Northern Star Resources Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Northern Star September 2023 quarterly results briefing. 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 Stuart Tonkin, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thanks for joining us. With me today is Chief Operating Officer Simon Jessop and Chief Financial Officer Ryan Gurner. I'm pleased to present our first quarter results for FY24 and maintain full year production and cost guidance as we are well positioned to deliver growth throughout the year with a strong half two forecast. In September quarter, we completed planned mill maintenance across each of our production centres and delivered a production result of 369,000 ounces sold at all in sustaining costs of Australian dollars, $1,939 an ounce. The September quarter enabled further progress of our organic growth plans with record throughput delivered at Thunderbox. The KCGM mill expansion pre-works and procurement is now well underway. The super bit east wall remediation is accelerating to access the high-grade golden pike zone in the second half of the year, and POGO volumes were consistent and cost-improvement initiatives have been identified and planned there. The balance sheet remains strong with net cash of $284 million and $2.2 billion of liquidity. Whilst we fully fund from operating cash flows, our production growth, our exploration activity, the active share buyback, and subsequent to the quarter, final dividend of $0.155 per share. These are all examples of a mature and sustainable business that you should own. During the quarter, we published our annual report and sustainability reports, as well as a number of disclosure statements. And I thank the team for the work to produce these reports, highlighting the extensive business activity for shareholder and associated stakeholders. And I encourage listeners to review these documents as demonstration of the great work underway at Northern Star. Now Simon will speak to the Australian operations, but first to POGO in Alaska. POGO delivered gold salt of 62,000 ounces and completed planned mill shutdowns during the quarter. Mining physicals were consistent with development above the required 1500 metres a month at 1581. Stoping contribution was two thirds of the ore fed to the mill and grade was representative of mine areas and mining dilution, which remains a focus. We also have focus on costs and that's key at Pogo with an all in sustaining cost in the quarter of US dollars, 1,438 an ounce. The pleasingly total costs were down 12% in the June quarter and planning is underway to reduce the fleet with the rehab jumbo scope diminishing and haul fleet plans to operate fewer, larger and more productive trucks they've all been ordered. During my visit to Pogo during the quarter, drive our costs across all departments. Exploration activity across the group continued with $30 million invested in the quarter to advance our geological targets and we look forward to providing an exploration update in December quarter showing the significant potential of our world-class geological systems. And now I'd like to hand over to Simon for the Australian operations.

Thank you Stu. For the Kalgoorlie Production Centre, including Casey Gem, Karasu Dam, Kananabela and South Kalgoorlie, we sold 183,000 ounces of gold, down 19% at an Australian, all in sustaining costs of $1,844 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of $174 million, while we spent $219 million on significant growth capital projects, including $80 million on the Casey Gem Mill expansion and $70 million on Casey Gem open pit mine development and new tail storage facilities. At Casey Gem, open pit material movement was in line with plan at 21.7 million tonnes in the quarter, Golden Pike South was completed during the quarter, which now enables uninterrupted access to mining the east wall remediation area. This is a real highlight as we continue to accelerate towards unlocking the 1.2 million ounces at the base of the pit. We're on track for the commencement, recommencement of mining in Golden Pike North in H2 of this financial year as a key driver of KC Gem's ounce profile over the next three years. Underground mining volumes for the Kalgoorlie region increased to 1.61 million tonnes, while grade reduced 13% to deliver 120,000 ounces. The lower grade was driven from Mount Charlotte and Karasu, having limited access to high grade areas. Casey Gem's underground Mount Charlotte operation stabilised all production at 520,000 tonnes with development lifting 52% quarter on quarter to 3.2 kilometres. The Karasu Dam Porphyry Underground Mine successfully commenced stoping and will ramp up over the course of FY24 as a new high-grade feed source for Karasu. This mine is run by our in-house Northern Star Mining Services Division. which averaged 470 metres a month with a single jumbo for the quarter. The Kalgoorlie operations of Kanaunabell and South Kalgoorlie mines were stable quarter on quarter on underground mine volumes and growth. Processing volumes in the Kalgoorlie Production Centre had their major annual planned shutdowns for maintenance. Casey Gem had its full re-line of the Pimleston SAG, along with the usual bi-annual major maintenance activities. Lower head grades were driven from the Casey Gem and Karasu Dam operations, along with reduced mill volumes, which is planned for this time of the year. The Casey Gem mill expansion spent $80 million during the quarter and successfully commenced the on-ground enabling works. The engineering and design works are progressing very well, with Primero assembling a high-quality team for this marquee project. which is integrating well with our Northern Star project team. The focus is on the preparation for the main construction team to commence on-ground site works at Casey Gym in quarter three of FY24. At our Yandall production centre, including Jundee, Thunderbox and Bronzewing, we sold 124,000 ounces of gold at an Australian all-in sustaining cost of $1,929 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of 96 million while we spent 40 million on growth capital projects. Primarily 18 million was spent on the Aurelia open pit. At our Jundi operation, development advance was 7.5 kilometres with 687,000 tonnes mined and 80,000 ounces for the quarter. Processing had its major plan shut down along with an unplanned crushing circuit downtime event. which limited throughput at the end of the quarter. This also delayed processing of high grade ounces into the December quarter. The Jundee Renewable Project is on track for the 16 megawatt solar farm and 12 megawatt battery energy storage system to be online in FY24, the second half. The 24 megawatt wind farm works are continuing and on track for FY25. Thunderbox underground operation achieved a new site record with 603,000 tonnes of ore mined and the highest quarterly physicals to date. For the quarter, the underground and open pit operations successfully mined 1.95 million tonnes of ore, which is above the nameplate of the newly expanded process plant. The Thunderbox Process Plant achieved a new record of 1.37 million tonnes milled for the quarter, with a major plant shutdown and 58,000 ounces of gold sold. The throughput tonne per hour lifted to an average of 775 tonne per hour for the entire quarter, which is 25 tonne per hour above the nameplate. The focus for the processing team continues to be around availability and utilisation, along with stabilisation in the plan. We are very pleased with the quarterly step change in throughput of this processing facility and the lift in gold sold. I'll now pass over to Ryan, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss the financials.