Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) Q4 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to Alkane Resources Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year twenty twenty six Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants on the telephone are in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded.

0:21 After management's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Participants on the webcast can type your question and the Q and A feature in the webcast. Now let me hand the call over to Natalie Chapman, Alkane Corporate Communication Manager. Please go ahead. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Some housekeeping items to note. Please review today's press release for further details on our results, and the accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download from the company's website at alkres.com.

1:15 For those on the webcast, please move through the presentation slides yourself as directed by our presenters. Moving on to slide two. I'll remind everyone that this conference call contains forward looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates, and beliefs, and may also use terms that are non IFRS performance measures. Please review Alkane's disclosure materials for the risks associated with this forward looking information and the use of non IFRS performance measures. I will also point out that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated.

2:03 And as a reminder, Alkane closed the merger with Mandalay Resources on 08/05/2025. Our group financial and operating results for fiscal twenty twenty six shown today only include eleven months from the Costerfield and Bjorkdale mines and the former Mandalay operations, while including twelve months of results from Tommy.

2:31 Please note also that Alkane Resources is no longer required to publish a quarterly MD and A as per the rules of the TSX. However, we remain committed to engaging our shareholders in a proactive manner. To that end, we will continue to host quarterly conference calls and webinars to help maintain the highest level of disclosure and to provide a public forum where our shareholders can ask questions and engage with management. Please move on to slide three. Today's speakers from Alkane Resources are Nick Erna, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and James Carter, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now hand the call over to Nick Erna.

3:17 Please go ahead, Nick. Thank you, Natalie, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Let's move to slide four. As you can see on this, let me start by saying at Alkane we've had a tremendous year of operations. The record production results, along with our close cost management in it all happening in a historically high gold environment, allowed Alkane to generate record cash flows, which further increased our strong financial position. All three of our mines are operating really well. On a consolidated basis, we produced 42,005 gold equivalent ounces in the fourth quarter and just over 162,000 gold equivalent ounces in fiscal twenty twenty six, remembering this doesn't include July 25 for Costerfield and Bjorkdale, so including them gives the 168,300 ounce equivalent that you can see on the slide.

4:18 So it's hard work and diligence from the entire Alkane team. I'm proud to say that we've met the top end of our production guidance, we've met cost guidance at each site, and we're just above our cost guidance for the group, which is a great result in what we can all agree has been a pretty turbulent environment. So these great results had our mines generate $174,000,000 in operating cash flow for the fourth quarter and over 500,000,000, so $567,000,000 for the year. We ended the year with $454,000,000 in cash flow and liquid investments on hand, which is an enviable strong financial position. This will allow us to aggressively grow the company through exploration and capital programs at each of our mines. It will allow us to advance the Bota Kaisa copper gold porphyry project, all while seeking M and A to opportunistically grow the company.

5:10 I'm also very pleased to announce that the Board is proposing to return to shareholders an inaugural dividend of 2¢ a share, fully franked. This is subject to completion of the audit satisfaction of the Section 254T Dividend Test under the Corpse Act and therefore final Board confirmation. Whilst this is our clear intention, until these steps are completed no assurance can be given that a new dividend will end up being declared or as to the final quantum or timing of any dividend that is declared. Let's move on to slide five. On a consolidated basis, in quarter four, Alkane processed more than 693,000 tonnes of ore at an average entry grade of 1.4%.

5:58 Recoveries of 89.5% gold and 91.1% antimony remained fairly consistent quarter on quarter. As a result, our three mines produced 42,500 gold equivalent ounces consisting of nearly 41,000 ounces of gold and four fifty six tonnes of antimony. For the statutory reporting year again, '25, the cost of building Bjorkdale, we produced over 162,000 ounces of record for Alkane. I'll get into specifics on each mine shortly, but needless to say, all of our mines are operating very well as we head into fiscal twenty twenty seven. So moving now on to slide seven. Sorry, gave you the wrong slide number four. Moving on to slide seven at Thommingley.

6:45 In quarter four, we processed nearly 326,000 tonnes of ore. Average grade, just under 2.3 grams a tonne of gold. Recoveries were just under 88%. All of this resulted in Q4 production nearly 21,000 ounces of gold, slightly lower than Q3. For the year, Chominium produced nearly 83,000 ounces of gold, which exceeded our production guidance. Processing continues to perform really well. The mill exceeds our original plans. And this is primarily, as I've mentioned in the last couple of quarters, a result of the continued use of a mobile crusher pre truss material prior to entering the processing circuit. Pre trussing our material to different sizes which try to optimise our throughput. This continues and people should now consider this to be part of our standard operating practice.

7:32 Our capital expenditure in the quarter was allocated primarily for the Newell Highway realignment project and construction is expected to be completed in Q3, so early in fiscal twenty twenty seven to early in calendar twenty twenty seven. This, as people know, allows us to access the high grade San Antonio deposits via two new open cuts, and this great return project will sustain our growth and future cost profile. All in sustaining costs in Q4 were $2,481 per ounce, essentially in line with Q3. Our all in sustaining costs for twenty twenty six was $2,429 per ounce, which I said earlier, met our cost guidance for the site. Thommingly generated operating cash flows of $76,000,000 for the fourth quarter and a record $232,000,000 for the year.

8:22 Overall, Thommingly had an absolutely outstanding year, setting new records for annual production, mined ore tonnes from underground and mill throughput. Moving on to slide eight, Yorkdale. In Q4, Yorkdale processed more than 331,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of just under 1.1 grams per tonne, an average recovery of 85.6%. This resulted in Bjorkdale producing 9,935 ounces of gold. For the year, Bjorkdale produced nearly 38,000 ounces of gold, which met the site guidance. Remember, this does include approximately 3,000 ounces produced in July 2025. I think we can all agree it's going be quite rewarding going forward in fiscal twenty twenty seven not to have to keep dropping your money out. When comparing Q4 to Q3, lower grades and lower recoveries in Q4 resulted in a 20% decrease in gold production.

9:16 But this is primarily as a result of us not feeding the very high grade off-site trial material that I referred to last quarter. Our mine grade was in line with plan. We had slightly increased development tonnes in some high grade areas. Mills throughput is consistent and we do have projects to improve recovery across bearing mineralisation. Capital works on list of the tailings dam facilities ramped up further during the quarter. This work continues for the next twelve months. Lower production results in high Q4 all in sustaining costs of $4,184 per ounce, which is a touch higher than in Q3. For 2026, our all in sustaining cost was just under $4,000 per ounce, which is below our guidance. The operating cash flow from Bjorkdale was $48,000,000 in Q4 and $156,000,000 for the year.

10:06 Overall, Yorkdale had a very consistent year delivering to plan. Moving on to slide nine, at Costerfield Gold Antimony Mine, we processed over 36,000 tonnes of ore. In Q4 gold grades were 9.3 grams per tonne, slightly lower than Q3, and Anthony grades were 1.4%, which is a bit higher than Q3. Gold and Anthony recovery rates were 95.291.1% respectively, all higher than the previous quarter. The mine produced 10,117 ounces of gold, in line with Q3, and four fifty six tonnes of antimony, which was higher than in Q3 as a result of the grade. For the year, Costerfield produced 37,000 ounces of gold and twelve twenty four tonnes of antimony, which met guidance for gold and exceeded guidance for antimony.

10:57 Please note that quarter on quarter grade variation is what we expect from such a high grade nuggety ore body. But that being said, despite the natural variation I just mentioned, grades were a touch lower than planned due to some challenges associated with ground conditions slowing the drilling rate and access to certain areas. So mining, we continue to work on improvement programmes drill and blast. We're transitioning our capital development team to own and operate like we have in the rest of the group. We're focusing on operator training, increased focus on mine planning and we continue our transition to emulsion explosives to improve recovery and reduce dilution. The processing plant continues to focus on blend control to maximise throughput, recoveries and producing metal. And following on from the success at Thommingly, we've had pretty good trials here at Costfield as well with pre crushing ore feed to further improve throughput crusher downtime and blend control and work continues in this area.

11:53 All in sustaining costs in Q4 were $2,568 an ounce in line with Q3 and for 2026 all in sustaining cost was $2,462 per ounce, which met guidance. Costerfield generated $50,000,000 in cash flow in Q4 and $179,000,000 for the year. Like Bjorkdale, in 2026, Costerfield delivered to our high expectations. Moving on now to slide 10, Tomingley Exploration. One of our key strategic initiatives is to drive organic growth by increasing our mineral resources by doing a pretty aggressive exploration program across our portfolio.

12:39 So looking at slide nine, if we look at our exploration targets for the quarter, we're looking both near mine and regionally. Northern extension of Colombo, bullet one, was tested, as well as the southern extension to the Roswell deposit, which is bullet two on the screen. Drilling also commenced testing the areas between the Roswell and Wyoming one deposits which is bullet three. That's actually from our underground decline, joining the two deposits. Further from the mine, we continue to work up regional targets in our EL's, as well as on the ML testing Wyoming three and other near mine targets. Regional drilling programs being progressed include Patents, Tommy Lee one and two, Peak Hill and Glen Islay.

13:27 Moving on to slide 11. At Bjorkdale, drilling during the quarter focused on increasing resources to extend the mine's life and also to bring new ore sources into production. On July 9 we announced the drill results to 29 drill holes in the North Zone bullet one on your slide and East Zone bullet two. Efforts here were focused on infill and extension drilling which resulted in pretty increased confidence in the understanding of the vein geometry and grade controlling structures in the grade criteria which is very, very important at Bjorkdal. Highlight intercepts of each zone include nearly three ounces of gold over 1.25 metres and 81 grams of gold over 4.4 metres. And in North Zone, an ounce of gold over just under a metre and 25 grams a tonne of gold over 0.6 metres.

14:17 These results show mineral systems are still strong, still open at depth, so our future drilling is going to focus on step out extension testing to assess the continuity of these known vein swarms and continue to refine the structural controls in each of these areas. We're exploring narrow veins and we've shown we've got the expertise to mine them efficiently over many years. Further to the North East, drilling continued in the quarter to extend the depth of the Storheaden deposit, which hosts multiple zones of steep quartz veins comparable to those found in the main Bjorkdale deposit. Development to this area is one of our capital allocations for FY27 at Bjorkdale. At the Norbury at target drilling was focused on resource extension. Moving on to slide 12, at Costerfield exploration drilling continued to focus on expanding resources.

15:08 During the quarter we drilled nearly 27,000 metres across the district. Underground drilling focused on testing targets, resource growth, reserve definition, while surface drilling programs progressed resource infill, resource growth and target testing. On July sixth of this year we announced results of 33 holes at the True Blue deposit that

15:29 predominantly targeted infill of the upper portion of the deposit and this significantly increased confidence in understanding the vein geometry and grade controlling structures. Significant intercepts include just under two ounces per tonne of gold and 25% antimony over 0.25 at what we call the Freeman Vein and 84 grams per tonne of gold and 15% antimony over half a metre at associated veins. These results give us the confidence to proceed with our plans for development of True Blue, although I noted in the announcement at the time that I would have much more loved for these results. It would have been even better and to know that we had 300,000 ounces of this deposit. We'll be doing step out drilling here while we continue to search for those very high grades in increased density.

16:16 Also on July 14, we announced the extension and infill drill results from the Brunswick South veiners (four on your screen) with high grade results including 50 grams per tonne of gold and 26% angling over 2.17 metres. We're particularly excited by these results as this newly found deposit not only contains pockets of a high gold endowment but critically significant quantity of antimony which helps us keep our concentrate grades up. We believe Brunswick South can be brought online without extensive access requirements as it's situated just 200 meters from existing development. So we've already commenced development towards Brunswick South in this quarter we're in now, so the first quarter of FY twenty seven, We've allocated capital for it in FY twenty twenty seven and we're looking to establish it as a future primary production source at Costerfield.

17:08 Moving on to slide 13, the Northern Murlong Porphyry Project. This project, the entirety of the project is shown on the map on this slide, a highly prospective gold copper corridor that also encompasses down the bottom right a Bodo Kaiser Gold Copper project. As we announced on June 10, exploration undertaken throughout this district, including testing the corridor between Boder and Kaiser (bullet two on your screen), we did one diamond and one RC hole here, which we saw further mineralization as expected. Three RC holes testing geochem geophysical anomalies North East Of Botacos is 4.4. Four RC holes testing different chargeability anomalies within the Comabella Intrusive Complex which includes Glen Hall and Hingham that's four points five and six.

17:56 Which in this area we've had previous gold copper mineralisation drilled by previous companies. We also completed the mobile manoeuvrite survey over the majority of the district, which defined target areas. Now, as I highlight, in Bodekaiser we got mineralization in at 23 meters at just under 0.2 grams a tonne gold and 0.14% copper, including three meters at higher grades. Near near deposit near Bodekaiser we got nine meters at 0.3 and district wide the best we had was three metres at 0.174 metres. These results more add to our understanding of the project and showing the scale potential and possibility for future growth. One of the big things which is a low cost activity that we've been doing to advance the development of the Bodekaiser gold copper project in the quarter is the continuing of environmental baseline studies. We've been talking to wholly different stakeholders.

18:47 We're negotiating with some property owners for access or potential purpose. We've been working out where do we stick infrastructure and processing. So we're on the path that I've detailed in my recent presentations

19:00 to put in a project approval application at the end of twenty twenty seven or early twenty twenty eight and have an investment decision in 2021. As you can see, we've got a tremendous amount of exploration work going on on each of our projects with the goal of expanding resources and driving new discoveries to increase mine life, increase production levels and lower cost. With that, I'll now hand over to you Jim to provide a review of our financial performance. Over to you mate. Yeah, thanks Nick. So if we're moving on to the Q4 and FY twenty twenty six financial highlights slide. So group revenue for the quarter was $257,000,000 on sales of 47,400 ounces of gold equivalent and that included three eighty four tonnes of antimony.

19:51 Average gold prices during the quarter were just a bit over AUD 5,400 per ounce and that was about 14% lower than Q3 and I think people on the call will be familiar with that. Average antimony prices in the June quarter was $24,276 a tonne. That was about 30 percent lower than Q3. We also delivered 8,500 ounces into our gold hedge book during the quarter just at an average price of $2,870 per ounce. And that leaves just under 29,000 ounces of gold to be delivered into those forwards at around about the $2,900 an ounce price over the coming four quarters through to June 2027.

20:41 All in sustaining costs in June quarter for the group were $3,011 per ounce gold equivalent produced. That was about 9 percent higher than Q3. And mostly probably grade driven that Nick touched on earlier. And for the statutory reporting year, which is that awkward eleven month period for Bjorkdal and Costerfield, they were $2,907 an ounce gold equivalent produced, which is pretty close to the guidance. Mine operating cash flow was about $174,000,000 in the June quarter and that was about a margin of $2,431 per gold equivalent ounce over the AIRC.

21:32 So just note that our audited financial statements will be out the sort of third week of August. So at this time we're not reporting, we haven't got any earnings to report but later once that order's done we'll those out one of the complete set of financial statements.

21:52 Sustaining capital during the quarter was $21,000,000 Most of that expenditure is associated with underground capital to grow across the three operations, mobile equipment purchases and rebuilds. Growth capital was $20,000,000 for the quarter and most of that was invested at Tommy Lee's for the new highway realignment. For the eventual mining of the San Antonio Open Pit as we move later into 2027. Tailings dam construction lifting at Yorkdale and exploration expenditures for June quarter were just under $11,000,000 which Nick covered previously on his slides. So if we move to the next slide just to talk about cash flows where we've got the cash flow waterfall.

22:42 So if you see on the waterfall chart there June quarter operating cash flows from the three operations were $174,000,000 Some of the items that we haven't talked about previously were $18,000,000 of income tax instalments. So they're just monthly instalments that we make to the Australian tax office, mostly associated with Costerfield and Thommingley at the moment. And later on in this calendar year, we'll have a square up where we just

23:18 finish off paying what tax we owe for FY26. There's $20,000,000 of corporate and other expenses. So in that bucket is really about $8,000,000 for corporate costs. Just a couple of million dollars this quarter for Boulder and regional exploration. About $10,000,000 for Lupin

23:39 and there was a $4,000,000 net repayment of our equipment loans. And so that where we left it $430,000,000 of cash at the end of the year or $104,000,000 post tax cash build for the June quarter. So really quarter there for cash bill. So at 06/30/2026, we've got a really strong financial position, about $450,000,000 of cash bullion in list investments. And if you include our undrawn $110,000,000 revolving credit facility, we've got total available liquidity of about $549,000,000 So we have a really strong overall financial position that underpins the foundation so we can aggressively fund our growth opportunities which is what the plan is at all our operations.

24:28 And Nick spoke about it to pay an inaugural fully franked dividend of 2¢ per share after the conditions that Nick talked about earlier in the presentation. And that all with the balance sheet still gives us all the flexibility that we do need to act on a strategic and any value accretive inorganic opportunities as they arise. So with that, I will turn the call back to you, Nick. Thanks, Jim. Moving on to slide 16. As I mentioned, and you can probably pick up, we're pretty proud of the efforts of the entire Alkane team, which of course includes so many great employees that have joined with Mandalay, to ensure that we met our 2026 production and cost guidance. We're really happy we've successfully managed our way through the Mandalay merger and also with the other goals we've accompanied in the year.

25:19 Most noticeably, I think we've positioned ourselves to grow our business through capital initiatives, exploration programs, all while enhancing our financial position. Our primary goal for 2026 was to establish Alkane as a reliable, consistent producer, seen by everyone to have a steady mantra of under promising and over delivering, and our performance to date proves that we have done that.

25:50 Slide 17. Let me focus on fiscal twenty twenty seven and the outlook that I've detailed on this slide. We have a lot of momentum already coming from fiscal twenty twenty six. So delivering the financial strength Jim just outlined, we're well positioned to deliver on this dual track strategy. We're going to grow our production, albeit slightly, while continuing to try and constrain our costs in a very difficult cost environment and to increase, therefore, our cash generating capabilities to fund growth initiatives. But we remain singly focused on execution to meet our production and cost targets and aggressively drilling across our portfolio. It's a simple and proven strategy.

26:36 Our plans for fiscal twenty twenty seven have produced our guidance between 163,177 gold equivalent ounces, slightly higher than this year, and an all in sustaining cost of $2,900 to $3,200 per gold equivalent ounce. Other deliverables listed on this slide have been sure that Alkane grows and remains a competitive mid tier producer. Without a doubt, our strong balance sheet gives us a distinct strategic edge. Supported by our steady operations during this period, which despite the disappointment of gold coming off nearly 30%, is a very robust gold and antimony price environment. We're deploying our capital towards both organic and inorganic growth. We remain ready to move fast on the right opportunities, but our approach, of course, will remain highly disciplined.

27:22 In closing, we're pleased with our performance for FY 2026 and we believe we're well positioned to continue to drive long term value for our shareholders and stakeholders. I personally would like to thank my entire team at Alkane for making 2026 so successful, to the board for supporting our strategy and to our shareholders for wanting to be part of the journey. Hope you've enjoyed the last twelve months. And with that, I'll hand back to you, Maggie, to start the Q and A session. Thank you. Thank you very much. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one

28:23 First question comes from Al Harvey from UBS. Congrats on the result. Just wanted to kind of look at cost of field and the broader strategy there. Obviously, you mentioned in the prezo getting some nice hits out of True Blue. You also started drilling out at the Nagambi JV a couple of months ago and your neighbours, Southern Cross, are having some success up the road at Redcastle. So just trying to understand what you guys are hoping will come out of the exploration push there over the next twelve to eighteen months. Are we thinking it's more life extensions or do you think there could be a pathway in time to justify an expansion across the field?

29:11 Thanks, Al. It's Nick speaking. Well, mate. So number one is to extend the life. So in the last year, we've extended a further twelve months to have a very clear look at four years ahead of it. And we obviously have a line of sight on a little bit further beyond that. But this year's focus is we're going back to sort of grassroots testing to start to try and work up the multi 100,000 ounce resources like we had at

29:42 Yule Shepherd. And we hope to continue to get it through Blue, maybe even Brunswick South. And then the purpose of that really is to try and extend the mine life ahead of ourselves. And then all things going smoothly, particularly with Nagambi, once we have further than five years, preferably seven, then we'll look at capital investment to increase production, albeit modestly. We do sort of circa 50,000 ounce equivalents. Our next step, unless we discovered something Southern Cross style, be to sort of try and move it closer to that 70,000 ounces by going from the 150,000 tonnes a year to 200,000 tonnes a year.

30:26 Awesome. Thanks Nick. I'll just ask another one maybe around growth options more broadly. So, looking I appreciate your comments around inorganic growth and there's that consistency in FY 2627 on your deliverables just around identifying inorganic growth opportunities. So maybe just remind us on how you're approaching inorganic opportunities and then maybe how you weigh those up against options like Bodekaiser sitting there and the equity stakes you have on the balance sheet where you've got some substantial holdings? Yeah. So first to Bodekaiser. We're deploying pretty much as much capital as is reasonable for this stage. So things that push us through the approvals process at the same time as really sort of right back to grassroots target generation through the district.

31:24 So things that we would allocate capital on there include property purchases, water purchases, things that are fundamental building blocks that any owner has to put together. More broadly, so talking inorganic M and A, we look in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada and Scandinavia. Ideally, we look for things that can supplement existing assets there. We've talked about Victoria and they're pretty limited in the other jurisdictions where we have operations. So we look for things that give us not just a step forward in growth, but have the potential to grow even further. That's our ideal that's our ideal asset is something with growth attachment. So we're happy to pick up assets like our existing assets, but where we have open sided growth, we could build those assets on top, if that makes sense. So the type of things that we're particularly interested in, lot of the conversations we have are around single mine producers who are saying, Okay, I'm going to allocate one or two years of my cash flow to try and grow to the next stage.

32:34 And were they to come together with us, then we would be able to de risk and accelerate that. That's our ideal acquisition.

32:48 Thanks for that, Nick. I'll hand it on. Cheers, Al. Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Kevin Tracy from Oprah Asset Management. Please go ahead.

33:07 Thanks for taking my questions. Can we just clarify how you view TrueBlue today? On the one hand, in the release, you noted you have confidence to push forward with development, but it sounds like you were a bit disappointed as well. So how do you see the asset today, especially in the context of the exciting results at Brunswick? Do you see kind of development being pushed to the right? Or, yeah, just be curious on your big picture views on TrueBlue today. Yep. I understand. Yeah. Thanks, Kevin, for the opportunity to clarify. So

33:40 True Blue, we drilled, we had our initial inferred resource of 100,000 ounces. And I was certainly hoping that with this drilling program, I'd be able to say, oh, it's 150, it's 200, it's 300,000 ounces. That has not occurred. My disappointment with that. It's still a high grade resource, plus it's somewhere in that 50,000 to 100,000 ounce range. But it means that I'm doing more step out or the team is doing more step out drilling there to try and grow that to be a significant target. We still have applied for the mining license for it. We still intend to develop to it because we consider that that's economic or will be economic.

34:27 But it's not quite the amazing next step that I was chasing. Brunswick South is just something that we discovered next year when we were doing I mean, last year, sorry, when we're doing extensional drilling. That is looking really solid,

34:43 crossing much closer to the sort of target size that we had for TrueBlue. It's still unbounded at depth, and there may even be like, a repeat lens a little further to the west there. And it's early days for that. But please do not read into that that I I'm yet saying that that's a plus 300,000 ounce resource.

35:07 Okay. And that timingly, can you remind us on the timeline of the open cuts contributing to production? I think you said the highway would be done early And in then, a while back, this was ways back now, but the hope was that those open cuts would help Tom and Lee turn into a 100,000 plus ounce producer. And I'm just wondering if you could speak to that or update Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So first one, we expect to finish the highway early next year, like I said, and we are currently planning for starting open cap production in quarter one FY twenty twenty eight. So in the July to September period of next year.

35:54 In the July to September 2027. So that remains track for us. Releases overcats have circa 200,000 ounces in them. So we have two choices there. We can expand the mill and accelerate and go to 100,000 ounces as we identify. We've got costings and plans and schedules for that. As you can see, we're doing sort of 80,000 ounces of underground. Or we can continue at this rate and balance the higher grade feed, having gone already to sort of around the 1,300,000 tonnes per annum. At the moment, given the shorter mine life at Costerfield, I am intending to keep us at the current level of production.

36:41 The main reason is that unless our exploration at Thommingley goes and we find another sort of Roswell sized deposit, another 500,000 ounces, then all I will be doing is shortening the mine life there as well. And I think from a scheduling of production perspective and capital allocation and then exploration treadmill, that would be too quick for where we are at present given we haven't made that step forward at Costerfield. Okay. Final one for me. Can you give us some sense of the growth capital budget for fiscal 'twenty seven? And if you have any picture on the corporate cash cost outs as well, that'd be useful.

37:29 Yes. So corporate cash cost out should be very similar to this year. So the items that Jim just mentioned, we continue to do closure work at Lupin. So we have, you know, the better part of $20,000,000 that will go out in this coming year. So that will be the thing that you see at corporate that sort of is currently grouped in the cash waterfall. With respect to our capital allocation, I mentioned it within the quarterly report. We're going to go close to doubling that in this coming financial year from where we are at the moment. We'll finish off the highway at Tomingley. We will do quite a lot of development towards Brunswick South and opening up that mine area, the whole new mining area at Costerfield.

38:18 At Bjorkdale, we will commence development to Storehead. So we're going to our target there is to be bringing Storehead online in 2029. So it's 700 meters away, whole new area. We're intending to develop the whole thing. And the reason we can't bring it online sooner is we have to do whilst we have a mining license, have to do environmental approvals for that. We'll be lifting the tailings dam at Storeheadon and adding another seven plus years there to tailings dam life and then integrating a further expansion of that into the capital approvals process. And as well as that, we're replacing fleet, some of which probably should have been replaced at Costfield and Yorkdale in the last couple of years. So we're really trying to position ourselves to be as efficient as possible going forward.

39:15 Okay. Thanks. Thanks, mate. Thank you. Next we have Laurence Retail from Retail Investor. Please go ahead. Hi, Nick. I just have several questions to ask. I'll start with the first one. The share buyback, is that still in progress? And does it occur on both exchanges? Lawrence, we do not have a share buyback in progress. Have not announced one and we do not have one in progress.

40:01 Okay. Yeah, because I know Mandalay was doing it. So I was wondering if that was continued. No, no, sorry. That had stopped. And to talk very briefly about a buyback. At the moment, we're focused on getting this dividend in place. The board continues to evaluate a buyback. But I think you will have picked up. We've got quite some aggressive acquisition aspirations and we're still hunting value there, realizing that our own shares we consider to be pretty cheap as well. Okay. With regards to the Nagambi return in, yeah, I I don't have a sense of what the overall objectives are. And the only information I've been receiving is from the permit holder's website announced the second drill was deployed to the site.

40:59 Yeah, understood. So we will report when we have drill results. So we don't have drill results. And for us, the deploying of drill rigs was materials. It's a very small company to us. It's just part of the course. We have so many drill rigs around the group. The purpose of Nagambi Nagambi is located about 40 kilometers to the East Northeast of Costerfield. It is an old mine that ran for many years and has been, in caret mains for a long time. The Gambi themselves had drilled a fair bit and had an inferred resource under the pit. And the purpose for us is to, number one, validate that resource with some infill and lift its standing. Now we're hoping for certainly plus 100,000 ounces equivalent to start with.

41:55 And then what we want to do is to be able to develop up as if it could be a mine of its own. And then we would use that permitting approvals. There's a whole heap of steps to go through to feed the Costerfield mill either at the tail end of cost of field mine life or as as Al from UBS sort of indicated as a supplementary feed and expanding the mill at cost field. That would be our ideal scenario. And obviously, there's, a lot of a lot of things to go through for that to be able to happen. So what's your what's the life expectancy of cost of field end? So at the moment, if we simply go on the reserves and then we go for the resources, that it that that is about five years at the moment.

42:53 But please, please take into account that Costafield has had a two to five year mine life since 2009. Yeah, I know. Since 2000. Yeah. And the other important thing, sorry, to to to on the Gambi is it does sit on an existing mining lease already. So that's important to be aware of. Well, other important thing too is that it's a mining license there as well, not an exploration license. Correct. Yeah. Correct. Which helps. Yes. If you wanted to put it in production, it certainly speeds things up. How does the metallurgy compare between the two? Early early early stages. However, it does look like a very, very similar deposit. Higher grade in Anthony and lower grade in Gold. So it does look like that it's compatible and we would obviously do MET testing as part of all of that. But we see nothing significant at present.

43:57 So if you increase the mine life at Costerfield to ten years and the Gombe works out, you could almost have a separate mill at the ladder. Right? Yeah. It would be that that whilst whilst what you say is true, it would be our preference to expand the facility at Costerfield instead. Yeah, I guess I can see that. I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit more on the inorganic growth. Do you have like a short list of mining companies that you're actively work having discussions with? Like is it three or four or you're still throwing out a wide net?

44:46 We do both things at once, but at any given point in time, we're typically in active discussions with more like two to three non income. Okay. Any any in Canada? We did have one in Canada, but that fell away probably in about March. And so Canada is back to the drawing board, if that makes sense, like the early stage engagement. Yeah, it's a tough jurisdiction with the Liberal government and their bills strangling extraction companies to keep the resources in the ground. So I'm just giving you a heads up that you may Yeah, no, want thank to you. Look, it's probably at the limit of what I can discuss publicly, but it's fair to say that, you know, as as we're all aware, there's geological opportunity in a lot of these jurisdictions.

45:46 You know, we get you know, some things we get people calling us, sometimes we call other people. We're very typical. Okay. I'm I'm just warning you. I'm just, you know, giving you a professional courtesy. When, you know, when you're dealing with No. No. I'm companies in Canada, watch the politics. It's Yeah. It's not it's not promoting mining in Canada. So it it looks like it is, but it's deliberate. So be very careful. Yep. I think is there any? I no, that's it for my questions and I thank you for fielding them. Okay, cheers mate, all the best. Thank you. I see no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Natalie.

46:38 Thank you. We have one question. In addition to the recommended dividend, could you outline your thoughts on the dividend policy going forwards, please? Yeah, absolutely. It's our intention to keep the dividend at this level. Yeah. Yeah. And so we obviously will need to form up closer to a dividend policy. But what we want people to see is that in this period of really high cash flow, you know, we're determined to return some value to shareholders through this period of time. People should expect that we're going forward now, but we all get that circumstances might change. But, we're to continue steady state from here that we'll be paying fully franked dividends at or around this level, obviously with a view always to work on how we can increase them.

47:35 Thanks, Nick. We have no further questions, so I'll hand the call back over to you for closing comments. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Nat. So I think everybody what I really want to say, which you all get, is that we've had a great year and we've enjoyed this part of the journey. We've been one of the best performing ASX gold producing stocks. And so really thank you very much for being part of it. Thank you for your attention and your questions. Reach out if you have any more and we look forward to continuing to deliver for you.

48:25 Thanks very much. Cheers. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.