start we have all the licenses, and all the documents in place to start the construction. Just waiting these final negotiations to happen so that we can very, very soon start the construction.
Matup, all this third is that I mentioned to our shareholders is progressing. According to our plan, I just remind to all that we already have over 350,000 ounces of resources and that is being converted to reserves. We are now doing metallurgical mine design, plan design in order to upgrade that to reserves until the end of the year. All the [indiscernible] of these and we've been very glad to see the first results coming in. But now we will only be able to issue the report by the end of the year in terms of reserves and then right after, updated pre-feasibility study to the market in order to be able to start the construction of Matup by the end of next year or early 2023.
As a subsequent event, important to mention that we just raised close to $77 million that the use of proceeds is to build Almas or do M&As. We continue to look alternatives in order to grow more than we have in our portfolio. Although very conservatively, we've been taking a very precise analysis in order to do the right decisions when it comes there's nothing at the moment, but we continue to look in that direction.