Northern Star Resources Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Northern Star March 2025 quarterly results call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There'll be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, nearly press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Mr Stuart Tonkin, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. With me on the call is Chief Financial Officer Ryan Gurner and Chief Operating Officer Simon Jessop. To start, we are very pleased that De Grey shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the scheme of arrangement and we look forward to welcoming their team and their shareholders into Northern Star. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our employees and business partners who consistently deliver a strong performance, enabling both organic growth and inorganic opportunities like the de Grey acquisition. With gold price exceeding Australian dollars $5,000 an ounce, it is an outstanding time to be producing and discovering gold in the stable, low-risk jurisdictions of Western Australia and Alaska. Against this buoyant market backdrop, we generated strong net mine cash flow of $295 million in the March quarter, and pleasingly, there was positive contributions from all production centres, despite operational challenges at our biggest asset, KCGM. Our balance sheet remains in a net cash position, and our hedge book continues to wind down as we deliver to the set schedule. In the March quarter, gold sold totaled 385,000 ounces at an all-in-sustaining cost of Australian dollars $2,246 per ounce. Mining of the high-grade open pit ore at KCGM was delayed because of low productivity in the Golden Pike North area, but I'd like to emphasise that the impact to the ounces is a delay only. As we look ahead in the June quarter, the high-grade ore is now accessible with mining efficiency on track to lift significantly. And more broadly at KCGM, we remain impressed with the progress we are making on this multi-decade asset. The foundations are established and we are commencing a very exciting period where we are poised to generate a positive step change in free cash flow generation from KCGM. As a result of recent operational challenges at KCGM, we have revised our FY25 group production guidance to 1.63 to 1.66 million ounces. Partially offsetting KCGM impact, we have increased guidance of PUGO as the mine continues to deliver consistently strong performance. Turning to the FY25 all-in sustaining cost guidance, we have increased the range to Australian dollars $2,100 to $2,200 an ounce as a result of delayed access to the Golden Pike North. Some unplanned maintenance costs at Yandle and also the higher royalties from the elevated gold prices. Detailed guidance information is provided on page three of the quarterly report. Continuing our KCGM mill upgrade, our project team remains very busy and I'm pleased with the progress of the KCGM mill expansion to date. There have been significant activity during the quarter as observed by all the structural installation of the major plant components on site. The project remains on track and FY25 capital expenditure guidance of $500 to $530 million remains unchanged. I'd now like to hand over to Simon Jessup, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our operational highlights.

Thank you, Hugh. For the Kalgoorlie Production Centre, which includes Casey Gem, Karasu Dam and Kalgoorlie Operations, we sold 197,000 ounces of gold and Australian oil and sustaining costs of $2,139 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of $332 million. The region also spent $262 million on significant growth capital projects. This included $121 million on the Casey Gem Mill expansion, $37 million on Casey Gem open pit mine development, and $41 million on Casey Gem underground mine development. At Casey Gem open pit material movement was 15.3 million tonnes. with mining efficiencies being impacted by slow productivity while destacking the eastern side of Golden Pipe North. Mining efficiencies have since improved and we are confident mining volumes will increase to 20 to 22.5 million tonnes per quarter from the June quarter. All mine from the open pit saw the beginning of a step change in ore volumes, with 2.2 million tonnes mined and 84,000 ounces in the quarter, a 90% increase in ore and 100% increase in ounces compared to the H1 quarterly average. We look forward to increased ore and total material movements from Casey Gem as the efficiencies and opportunities return to Casey Gem's open pit. Underground mining volumes at Casey Jam are 4% higher quarter on quarter and 29% higher year on year. Casey Jam's underground operations increased development to a new record of 7.4 kilometres for the quarter. The development metres will continue to increase as we begin to open up more of the Fimston Underground and Mount Charlotte ore bodies. A new Casey Gem portal will be developed in the Drysdale area during the June quarter, which will be 400 metres below the surface. This platform will commence the journey of delineating the many mineralised systems at depth and is very exciting for Casey Gem's long-term growth. At Karasee Dam, mine ounces were consistent quarter on quarter at 65,000, while ounces sold were lower due to a smaller contribution from the underground mines, which will reverse in the June quarter. The Kalgoorlie operations, underground mines and mill delivered to plan with a 15% reduction in all-in sustaining costs to $1,892 an ounce and a 10% reduction in all-in costs over the quarter. Processing volumes at Casey Gem were lower due to its planned major shutdown and lower availability and utilisation over the quarter, impacting gold sales. A higher head grade for Q4 is expected as all volumes from the open pit and underground sources all increase. The Casey Gem mill expansion project is 46 complete at quarter end, on time and within budget. We remain very pleased with the on-ground construction from concreting into structural and mechanical installation. Total engineering progress for stage one is at 89%, while all design reviews are now complete. The concrete port is 65% complete with an impressive 19,000 cubes poured to date. At our Yandall production centre, including Jundee and Thunderbox, we sold 120,000 ounces of gold at an Australian oil and sustaining cost of $2,398 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of $210 million, while we spent $91 million on growth capital projects. At our Jundee operation, development advance increased to 7.9 kilometres. with over 3.7 kilometres in development drill platforms completed year to date. Lower mine grade was from the Griffin Underground development ore commencing with milling grades forecast to remain at similar levels in the June quarter. Griffin development continued to ramp up over the quarter as a future new ore source while processing was again on plan. The Thunderbox operation mined 64,000 ounces for the quarter. the Wonder Underground mine continued to ramp up ahead of plan, with 1,552 metres developed, with one jumbo averaging 517 metres per month. In the open pits, the Otto Boer mine was completed at the start of the quarter, while the Bannockburn open pit commenced mid-quarter as an important long-term fee. At the Thunderbox process plant, we milled 1.43 million tonnes and sold 56,000 ounces of gold. The mill throughput averaged a new quarterly record of 839 tonnes per hour, 12% above name float. A major shutdown was completed within the quarter. For our POGO operation, we sold 68,000 ounces of gold at an Australian oil and sustaining cost of $2,292 an ounce. This production delivered a mine operating cash flow of 126 million. During the quarter, I visited POGO for my second time and met with the team to understand the current operational status and their opportunities. I was very impressed with the quality of the work the POGO team is undertaking, while also seeing significant opportunity for growth at this asset in time to come. Development lifted 10% quarter-on-quarter to an average of 1,500 metres per month, while the operation is now mind-constrained with milling on demand. I would now like to pass over to Brian, a Chief Financial Officer, to discuss the financials.