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Ramelius Resources Ltd (RMS) reported robust financial results for Q4 2025, with record gold production and strong cash flow driving a 5.26% pre-market stock price increase. The company achieved total annual revenue of $1.2 billion and maintained low all-in sustaining costs, positioning itself strongly in the gold sector. According to InvestingPro data, the company’s impressive 54.36% revenue growth and excellent financial health score of 4.07 underscore its strong market position. The stock’s last close value was $2.6, with a slight increase of 0.58%, reflecting positive investor sentiment.
Key Takeaways
- Record annual gold production of 301,000 ounces.
- Operating cash flow reached $771 million.
- Stock price increased by 5.26% pre-market.
- Successful integration of Spartan Resources.
- Low all-in sustaining costs at $15.51/oz.
Company Performance
Ramelius Resources showcased strong performance in Q4 2025, achieving record annual gold production and operating cash flow. The company sold 303,000 ounces at an average realized price of $3,963 per ounce, resulting in total annual revenue of $1.2 billion. This performance underscores Ramelius’s competitive position in the Australian gold sector, supported by its low all-in sustaining costs. InvestingPro analysis reveals the company maintains a healthy current ratio of 3.04 and an impressive free cash flow yield of 18%, indicating strong operational efficiency.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: $1.2 billion, driven by strong gold sales.
- Operating cash flow: $771 million, a record for the company.
- All-in sustaining cost: $15.51/oz, a 2% decrease from the previous year.
- Closing cash and gold position: $809.7 million.
Market Reaction
The stock price of Ramelius Resources rose by 5.26% in pre-market trading following the earnings announcement, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s financial performance and strategic initiatives. Trading at an attractive P/E ratio of 8.25 and showing strong year-to-date returns of 27.34%, the stock appears undervalued according to InvestingPro Fair Value analysis. The stock’s recent movement, with a slight increase of 0.58%, aligns with positive market sentiment, supported by the company’s robust operational results and strategic growth plans. Subscribers to InvestingPro can access 8 additional key insights about Ramelius’s financial health and growth potential.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking forward, Ramelius is focused on completing the Spartan transaction by the end of the month, with integration studies expected in December 2025. The company is targeting annual production of 500,000 ounces by FY30 and exploring multiple processing scenarios for Dalgaranga. However, Ramelius has deferred FY26 guidance until the Spartan integration is complete, which may introduce some uncertainty.
Executive Commentary
CEO Mark Zepner emphasized the company’s commitment to shareholder value, stating, "We will go with the option that provides the best value for shareholders." CFO Darren Millman highlighted the company’s profitability, noting, "We are generating key-leading margins per ounce." These statements reinforce Ramelius’s strategic focus on cost efficiency and shareholder returns.
Risks and Challenges
- The transition of Edna May to care and maintenance could impact production capacity.
- Deferring FY26 guidance may create uncertainty among investors.
- Potential macroeconomic pressures, such as fluctuations in gold prices and currency exchange rates, could affect profitability.
- Integration of Spartan Resources requires careful management to achieve anticipated synergies.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the potential sale of Edna May and the exploration of Mount Magnet mill expansion options. The company is considering various strategic options to maximize shareholder value, with positive market reception to the Spartan merger.
Full transcript - Ramelius Resources Ltd (RMS) Q4 2025:
Mel, Conference Moderator: I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director.
Please go ahead.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thank you, Mel. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial in this morning. In addition to the full quarterly report, we’ve also released a presentation that we will speak to during this call. Both documents have been uploaded on the ISX platform and will also be available on our website shortly.
I’m joined today for the first time by our COO, Tim Hewitt, and as always, our CFO, Darren Millman. Tim and Darren will provide some more detail on the operations and financials after I run through the highlights. While the presentation as a whole will focus on the highlights, I do know that there is a lot more detail that can be found within the quarterly report itself. As usual, there will be an opportunity for listeners to ask questions at the end. Now before I start on the presentation and the call, I’d like to highlight a couple of important points.
First, one thing that will be noted from our releases today is the absence of full year production cost guidance for FY ’26, which we would normally release around this time. Given the timing of the Spartan transaction, we have deferred providing guidance to the market until we completed the Remillia Spartan integration work. We have several options available to us for the processing of Dalgaranga ore and are diligently considering those to ensure the best return for our shareholders. The integrated study outcome will include five year production cost and capital guidance at the Mount Magnet Hub covering FY ’26 to FY ’30, demonstrating our preferred pathway to 500,000 ounces per annum by FY thirty. This new extended guidance is due to be released in the December, if not earlier, if we’re able to.
Secondly, we are very excited to be introducing the exploration DNA of Spartan into our business. With baseload feed secured for the foreseeable future from existing stockpiles, particularly at Mount Magna and the planned aerodynamics cutback, we are aggressively targeting high grade opportunities at the new enlarged Mount Magna hub. We are very encouraged by what we have seen over the second half of FY ’25 from our own exploration drilling and have therefore guided for 80 to a 100,000,000 of expenditure and exploration in FY ’26, which is effectively double that of FY ’25. For those who have downloaded the presentation deck, I’ll be initially speaking to slide three. Both operationally and financially, q four was exceptionally strong, which further built on an incredible year for Ramirez.
Our strategy of focusing on high grade all sources sources such as Penny, Q, and soon Delgorand Road is proving its worth and what has differentiated us from our peers as is evidenced by our low cost base and record cash flows. For the fourth quarter saw 73,454 ounces at a very low all in sustaining cost $13.39 an ounce, generating $229,000,000 in operating cash flow. Production exceeded our upgraded guidance for the quarter with the continued outperformance of the key resource, namely positive reconciliation noted at break of day continued over at the White Heat Pit. Whilst the whilst this is encouraging, at some point, we still expect the key pits to perform more in line with the resource models going forward as mining progresses into the fresh rock. The closing cash and gold balance for the quarter was 809,700,000.0, which was after paying a maiden fully franked interim dividend for FY 25 of 3¢ per share and prepayments by way of tax installments on the FY ’25 income tax.
The board will consider the final dividend for FY ’25 at the time of finalizing the FY ’25 financial reports later next month. Our exploration for the quarter follow focused on following up the promising results seen in the March. At Penney, drilling was focused on extending the mine life beyond FY ’26 whilst drilling at Perseverance South, formerly known as Satin East and Hesperus continued to further target and define the banded iron mineralization. Tim will talk a little more detail on this shortly. Work on the Rebecca Road DFS continued throughout the quarter as planned, with completion scheduled later this quarter followed by an FID consideration by the board.
Our transformational combination with partner resources has progressed seemingly seamlessly, and I wanted to express my thanks to the team at Spartan for working with Remedis to progress studies and integration alongside the shareholder and court approval process. While the transaction is to be implemented later this week, we are already well advanced on studies and integration of the two companies, and this would not have been possible without the couple cooperation of Spartan. And our aim was to hit the ground running both operationally and from an exploration perspective, and I feel we’ve set ourselves up well-to-do that. Upon implementation based on current share price, the combined Remelius and Spartan company will have a market capitalization well in excess of the original pro form a we quoted back in March when the deal was first announced, which could well say Remilius enter the ASX 100 index in the coming months, all things being equal. In addition to this, despite recent speculation about being withdrawn from the VanEck GDX index, the combined Remelius and Spartan company could well actually be included in this newly named market vectors global gold index as our understanding is the previous assessment was completed on a Ramelius as a standalone basis as opposed to the merge cut.
At the time also at the time of announcing this final transaction, we noted a pro form a cash position of just over 500,000,000. Now given the cash generation of Remelius over the last two quarters, this is now expected to be well north of this figure even after accounting for the $270,000,000 payment to be made to Spartan shareholders later this week. This laser mellios in a position of financial strength ahead of ongoing mine development of Niva Niva and Pepper, the Mount Magnet mill upgrades, which are pending the completion of integration studies, and the development of Rebecca Row. All of these growth projects can and will be funded entirely from existing cash reserves. Referring to slide four.
Get on the right slide. And before handing over to Tim to discuss the operations in more detail, I wanted to take a moment reflect on the year for Ramirez and what has been delivered and achieved. Record gold production of 300 just over 301,000 ounces at a peer leading all in sustaining cost of $15.51 Aussie per ounce. This is the fifth year in a row we have achieved both production and cost guidance. Our company values delivering on our promises, and this is embedded in every part of our business.
And this track record shows just that. Record record operating cash flow of 771,000,000 and underlying free cash flow of just under 700,000,000. And as mentioned, cash and gold of over 800,000,000. During the year, we released a seventeen year mine plan at Mount Magna, putting to bed the myth that Ramelius does not have mine life. This mine plan will be superseded by the upcoming studies into the integration of Doveranga.
Completion of the PFS at Rebecca Row was completed last December, demonstrating strong economic returns with a PFS to be completed later this quarter. And lastly, a total of $08 per share returned to shareholders by way of the $05 FY ’twenty four final dividend and the $03 maiden interim dividend for FY ’twenty five, both fully franked. On slide five, lastly for me, if I could draw your attention to the chart on the left, which breaks down the quarterly production for the year. What is evident here is Mount Magnet filling the gap left by Edna May as that operation progressed to care and maintenance and is in care and maintenance as we spoke. Mount Magnet alone had its best quarter of the year on the back of improved grades at Penny, which saw a record of 72,575 ounces of production.
And this resulted in a full year production from Mount Magna of 248,108 ounces, which also not surprisingly is a record for the hub. With that, I’ll now hand over to Tim to discuss the operations in more detail.
Tim Hewitt, COO, Remelius: Thanks, Mark. Pleasure to join for the first time and always good to join in such an impressive quarter for Ramelius. I’ll take over from slide six of the presentation and take you through the mining production in more detail. The June saw us mine 347,000 tonnes of ore, an increase of 20% on the prior quarter at a grade of 6.87 grams per tonne, a 12% increase. Both increases were driven by improvements at Kew Open Pits and Penney underground.
As a result, we mined 76,707 of contained gold ounces, up 34% on the March. Total tonnes processed were down for the quarter with the completion of processing at Edna May in the previous quarter. However, the combination of higher mine grades and throughput at Mount Magnet fill part of this gap with a total of 73,454 ounces of gold being produced. Moving on to Slide seven. This has the same layout as the previous slide, but represents the full year and for comparison, the last three years of information.
On the mining side, ore mining took place at the Magnet Hub with the focus on accessing high grade ore. Tonnes mined were down in the prior year given mining cease at Edna May and Eridanus, but noting that the mine grades more than doubled. Processing, a very similar story to the quarter with the transition to magnet only, with the higher grades available from the mine inventory in the year resulted in the record gold production for the group, which totaled a fantastic result of 201,664 ounces. Moving on to slide eight, some more details here on that magnet for the quarter. Firstly, on safety, we did have a disappointing quarter.
So one LTI and four RWIs. Statistically, this is a reversal of our previous TRIFR trend recorded in the first half of the year. During the quarter, we did place some significant actions in the place to focus on our safety leadership, both with our own employees and through our business partners, and we continue this safety focus into FY ’26. The higher mine grade in the quarter when compared to the prior quarter was attributable to higher grades at Penny as multiple stoping areas came into production within the high grade areas of Penny North. At Kew, the white pit saw a repeat of the overperformance that was noted at break of day in the prior quarter.
The positive reconciliation resulted in an additional 13,000 ounces across Q for the quarter and 28,000 ounces for the year. There are some reconciliation tables in the quarterly for those who want some more detail on this. It’s important to note that these positive reconciliations have been seen in the weathered upper sections of the ore body above the fresh rock. With these mines now progressing into the fresh rock, we believe that both white heat and break of day will still perform in line with the model predictions. What I will add though is given the high grade of these open pits, the ore body is treated with the utmost respect, very diligent modeling of the mineralization, and some very strict oil control practices in the pit resulting very little oil loss and dilution.
These techniques are also applied to our underground mines too. Processing at Mount Magnet recorded the highest throughput quarter for the year. This is a combination of excellent mill utilization, a balanced blend program, and the change to a more aggressive mill liner to improve tonnes per operating hour with the harder Iridaina soil. This, coupled with a higher mine grade, resulted in drop production of 72,575 ounces at all in sustaining cost of $13.10 dollars per ounce, arguably one of the lowest cost production centers in Australia. Before we move on, I just want to highlight the continuous improvement mindset from the magnet processing team.
The real benefit of these technical modifications, whilst minimal in this quarter, will have some real long term benefits when aerodynamics becomes a prominent all source of ore feed to the Checkers mill. Moving on to Slide nine, a reflection of the year at Matmaknik, which was the engine room for Ramelius for FY ’twenty five. The start of the year saw completion of mining at the current Iridayanus Pit before the open pit fleet transitioned to Kew. Again, another highlight with the open pit mining team pivoting from one style of mining to setting up and establishing the Kew pits in a safe and timely manner. Underground mining continued to focus on Galasee at Mount Magnum.
Across the year, a total of 1,800,000 tonnes were processed at 4.48 grams per tonne for record gold production of 248,108 ounces at all in sustaining costs of $13.40 dollars per ounce, with the costs being largely comparable to the prior year. The production and low cost profile generated an operating cash flow of $661,000,000 for the year. Slide 10, now talking about Penny. A very solid quarter for Penny. Mine grade, just under 18 grams a tonne, which results in a production of 26,241 ounces of gold, all in sustaining costs of $8.00 $9 per ounce and generate $93,000,000 in free cash flow.
For the year, Penny prices to 169,000 tonnes at a grade of 14.4 grams per tonne for seventy six thousand and four eighteen ounces. Production was achieved with all in sustaining costs of $1,003 per ounce and generated $221,000,000 in cash flow for the year. Slide 11 is discussing exploration at Penny. Obviously, focus at Penny is to continue to find the next ore body there, and we’re defining a target dam plunge of the Penny North load with the aim to extend the mine life beyond FY ’twenty six. We’ve seen some significant results, which can be seen on the slide, 0.6 of a meter at 33.1, 1.24 meters at 7.8, and point six at 8.34.
We’re seeing promising potential to extend the monolith here very similar to what we saw at Vivian. Given the time horizon for Penny, this is a priority one from an exploration perspective for this coming year. Up to $12,000,000 has been allowed for exploration activities across the year at Penny. The underground platform development is well underway as is the follow-up surface drilling. Moving on to Slide 12 at So a total of 204,000 tonnes was mined across Queue in the quarter at a grade of 6.55.
Ore tonnes were 22% up on the prior quarter as the strip ratio decreased, and we saw some improvements in our productivity, again, with a continuous improvement mindset at the site. Selective stockpiling allowed us to mill 149,000 tonnes at a grade of 8.19, which, whilst down the prior quarter, is still remarkable grade for any gold mine, let alone a shallow open pit. Gold production totaled 36,490 ounces, all in sustaining costs of $942 producing a cash flow of $125,000,000 For FY ’25, Q processed 295,000 tonnes at a grade of 10.66 for 96,720 ounces. All in sustaining costs, $7.94 per ounce, generating cash flow of an impressive $288,000,000 Slides thirteen and fourteen show some of our exploration highlights for Mount Magnet, which includes Perseverance South, as Mark touched on, and Hesperus. At Perseverance South, we’re following up some encouraging results in the March, again, focusing on the Biff, which is immediately east of the Galaxy Underground Mine.
Significant results include 13.2 meters at 6.95, 4.2 meters at 4.36, 8.9 meters at 13.45, and eight meters at 7.62. On slide 14, we have the Hesperus pit, which sits a few 100 meters from Saturn and was historically mined solely on the granodiorite geology. We continue to test the ground diorite, but also targeting a beef located below that. Results include eight eight meters at 5.35, 18 meters at 2.86, and 1.44 meters at 8.4. And we continue to see significant potential below the existing pit.
As many people on the call know, Mt Mangat still has untapped potential, and our commitment to this is reflected in our increased exploration guidance for FY ’26 of 80,000,000 to 100,000,000. Last but not least, and I’ll talk to Edna May on slide 15. So for the quarter, Edna May produced just under a thousand ounces, all in sustaining cost of 2,892. This production was sourced solely from stripping their remaining gold in the circuit and the processing of the final carbon from the site. For the year, gold production at Etna May totaled 53,556 ounces at a respectable all in sustaining costs of $2,600.08 per ounce.
It was a highly cash generative with a total operating cash flow of $109,000,000 for the year. Gold production was above guidance, while all in sustaining cost was at the lower end of guidance. Edna May has now transitioned to care and maintenance with a small team on-site maintaining the asset. With that, I’ll now hand over to Darren.
Darren Millman, CFO, Remelius: Thanks, Tim, and good morning all. I will be initially speaking to Slide 16 of the deck. These slides are regular in our presentation deck and is an important tool for us to assess our M and A track record. The figures in the square brackets represent the cash and gold generated by our operations over the quarter with the standout being penny in Q. Q is a remarkable investment for Remius with the acquisition having been fully recouped within nine months of commencement of mining.
At the end of this week, we’ll add Daguaranga onto the scorecard with the same philosophy applied. We must ensure that we what we spend on on the acquisition in cash and script, we must get returns and create the black diamonds above the line. It might take a little longer to recoup our investment on Dagaraunga than that of Q, but our five year guidance is to be released in the December and will just demonstrate this plan. On Slide 17, we show financial highlights for the quarter. From a financial point of view, it was another exceptional strong quarter for Remyas on the back of strong gold production with $2.00 $8,000,000 of free cash flow being generated, only marginally down on our second consecutive record on metric noted last quarter.
What needs to be highlighted here is the fact we pre delivered 7,000 ounces, this reducing our Q4 cash generation and closing position to the tune of 13,400,000.0 This demonstrates the increasing margins of our business not only due to the gold price, but also lower operating costs across the Mount Magnet hub. During the quarter, we sold 76,000 ounces of gold at an average realized price of $4,442 per ounce. This includes a mix of spot, pre delivered, and committed forward sales resulted in total sales revenue for the quarter of $336,000,000 The AU gold price was fairly flat over the quarter with the strengthening US price being offset by a weakening US dollar. The all in sustaining cost for the quarter was $13.39 dollars per ounce, which was 10% down on the prior quarter with only negligible production from the higher cost Edna May in the quarter. The resulting all in sustaining cost margin, which is the average realized price less the all in sustaining cost, was $3,103 per ounce, representing an all in sustaining cost margin of 70%.
Looking at Mount Magnum in isolation, the all in sustaining cost was Australian one thousand three hundred and ten per ounce, which was 7% up on the prior quarter with the operation now bearing almost all of the all of the corporate costs. On slide 18, we show a breakdown of free cash flow metrics for the quarter. The gold sales of 76,000 ounces generated cash flow of $228,900,000 with $224,800,000 coming from Mount Magnet and $4,100,000 from Edna May. A total of $16,800,000 was reinvested in mine development, resource definition and exploration in the quarter, which focused on Mount Magnet, Kew and Penny. During the quarter, we also paid $4,100,000 for the care and maintenance of Edna May.
This cost includes the employee redundancy costs and other related to the transition into care and maintenance is not considered to be reflective of the ongoing care and maintenance cost for the site. Details of expected care and maintenance costs will be detailed in our five year guidance to be released in the December. The results of free cash flow for the quarter was $207,800,000 During the quarter, we prepaid income tax by way of installments for FY ’25 totaling 28,300,000.0. We expect to be able to materially reduce this rate at which we pay income tax in FY ’26 with the introduction of Spartan tax losses to the group and also higher depreciable asset value. These expected tax synergies will be detailed in the integration study to be released in the December.
We also paid our maiden fully franked interim dividend of $03 per share to shareholders in the quarter, which net of dividend reinvestments resulted in a $26,900,000 cash outflow. The resulting cash and gold position was $809,700,000 Just now speaking to slide 19. As others have done on this call, I want to take a moment to reflect on the year for Rumelius. We have detailed the key metrics to FY ’25 with further results to be released with the full year financial report in August. The business on the back of record gold production generating just under 700,000,000 of free cash flow, which is more than double that of the prior year.
We sold 303,000 ounces at an average realized price of 3,963 per ounce, which includes a mix of spot, predelivery, and commitment forward sales. This results in total revenue for the year of 1,200,000,000.0. The Australian gold price improved significantly over the year from 3,488 per ounce in June 2024 to 5,020 per ounce in June 2025, a 44 increase. The all in sustaining cost for the year was 1,551 per ounce, which was 2% down on the prior year and driven up with production with from higher cost, but cash generation from Edema production. The resulting all in sustaining cost margin was 2,404 per ounce and represents an all in sustaining margin of 61%.
Looking at Mount Magnum in isolation, the all in sustaining cost was 1,314 per ounce, which is in line with the prior year and represents one of the lowest cost gold projects in Australia, if not the lowest. On slide 20, we show a breakdown of free cash flow metrics for the year. The gold sales of 303,000 ounces generated cash flow of 771,000,000 with 661,000,000 coming from Mount Magnet and 109,000,000 from Edna May. A total of 73,200,000.0 was reinvested into mine development, resource definition and exploration in the year, which focused on Mount Magnet and Q and Penny, which is in line with our market guidance of 60,000,000 to $80,000,000 The result of free cash flow for the year was $695,000,000 During the year, we paid $166,000,000 to increase our holding in Spartan. We also paid income tax on FY twenty four and FY twenty five earnings of 96,000,000, which was again within our updated market guidance of 90,000,000 to 100,000,000.
We also paid a total of $08 per share to our shareholders, including made an interim dividend of $03 per share and a final FY24 dividend of $05 per share in the year. Net of dividend reinvestments, the cash payments totaled 70,300,000.0 Lastly, from me, just want to touch on our hedge book on slide 22. Over the year, we have maintained our disciplined approach to managing the hedge book, including pre delivery into committed contracts where appropriate. We unwound the hedge book from 155,000 ounces at an average of 3,081 per ounce at thirty June twenty twenty four to fifty six thousand ounces at an average price of 3,283 per ounce at thirty June twenty twenty five. The the majority of the hedge book relates to FY ’26, which covers approximately 24% of our FY ’26 production based our seventeen year Matte Magnet mine plan with only 8,000 ounces at an average of 3,664 per ounce related to the first half of FY twenty five.
In addition to this, we also have zero premium collars zero premium collars for FY twenty seven totaling 22 and a half thousand ounces with a floor price of 4,200 per ounce and a ceiling price of 5,906 per ounce. What I will say overall on our price protection approach is that we are generating key leading margins per ounce even without the 100% exposure to gold price that this is highlighted. With that, I’ll now hand it back to Mark.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks, Darren and Tim. Slide 23, we have summarized our key focus areas for the remainder of calendar year ’25. We will continue to work on our safety performance. We have added additional resources and look to lead from the top on that aspect. Completion of the Rebecca Road DFS to be delivered in the September followed by an FID by the board.
Significantly increased exploration activities leveraging off the Spartan exploration DNA, which is evidenced by our increased exploration guidance of 80 to a 100,000,000 as you’ve already heard. And our priorities, not surprisingly, will be almost in order of grade, Penny, Galvaranga, the Galaxy Area Q, not forgetting Rebecca and also the Eridanes Mine area. We’ll look to issue updated resources and reserves for Amelius on a standalone basis, and then shortly thereafter, put out initial reserves for Neneva Neneva and Pepper. The other deposits to the south at Dalgaranga, such as Applewood and Westwinds, will likely come later once we’ve completed quite a large drilling program planned in FY twenty six at Dalgaranga. As mentioned, we’ll close the Spartan transaction, which is scheduled for this Thursday, the thirty first, and finally complete the integration studies with Spartan, which are expected in the December 25 quarter.
And this study will include our selected milling option at Mount Mount Magnet and Dalgarangga, a five year mine plan for Mount Magnet, which includes Dalgarangga and importantly, the full detailed guidance for FY ’26. Finally, a reminder to those on the call that Ramirez will be attending the upcoming Diggers and Dailers Conference in category where I’m happy to to say those who have looked at the program where I’ll be co presenting with Simon Lawson for those who are wondering about what was gonna happen with the combined group. So with that, let’s open the line up if we can, Mel, for questions.
Mel, Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your first you. Question comes from Al Harvey with JPMorgan. Just
Al Harvey, Analyst, JPMorgan: wanting to get a bit more on the integration studies for Dauranga and particularly the network that’s been ongoing. Kinda wanting to get a sense of how that’s framing the option that you’re looking to progress to PFS and, you know, is this predominantly about blending and throughput impacts or something else? And and maybe just give us a bit of a refresher on the bookends of scenarios that are under review.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: I’ll go with that one. Thanks, Al. There is eight options on processing. I suppose just to take a step back, The mining and the scheduling and the mine plan is largely finalized and largely agreed. It is really now what is the best processing solution.
Met test work is largely been around the combination of, let’s call it Mount Magnet, which is largely aerodinosaur with Dalgaranga ore, recognizing that currently the Mount Magnet plant runs at a grind size of a 150 micron, where based on on all the test work that Spartan have performed up until now, the diver angle will get higher recoveries when you’re at a grind size at at least at 75 micron preferably even lower. So the combination of those two ore bodies and how that performs, whether there’s any preferential grinding, whether there’s the opportunity to do a tail grind, a a part of those scenarios. One scenario is everything goes through Magna as it is. You know, next scenario, everything goes through Mount Magna expanded. And then the options sort of expand from there.
Okay. Do you look to refer Dalgaranga and restart Dalgaranga? When do you do that? Do you potentially expand Mount Magnet if you can be on the 3,000,000 that we’ve talked about? So you can see a way to get to eight sort of eight options here, and that’s what we’re working through.
We won’t be emotional or sentimental about it. We’ll we’ll go with the option option that provides the best value for shareholders. But it requires, obviously, a lot of work on capital at both plants, operating costs at both plants, road requirements in terms of capital and running costs on those. But you do need to recognize that a finer grind does require more power and more steel in the mill, which will increase your operating costs and reduce your throughput. So there are trade offs there.
You don’t just go for the highest recovery. There is a there is a balancing act that we’re working through. And the guys, as always, are doing it super diligently. We’ve got really good consultants working with us who are very familiar with both the Dalgaranga and the Mount Magna Plant, and we’re confident we’ll come up with the right solution when we come to market with it.
Al Harvey, Analyst, JPMorgan: Thanks, Mark. Just a second one, maybe for Darren. Just the presales into the hedge book, I think they mainly got stripped off March 2026. Just interested in why that part that period was targeted. And I suppose just more broadly, noting your comments about funding growth with the balance sheet, any views on further early deliveries into the hedge book?
Darren Millman, CFO, Remelius: Yeah. Thanks. So we saw a we saw a drop in gold price briefly in the June month. We we took advantage of of of delivering some of those pre delivered ones and also, you know, just looking out into FY twenty six, you know, just when we had some production coming in, even though I haven’t provided it. We don’t mature.
I think it’s maturely different from f y twenty six, though still subject to the review. So we just thought we’ll be able to get less production at the back end of f y twenty six. So we just took the time to to have that full exposure to gold price. So that was the basis of timing. On a go forward basis, when we put in place the zero cost collars, would be basically a foot stop or, you know, call call it a $100,000,000 coverage on the magnet mill expansion from the two to three.
So that was the underlying basis of those hedges, the 22 and a half thousand for FY ’27. You know, one thing you might have saw in the in the guidance of the FY ’26 sort of some cash flow guidance pieces is that, you know, we are looking to potentially bring forward some of that into FY ’26 versus FY ’27. We’ve got to consider, you know, obviously, larger CapEx continue on the development of Dalgaranga, and obviously, that final option we’ll have with the mill. So I think once we get the broader capital program expected in the December, we may add some additional potentially zero cost collars or puts depending on how we if we’re comfortable to do that, but obviously, we wanna ensure our share our shareholders have got upside available in that gold price. So won’t be at a lower level.
So that’s sort of how we’re kinda looking at it. But that all being said, you know, as we mentioned on the call, you know, we’re our position is, you know, over 800,000,000, a little bit less than that when we do the integration, but we don’t have to hedge. But it’s just sort of we have been pretty disciplined in that approach and, obviously, still thinking about returns. So long winded answer, but there there are several factors that we’ll we’ll consider before putting something new in place.
Al Harvey, Analyst, JPMorgan: No. Thanks, Darren. Appreciate the detailed answer. Thanks, gents.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks, Al.
Mel, Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Knight with Baron Joey. Please go ahead.
Darren Millman, CFO, Remelius: Hi, gents. Thanks for the call. Just wanted to push you a little bit on one of the scenarios that you mentioned earlier, Mark, just in terms of potentially expanding Mount Magnet beyond the the 3,000,000 tonne throughput rate. Just wondering what the what the logic of that would be considering you do have, obviously, the Dalgaranga plant sort of sitting there as well.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks, Richard. I think you need to, I suppose, bear in mind that Mount Magnet is, even compared to WA gold plants, a very low cost plant. I mean, it benefits from low cost power. We have the gas pipeline, and we’re now in the process of supplementing that with renewables. So on a per cost per ton basis, it’s a very low cost plant.
So putting as many tons through that plan makes a lot of sense to us and maximizing if you’re gonna do an expansion going to the maximum on that, you do reach a point as we’ve talked about before. It’s not as simple as, okay, let’s turn the 2,000,000 ton plan into a 5,000,000 ton plan, which intuitively if you have 50,000,000 tons that’s over, you know, seventeen to twenty years, you probably wanna actually have a 5,000,000 ton plan to to make that more like a ten year mine production profile. So and by doing that, you will reach a limit on things like pumps, conveyors, and sort of all of the all of the more ancillary infrastructure. You can add bull mills and sack mills and tanks, but you do reach a limit on that expansion capacity. But we think it’s very much worthwhile really testing that and making sure that if we’re gonna expand it, we’re going to the maximum given the long life at Mount Magnet and the low cost of that mill.
It’s a combination of power and the fact that we’ve been running it for, you know, fifteen years now and really got it dialed in. And even to the point where Tim didn’t really expand on it, but we’ve changed the liners in the SAG mill at at Magnet to be able to deal with the harder area dinosaur and things look really positive on that. It’s relatively early days, but the guys, as Tim mentioned, have a continuous improvement mindset. And that some of those tweaks, obviously, on a throughput, I’m assuming that you still only do two shots per year. But if you can increase your throughput by five tons per hour, over long period of time, it makes a massive difference.
So that’s why we’re looking at expanding it. If we’re gonna expand it, we expand it as one of the options as far as we can. Hopefully, I’ve answered your question. Yep. No.
That’s great. Good detail. Thanks.
Mel, Conference Moderator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Andrew Bowler, Analyst, Macquarie: Good day, all. Just trying to ascertain the thinking behind the reason not to provide FY ’26 guidance. I mean, obviously, you you gave us the the Mount Magnet mine plan fairly recently. Is it is it more that a development at Dalgaranga might bring ounces into the plan that’s, you know, above that Mount Magnet plan you gave us, or is it something like, you know, scenario where a mill expansion might say tie ins and and lower throughput than that Mount Magnet plan? I’m just trying to sort of get an idea of of, you know, why you’re not so sure about the next year, particularly because I I assume the assumption is that very small ounces would be coming out of Dalgarang development over the next year.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks, Andrew. I suppose there’s a couple aspects to it. Typically, when there’s a combination that’s just on the the verge of happening, we’re reluctant to provide guidance right now as we would have every year for the last ten years. And then come back and then revise it, you know, a month or two months later. And our feedback is that market says, well, just when you’re ready, give us the combined the the guidance on a combined basis.
So, you know, whilst the production is so much point putting out the media sign and then saying, oh, here’s another number with Dagaraenga in there. But I think probably just as importantly, there’s capital associated with Dagaranga that’s obviously over and above what we had previously put in our Magnet mine plan, which was minimal for FY ’26. And then we want to, as we talked about, potentially bring forward any mill expansions in the FY ’26. So we just didn’t wanna give you half the story, essentially, and and I think it’s not uncommon for I think Westgold did it last year. They they completed at Diggers, and think it was six weeks later came out with guidance.
And I think we’re probably following the same playbook on that, making sure that we do it once and do it properly.
Andrew Bowler, Analyst, Macquarie: Understood. Thanks for that.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks, Andrew.
Mel, Conference Moderator: Thank you. Thank you. We are showing oh, pardon me. Your next question comes from Jared Lucas with ABC News. Please go ahead.
Jared Lucas, Analyst, ABC News: Good day, Mark, team. I was just curious if you’ve had any interest in potentially selling Edna May given it’s been on, what, care and maintenance since April.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Thanks for that, Jared. We’re just about to close the call, but I appreciate the question. There’s been no shortage of incoming. It’s fair to say, but that’s not surprising given the gold price, and everyone wants a gold project, especially a permanent one with a mill being looked after by, you know, by ourselves. So, yeah, now at the moment, we’re happy to have it on care and maintenance for now.
We have other priorities at Mount Magnet and Rebecca Rowe. We think it’s great option value. We’ll turn our mind to, you know, what happens with with that. We could even refresh the numbers. I think when we actually made the decision, we used a $3,500 an ounce Aussie gold price.
So we’ll look at that probably more likely later in the year, early in the New Year, but it’s not stopping people coming forward and and asking the question. And we’re basically saying, we’ll add you to the list, you know, if and when we we consider what we’re doing with that asset.
Jared Lucas, Analyst, ABC News: Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Cheers, Joe. Thank you. Good to hear from you.
Mel, Conference Moderator: There are no further questions at this time. I’ll now hand back to mister Zebner.
Mark Zepner, CEO and Managing Director, Remelius: Nothing more to add. I think that’s the longest call we’ve had for some time. Fair bit of detail in there, but thanks for your time this morning.
Mel, Conference Moderator: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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