Evolution Mining Limited

Thanks, Darcy. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning. As always, we really appreciate it. I'm turning to the presentation that was released on the ASX this morning, and on page three, we've set up the order of the call. I'll start by making a few brief remarks. Laurie Conway, our CEO and Managing Director, will then take you through a business update. where you will hear that we remain on track to deliver FY24 production and cost guidance. Barry will talk you through the financial results, which demonstrate our cash generation is gaining momentum. And finally, Glenn will provide an update on the mineral resources and reserves, which will showcase our very high-quality portfolio of assets. I do want to start by acknowledging that the last month since we released our December quarterly report has been challenging. For those of you who have provided us feedback, we hear you and we are listening. We know we need to safely deliver our guidance and we also know that we need to build predictability into our business. I assure you that everyone at Evolution understands this imperative. To achieve this, we also recognize that we will need to be focused and not distracted. We also know that our business is well positioned. If you turn to slide four, an area that I think investors have been looking for is highlighted in the first column. Our cash generation is increasing. In the half year, net mine cash flow was up 136% to $203 million. Underlying EBITDA increased by 28% to $573 million, and our gearing reduced to 29%. With copper and gold prices remaining elevated and a lower capital intensity going forward, investors should feel confident that this momentum in higher cash generation will be further demonstrated in the second half, as we also benefit from the capital investment we have made in the portfolio. Our EBITDA margin of 43% is high, and our portfolio now has an average mine life of around 15 years, and this is based only on ore reserves. The quality of the geological upside in our assets is reflected in the fact that excluding North Parks, we pretty much replaced all the answers we mined over the last 12 months, and our success at the drill bit delivered a very material increase in copper ore reserves. You may recall that when we acquired North Parks in December, we said that a priority was to release a JORC-compliant resource and reserve, which we have done today. This confirms that North Parks has a very large metal inventory, over 400 million tonnes of resource, which gives us great confidence in the very long mine life ahead of us at this operation. As you will hear from Laurie, the integration and first couple of months of the operation are going well. Its addition to the portfolio also provides investors with increased exposure to copper, with it now making up about 30% of our revenue. If you look at copper's contribution to our mineral resources, it now makes up around 40% of the in-ground metal value. As we treat copper as a byproduct credit, this exposure to copper provides us with a long-term structural competitive advantage over our peers with respect to costs. Now I want to turn to slide five. I think a pretty good analog for underlying value is looking at growth of a company's mineral resources on a per share basis. After all, outside of our people, The most valuable asset that we have and any other mining company has is the metal it owns in the ground. The chart shows that as a shareholder of Evolution, you have had significant growth in both gold and copper resources on a per share basis since we formed the company in 2011. In other words, in spite of the many ounces we have mined and the almost $1.2 billion we have returned to shareholders in dividends, there is more copper and gold attributable to each evolution share than at any other time in our 12-year history. Another good indicator of accretive value is the cost of discovery. If you look at our long-term track record in this area, we have added ounces to our mineral resources through only discovery, and here we are excluding ounces that we have acquired at a cost of less than $50 an ounce of gold. And if you include copper as a gold equivalent, it reduces to below $40 an ounce. For an update as to how we're going to get these ounces and tons out of the ground safely and efficiently, I'll now hand it over to Laurie for a business update.

Thank you, Jake, and good morning, everyone. I'll provide you with an update on the business and an outlook for the remainder of FY24. Firstly, to slide six. Our group FY24 guidance remains unchanged with production within the range of 789,000 ounces of gold and 62,500 tonnes of copper at an all-in sustaining cost of $13.40 per ounce, plus or minus 5% for all guidance metrics. All operations are on track to produce the midpoint of guidance or better, except for Red Lake, which we updated in our December quarter report. The performance in January was good and ahead of plan, which keeps us on track. Specifically, the key drivers for the March quarter are completing the planned major shutdowns at Cowell and Ernest Henry, as well as ramping up the Cowell Underground to be at commercial production by the end of the quarter. These activities will enable higher production levels in the June quarter. Additionally, the continued ramp up at the Cowell Underground in the June quarter will enable higher throughput at higher grades. In the June quarter, we do have a planned major shutdown at North Parks, which was included in our guidance for the asset. At Mungaree, the June quarter will see a higher proportion of higher-grade underground materials compared to the March quarter. Moving to slide seven. At Red Lake, we took the decision last month to change their plan so that they deliver an improved cash position for the year, as well as focusing on being more reliable. Margin and productivity are more important than just ounces for this operation. Pleasingly, January's performance was on plan and this has continued into February. That said, we need to maintain the discipline for this to continue for the remainder of the year. Our organic growth projects remain on track and budget with Mungare 4.2 project advancing well. The updated reserves we released today for Mungare provides us with even more confidence in this project. The studies that Ernest, Henry and Cal are tracking to plan. Overall, our capital remains within the guidance range. The good progress we've made in the first half has seen us transition to positive cash generation, which is what we indicated in our investor day in June last year. As we deliver the plan in the second half of the year, including banking the benefits of higher than planned metal prices, This will see us materially increase the cash flow and continue to deleverage in the second half of the year. Moving to slide eight and looking at North Parks. The acquisition was successfully completed in December and in January we paid the final working capital adjustment. This adjustment was essentially funded from proceeds received during January from a pre-acquisition shipment. As part of our purchase price allocation, the contingent consideration has been fair valued at $28 million. It is to be noted here that this contingent consideration was above our base case valuation, and should we pay this over the next three years, Evolution would benefit by approximately $70 million in additional revenues. The integration work is making good progress. We've had very good engagement and support with our external stakeholders. Rob Cunningham started as the general manager a couple of weeks ago, and the site leadership team structure is in place. Rob has extensive experience at and knowledge of North Parks. The first joint venture meeting was held, including a visit by Sumitra, and now operations. As I mentioned on the call last month, the operation made a net cash contribution in December, pro-stream commitments, and this continued into January. The operation has delivered to plan in the first two months. We've delivered on our commitment to report the resources and reserves today, and Glenn will cover this shortly. The feasibility study for E22 is on track, and there has been very good engagement with the study team on assessment of the alternative sub-level cave option. The study is due to be completed in the June quarter. We are planning a site visit before the end of the financial year to show the quality of this well-established long-life asset, which has significant upside potential. Thank you for your time this morning. I'm going to hand over to Barry, who will take you through our financial results.

Thank you, Laurie, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide nine. During this half, we delivered an improved set of financial results with higher profitability and cash generation. Underlying profit after tax was up 54%, and we started to deleverage, driven by a 28% increase in underlying EBITDA that increased by $127 million. An 18% increase in revenue and continued cost management drove the EBITDA margin up to 43% from 39%. Capital expenditure reduced as planned, and major capital expenditure was $71 million lower than the same time last year, with net mine cash flow increasing $117 million, which is 136%. Gearing is 29.7%, down from 32.8% at year end. The board declared a fully franked dividend of $0.02 per share. Now moving to slide 10. The most pleasing part of our results is the momentum we are building with generating cash to reduce debt and provide shareholder returns. As we said at our investor day last year, our capital intensity is reducing. Major capital per ounce is down $198, or 22%, compared to FY23. And total capital expenditure is $76 million lower than half one of FY23. The base plant for the cow underground is now commissioned and the mine ramping up to commercial production. Capital expenditure guidance remains unchanged. Compared to FY23, the all-in margin per ounce increased three and a half times from $173 per ounce to $600, driven by a strong gold price, lower capital expenditure and continued cost control. The graph on the bottom right of the slide paints the resulting picture of how our group cash flow before debt, M&A, and dividends grew from a cash outflow of $95 million in quarter four of FY23 to cash generation of $79 million in quarter two of FY24. As production increases during half two, driven by the Cal ramp-up and increases in red light production, this momentum will continue to build. Lastly, on slide 11, The board declared a fully franked dividend of $0.02 per share. This is the 22nd consecutive dividend, which in total is now approaching $1.2 billion since inception. It will be paid on the 5th of April to shareholders that are on the register on 28 February. A balance sheet is strong and with $716 million in available liquidity and a fully repaid revolving credit facility has adequate flexibility to provide shareholder returns through dividends. It was announced at our investor day last year. Our debt maturity profile is aligned with longer expected mine lives and their cash generation profile. This is evidenced by our investment grade credit rating that was reaffirmed in August. Our cost of debt is a low 4.99%, of which 74% is long-term debt fixed at a rate of 4.5% per year. Over the next two and a half years, around 95% of our production is unhedged with only 120,000 ounces hedged to cover the capital of the Mongari 4.2 project at an average price of $3,185 an ounce. In conclusion, we are very pleased that cash generation started to gain momentum during the first half, which will continue as we deliver high production in the second. We have a strong and flexible balance sheet with a revolver fully repaid and $760 million in available liquidity. I will now hand over to Glenn for the MROR update. Thank you.