10/23/2025

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks, Darcy. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us this morning for the Regis Resources September quarter results. Joining me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Anthony Rakicki, and our Chief Operating Officer, Michael Holmes, and our Head of Investor Relations, Jeff Sansom. As usual, we will refer to some figures in the quarterly report released earlier this morning, so please, it might be helpful just to keep it handy as we step through the results. So, firstly, starting with safety, as we always do, through the quarter, on a 12-month moving average basis, our lost-time injury frequency rate actually got down to zero. However, unfortunately, towards the end of the quarter, we saw a single LTI occur, which pushed our LTIFR lost-time injury frequency rate to 0.36, which was in line, basically, with our performance last quarter. Now, while still below the industry average, as always, we should never be satisfied with any injury. And the team, I know, is driving hard as we're diligent and continue to build a strong discipline safety culture for our teams across all our operations. Now, on to production performance. The September quarter marked another period of consistent operational delivery and a resultant strong cash generation performance. Group production totalled 90,400 ounces at an oil and sustaining cost of $2,861 an ounce Aussie. And I note that this also includes a non-cash charge of just under 200 bucks an ounce. And that relates to drawdown on historic stockpile inventories. Now we are comfortable with the performance in our first quarter and we're well positioned to deliver within our FY26 guidance ranges. From a financial perspective, this quarter has seen another period of unprecedented gold price movements. Spot gold during the quarter increased over 15%, from just over $5,000 an ounce to just under $5,800 an ounce during the quarter. And during that time, we sold at an average price of $5,405 an ounce. Of course, since the end of the quarter, gold has risen. Another $500 an ounce will actually rise more than that, and we have seen this slight correction in the last couple of days, but the fundamentals are still there and it is a great time to be producing gold. This meant that we grew our cash and bullion position by $158 million for a balance at the end of the quarter of $675 million. That's another record for Regis and highlights the ongoing strength of the business and really continues to demonstrate the significant cash-generating capacity. We remain debt-free. with significant balance sheet flexibility. From a growth perspective, we saw first-door from our underground development projects at Duketon, and these both remain on target. Now, with that, I'll hand over to Michael for more detail on the operational rundown, followed by Anthony, who will cover more on the financials. Over to you, Michael.

speaker
Michael Holmes
Chief Operating Officer

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. As Jim mentioned, it was disappointing that we had one lost-time injury in the quarter. which continued our 12-month moving average frequency rate of 0.36. We are working on numerous initiatives within our operations to reduce the occurrences of safety incidents and injuries. Operationally, the quarter was steady across both sites, with results consistent and in line with plan. At Duketon, we produced 58.4,000 ounces at an oil and sustaining cost of $2,832 per ounce. which includes a non-cash charge of $238 per ounce. This is a few hundred dollars lower than the previous quarter on stronger production and reduced total material movement with lower open pit waste movement. During the quarter, open pit mining commenced at King of Creation, recommenced at Gloucester and continued at Ben Hur open pits. Our open pits contributed 14.4 thousand ounces at a grade of 0.92 grams per tonne. Underground mining and garden well in Rosemont delivered 31.8,000 ounces at 1.9 grams per tonne with development totalling 3,990 metres for the quarter. Milling throughput was 2.08 million tonnes at 0.99 grams per tonne with an 88.3% recovery. Importantly, as Jim mentioned, during the quarter, first ore was mined from stoves at both the Garden Well Main and the Rosemont Stage 3. The first ore contributed to the increased underground ore tonnages compared to the previous quarter. These two underground developments are key contributors to our long-term growth strategy and Garden Well Main is progressing well towards commercial production in H2 of this financial year. so we should see growth capital from the development roll off towards the end of the year. In light of the ongoing strong gold price environment, the team continues to identify and evaluate options for organic growth across Stuketon. At Tropicana, production was 31.9 thousand ounces at an all-sustaining cost of $2,821 per ounce, which includes a non-cash charge of $198 per ounce, reflecting solid delivery and grade improvement. Open pit mining delivered 16.1,000 ounces at 1.6 grams per tonne with material movement and grade in line with expectations. Total material movement was elevated related to the previous quarter related to the planned waste mining in the Havana open pit. Over the coming quarters, waste stripping in the Havana pit will ease and we expect the strip ratio will moderate, and this will be particularly apparent in the second half of FY26. Our share of what Tropicana Underground delivered was 15.2,000 ounces at 3.12 grams per tonne and 983 metres of development, with a recovery steady at 89.7%. Growth capital was moderate at $3 million, with development of Habana Underground progressing to plan. With that, I'll now pass to Anthony for the financials.

speaker
Anthony Rakicki
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Michael. We're continuing on from a really impressive financial performance that we reported for the full year ended 30 June 2025, with a great start in the first quarter of FY26. We sold just under 83,000 ounces in the quarter at an average realized gold price of $5,405 an ounce, generating $447 million in revenue. Operating cash flow was $290 million, including $186 million from Duketon and $104 million from Tropicana. As an aside, when we were selling the gold in and around that $5,500 an ounce market, The team was ecstatic, but as Jim mentioned, what a difference a few weeks makes. Noting that while those gold prices were impressive, the recent few weeks of gold sales have been in the 6,000s, which is just incredible. It's an amazing time to be in gold, really. Moving on to capital expenditure, we spent $114 million, including $70 million at Duketon. 19 million dollars at tropicana and we spent 20 million dollars on exploration within the capital spend amount 66 million dollars of that was growth capital with 63 million dollars at juketon and 3 million dollars at tropicana the majority of this spend was related to the underground growth projects at juketon garden wall main is expected to commence commercial production later in the financial year And therefore, the capital spend in that area from then on will report to sustaining capital, not growth capital anymore. With this in mind, in the absence of any new or any growth we create along the way, we expect to see the growth capital spend rate reduce as the year goes on. But again, that's on the basis that we don't find anything extra across Dubedin that's worth pursuing. So for cash and bullion, in the end, we closed the quarter with $675 million. which is another record for Regis, and the $300 million revolving credit facility remains undrawn. I'll just circle back now to all interstating costs, and Michael mentioned the non-cash charges across Duketon and Tropicana, and I want to talk some more about that. At Duketon, there was a non-cash charge of $238 an ounce related to stockpile inventory movements, and at Tropicana, we had a charge of $125 an ounce. for the same reasons. At a group level, that's a charge of $198 an ounce for the quarter. Focusing in on Tropicana, this quarter's all-in sustaining cost per ounce was higher than last quarter. If you cast your mind back, in the June quarter, Tropicana reported a significant non-cash credit related to stockpile survey adjustments. If we net off the non-cash stockpile movement impacts for Tropicana, then the office saving cost per ounce becomes similar across the two periods. On another topic, and as you now know, with a business high profitability and impressive cash generation, the directors declared a final fully franked dividend of 5 cents per share, totaling $38 million off the back of the FY25 results, and we paid that earlier in this month of October. And as I've mentioned before, Due to that strong profitability, Regis will return to a cash tax payment position and is expected to pay approximately $100 million in the third quarter of this FY26. So that's all from me. Thank you all, and back to you, Jim.

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks, Anthony, and thanks, Michael. At McPhilips, we're progressing the dual-track strategy to return the project to an approvable status. And I want to very quickly go over some of the details of the project and remind or highlight why we continue to pursue this line. Look, we released the DFS on McPhillamy's back in the middle of last year, and that highlighted a resource of $2.7 million and reserves of $1.9 million. At the time we released the DFS, as I said, the reserves were about $1.9 million. which, of course, isn't a reserve anymore, thanks to the Section 10. But the key fact is it's still in the ground and quite valuable at the moment. As expected, it was to have a mine life of around 10 years, so an average production of 185,000 ounces per annum, at a capital cost of $1 billion and a life of mine average oil and sustaining of something like $1,600 an ounce. Now, I do have to say that as a result of the Section 10 declaration, of course, the project is no longer viable in its current form and we withdrew the DFS. However, if you benchmark the project on those metrics I just mentioned and look at the spot gold price today of wherever it's sitting, around $6,300, that gives nearly three quarters or gives well over $2 million a day, three quarters of a billion dollars in pre-tax cash flow each year on average. Now, that's the value to our shareholders, but there is also other stakeholder value in addition to this, such as the value that it represents to New South Wales, and this would be significant. It takes the form of 300 steady-state jobs, well over now with this price, $366 million in royalties, along with millions in local rates and taxes. The list of benefits goes on. as it always does when we have a grown-up conversation about the real contribution mining makes to our Australian economy and the quality of life. But that's a topic for another time. So with these multiple value benefits for many stakeholders, we are committed in our drive towards a positive outcome for the McPhillamy's Gold Project. And to that end, we continue to prepare the legal challenge of the Section 10 declaration, and we expect that to be in mid-December. And in parallel, we're also investigating alternative waste disposal options and concepts. This dual track approach aims to put Regis in a position where we could conceivably return the project to an approvable status and position to proceed under either outcome, albeit with probably different timelines. Now, back to our current operations. As Michael and Anthony have discussed, the quarter was in line with expectations last And as we sit here today, we are very comfortable with our FY26 guidance range and see no changes required there. We'll maintain capital discipline, focus on generating strong margins for our core assets while positioning the business for future growth. As also noted by Michael and Anthony, we continue to seek out organic opportunities that make good economic sense in this new gold price environment. Our exploration team continues with their focus on conversion and extensional drilling to build long-term optionality. And I haven't said anything, I won't say anything more on that, but I do note that we will be providing the mid-year exploration update later on this quarter. So, to summarise, our team has delivered another quarter of consistent performance that has enabled us to capitalise on the exceptional gold price Cash and Bullion is up $158 million to a record $675 million. First Oil Mines from Garden Well, Maine, and also Rosemont Stage Street, and we continue to ramp up both of these underground projects. Ongoing development at Havana Underground. We continue to seek out and evaluate organic growth opportunities within Duketon. McPhillomys is progressing through both legal and technical pathways. And finally, but very importantly, our FY26 guidance is reaffirmed. So thanks for this morning. I'll now open the floor up to questions and back to you, Darcy.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Hugo Nicolacci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

speaker
Hugo Nicolacci
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Good morning, Jim and Anthony. Thanks for the update this morning. Obviously, as you say, a great time to be in Gold. Just first one for me, just a clarification on the McPhillamy's project. Just with the hearing in mid-December, do you have a rough timeline for when you'd expect an outcome after that hearing?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Yeah, sometime after that hearing. I mean, unfortunately, as we know, the courts run to their own beat. We would like to think that we would get a result back sometime in the first quarter of next year, but that's not certain. Remembering and understanding the legal process here, it's not actually an overturning of the decision. It's a process of going through and convincing the judge that there were elements of the process that we felt we were significantly disadvantaged over. And as a result of that, the judge sort of says, well, the decision is set aside. The minister, who is a new minister now, of course, presumably asks the department to correct the injustices for want of a better description or to correct the flaws in the process. And then the minister will make a new determination afterwards. How long that takes, there is no timeline to that. It could easily be out to the end of next year.

speaker
Hugo Nicolacci
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Got it. That's a helpful colour. And then just the second one for me, just at Tropicana, just observing that your partner there had put in and recently gotten environmental approvals for a power plant expansion and a new paste plant there to support the Boston Shaker. Could you just provide a little bit of colour and around the need for the PACE plant? Has there been a change in geological conditions, what you expected? Or was it more around cost and greater ore recovery that you're putting that in? And then just any comments around sort of timing and cost benefits there?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

No, I mean, the power thing's pretty obvious. Need more power. And the PACE bill is really, it's a trial at the moment. And it's driven by... the potential to improve overall economics by increasing or extraction ratios.

speaker
Hugo Nicolacci
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Excellent. In terms of timing of having that trial up and running?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

I mean, there's a trial in the first instance and then there'll have to be a decision and that's on when a full approach would be implemented and there's no timing on that, but I would consider that to be at least a year.

speaker
Hugo Nicolacci
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Great. Thanks. I'll pass it on.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry from UBS. Please go ahead.

speaker
Levi Spry
Analyst, UBS

G'day, Jim. Thanks for your time. No worries, Levi. Just exploring a little bit more of the returns piece of the big cash pile that you're building in the context of these growth options. So how are you thinking about it? Is there a scope to formalize some sort of returns policy or do we really need to wait for or, you know, it's essentially something from, you know, organics itself?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Yeah, look, I mean, it's... You're not the first person to ask that question lately. Look, you know, the first thing... And I guess historically what we've done is we've pointed to the fact that the company and the board has always had a strong view on returning... ..returns to shareholders via dividends... And it's great and very pleasing to see that as we've moved our way through all the recapitalisation and the hedge books over the years, that we've been able to return, and the debt, of course, for Tropicana, we've been able to return to a position to be able to pay dividends. And our view has always been where we've got the capacity to do it, and it makes sense, we will look at that ongoing process very favourably. but as you pointed out we don't have a policy that is something that we are under consideration at the moment and I would imagine as we work our way through that we'll make some decision on that over the coming months the next key time for us to make any another decision on whether a dividend is is payable or not and obviously it's pretty favorable environment at the moment but I wouldn't want to preempt anything But the next time to be making any decision would be the half-year results because we look at it on a half-year and four-year basis. So, yeah, no, we don't have a policy. We've always said that where we've got the money and it's an important part of our reason for being is to make a return to our investors via dividends as well as regular growth. And that's what we plan to continue to do. We just don't have a locked-in policy at this stage.

speaker
Levi Spry
Analyst, UBS

Thanks, Jim.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler from Macquarie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Andrew Bowler
Analyst, Macquarie

G'day, Jim and team. Just a question on the McFeline study, just looking at the dry stack tailing options. Just wondering on the timing of those studies and will that be affected by the judicial review? So, for example, if it falls in your favour, are we likely to see that study a bit sooner maybe? Or should I say, if it falls in your favour, are we likely never to see that study? Or if it falls against you, are we likely to see it a little bit sooner as you try and get it out to market as quickly as possible?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Look, our intention is, as I said, we're running a dual track. I think our preferred scenario, because it's probably a little bit more timely and requires less additional approvals, is... ..and test work is to return to the original DFS concept, i.e. what I'm saying there is we'd much prefer to win the... We'd much prefer to be successful in the challenge of the Section 10 and then follow that through with an appropriate decision by the Minister after his review. That's the way we'd prefer it to go, but we don't want to sit around in hope. So we've also planned to find and prove up this alternative method Probably the reality of that is that it's going to take, at this stage, it could take considerably longer for us to work that through. But the initial test work that we've done is encouraging. It's really a timing issue and making sure that we understand all the risks that this now introduces that we didn't have before and how we got everything in place. The short answer to your question is we prefer the Section 10 to be successful, but we'll continue to pursue the other one. And if the Section 10 is successful, then that's great because it means we've probably got a better timeline as well.

speaker
Andrew Bowler
Analyst, Macquarie

Yep, sorry, I was on mute. Yep, no, sorry, I was on mute. Thanks for that. And just a follow-up. I mean, I know you're working through the studies and it's very early stage, but is it the intention for these dry stack tailings studies to retain, you know, the relative scope and scale of the old plan at McPhillamy's or is there some tinkering to be done with the dry stack tailings studies that might see, you know, a biggering of the project or a bit of a trimming as well? Or is it, you know, roughly the same with a, you know, with a dry stack scenario bolting on the back end?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

In terms of footprint, it's probably a little smaller. So it's not actually the concept that we're working on is not so much a dry stack. It's an integrated waste landform. So we, you know, obviously in terms of what can move as much as I'd like to, we can't move the ore body. The process plan will probably stay roughly where it is. There's a big waste rock dump that's already there. It's already part of the approval. Obviously, if we commingle the tails in that, then whatever we don't put in the tailings, because we won't be able to, has to go into the waste rock dump. That's why it's called an integrated wasteland form. That would need to be bigger. And so there's a few things that we have to go through and get work on to see whether that requires extensive changes or reasonably modest modifications. And so that's all part of the work that's kicking off at the moment.

speaker
Andrew Bowler
Analyst, Macquarie

Apologies, I wasn't very clear. I meant as in sort of, I guess, the processing capacity scale. So, you know, the project itself would be of a similar scale.

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Yeah. No, it'd be of similar scale. I mean, basically the concept is you put... It's not unusual. It's reasonably common, certainly in South America, where water is exceptionally, you know, at altitude where it's scarce. And there's a couple of operations here in Australia... one over here in WA that uses a form of it. So it's not uncommon, but it is something that involves more equipment. But our plan would be to maintain the scale of the operation as it currently is and just change the back end of it.

speaker
Andrew Bowler
Analyst, Macquarie

No worries. That's very clear. Thanks. Thanks, Andrew.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. Your next question comes from David Coates from Bell Potter Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
David Coates
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Thank you. Morning, Jim and Sam. Thanks for the opportunity to ask a couple of questions. Just more observation, I suppose. It sounds like McFelmy's, understandably, is getting quite a bit of attention from you guys. Is that you know, because, well, to a degree, you know, that's the inorganic opportunities that are a bit sort of thin on the ground and, I guess, sort of harder to find value in, in the current market. And McFarland obviously has, you know, those really compelling metrics that you mentioned, you know, referenced before.

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Yeah. Good question, David. Look, I don't think what, you know, I guess the question is, Don't misinterpret the fact that we only talk about McPhillies as, you know, we're only inwardly focused. We do talk about it because I do genuinely think that the market doesn't recognise the value that's there. I mean, basically what we're saying is one way or another, this thing's going to be developed. It's really just a question of when. And if you're sitting down and trying to work out what the value is, And it's, you know, in this new price environment that we see gold in, and frankly, you know, this is not a flash in the pan. You can see that there are global fundamentals that have driven us to this new level from where we were 18 months or two years ago. So it reminds us that we need to, you know, our team needs to keep pushing on and make sure that that becomes approved in one form or another, and then we can develop it. The thing is the timeline. So, you know, that could be a couple of years out. And so that, you know, we put our effort into it and you can see we're spending not an insignificant amount at the moment on an annual basis on that works under the McPhillamy's guidance that we've given. But that doesn't mean that we're not looking for near-term opportunities to sit between now and then either, which is definitely on our... on our agenda and probably everybody's at the moment, but then we're no different.

speaker
David Coates
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Cool. Thanks, Jim. And, and then I'll just sort of sticking with the organic opportunities. You know, you mentioned that with this price that everyone's out sort of looking hard and reviewing the data at Duke in particular, can you give us a bit more detail on some of the opportunities that might be emerging up there?

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Oh, look, we've, you know, at the moment we're, The exploration side of things is pretty interesting and getting exciting again for us, but we haven't really got anything material to sort of hang a hat on there yet, although I guess we'll keep an eye out for whatever it is. But, you know, if you look at what else and what Michael and Anthony were talking about, is where you know there's no doubt about it at this at this new price environment we can go back to some of our old pits um be they big or small and sometimes it's the small ones that are actually the opportunity or back to even back to some of our old oxide stomping grounds um we look and go well hang on you know at um at five or six thousand dollars an ounce uh this stuff's actually quite viable and so they're the things that we're looking at i i don't really not in a position really or don't really want to go through the nuts and bolts of the individual items. But when we get something that is material, we will certainly update the market on that so that you know what you can add to your valuation work. So we are doing plenty of it at the moment. We're just not in a position yet to strike it into a gold bar.

speaker
David Coates
Analyst, Bell Potter Securities

Nice one. Okay. Thanks, Jim. I'll watch you guys get back to Rolling in both sides of cash.

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks, mate. Scrooge McDuck all over again. Okay.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Byer for any closing remarks.

speaker
Jim Beyer
Managing Director & CEO

Thanks, Darcy. And thanks, everyone. Thanks especially for the folks that asked questions. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the rest of your day. Take care.

speaker
Darcy
Operator

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-