Sandfire Resources Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Standfire Resources March 2026 quarterly report. All participants are in a listen-only mode. 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 Brendan Harris, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning everyone and welcome to our quarterly calls. As usual, our executive team is here with me today for the Q&A, which we'll get to very shortly. But before we start, I'd like to acknowledge again the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation, as well as the First Nations peoples of the lands on which we conduct our business. We pay our respects to their elders and leaders, past, present and emerging. It's also particularly important that I acknowledge that we had our first ever fatalities, when a 34-year-old male contractor tragically lost his life while installing a polyethylene paste distribution line in our Magdalena mine on February 25. His loss of life is both tragic and completely unacceptable, and sadly it reminds us of the risk that stored potential energy presents for employees and contractors in our industry. We're deeply saddened by these events and our thoughts remain with the individual's family, friends and colleagues. Following the incident, as you'd expect, we immediately activated emergency response protocols, notified the relevant authorities and we continue to support their investigation. We've also engaged very closely with our workforce, contracting partners and their unions to ensure impacted individuals are cared for and to reinforce the importance of well-designed work. In relation to our broader safety performance, our group truth increased slightly to 1.5 off a low base and we recorded five high potential incidents during the quarter. We are determined to learn from every incident, raising risk awareness and capability wherever we operate. At Sandpile, we believe everyone is a leader and we will only truly be successful when our culture has evolved such that everyone feels safe to speak up when they see something that isn't safe or just doesn't look right, irrespective of their title or level within the organisation. Turning to operational performance. Group copper equivalent production for the March quarter was disclosed earlier this month. as it fell short of expectations, as both heavy rainfall and unplanned maintenance at MATSA and a further delay in the transition to high-grade or at-meteo constrained performance. In MATSA's case, this led to the lowest level of quarterly throughput in a little more than three years and a 12% reduction in copper equivalent production to 21,700 tonnes, for year-to-date production of 68,000 tonnes, which, somewhat ironically, is within 1% of where we were at this time last year. What's not obvious is that MATSA's performance in March improved strongly, as annualised mining and processing rates recovered to 4.9 and 4.6 million tonnes respectively. Mateo's performance in the quarter presents a stark contrast to MATSA in so many ways, as our team achieved record annualised mining and processing rates of 6.5 and 6.1 million tonnes respectively. As is too often the way in mining, despite such good operation performance, which included a strong improvement in mobile fleet availability and rates, it has taken longer to re-establish our face positions than we would have liked, such that higher grades are still ahead of us, with the average feed grade expected to rise toward 1.2% copper in the fourth quarter for copper equivalent production around the bottom end of our 58 to 64,000 tonne guidance range for the year. We pride ourselves on being consistent and predictable, and we're not shying away from our commitments in any respect. And I can confirm that we remain on track to achieve group copper equivalent production within the lower half of our guidance range of 149,000 to 165,000 tonnes in FY26, which you'd recall was set at plus or minus 5% at the midpoint of 157,000 tonnes back in July of last year. And while this requires us to maintain recent strong momentum across the remainder of the year, I can assure you that our assumptions are based upon robust, bottom-up plans. We simply need to run our business well, sustaining throughput rates at Mateo akin to those achieved in the third quarter, so we can reap the benefits of those higher grades, which I might add we are seeing now, and deliver a repeat performance at MATSA of the outcomes achieved in the fourth quarter of last year. More broadly, with no major maintenance and high rates of throughput planned in the run home, we currently expect underlying operating unit costs for both Nasa and Mateo to be materially consistent with prior guidance of $86.44 per tonne of ore processed for FY26. As I'm sure you'd expect, there are more moving parts than usual, with the conflict in the Middle East fuelling higher energy prices which is also feeding into freight rates and other input costs, and contributing to a slight correction in certain foreign exchange rate markets, such as the euro, which is providing some relief at MATSA. And I'm sure Megan will be very much looking forward to talking to you about costs in the Q&A. To give you a flavour for the uncertainty inherent in any forecast that we make today, I remind you that 90% or more of MATSA's costs are typically euro-denominated. while diesel alone accounted for around 3% and 15% of MATSA and MATEA's costs in our FY26 plan, with the price up something like 50% in recent weeks. Of course, it would be bold to suggest markets aren't efficient, and it would seem to us that commodity prices have proven to be resilient, perhaps because of the inevitable steepening of cost curves and the increasing risk to supply itself. So while cost sensitivities are understandably of interest to people on this call, we're particularly focused on securing our supply chains for those key consumables as we generate very strong free cash flow, as you've seen, at these prices. Within this context, we are well positioned at MATA, given its primary resilience or reliance on the grid in Spain and the country's industrial heartland. and we have relatively good visibility in Botswana out toward the end of this financial year. I would, however, caution that it's unlikely we fully understand all of the second and third order effects of the current conflict which may take some time to manifest. From a strategic perspective, we now have the bit between our teeth in South Australia where we're gearing up for a significant drilling campaign which could exceed 130,000 metres over the next 12 to 24 months, and the associated TFS workstreams that could amount to a collective investment of AU$100 million, all of which is designed to unlock the secrets of the Kalkaroo Copper and Gold Project, which we believe has the potential to underpin a 10 million tonne plus per annum, low cost, long life, open cut mine, ideally located in a preferred jurisdiction to become the next major catalyst for the continuing transformation of our company. Jason and Ian Kerr are onboarding key personnel as we speak. Camp facilities are being prepared and two drilling contractors have been secured and are preparing to mobilise. Within the Kalahari copper and Iberian pyrite belts, we're really starting to see the benefit of bringing exploration together. as our talented, centralised team of geoscientists are better placed to support and challenge our teams on the ground, ensuring our targeting approach is continually learning, capturing fresh ideas and constantly being rejuvenated. We will have an increasing emphasis on the drill bit next year as we leverage our depth of knowledge and take a real swing in the Mateo Hub and in the shadow of MATSA's processing facility where we have been encouraged by early indications but have much more work to do. So pulling this together, we generated record financial outcomes in the quarter on the back of buoyant commodity markets, particularly in relation to our by-products such as silver, with an unaltered group sales revenue of $408 million, translating into underlying EBITDA of $220 million for an underlying margin of 54%, to finish the period with net cash of $76 million, having paid, I might add, $46.5 million to Havala for our initial entry into South Australia and $26.1 million to the tax authorities in Botswana as Mateo made its first two instalments. Mateo's rapid transition to a taxpaying position, having paid back its capital base in as little as three years, is yet another marker of its success and a further indication of the potential that can be realised in the Kalahari when the right company takes the lead and the ingredients are right. As you might expect, we are proud of SanFi's growing economic contribution to Botswana and the broader local community. And we're also proud of the way we've set our company up for success. I've said it before, we have the right team, we have the right balance sheet, we have the right operations, producing the right commodities at the right time with the right by-products. And we're incredibly cost competitive with two operations that have a C1 cost below $1 per pound in the quarter. So with that, let's go to questions. Thank you.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. And if you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before asking your question. First question today comes from Kate McCutcheon at Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, Brenton and Meg. If I can just drill down on Mateo in March quarter. So that operation has been milling and mining a record, which seems to be running well ahead of the budget for the FYI. If you're ahead on tons, can you just help me understand the grade piece? Is grade reconciling well from A4? Is this just a case where the mine plan had to change because of that weather? I guess there's no underlying grade reconciliation issue. It's just what I'm trying to understand now.

Yeah, look, Kate, and I'd love your attention to the detail. Look, first and foremost, and I'll pass to Jason, I'll just make a couple of comments. Very simple ones. If we had a grade reconciliation, we'd tell you. If there was an issue with grade reconciliation, we'd tell you. We're very transparent. You're right, throughput, processing rates, mining rates have been picking up and are running incredibly well. And I know Jason will tell you that it's an operation when things are going well and you don't have your large, you know, shuts and so on, it's hard to hold it back. It likes to run at a rate in excess of our 5.6 million tonne per annum and so again it's really timing. But maybe Jason I think it's probably worth you digging into some of this because it is important and also just really I guess build confidence of the grey profile that we should see over the remainder of this year but also how it sets it up into next year because again I think we're really transitioning from a risk perspective into a different phase of mining at Makaya.

Absolutely, and thanks, Kate. So firstly, just to reiterate, we do not have any reconciliation issues at all. Both ore bodies are reconciling extremely well. We're seeing, particularly at A4, because we're coming down on the top of the ore body and we are now into it, we are seeing that it's in place, the tonnages are reconciling well, we're seeing the grades, and we're also seeing that transition through some of the oxidation that we plan to see of copper mineralogy up the top, And as we stand at the moment, we've been reacting by making sure that that A4 blend into the feed has been capped to manage that. And we've already started to increase that percentage of A4 in the blend as we're seeing that all freshen up as expected. So just on Brendan's point there, and I might step back and talk about the year. If you cast your mind back to the start of this financial year, we provided guidance in terms of what the production profile would look like throughout the year, and that was driven by basically where we're at in the mine plan with Mateo, transitioning from the end of stage two in T3, right, to transitioning from the oil feed being at the top of stage three. And that's what we've seen, and we were expecting to see lower grade oil, and certainly in Q1 and Q2, with it ramping up towards the end of Q3 and into Q4. Now, the issues we've seen with grade so far solely relate to face position. So we've had challenges there with our overall mining fleet availability, which has meant that we haven't achieved the face position that we required, particularly in T3. And we've got a mine plan in place now to pick that up and make sure we take that into this quarter and also beyond as Brendan was talking about. And certainly from our point of view, when we look at the life of mine, this was one of the higher risk production years in Mateo's life. As we move into FY27 and 28, we very much are right into the main part of T3 Stage 3. We're getting right into the body of A4 Stage 1 and Stage 2, and we transition into T3 Stage 4. all of which we have more than ample oil supply at higher grade throughout that period.

Okay, still clear. Thank you. And then you're moving into drilling at Kalkaroo this quarter, so you have a new country per se. Is there an update on the strategic review at Black Butte, or what timeframe are we working towards for an update there?

Yeah, look, again, thank you. I think I mentioned previously that once we entered the process, the formal process of I guess reviewing the assets fit within our portfolio, that I wouldn't actually expand too much further until it was concluded and that's where we're at now. We do expect still to be able to provide you with an update, a robust update around the time if not in conjunction with our full year results in August. So there's probably not a lot more I'd like to add at this stage, Kay, but I certainly appreciate the interest.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Khan Pekka at RBC. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Brendan, Jason, Megan and team. One on MATSA, or maybe two. Just looking at A4 volumes for the quarter, great to see that the volumes have increased, but obviously grades are lower than reserve. Maybe if you can talk to when you've started to mine above that 1.1% or 1.2% material. And then I think Jason mentioned that moving deeper into the ore body, is there any metallurgical variability risk as you move deeper, and is recovery purely a function of your type?

Thanks. Yeah, look, thank you for that. And yes, going back to Mateo and particularly A4, I think the point that we would stress is obviously our plans are not only based and premised on good evidence in terms of the capacity of our mill and broader processing circuit, but also on our block models, and as we get obviously closer to extraction, detailed blast and grade control results. So, you know, again, it gives us a great degree of confidence. I think what Jason was particularly referring to, as is the case of T3, and often is the way in any similar base metals project, is you're moving through into the surficial parts of the ore body, particularly where they're relatively shallow, there is that potential for a level of oxidised material to come into the mix that you've got to manage and deal with. But as we get into the heart of the ore body, not only do we have good visibility on grade, but we also have very good visibility on metallurgy and obviously we have a good understanding of how that performs and behaves in our processing facility. So perhaps as frustrating as it may be, It's a fairly simple story that as you get into those primary boronites and chalcopyrite and, as you know, the very coarse minerals in Botswana, you tend to see them float very, very well and you get very, very, very strong rates of recovery. So that really is the relationship that we're talking about here. Jase, anything to add there?

Thanks, Kahn. And just building on Brendan's comments, if we look at last quarter, we are already mining 1.2% material. If you look at, we report an overall average grade, which includes, we differentiate different ore types in our grade control, which is a high-grade ROM and also a lower-grade stockpile ore. So we are already consistently seeing plus one, plus 1.2% material that's already been mined, and we know that percentage of our mining will increase going into Q4 and beyond. If we look at metallurgical recovery and risk, We know it as A4 and very similar to T3. We start off at the very tip of the ore body where we do see some oxidation of the copper mineralogy. But we know at A4 because it's slightly deeper, we actually make that transition quicker than we did in 2T3. And I kind of touched on it there with Kate's question. We're already seeing that transition and that mineralogy improve just over a couple of benches already. So that's as we expect. And particularly going into Q4, we've now grade controlled pretty much 100% of our ore to be mined out of A4 in this quarter. So we've got a very good handle on that grade and that metallurgy going out to the end of the year. And look, building on Brendan's final point there, the mineralogy, copper mineralogy at A4 is dominated by chalcopyrite and boronite. both of which we know liberate extremely well and float extremely well to produce a hydrate corn. So overall metallurgical risk at A4 is very low and it decreases with depth, if that answers your question.

And maybe Jason, at risk of repeating ourselves, just to be really, really clear, we are three weeks into April, we've effectively got a week to run. Obviously We're getting very close to the end of the year. Mateo is currently running ahead of plan for April. Now, we've got to sustain that. We've got to continue to deliver. We've got to do all the things that we've said, particularly in relation to maintaining our face positions, our fleet availability, getting the rate that we need and we obviously need to ensure that the processing facility continues to run. As we mentioned, there's no major shuts planned for the round of this year. There are your typical routine maintenance programs in place that very rarely go over 24 hours. So that's built into the plan. But again, as I've said, we are ahead of where we need to be right now. Absolutely.

Great. Very detailed and appreciate it. The second one is on MATSA. You've pointed to an improvement into March and April. But where are you actually running today versus nameplate? Is there anything that needs to be done to get back to full throughput?

That's great. Look, I'll take it up front. So, again, we highlighted that as we came out of March, business is running very, very well in the month. That momentum is continuing. And one thing that I look at, and it's just an interesting marker, you'll notice I said that we're within 1% of where we were last year. Last year we ended up producing 94,000 tonnes of copper equivalent on a comparable basis. And if you look at the throughput rates, you know, the recoveries, the grades, again, in effect what we need to do is effectively replicate the performance of that fourth quarter of last year. So there's nothing built into our plan, if you like, that we haven't done before. Maybe, Jason, if you can expand on that.

No, I think you've hit the nail on the head. If you look at our processing rates, pretty much in line with what we've done in prior quarters. And if you look at it, we're probably quarter on quarter have a slight increase in processing of copper only ore as part of that increase and a slight increase in grade, which is driven by the mine plant. But overall, our poly ore is pretty much consistent with last quarter in terms of grade. and also expect a recovery.

Thank you.

Thanks, Carl. Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please register by pressing star then 1 on your phone, waiting for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Ben Lyons at Jarden. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, Brendan and team. Just a couple of quick ones on the detail, please. Probably the first one for Megan. and apologies for leading with a question on tax, but I appreciate the additional steer that you've given us on the effective group tax rate for fiscal 26 and a reminder of that Botswana calculation in the footnotes. But given that you've now appeared to have largely used up your capex tax shield in bots, if we were to assume that elevated copper and silver prices prevail through fiscal 27 and beyond, Should we expect an effective tax rate for bots towards the top of that sliding scale unless you undertake more meaningful CapEx programs like using the opening up of A1 CapEx as a bit of a tax shield? Thanks.

Yeah, great question Ben and you'll notice that we've really I guess further emphasised what's happening in Botswana this period. We think it is important people understand it. I think it's also important that the questions like yours give us a chance to even build upon that. And you're right, a key component of this is ongoing capital that is deductible and then of course any specific larger, for want of a better frame, lump of capital and how that plays through. I know Megan's always reviewing the models and updating them so over the years for the detail Megan.

Thanks Brendan. Thanks for the question Ben and very happy to elaborate that on a little bit further. So as you're aware the bottom line of tax rate uses a sliding scale and that takes into account taxable profitability divided by gross revenue essentially. Now our capital spend in the year is a really key component of that as Brendan touched on. So in periods where there is higher capital spend that comes through in the calculation. So during half one FY26 we actually utilised all of our carry forward tax losses in Botswana and they were in connection with the construction of Mateo and that purely reflects the the profitability of the asset and the reality that effectively we've achieved payback within sort of a circa three-year period. And now what we've tried to provide some guidance around in the quarterly is where we think our effective tax rate is going to land at June for FY26. And that's really, you know, based on what we know today and taking into account the strength in commodity prices that we've seen play out in recent months. And so we provide some numbers around that with the rate within the range of 34% to 37% anticipated for FY26. Now, then what I would say beyond FY26, what I expect to happen based on what I can see in front of me today, and obviously metal prices is the biggest swing factor here, together with the level of capital spend, but I expect beyond FY26 that we should see the effective tax rate for Mateo start to approximate around the Australian statutory rate. Not exactly, it'll be a little bit higher but it's going to level out back to that sort of level. What we're seeing in FY26 is it is going to elevate and that's really a function of the accounting requirement that we have at the end of the period to revalue our deferred tax liabilities to reflect the rates that we expect will apply when those deferred tax liabilities effectively reverse in future. And that's why we have an elevation in this next quarter. In terms of your comment on the upper end of the range, the 55%, that is probably not a realistic upper end in a practical sense because you would only ever get to 55% if there was zero deductions. So probably I think the key thing to come back on is over the life of the mine, based on what we know today, we expect it to sort of approximate what we see in Australia, albeit a few percentage points higher.

And then it is complicated because obviously we've got various capital plans built into there. I think, Megan, we assume A1 is constructed in our life of mine. It's not a large, I've said many times, it's not going to be a large pit, but there are certain elements in there. But what I would say over and above that is obviously Dave Wilson, who you all know well, as a chemical engineer, he's rapidly becoming a tax expert. And so he would be very happy to sit down with any of you on the call to the degree that he can and try and help you work through and understand some of the nuances that are at play. Megan, anything else?

Probably just to highlight then, I'm sure you're aware it's in the footnote, that's based on the current tax legislation. Some of you would be aware there's proposed changes that are currently under consideration in Botswana. That would be the most significant change if it goes through would be a change from moving away from upfront deduction of capital to effectively a minimum 10-year period to take that capital deduction over. So the numbers I've been talking around and the guidance we've provided in the quarterly is based on the current tax legislation, not the proposed amendments that are currently under consideration with the government.

Yep. Yep. Cool. Thanks very much. Yeah, no, it's very helpful, very detailed and a very kind offer to follow it up with Dave. The less we talk about tax, I think, the better. But, no, it was very reassuring that a 55% outcome, which would be extremely egregious in terms of a fiscal take, seems to be an incredibly low probability event, and an outcome closer to the Australian corporate tax rate, 30%, is a much better outcome. So I appreciate you stepping through that. Thank you. Maybe just one more from me. Just on the regional exploration program in BOTS... I know you haven't hit the metres that you were planning on, just given those safety interventions with the drilling contractor earlier in the fiscal year. But just given the overall importance of that program and noting that you're hitting up seven of your high priority targets, anything that you're seeing coming out early doors that gives you indications you're on the right track, whether it's actual decent intercepts or even pathfinder mineralisation? Thank you.

Yeah, look... It's a difficult one. I'll be honest with you, at times I wonder from a regulator's perspective what we can and can't actually say in this day and age with regards to exploration. I think it is a vexed issue and I actually don't think it's overly helpful to investors because I think investors deserve to understand progressive trends and progress more broadly. So I'll give it a go, Ben. Look, we've said that for a period of time we spent a lot of effort building that deep geological and geophysical knowledge base, both in the Iberian Pyrite Belt and obviously in the Kalahari. And on the back of that and then the learnings, and I think the critical piece we've talked about many times, the learnings we've garnered by actually opening up to ore bodies and really getting a much more tangible understanding of the genesis of these ore bodies and the drivers for economic mineralisation. bringing all of that together has been obviously a particularly important piece for us. And then bringing all of exploration together under Jason's guidance, I think has been critical because it means that we're really making sure that All of those learnings and elements that come from our mine geological teams, through our centralised teams, through our regional teams, are all being brought together and then being built into, as I said, a process of exploration, which is continually learning and, if you like, upgrading targets. Now, that's all great, but as we often say here, the rubber hits the road when you actually put a drill in the ground. And we were somewhat delayed for reasons that we've mentioned in Botswana, We're past that. We're working primarily with new drilling contractors and we're starting to make big inroads. Now there is, I've talked about, an area that's proximal to the A1 area that we will expect to declare a reserve for towards the back end of this year and most likely with our results or around that timing. I've said before we think it's somewhere between a half a year and a year. That's sort of broadly unchanged. And we expect it to be economic and to make its way, blend it into the mine plan in the 2030s. And so that's important. Proximal to that, but not with included in that area, we have had some very encouraging intercepts. We've been drilling around that with a number of holes where we're seeing a continuation of those encouraging intercepts. The question now is how continuous or contiguous is it? What is the strike length? What are the thicknesses? How much is the volume? What would the strip ratio be? And could it become an economic load? We don't know the answer to that and it is absolutely way too early. Beyond that, we are, as you said, targeting those broader structures in and around primarily the Mateo hub, and you'll see us focus even more so in that area over the next 12 months. We've had other similar, and one specifically recently, very interesting intercept that all I can say is precisely what we're looking for. It's in a different structure. What we don't know is whether we'll see repeats of that. What we don't know is the scale or potential. But again, what it highlights, and I think the message I'd want to leave you with is that all the things we see continue to encourage us that being in the Kalahari Copper District is the right place and that it is geostatistically highly unlikely that we found that the only three ore bodies in that district almost within a millisecond of each other and there isn't more to be found and more to be mined. that's what we've got to prove to ourselves and we've got to prove to all of you over the coming two and three or four years. And that's the sort of timeframe we've got before I think we're going to be in a position where we need to find that discovery hole, so to speak, and then repeat that somewhere in that sort of timeframe. Does that help, Ben?

Yeah, no, that's awesome. Very encouraging outcomes there. So I look forward to hearing how they're followed up in the future. Good luck. Thank you.

No, thanks, mate. I think I said to Jason the other day, exploration is always that story. You know, it happens quickly, but it took me a decade. You know, it took me many years. And that's the reality here, that there's so much work and so much time put into this. But when you make the discovery hole, it always feels like it happens, you know, easily and quickly. So, you know, again, we're going to stay the course. We're very focused. We're putting the dollars in the ground. And what's really important for me is that latter point. It's all in good to do all the, call it the academia around exploration. The critical thing is actually drilling holes. And Jason, as I've said, he's literally got the bit between his teeth. But, you know, both in Spain and Botswana. Yep, copy that. Thank you. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan at Paranjari. Please go ahead.

Hi, Brian and Sam. It's a lot of encouraging, I guess, chatter about Mateo and just how the mine is set up for FY27, 28. You're saying it's basically very de-risked in terms of the face positions. What does that mean for managing that operation through there? You're going to have a lot of ore at good grades. How will you manage that? And does this mean that we might see some other production upside through FY27 and 28?

Good question, Dan. I think, and I'll throw it to Jason, I think what we're saying is that the plans we provided you in previous iterations, site tours and other things, we said we expect that we'll hold the sort of FY26 plus or minus guided production rates out to the end of this decade at a minimum. But what we're saying is we expect to do so, but into next year, it's a lower risk plan, touch wood, all else being equal than as we went into this year. Jason?

That's it. Brendan you've hit the nail on the head again. So if we look at it we'll see a much more even production profile over each of the quarters going into FY27 and where we are we've got access to more oil in both A4 and C3 over the next two years. At the same time we do need to make sure that we are doing our waste stripping which will set us up FY29 and beyond that as well. So that's very important that we maintain particularly those total material movement rates from open pit mining because once again we can introduce risk if we don't maintain the rate and keep moving aside those hold throughput or those hold mining rates through this period as well. But short answer yes, in terms of ore supply we have de-reached the plan. We've got ready access to good quality ore over the next two years.

And then I guess a similar question, Matt, I mean, obviously the June quarter you're going to benefit from a lot better grade, but how are the leading indicators of performance beyond this quarter looking like in terms of development and advance? How is the mind set up to deliver? I'm not looking for quantitative guidance, but just, you know, is it set up well for next year?

Yeah, look, and I think in many ways we have provided an indication on the quantitative side where we said similarly that we expect to retain or maintain similar levels of copper equipment production again out at the end of the decade at MATSA. Very, very simply, it's a similar story. Jason will expand upon it. But we've talked a lot about Olivo and San Pedro, and we've talked a lot about the amount of work we've put in investing heavily in underground developments. And we've talked about the importance of creating additional degrees of freedom. As we go into next year, that is probably the most important delta for us, is we start to see those additional degrees of freedom open up because effectively of the level of development we're getting into some of those areas.

Dan, if you look at it the last couple of years, and if I start with Aguas Tanitas, So we've invested a lot of capital development in opening up the Western Extension, which is the main part of the higher grade ore body that's remaining there at Aguas Tanitas. So we've now opened that up and we've set up particularly our ventilation, our capital development and all the infrastructure that we need to maintain a higher mining rate through those areas. So firstly, that's set us up well, particularly over the next year or two. At Magdalena, we've established that underhand mining there in Massa 2 and that's working very well for us at the moment. If I look out beyond and really just to reiterate Brendan's themes there, is that we've provided prior outlook for the next three years. Everything I'm looking at at the moment is that we've got quite a stable mine plan covering that period going forward, so consistent with what we've given to the market previously.

Thank you, very clear. And just last question on Kalkaroo. I appreciate you're only just starting on the Kalkaroo journey, but how are you going to interact with your joint venture partner, Havala, with regard to the release of results over time as they come in for that big drilling program.

Thanks, Dan. In terms of how we're going to interact more broadly, we're really building, I'd say, an incredibly fruitful and productive relationship. I met with them only, I think, two Fridays ago. Very, very good discussion, strong alignment. And I know they're excited about the level of commitment we're putting in, the fact that You know, we committed to a 20,000, minimum 20,000 metre drilling programme. As I've said to you, we think it could be as much as 130,000, assuming we continue to see the results that at least we're anticipating. And obviously what goes hand in hand with that, and the drilling is the biggest piece, is that expectation of a total spend moving towards, you know, the conclusion of a PFS of around 100 million Aussie dollars. So, you know, I know they're very pleased with that. In terms of results, it's still, you know, obviously early. We haven't actually got drill rigs on site yet, as I mentioned. They're preparing to mobilise. My current thinking, but to be tested, is that we will provide, most likely, the results on a quarterly basis for the drilling program. And the reason for that is, at different points, undoubtedly, there may be material outcomes relative to, if you like, HAVLR's disclosure thresholds as opposed to ours. And so as a result of that, I think if you look at your can't release discrete drill holes, you have to release the broader, if you like, sweep of information. So I think one way to manage that is actually to be, as we like, to be transparent and release the information as it comes to hand. But again, Dan, one for us to work through, but that's probably the current thinking that we have. So in other words, I think, there should be a very, very strong level of information flow coming out of Kalkaroo over the next 12 months. Because, just to be clear, the sort of 24 months we talk about, our expectation, barring something unforeseen with regards to weather, frankly, fuel availability, is that the vast majority of the planned drilling will actually be done within around 12 to 15 months. So, you know, again, with that information, not only will we have a good understanding of where it's headed, my sense is if you do the work, you will too.

Thank you so much for your perspectives, Brennan.

Thank you. The next question comes from David Radcliffe at Global Mining Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, Brennan and team. So my question's really a follow-up to Dan's on Kalkaroo and now the deal's done and you're starting to spend not an insignificant amount of cash on the project. Really the question's to the point of scale that you see in the asset or what you would hope to define to make the asset worth the squeeze, if I use the terminology you've used before. Because it would seem that if you looked back at, say, even the BHP 2023 concept scale size, it wouldn't quite be to the scale of your existing operations on a proper equivalent basis. There's obviously other benefits for syndication and mine life, and let's see what the studies show. But given the timeframe and the scale here, is it fair to assume that there's room for you guys to continue to look to enhance the portfolio with other growth options?

Thank you for that. I really appreciate it. I think the way I think about the latter part of that question It's beholden on any management team to always be looking for opportunities to create value. And if we can generate ideas, translate them into action, where there's asymmetry of returns, well in excess of the cost of capital, I think that's what shareholders want us to do. And I think if you look at the capital transaction, What we do will benefit Havilah substantially, but it leaves us in a position where there is really strong asymmetry in return for our shareholders. And I don't think that's been common in deals of this nature. So, you know, we're very, very pleased with that. As you mentioned, there is a lot of work to do. I think Havilah talked about historically a mineral inventory, for want of a better term, which I think was a way of trying to understand the opportunity of around 184 million tonnes, well in excess of the current reserve. Our program is designed to test whether that scale is also significantly undercooked relative to the potential of the geology that we see. And on that basis, I think if you work through the numbers, you can start to see an allbody that has the potential to support throughput rates which, when combined, could match our two operations today. If you think about the grade profile, it's not this similar to Matteo. It's slightly less, got more by-product than copper. It's got a greater ratio of by-product to copper than Matteo, but the strip ratio from what we can tell is probably about half as much. And it's also at that scale amenable, and because of the geometry of the ore body and the thickness, it's amenable, we believe, to much larger mining equipment, higher productivity rates and so on. And so when we look at all of that, we think it has the potential to be a very significant operation for Sandfire, but one that also has the potential to run for decades. And that's what this program of work is designed to test, That's why the spend is what it is. It's why the number of metres is as high as it is. And of course, if we're not seeing what we expect, we will throttle back those plans. So I guess that's the first point. But as I said right at the outset, we're very excited about the potential of Kalkaroo. That doesn't mean we don't look around the world for opportunities that could match the potential of Kalkaroo. where we see similar asymmetry in returns that can benefit our shareholders. But we're never going to try and grow the company for the sake of growth.

OK. Thank you. That's very clear.

Thank you. That does conclude our question and answer session, so I'd like to hand the call back for some closing remarks. Thank you.

Look, again, I know hopefully a slightly less busy day than usual. and hence really appreciate and enjoyed the depth of questioning. As I mentioned, Dave and Tom are really eager to help through the course of the day as you try and work through some of these things. We know they're complicated. We appreciate your time. We look forward to seeing you all in person again soon. Thanks again. Thank you. That concludes our conference for today.

You may now disconnect your lines.