Earnings call transcript: Evolution Mining Q1 2025 sees strong cash flow

Evolution Mining Ltd (EVN), with a market capitalization of $399.45 million and an attractive P/E ratio of 11.12, reported robust financial performance in its Q1 2025 earnings call, showcasing strong cash flow and strategic expansions. Despite a lack of specific earnings forecast data, the company’s stock saw a modest increase of 1.9%, with its last closing price at $7.90. Evolution’s operational successes, coupled with a positive gold price environment, contributed to optimism about future cash generation. According to InvestingPro, the company’s net income is expected to grow this year, with analysts predicting continued profitability.

Key Takeaways

• Evolution produced 180,000 ounces of gold and nearly 20,000 tonnes of copper.
• Achieved an all-in sustaining cost of $16.16 per ounce.
• Completed the Mungari plant expansion ahead of schedule and under budget.
• Projected $2.3 billion in operating cash flow for the year.
• Strong cash position exceeding $660 million, with gearing below 20%.

Company Performance

Evolution Mining demonstrated solid performance in Q1 2025, maintaining low all-in sustaining costs and generating significant cash flow. The company produced substantial quantities of gold and copper, aligning closely with market demand and price improvements. Strategic projects, such as the Mungari plant expansion and the Cowal Open Pit Continuation, reflect Evolution’s commitment to growth and innovation. InvestingPro analysis reveals an impressive overall Financial Health Score of 2.53 (GOOD), with particularly strong scores in cash flow management (2.96) and growth potential (2.72). The company has maintained dividend payments for 13 consecutive years, currently offering a substantial 6.11% dividend yield.

Financial Highlights

• Gold production: 180,000 ounces
• Copper production: Just under 20,000 tonnes
• All-in sustaining cost: $16.16 per ounce
• Group cash flow: $270 million for the quarter
• Cash position: Over $660 million

Market Reaction

Following the earnings call, Evolution Mining’s stock price increased by 1.9%, closing at $7.90. This movement reflects investor confidence in the company’s strategic direction and financial health, despite broader market volatility. InvestingPro data shows the stock has delivered an impressive 8.33% return over the past year and trades near its 52-week high of $11.31, indicating strong market positioning. The company’s defensive nature is evident in its beta of 0.53, suggesting lower volatility compared to the broader market.

Outlook & Guidance

Evolution Mining is on track to meet its full-year production guidance, with expectations for increased cash generation in the June quarter. The company plans capital investments of $750 to $950 million over the next five years, focusing on growth opportunities across its portfolio. The positive outlook is underpinned by favorable gold and copper price environments.

Executive Commentary

• "We are delivering to guidance," said Laurie Conway, CEO, highlighting the company’s consistent performance.
• Jake Klein, Executive Chair, emphasized, "What could be better than converting an old gold mine into renewable clean energy infrastructure assets?"
• Glen Marston, VP Discovery, remarked, "We have a world-class mineral system here at a fantastic geologic address."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential impacts of US-Canada trade tensions on market dynamics.
• Exploration and development risks at key sites like Cowal and Mungari.
• Managing capital allocation amid project sequencing challenges.
• Maintaining low all-in sustaining costs in a volatile commodity market.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s exploration potential at Cowal, Mungari, and North Parks. Discussions also covered Evolution’s capital allocation strategy and the sequencing of its major projects. These insights underscored the company’s focus on strategic growth and operational efficiency.

Full transcript - Evolution Mining Ltd (EVN) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Please go ahead.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Thank you, Ashley, and good morning, everyone. I’m joined on the call today by Jake Klein, our Executive Chair Matt O’Neill, our Chief Operating Officer Nancy Gueh, our Chief Technical Officer Glen Marston, our VP, Discovery and Peter Roffi O’Connor, our GM, Investor Relations. Today, in addition to releasing our March quarterly results, we’re excited to announce the approval of the Cowal open pit continuation project that will sustain the operation as a world class one asset for at least the next seventeen years. Glen Marston, our VP, Discovery, tells me that we’re not discovering at Cowal, and I’m sure he is right. We’ve released a presentation pack today, and that is what Turning to Slide three.

And I think it’s fair to say that we’ve had another successful quarter. On top of our day to day operations, though, we’ve made enormous progress on multiple value accretive organic growth projects. As I said in January, our commitment has been to continue to build on the consistency of the past four quarters, and that is what we did in the March. We are delivering to guidance. Our safety was stable with our TRIF at 5.4.

We produced around 180,000 ounces of gold and just under 20,000 tonnes of copper. Our all in sustaining cost remains one of the lowest in the sector at $16.16 dollars per ounce for the quarter and $15.75 dollars per ounce year to date for continuing operations. We’re also maintaining our discipline on costs and capital allocation. The consistency in delivery matched with the increasing gold price environment has seen our cash flow generation continue with $2.00 $7,000,000 of group cash flow delivered in the quarter. On top of this, we had an extremely productive and successful quarter with our projects.

The Mungari plant expansion has completed construction early and is now in the commissioning and ramp. This now moves Mungari back to a material contributor for the group. Now received final regulatory approval for the continuation of open pit mining. On the back of this, the Board had the easiest of decisions for the project due to the quality asset and the high rate of return it will deliver. The project is now fully approved, and Cowal is extended out to at least 02/1942.

Lastly, at Mt Rawdon, all of the work over the past few years on the pump hydro project is starting to come to fruition with the Queensland Government committing to funds for the next phase of the project. I’m not going to steal Jake’s thunder on the project. He will have the pleasure of talking to it shortly. Moving to Slide four, which really does show the outcome of the successful quarter. We have further accelerated our deleveraging, which strengthens the balance sheet.

The $2.00 $7,000,000 of group cash flow we delivered for the quarter was at an equivalent rate of $11.15 dollars per ounce. This is 30% higher than the December against only an 11% increase in the average spot gold price. We expect further improvements in cash flow in the June as we deliver our production guidance matched with a spot gold price that is $550 to $600 per ounce higher than what we achieved in the March. There’s been a lot of talk about hedge books, and Evolution has minimal hedging at 65,000 ounces to be delivered through to June 2026. It is not material in the overall scheme of things.

And when you look at it, this year, we have achieved 98.5% of the average spot price. During the quarter, we repaid all of our remaining FY ’twenty five scheduled term loan repayment. With our cash position of over $660,000,000 the outlook for near term cash generation and our gearing now below 20%, we will continue to accelerate repayments of these term loans. Our long dated debt via the USPP notes is sector leading with a very low average cost of debt at 4.5% in Australian dollar terms. It comprises 75% of our total debt with an average tenor of about six to seven years.

When we issued these notes, we fixed our currency exposure and are seeing the real benefits of that. Our principal debt is currently $180,000,000 lower, and our interest expense is 7,000,000 to 8 million dollars per annum lower than if we were exposed to currency movements. Through delivering to our planned disciplined capital allocation and banking the benefits of high metal prices, this will enable us to continue to increase returns for our shareholders. Turning to Slide five and shifting gears to our projects. Cowal is truly a world class Tier one asset.

Since acquiring the operation ten years ago, it has consistently delivered low cost ounces, the resource base has grown, it has fully repaid all acquisition and investment capital, It still has at least a seventeen year mine life. And as I said earlier, there is more upside to be extracted. Just this year alone, for the first nine months, Cowal has generated around $480,000,000 of net cash at just under $1,900 per ounce. It’s hard to resist, but it is a cash cow. The decision to invest in the open pit continuation project was easy due to the quality assets and the compelling economics of the project.

Nancy will take you through this in more detail shortly. But in short, the project will deliver around 2,000,000 incremental ounces from three satellite open pits and the existing E42 pit. The project plan and capital are very much in line with what we had outlined on-site in June. For an investment of $430,000,000 over the next seven years to generate an incremental NPV of between $875,000,000 and $2,300,000,000 at 34% to 71% rate of return and a very short payback period of one point five to four point five years from first ore. This is the right place and time to be allocating the funds.

It fully aligns with our discipline on capital allocation. We will be investing $65,000,000 to $70,000,000 of the project capital and around $5,000,000 in mine development this financial year to have the project ready for full ramp up from July. This capital was not included in our original FY ’twenty five capital guidance as the project was subject to regulatory approval at that time. Included in this capital for FY ’twenty five is the opportune purchase of low hour secondhand haul truck fleet, saving approximately $35,000,000 compared to the cost of new haul trucks. The market for this type of equipment is favorable right now, and therefore, we will continue to assess options so as to achieve the best outcomes from a capital and operating cost perspective for the long life open pit plant.

I’ll now hand over to Jake, who’s excited to share the good news on the Mt Rawdon pump hydro project.

Jake Klein, Executive Chair, Evolution Mining: Thanks, Laurie. Good morning, everyone. I’m very happy to have been invited by you, Laurie, to do a guest cameo appearance on the call today. I must admit, when I asked you, Laurie, for twenty minutes to provide the full story on Mt Rawdon, you did almost rescind the invitation. So I will try and meet my commitment to you and be as broad as possible given the exciting nature of this project.

But as many of you know on the call, the conversion of Mt Rawdon into a pumped hydro clean energy storage facility has been a pet project of mine for it has such great positive messages on so many levels for the mining industry and also our country’s transition to renewable. What could be better than converting an old gold mine into renewable clean energy infrastructure assets? It is a project we’ve been working on for over five years since our partners and joint venture owners in the project, ICA Partners, identified Mt Rawdon as a site suited to the conversion to pumps hydro. This centered around its steep topography, its closeness to the grid and the fact that it is a disturbed mine site, so its environmental is so well known. All the work we have done over the last five years has demonstrated this to be correct, and we’ve set out some of this on Slide six.

Mt Rawdon has proven to be one of the most advanced, lowest capital intensive pumped hydro projects in Australia. It is competitive on every important metric compared to other energy storage alternatives. Last week, the project received a major boost when announced the Queensland government support in advancing the Mt Rawdon pumped hydro project to final investment decision. This support is being funded through CleanCo, a government owned entity who are currently spending $30,000,000 on further study and geotechnical, ahead of deciding whether to exercise their option by the September. The agreement we have put in place with CleanCo aligns ICI and Evolution’s interests with the success of the project right through to commissioning through various milestone payments and also the right to process any gold extracted as the current open pit is reshaped to serve as the lower reservoir for an infrastructure asset that will be built and operated for one hundred years.

Finally, probably something that was not considered in the initial analysis but is truly proving to be invaluable is the exceptional community and indigenous partner relationships Evolution has built up over the last decade. Since the announcement from the Queensland government last week, the response and feedback from these important stakeholders have been overwhelmingly positive with the recognition that building this project will add jobs and contribute to the local community for decades to come. Laurie, thanks again for the guest slots, and I’ll now hand over to Matt to provide some more detail on what has been a genuinely outstanding quarter for Evolution. Thank you, Jake, and Ardak to follow.

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: The March was another solid quarter of safely delivering on our plan. The consistency and predictability of our operations has improved materially over the last year. This is built on the back of strong teamwork and collaboration at each of the operations and also more broadly across the wider Revolution organization, with the goal being we say, we do, we deliver. If everyone would turn to Slide seven, a bit of an update on the operations. Firstly, what we delivered in the March.

We achieved several important milestones during this quarter, as noted earlier by Laurie. At Mungari, we successfully completed the 4.2 mill expansion ahead of schedule and under budget. And at Cowal, we received all approvals required to extend the life of the operation to 02/1942. In preparation for the next twenty years of operation at Cowal, the mill underwent a major refurbishment, which commenced in mid March. These two assets are core parts of the foundation for continued success for the group and are a good demonstration of our capabilities in project execution, which sets us up for long term growth opportunities.

The operations delivered consistently through the quarter, although Red Lake production was interrupted in February as a result of a blocked pace line. I’m happy to update that the line is back to full operation with Red Lake returning to planned production rates through the month of March. Looking ahead, we’re set up to finish the year well and are on track for group guidance. Mt Rawdon is expected to continue to generate material cash flow during its final quarters of operation through processing the stockpiles. Ernest Henry is on track to finalize the ventilation upgrade, which will allow a more productive operation in the June.

And at Mungari, the commissioning of the new 4.2 mill is well underway. Of note at Cowal, the major mill refurbishment is on track for operation and due to come up in mid April. During the mill refurbishment, we also carried out works to increase the capacity of the Aleutian Circuit. In order to complete this upgrade, we drew down on our working gold stocks, which over the course of the first part of the June will be replenished. I’ll now hand over to Nancy to talk through some of the exciting projects we’ve got underway.

Nancy Gueh, Chief Technical Officer, Evolution Mining: Thank you very much, Matt. I’m going to start with a personal note before going with the three slides that we will discuss the project. Being part of the Evolution team for over a year has been a privilege. I’m excited about the strength of our portfolio and more importantly, the significant value we’re positioned to create in the years ahead. What inspires me most, however, is the opportunity to work alongside such a strong, engaged and passionate team.

With over thirty years of experience in the mining industry, I spent the past two decades at Agnico Eagle as a Vice President, Technical Services, Innovation and Optimization. This marked my second professional journey in Australia, having previously worked as a consultant for Platy Mining. Over the next three slides, I will provide an overview of our project portfolio, focusing on the strategic intent behind the Kyle Open pit conservation project, which I will name OPC, and the long term potential of the KAL underground. We manage a robust and well aligned suite of projects designed to deliver sustainable value for evolution. Each asset has been strategically positioned to enhance our portfolio, and we remain focused and disciplined timely and capital efficient.

Several key projects have been prioritized, and we are pleased to report strong momentum across the portfolio. A standout example is the Montgomery expansion project, where timing aligned well with favorable market condition and was further strengthened by exceptional collaboration between Evolution and our contracting partners. The project was delivered nine months ahead of schedule and 9% under budget with a total capital of $2.20. Commissioning is progressing well and remains firmly on track. The long term future of Cowal is strongly underpinned by the development of its underground potential, which I will cover more in detail in the final slide.

We continue to make solid progress on development activity while enhancing our geological understanding of this high quality ore body. Production remain on track, and we are progressing towards achieving 2,400,000 tonne per annum throughput by 2026. At NorthPark, the E48 project is advancing as planned. We are now integrating the outcome of a recent study with our life of mine plan to confirm the optimal production profile and development schedule. The next six to nine months will be an active and pivotal period across the portfolio.

Key milestones include the completion of the commissioning at Montgomery, continue the advancement at North Park, including the trade off study for E22, block caving versus a sublevel caving the finalization of the feasibility study for the MSN re extension at depth and the Verde deposit and as I outlined on the following slide, the commencement of the Cal open pit concentration project. The OPC project greatly enhanced the Cal life of mine and Super Evolution long term production profile. As outlined on Slide nine, the OPC project is fully execution ready. In July, the project will begin constructing a lake protection bound, a vital infrastructure that will enable the safe development of three new open. This includes the E42 extension with E46 GR scheduled to enter in production in 2020.

E41 is planned to come online as the third production pit in 02/1930. The key value drivers of this project is the extension of mine open pit by over ten years, an additional 2,000,000 ounces for the overall production profile, the development of critical infrastructure to enable future underground expansion and the sustainability benefits through the infilling storage at E46 and GR. This project is a cornerstone innovation strategy, delivering scale, longevity and future optionality at one of our key assets. As mentioned earlier, Charles’ long term future the OPC project is key to delivering production and critical infrastructure that will support future underground expansion. As shown on Slide 10, the deposits remain open at depth, and we continue to deliver constant low cost resource replacement averaging just $20 20 3 dollars per ounce.

This reflects the ore body quality and our disciplined approach to exploration and development. Recent underground development has enhanced our geological understanding and confirmed the system broader potential. Combined with Cal position in a Tier one jurisdiction and evolution from an operational capability, this reinforced the strategic value of this asset within our portfolio. The Kalla Underground continued to unlock material upside, strengthening our production base and delivering long term share. I’m now handing over to Larry for the conclusion.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Thank you, Nancy. Summary, as outlined on Slide 11, we are set for a strong finish in the last quarter. We’ve positioned ourselves well through the hard work over the first three quarters and are on track to deliver to our guidance. It will see us deliver a material increase in cash generation in the June, and we are on track to $2,300,000,000 of operating cash flow this year. This compares favorably to what we planned when we issued guidance in August with around $500,000,000 more cash flow.

We’re progressing our organic growth projects to generate high returns. The delivery of the Mungari project ahead of schedule and under original budget, the compelling economics at Cowal and the unique approach we have taken at Mt Rawdon are perfect examples of how we are driving value from the portfolio. We maintain our discipline on capital allocation. The only changes we’ve made to capital guidance have been due to the early completion at Mungari and at Cowal with the approval of the compelling investment and opportune acquisition of a fleet. We continue to time our major projects appropriately.

The cash flow being generated is definitely flowing through to the bank so that benefits of these high metal prices are realized by our shareholders through higher returns. With that, Ashley, please open the line for questions.

Conference Operator: Your first question comes from Kate McCutcheon with Citi. Just on the timing of projects, the CapEx profile of $750,000,000 to $950,000,000 over the next five years that you presented, that’s an average. So can you just give some color on what that profile looks like? What are the high years and what are the low years? And what are the key uncertainties, if any, around timing of some of the projects?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. Kate, thanks. Look, if I look at the portfolio, the timing is going to be project dependent. And as we finish the plans for FY ’twenty six in the next couple of months when we give the guidance, we’ll be able to more clearly outline it. But if you look at Cowal, for example, because we’re opening up pits and and moving the the barn wall, the CapEx in the first couple of years will be higher and then it tails off over the remaining, you know, years three to to seven.

So we’re just working through what that’s going to be like. Similarly, when you look at the fleet that we’ve purchased now, we get to a peak requirement of probably about another seven to eight trucks. So if Matt and the team can identify suitable secondhand trucks that are a lot lower cost than the new ones, we may bring those forward. When we look at the other assets, they’re all pretty well in line over the next couple of years among Ernest Henry builds up in sort of year three to five. But as I said, when we get to our guidance, that’s when we’ll be able to outline it.

But that seven fifty to nine fifty average over the next five years. So if you were to take five years at those rates, that’s what you should be planning on.

Conference Operator: Okay. That’s helpful. And then two questions in one, the CFO update, what is the latest there? And then you’re getting close to the 15 gearing target. Will you look to retire the rest of the term loans?

Or I guess, what is the plan after that with the balance sheet?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. So in terms of the CFO status, we’re well advanced on that and wouldn’t expect it to be too long before we announce a replacement there. And in terms of the gearing, yes, we our first hurdle was to get below 20%. We’ve now got to that. Therefore, we’ve accelerated repayments on the term loans where we buy we don’t have to pay anything more this financial year.

We will make some payments in the June quarter. And then when we get to June, we’ll look at how much further we accelerate that. But I think it’s fair to say that by the time we get to 15%, we would have been reducing the gross debt at a faster rate than just the net debt. So we’ll be able to update that in June.

Conference Operator: Okay. Got it. Thank you, Larry. Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan with Barron Joey. Please go ahead.

Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Barron Joey: First question, probably a pretty straightforward one. The Cowal mill overhaul is due to be finished about now. Can I just check the status of that? And is it finished, almost finished? Thank you.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Thanks, Dan. It’s what I would say is imminent. It is due to come back online this week and tracking to that plan.

Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Barron Joey: Thank you. I know it’s very early, but turning to the Mungari mill, could you expand at all on how commissioning is going? I know it’s only been, what, second week?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. So I can hand that to Matt, but quite simply, it’s going well. It’s going to plan. Scott Barbour, the GM, was very happy to send me a screenshot of the remittance having produced the first gold bar out of it and selling it at 5,150. So he’s very happy with it.

Matt, anything to add on the commissioning?

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: No. I think you’ve covered that. It is going to plan. There’s the normal commissioning issues that the team are working through, but there’s nothing that’s come up material that I think is going to cause us a problem. So now it’s going pretty well.

Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Barron Joey: And if everything continues to plan, when would the mill be operating at full throughput and expected recoveries?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: So the commissioning and commercial production is sort of what the hurdles are. We need to go about three months at a 70% rate. So that’s sort of around a 3,000,000 tonne per annum rate and recoveries being within a few percent of plan. I can answer on Matt’s behalf by saying that we’d expect that to be in place by the June as we put in the release. Yes, no, that’s about right.

That’s our target.

Daniel Morgan, Analyst, Barron Joey: Okay. And just last question, maybe a chance for Jake on his favorite topic of the Pontadra. Mt Rawdon had, I believe this is accurate, 47,000,000 of rehab liabilities at the end of FY ’twenty four. How does the pumped hydro project change this, if any? Thanks,

Jake Klein, Executive Chair, Evolution Mining: Dan, and great question. I think we outlined in our release where we put the key commercial terms that once FID is reached, there’s a $90,000,000 payment to Evolution, which is 100% held by Evolution in addition to some other to the $100,000,000 payment on FID that is shared between ourselves and ICA, but $90,000,000 which will contribute to that $47,000,000 liability.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from Rahul Linand with Morgan Stanley.

Rahul Linand, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Two questions from me. Perhaps the first one on the all in sustaining cost performance. Just wanted to touch a bit upon that. Obviously, year to date, you’re tracking to the top end of the guidance or maybe even slightly above. And if I look at this quarter specifically, gold sales were circa 8% higher than consensus.

Silver was 14% higher on sales. Copper production was also a bit higher than consensus. And if I look at the copper pricing for the period, nearly AUD 15,000 a tonne versus your guided copper at AUD 13,750 per tonne. Yet the all in sustaining cost performance was AUD $16.80 a tonne, which is above guidance still. Admittedly, Mt Rawdon was part of that, but still top end to slightly above.

Is it fair to say that the underlying cost base is now running sustainably higher as we look into next year? How are you thinking about the last quarter as well? So that’s the first question. I’ll come back with a second. Thanks.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Rahul. Look, I think there’s a there’s a few questions within the one question that that we need to to go through. Think on copper, the first thing is that year to date, we are almost in line with the price that we have in our guidance. So yes, this quarter was higher, but year to date, we’re we’re sort of almost bang online with what we had guided at. If you then look at at the gold price, we’ve achieved 4,500 against 3,300.

So royalties are higher. But as I always say, we’ll take the 95% extra in the revenue line if we take extra in the cost. So that is having an impact probably in the order of $50 to $60 an ounce that is in there against our guidance. Then if we look at March, you’ve got to take into consideration that Cowal, largest producer and lowest cost, has the shutdown. So half of those maintenance costs will hit this quarter with lower production.

Next quarter, you you’ll get better production and you’ll still have some of those shutdown costs. But over those shutdown costs then spread over the full year, you get a lower all in sustaining cost by the time we get to the full year cost number. Then when you look at you’re going into sales consensus versus I’m more worried about what our plan is. We sold a bit more in March because of when December end was that we weren’t able to sell. So we then sold that in the in the March.

March quarter end was a was a weekday. We’re also able to do sales at the end. So therefore, sales were higher. But if you then go and look at Red Lake, Red Lake sales were three 10% lower, and that is due to a buildup of concentrate stocks till we get the saleable quantity that will sell into June. So the higher production at Red Lake and the sales of that concentrate, we’ll see their all in sustaining costs go down.

So to answer the last part of your question, are we seeing a shift in the overall cost base? No. We’re seeing that pretty well in line. The only thing I would say that I hadn’t touched on was at Mungari, we did sell some very low grade stockpile material through toll treating that would be higher than the average cost, but that material, now that the plant’s been commissioned early, would not have got processed until the back end of the mine life. So we took the opportunity to get that toll treated, has increased the AISC a bit, but that, from our perspective, isn’t material given that we’re getting the revenue right now.

Got it. No change to the guidance.

Rahul Linand, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Got it. Got it. No, look, that’s very detailed. Thank you for that. And I guess we’ll have to make up our own minds on next year, etcetera.

But it seems like you’re well placed for the last quarter. And then I guess the second question is just will

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: make a comment on that. Is good that we get to the end of the March and everyone just moves on to next year. Unfortunately, for Matt, I can’t let him do that. He’s got a quarter to but if you do look at our cost base, 50% of our costs are labor. And what we would see is that we would expect a lower rate of increase than last year given where inflation’s at.

But you should expect that on 50% of our cost base, you’re going to see somewhere around 3% to 4% increase in our labor costs, so half of that. The other costs are pretty well holding in line. And then depending on what price assumption you use for gold price next year, which makes up about 5% to 6% of our cost base. If you’re holding it at $5,000 an ounce and we’re averaging $4,500 this year, then for you, you’re going to have a higher royalty cost next year. But they’re the big drivers that you would see in terms of our costs for next year versus this year.

Rahul Linand, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: No. That’s brilliant, mate. That’s very clear in detail, so thanks for that. Look, the second one that I was going to get on to was just the Red Lake grade variability that we’ve had from the mine. Obviously, you’re doing a bit of work in there.

But I guess what I wanted to understand was the works that you’re carrying out at the moment, does that kind of leave you in a better, more predictable grade profile into perhaps next year? Or do we continue to expect this grade variability continue for the asset?

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: It’s Matt here. I’ll answer that one. In terms of the grade variability for the quarter, that was driven by the paste conversation and essentially us mining in different places to where we planned because of it. And so that’s the key driver there. Yes, you should expect and we do expect more predictability out of the grade going forward.

And there’s two aspects to that. One is everything working as per plan and the pace and things turning over, but also the drilling and understanding exactly where we are and getting further in front of ourselves. So those are the two drivers. That’s exactly where we’re headed.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler with Macquarie. Please go ahead. Andrew Bowler, your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: Yeah. Sorry. The old on mute. Good day, all. Just, sticking on RedLight, I guess, a question for Matt.

Just wondering if there’s any incremental costs, associated with, the the trade for tat that’s happening between The U. S. And Canada at the moment? How much of your consumables come from south of the border and also plant and equipment, obviously, which could feed into the CapEx line there at Red Lake?

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. Andrew, that’s probably as good a question as any. I mean, in terms of what it’s going to be, we’re not certain, and I don’t think we’re alone in that. So we are expecting it to have some impact, and the team are working through that primarily around budgets for next year in terms of the conversations. We’ve got some reasonable stock levels for our key consumables and bits and pieces on-site.

But the honest answer is we’re not certain, and we’ll wait and see over the next quarter. But I’d like to say not much, but we’ll see. I know that’s not the answer you’re after, but I really don’t know the answer.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yeah. The just to add to that, Andrew, would be that their operating costs, you know, spend about $260,000,000 to $280,000,000 Canadian a year, a large portion of that is labor. And and then you’ve got power and and and the like that are in in domestic. We’ve done a first pass analysis where at the moment, where the tariff rates sort of been indicated for Canada, we don’t see it as material and significant. Probably, rough estimate would be around 5%.

But that’s at the top end depending on where it escalates. And then in terms of capital at Red Lake, we’re not buying a lot of mobile equipment and infrastructure. It’s a lot of civils and works around the biggest piece of work is going be in the tailings, which will be country. We will continue to monitor the tariffs like everyone else is enjoying the daily updates.

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: That’s obviously if Canada doesn’t become based in Alaska. In terms of operational stuff, maybe another one for Matt, just reading the quarterly, talking about a lift in recovery in the June at Ernest Henry Vireo flash float circuit coming online. Just wondering if you could quantify that lift in recovery for us. And also, it sounds like it’s a new bit of equipment that recoveries will continue.

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. So in terms of it’s come online and running and going quite well. There’ll be two aspects to the recovery bump. One will be we’ll see a slight increase in our grade based on the ventilation circuit coming online, but we’ll also see a bump around the additional plant. And so what we’re targeting is around 1% in terms of where that comes from.

Those are the two key areas we’re pulling it from. So that’s what we’re looking for. If we can get a little more, we will, and the team are working quite well on it, but that’s what we’re chasing.

Conference Operator: The next question comes from David Radcliffe with Global Mining Research. Please go ahead.

David Radcliffe, Analyst, Global Mining Research: Good morning, Laurie, Jake, and team. So just a question back on Cal for me. So on the Stage I cut back, just looking really to some more details. So maybe could you give us an idea of when you expect the first year of ore from the cutback to start that base case four point five year payback or better at spot? Maybe sort of an idea on what the key stripping years are and what the material movement tops out at?

And sort of

Glen Marston, VP, Discovery, Evolution Mining: going in hand with that, what are

David Radcliffe, Analyst, Global Mining Research: the key years where you’ll be drawing on low grade stocks supplemented obviously from the underground? Thanks,

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Dave. Few parts of that to unpick. I’m looking at Matt and Nancy, and neither of them are looking at me getting ready to go. But I think if we look at it, as Nancy outlined, the sequencing of the pit roles that we start to cut back in Stage I at end of this calendar year, and then there’s a few years before we get into the ore, while at the same time, we’re opening up A46 as the next pit, then we go into Galway Regal. So if you sort of look at them, the overall sort of strip ratios range, E42 is about three, e 46 is is four, and then the lowest of them all is down at e 41 at at about two.

So that sort of gives an indication. Rocky can update you on sort of tonnages and and where they all fit, but that’s where they sequence. To answer the question on the stockpiles, it means that by sort of last quarter of this calendar year, so second quarter of FY ’twenty six, we start using stockpiles that will run through basically over the next three to four years, but decrease each year with the biggest being basically just over half a year of using stockpiles and you’ve got 2,400,000 tonnes coming from the underground. So that’s sort of the way it goes. Matt?

Now you’ve covered off the profile. Yeah. We start on Stage I pretty much off

Matt O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer, Evolution Mining: the bat and then move through, but stockpiles do part of what we’re going to be processing over the period, and our intent is to try and displace that with the underground with as Glenn and Nancy find more that

Glen Marston, VP, Discovery, Evolution Mining: we can go and take from there.

David Radcliffe, Analyst, Global Mining Research: Great. Perfect. Thank you. I’ll pass it on.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: And just to probably help a little bit, given that I know you like a little bit more detail there, you’re probably getting, you know, a 20,000 ounces next year out of stockpiles, and then you come down from that to a hundred for a few years, and then it drops away in year year four, five. The

Conference Operator: next question comes from Meredith Swartz with Bank of America.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining0: Just a follow on from David’s question at Cowal. So with, you know, the potential from the underground growing, when do you expect to get an updated resource on that new area? I I assume it’s not gonna come in the next resource statement. And then looking at that mineralization growth and that, you know, the potential for ounces growth, that can you talk through how you’re look you know, that will obviously displace some of that open pit ore that’s gonna come through from the OPC. Do you have a bit of an an idea of, you know, how the the e 41, the e 46, and all of that will then, you know, come through on the back of that underground?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yeah. I’m I’m gonna hand that

Glen Marston, VP, Discovery, Evolution Mining: one over to to. Thanks, Larry. Meredith, I’ve been waiting for a question like this all morning, so thank you for asking it. Look, I think in terms of sort of going back to the beginning by way of a resource update, look, we are coming out with our annual The drilling we’ve been doing, particularly in the underground extension, if I take you back to Slide 10 in this morning’s pack, to sort of guide you around where we are doing our work. There is a on the slide there at E42, there is a shape there which is indicating where we’re currently drilling.

Now that’s a target that sits between the E42 open pit and the existing underground. And we’ve only got a handful of holes into it at the moment, but what we’ve picked up is a repeat of the architecture that controls the underground in a new location, which has opened up a brand new search space. So that’s the piece that we’re really excited about because every each hole we’ve got in there has hit where we expected to get grade, so over some pretty decent intervals. Now we’ve only really got a half dozen holes in there, so a long way short of doing a resource update, so that’s going to develop as we continue to drill. But we have lots of strike lakes to play with and I think that’s the really exciting piece because it gives us some scale whereby if we do succeed in growing our resource there, it does represent a potential new mining front where we are able to increase production incrementally if it all comes together.

And the goal there would be to certainly displace some of the low grade stockpile that is currently in the life of mine plant, pushing that out further into the future and expanding production at much higher grade, and that’s how we feel we’ll get the production growth as we go forward.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining0: Yes, perfect. And then so I suppose, keeping on that exploration front, would you say across the portfolio that you see the greatest potential at Cal for further, you know, upside you know, exploration upside, or, you you know, is it sort of level pegging with, you know, Mungari and and miss Henry? Like, are you the most excited about Cal? Is that how you’re looking at it from an exploration perspective?

Glen Marston, VP, Discovery, Evolution Mining: Again, a good question. I’m excited about all of it. Look, I think with Cowal, what we have, and Laurie and Nancy mentioned it earlier, is we have a world class mineral system here at a fantastic geologic address. In the slide, we’re showing total endowment to date just over 13,000,000 ounces. Given it’s a world class system, I still think we’ve got a multimillion ounce potential to unlock here at Cowes.

So that’s the exciting piece. But if I look across the portfolio, what we are blessed with is a full range of options in terms of growth levers that we can pull. We have terrific targets still that remain to be tested and are not necessarily associated with the extension of the underground, so we have targets there that we’re looking to be drilling in FY ’twenty six. At Mungari, I’m really excited about some of the results that are coming out of the Genesis and Solomon underground areas. And again, it’s a similar approach to Cowal where we’re looking to expand the underground resources, convert them to reserves, that’s our higher grade.

And if we can continue not just at current production levels from the underground, but if there’s incremental growth there at higher grades, that’s obviously a key driver for value at Mungari, and that’s also going to be a big focus for us in FY ’twenty six. And then lastly, at North Parks, I think we’ve got the opportunity that we’ve talked about particularly around identifying new open pit mining areas that we can they either represent or give us flexibility in our life of mine plan if we can continue to do that. We’ve recently recommenced drilling at major time after changing out the drilling contractor, and we’re back there drilling to grow that resource or certainly declare a maiden resource there and continue to study it. So I think that’s the number one target for a new open pit at North Parks, and we feel we’ve got a lot of runway to be identifying more of those.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining0: Great. If I could just sneak one more in, speaking on North Parks. With Major Tom and E61, what do you think the earliest could be to bring those into the mine plan? Because, obviously, the open pits have finished up there. Now you’ve got the open pit material, which will be processed over the next twelve months.

Just sort of looking at then how you bring those next open pit sources into the mine plan to, you know, supplement that underground feed. Because I assume e 48 sublevel cave, that’s due to start production FY 2728. Is that correct?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: No. So E48, we’re in developing now. We would expect that ramps up through ’twenty six. So Glen can touch on where we’re at with those two deposits. But essentially, as we go forward between the existing underground in E26 and the E48 supplemented with the stockpiles is what will keep the plant full, giving us time around Major Tom E51.

Yes. Thanks, Fai.

Glen Marston, VP, Discovery, Evolution Mining: I think the we’re still pre resource stage at Major Tom and E51, Meredith. So what we need to do is complete the current phases of drilling that we’re working on. We’ll model those and the idea is to see that we can actually optimize some open pits on both of these targets, and that’s then going to drive sort of what we need to do in the study. So I would say you sort of you’re looking at really a three year plan here in terms of what we can do by bringing on some new open pits in that mining sequence.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining0: Yes. Okay. Great. Thanks. I’ll hand it on.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from Al Harvey with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: Yeah. Morning, team. Just on Cowal OPC, I recall at one of the site visits, out there at Cowal, there are a few pathways to develop the light protection buns, I suppose, in the context of Lake Cow having a bit of water in it and what it would mean for a wet versus dry build. So just wanted to get a sense of the current thinking, how you’re thinking about planning the bun now and if there’s any risk planning around sequencing if there’s heavy rainfalls over the build time frame?

Nancy Gueh, Chief Technical Officer, Evolution Mining: Thank you. I will answer that question. So right now, all of our planning is done to do the construction. But we have two steps of construction, so the north side and the south. And the north side is planned to be done in the wet area, so on the wet lake.

So and we have good codes from contractor. We have people experience. We review the quite comfortable. We have some, I should say, mitigation or plan mitigation with the included in our schedule and our project timeline. In the South, it should be done on a dry time.

It should be dry at that time when we’re going to go into ’20 And

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: maybe then to Jake on Mt Rawdon pump hydro. Just wanted to get a sense what the additional ounces in the pit could be from those lower pit wall angles and how when they come into production? I suppose I assume it would come after clean co exercise at call option on FID if it goes ahead?

Jake Klein, Executive Chair, Evolution Mining: Thanks, Al. I think there’s strong competition between Glen and I who want more questions this morning. So appreciate the question. Look, I think it’s early days. The reality is, you may recall that there was originally a Stage five cutback for Mt Rawdon’s open pits contemplated by us, and we didn’t proceed with it.

So it’s not because the mineralization stops. It was really the cost of there is definitely gold at the bottom of the pits, but it’s really going to be determined by the shape of the lower reservoir. At the moment, the wall angles in a mine are obviously and Mt Rawdon’s a classic example are designed to almost fail on the last day of mining as where a lower reservoir really needs to be a lot flatter wall angles to be able to last one hundred years. So, there is contemplated to be quite a large earth movement and cutback to shape it, but it is predicated on FID being achieved, the project proceeding, and then it will be extracted post construction of that or during construction of that lower reservoir because essentially, we have the option of tagging trucks coming out of the pits during the cutback to go to an ore stockpile or being based stockpile.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from David Coates with Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining1: Great. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, team. Thanks for the call and the opportunity to ask a couple of questions this morning.

Most of them have been covered up. I’ll just touch on the rest of the if what production for the rest of this financial year. I’ve had a production a little bit lower this quarter with shutdowns, but and you’re clearly on track for guidance. But expecting a little bit of a lift with Cowal. Sounds like it’s just about the the shutdown is just about done.

So should we expect a little bit of lift in production for the final quarter?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes, you’ll see a little bit. As Matt did indicate, we had to draw the circuit down to allow for the Aleutian circuit upgrade to be done during the shut period. That means that we’ll build those stocks up during the June, as Matt said. So we wouldn’t see that you get we’re basically fifteen days out in the March, ’15 days out in the April thereabouts in terms of that major shaft in the Aleutian Circuit. So you’ve got about the same number of operating days and you’ve got that circuit build up.

So you will see higher grades coming through from the open pit, which we’re building up through the March, but we don’t expect it to be materially higher. If you look at it from a group perspective, Matt said, Red Lake, you get that higher production, you’ll get less production at Mt Rawdon as we’re going through those stockpiles. You’ll see pretty consistent at North Park’s Ernest Henry and at Mungari, we’re going through that commissioning. Yes, we get the higher tonnage, but we’re processing very low grades stock through the commissioning period. We’re tracking 1% above midpoint of guidance as at the March mark, that’s a good indication of where we’re going by the full year.

Excellent.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining1: That’s really great. Thank you. And my second question is, and again, this has sort of been touched on, I was I asked if you might want to add a little bit extra, use of cash. You sent a pretty clear signal with the interim dividend. You’ve accelerated your debt repayments.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Can you just maybe give us

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining1: a bit of, I guess, how strategically you’re thinking about using cash and how those two options sort of fit into that?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes, Dave. So our dividend policy, when we did the interim dividend, hasn’t changed. We assess that each six months. So 50% of group cash flow is what we target to pay out. Therefore, as we see the June higher cash flows, therefore, leads to higher dividends.

The fact we’ve got six sixty in the bank and have paid the dividend in April, therefore that’s why we’ve started to accelerate the term loans, the higher cost debt. So we’ll continue to pay those down while at the same time maintaining flexibility on the balance sheet by sustaining a good cash level. I think then if you flow it through to our capital investment where Kate mentioned it, $7.50, 9 50, that’s sort of what we invest average over the next five years. There’ll be years above it, years below it based on where the projects are at, they’re multi year projects. But that discipline of when we invest in those projects when we need it, not just because we’ve got the cash.

And I think you might have gleaned from Glen’s conversation, he’s putting his hand out for a bit more exploration money based on the drilling successes that we’re having. So that’s sort of where we look at it from a capital allocation.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining1: Your

Conference Operator: next question comes from Hugo Nicolese with Goldman Sachs. Congrats

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining2: on the progress as well. First one for me, just observationally looking at that project summary table, which helpful inclusion in the report last couple of quarters. Just looks like the Ernest Henry mine extension study is now due this quarter, having been due last quarter. Just any sort of comments there around timing or what’s led to that quarter slippage?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes. Look, just shortly on that, Hugo, is that as the team is getting towards the end of the feasibility study phase and seeing the drill results that we’ve had through the course of the study and making sure in terms of the optimal way to go below the 1,200, We felt it was opportunity to give them time to finish all of that assessment. Therefore, we’re rolling that into the June.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining2: Yes. That makes sense. And then just second one, I guess, looking a bit longer term, I appreciate you had a number of projects in front of you already and maybe with gold pricing where it is, there’s maybe a bit more upside to drilling and study timing and the like. But I guess, I look at your overall asset life on the current resource base, you’ve probably still got one of the longer resource lives, both locally and globally versus some of your peers. I guess, how do you strategically think about what the right mix of asset life is and where the constraints might be relative to your current mine rates?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Yes, a really good question, Hugo. I mean, think when we look at it, we’ve got latent capacity in the plants at Ernest Henry and North Parks. They’re high returning assets. That’s the first area that we will look at. We’ve obviously now upgraded Mungari, and the focus there will be how do we put more volume through from the underground.

Similarly, at Cowal, as Nancy mentioned, the potential of the underground and the role it plays is 30% of the feed. So the more we can get through the underground through that plant is where we get that potential. And then I think the other one is just when you look at the resource base, North Parks has the largest. So therefore, is there opportunities for basically looking at expanding the processing rates without actually reducing mine life materially, the ways that we look at across the portfolio.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from Matthew Friedman with MST Financial.

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: Laurie, you’ve kind of already partly addressed my question in your responses to some of the prior questions, but maybe kind of synthesizing it all together. You’ve got the MRROR update in the middle of the year. You’ve got a number of material studies, as you’ve just been talking about, particularly at Ernest Henry and at Northparks and obviously some ongoing exploration activities, as Glen’s already talked about this morning. Overlaid on top of all of that is obviously the gold price environment and the cash generation and the strengthening balance sheet. So potentially a lot of optionality there in terms of the timing and the payback on spending incremental growth capital and executing on some of those projects.

So I guess the question is, how are you thinking about integrating the outcomes of all of those various studies into an overall multiyear kind of outlook for the business? Should we be expecting an update on that at some point in FY ’twenty six? And really, is there anything else apart from those ongoing studies that you’ve outlined that you’d want to be capturing in that sort of outlook before presenting something to the market? Yes,

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Matt. Look, thanks for pulling all of that together. I mean, basically, that’s the dilemma we’re rolling through is we’re doing our business plans and budgets is where do these all aggregate up to. But I think the good thing is that when we look at it at a portfolio level, there is no urgency for us to accelerate projects merely because of where the metal price is and the cash position is because from an operational standpoint, they actually sequence very well. Mungari, that investment is now done.

It converts back to a major cash generator as we move into the Cowal OPC that can fund that and still generate cash for the group. We then look at going below the $1,200 at Ernest Henry over the next few years and where that plays out in terms of how we mine that and what it does below the $7.75 in the longer term. North Parks, as I just mentioned, how do we unlock the capacity we’ve got there and then go beyond. But with E48, E26 running and then where E22 fits in, that’s over the next few years that rolls through after those other projects and cows back into ore. So when you look at all of those over the next five years, they do sequence quite well without creating operational risk and where the balance sheet is, we therefore can afford those projects.

That $750 to $950 average over the next five years still stands as valid. As I said, there’ll be years where we’re above it. There’ll be years where we’re below it. But as long as those multiyear projects are delivering to plan, we’re very happy with where we’re going with the cash and the balance sheet.

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: Yes. Thanks, Laurie. So should we be expecting any kind of specific timing for an updated multiyear outlook? Or just happy to let the kind of results of the ongoing studies as they release sort of speak

Jake Klein, Executive Chair, Evolution Mining: for themselves in terms of

Andrew Bowler/Al Harvey, Analyst, Macquarie/JPMorgan: how they integrate with the portfolio?

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: I think as we as we go over the next six to nine months as those as those studies finish and formulate what they mean to the portfolio, as we update on those, we always overlay it with what does it mean for a group. So I don’t think you’re gonna see a specific, here’s everything in a in a one update. You’re gonna see them as studies or projects advance. We show what is the benefit of those projects and what does it mean to the portfolio. And Cowal today is a classic example.

The economics are really compelling. It’s the right time. It can fund it. It still delivers cash. But from a portfolio perspective, Mungari is now moving to a major cash contributor.

So the capital we’ve been investing in the last few years at Mungari is being replaced by Cowal.

Conference Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I’ll now hand back to Mr. Conway for closing remarks.

Laurie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Mining: Thank you, Ashley, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. It was really pleasing to have another successful quarter delivering to guidance and seeing that cash flow through to the bank account, which is helping us from a balance sheet perspective and allowing us to increase returns to shareholders, but also on the project side, the successful completion at Mungari, the approvals at Cowal and the progress at Mt Rawdon says that from a company perspective, we’re in good shape to finish the quarter, and we look forward to updating you in the coming months on each of these projects. Thank you.

Conference Operator: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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