Northern Star Resources Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Northern Star March 2023 quarterly results call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Stuart Tonkin, Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thanks for joining us today. With me is Chief Operating Officer Simon Jessop and Chief Financial Officer Brian Gurner. I'm pleased to present our March quarter results today and reaffirm our group production guidance for FY23. During the March quarter, we experienced two key milling challenges at Casey Gym and at Pogo, which delivered a reduced production result of 363,000 ounces of gold sold at an all-in-sustaining cost of Australian dollars, $18.13 per ounce. We therefore revised our FY23 unit cost guidance to a range of Australian dollars, $17.30 to $17.60 an ounce, all in sustaining costs. These operational setbacks are now behind us and we are well positioned for a strong June quarter, advancing our profitable growth strategy to 2 million ounces per annum. During the quarter, our teams maintained a sector-leading safety performance with an annual LTIFR of one. We are seeing some easing retention can stabilise and improve training competency and safety outcomes. Our decarbonisation efforts continue with design and supply contracts advanced for Jundee's wind, solar and battery project. So I'm going to speak to the Australian operations, but first to our Pogo operations in Alaska. At the end of the planned mill shutdown in early March, we discovered damage to the ball mill motor which tripped during the restart. The POGO team ran multiple action plans and successfully repaired the motor in situ, and we safely resumed gold production in April. So despite nearly a third of the quarter interrupted, POGO produced and sold 47,000 ounces and advanced underground projects, including the new underground remote rock breaker and remote loading from ore bins to the underground grizzly, multiple new development heading takeoffs were established, ore stockpiles were built, and diamond drilling continued. It is representative of the endurance of the Alaskan culture, as during my visit three weeks ago there, the team remained optimistic and confident on the June quarter outlook and the progress being made toward the growth path to 300,000 ounces per annum. To group finance now, subsequent to the quarter end, we announced a successful closing of a US $600 million senior guaranteed 10-year notes offering. Our investment-grade ratings reflect the strength and resilience of Northern Star's business. Ryan will talk to the financials shortly. With the March quarter our best cash flow quarter year-to-date. The US bond proceeds provide further balance sheet flexibility to fund our organic profitable growth to 2 million ounces per annum, including the optional expansion of KCGM processing plant. A decision outcome on the Philiston Mill expansion study pricing inputs to the feasibility and assess execution risk medications. Now over to Simon for the Australian operations.

Thank you. Thank you, Stu. For the Kalgoorlie Production Centre, including KCGM, Karasu Dam, Kananabal and South Kalgoorlie, we sold 191,000 ounces of gold at an Australian all-insisting cost of $1,781 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of $169 million, while we spent $112 million on significant growth capital projects. Primarily $59 million was spent on KCGM open pit mine development. KCGM processing volumes were lower than planned due to an extended mill downtime post the major shut in January, which persisted for the majority of the quarter. These maintenance issues were mechanical in nature, also impacting processing stability, leading to a lower throughput per hour. The majority of these issues were rectified by the end of the quarter, with a small shut planned in quarter four to rectify outstanding items, ready for the planned increase in open pit, floor volumes and grates. At Casey Gem, open pit material movement achieved 19.6 million tonnes with shovel availability combined with longer hauls impacting total movement. This is in line with our total annual material movement plan. Greater than mined ore and volumes were steady quarter on quarter while additional waste was moved in the Femson South cutback. The open pit physicals have now delivered 60 tonnes of total material movement in three quarters, which is delivering into our strategic goal 80 million tonnes per annum of annualised movements. Underground mining volumes for the Kalgoorlie region were steady at 1.6 million tonnes, while grade increased 13% compared to the December quarter, driven from Kalgoorlie Ops and Karasu Dam, to deliver 129,000 ounces. KTGM's underground Mount Charlotte operation lifted volumes a further 12% from December quarter to 527,000 tonne. This volume is above our annualised 2 million tonne per annum target for FY23 and part of growing this operation to 3.5 million tonnes by FY26. Karasu Dam increased underground ore grade as Karari achieved improved stoke grades due to timing of the mining sequence. The Palfrey Underground mine continued development, averaging 340 metres a month. Kalgoorlie operations can now balance South Kalgoorlie increased volumes and grade quarter on quarter, while oil and sustaining costs reduced $315 an ounce to $1,666 an ounce. Due to access of higher grade mine ore from South Kalgoorlie operations. At our Yandall production centre, including Jundi, Thunderbox and Bronzewing, we sold 125,000 ounces of gold at an Australian all-in-sustaining cost of $1,627 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of $137 million, up 22% from the December quarter, while we spent $63 million on growth capital projects. Bronze Wing spent $22 million of major capital during the quarter as the Aurelia open pit achieved a full quarter of material movement for future ore into the expanded Thunderbox process plant. Our Jundi operation achieved 682,000 tonnes of ore, mined at an average grade of 4.1 grams per tonne. As a result, mined ounces were an impressive 89,000 ounces for the quarter. Total jumbo development achieved was 7.7 kilometres for the quarter, while Ramone achieved commercial production during the quarter as planned, stably increased. Processing throughput was consistent at 742,000 tonnes, while recovery improved to 92% with an increased head grow. Thunderblocks underground operation continued to be the high-grade ore source for the mill, with 476,000 tonnes produced. of ore mined. Ore tonnes mined both underground and open pits was 1.6 million tonnes, exceeding the process volume by 46%. Open pit volumes again increased another 13% to 5.2 million BCMs compared to the December quarter. We continue to bring on life of mine ore sources in order to provide high grade feeds to the 6 million tonne crown process plant. Chandig processing was steady quarter on quarter with reduced throughput coming from the Thunderbox mill expansion. The new Thunderbox process plan to achieve 1.1 million tonnes for the quarter, down 10% on quarter two because of unplanned downtime to address design issues that have largely now been resolved. We continue to see short-term capacity at or above the nameplate run rate of 6 million tonnes per annum. while our focus is on beating in the new operational processes and stability. The Thunderbox project remains a key focus as increased and consistent metal throughput will drive lower costs and increase gold sales. I would now like to pass on to Ryan, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss the financials.