Sandfire Resources Limited

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Brendan Harris, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Good morning everyone and welcome to our quarterly call.

Look, I plan to keep my opening remarks very brief, given we're only three months into the new fiscal year and we're tracking very much to plan. As you'd expect, our executive team is here with me today and we're looking forward to answering your questions. But before we start, I'd like to acknowledge 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. As always, we'll start with safety. We finished the period with a group drift of 1.8 compared to 1.6 at 30 June, having reported seven high potential incidents in the quarter. We do have an extensive and connected program of work underway across the organisation, led right at the top by Jason Grace. It's designed to further enhance a system of risk management while creating an environment where all of our people feel safe to speak up and stop work when something doesn't look or feel right, irrespective of their title or level in our organisation. Of course, that's because nothing will ever be more important than the health and wellbeing of our people. More broadly, I'm sure you've seen we've made a very, very solid start to the financial year with group production tracking bang in line with full year guidance and our strong commitment to exploration delivering very exciting results. During the quarter, we achieved copper equivalent production of 38.9,000 tonnes, including 22.7,000 tonnes at Matza and 16.1,000 tonnes at Mateo. I note with the A4 pit now contributing around 15% of all feed to the crusher. You've also seen that we've maintained group production cost and capital expenditure guidance with volumes still expected to be evenly weighted across half one and half two. While our operations have also retained a very competitive position on the global cost curve, of course, we're watching energy markets closely given the potential to further exacerbate inflationary pressures. and we're looking forward to taking your questions. As you might imagine, there are many moving parts which will be good to work through with you. Suffice to say, our cost guidance looks good. Out Kalkaroo, we have completed the first 8.7 kilometres of our planned 130 kilometre infill and extension drilling program, despite losing around three weeks of site access because of wet weather. We're in the process of adding drilling capacity and remain on track to complete the pre-feasibility study in the second half of FY28, which we expect to identify a low-cost and long-life copper-gold development opportunity with an optimal scale of at least 10 million tonnes per annum and likely more. At MATSA, follow-up drilling has confirmed the potential of the prior La Juliana discovery hole. with further high-grade polymetallic massive sulphide mineralisation identified on both sides of the initial intercept, extending the mineralised horizon across some 160 metres of strike. What's more, downhole EM indicates that the massive sulphide horizon may extend across a strike of at least 350 metres within a prospective geological horizon which has an interpreted strike length of up to two kilometres. Consider in the first four and a half short years since we've acquired MATSA, our team has now discovered San Pedro, Olivo and La Juliana, which really only serves to highlight the incredible prospectivity of both the Arperium Pyrite Belt and more broadly within it, the corridor that extends from Aguas Tanitas through to Concepcion and Pedrosa. As we like to say, the identification of new high-grade reserves within close proximity of our modern processing hubs is likely to deliver the best economic return to our shareholders. It's also why we're mobilizing additional resources and plan to allocate additional funds, some $10 to $20 million to accelerate drilling at both La Juliana and our April underground project. And with that commence concept level studies to help us better understand the scale and economic potential of these exciting opportunities. And finally, at the other end of the spectrum, we continue to view the Black Butte project as a compelling development opportunity given its relatively high or grade environmentally sustainable design and minimal surface footprint and have confirmed our ongoing financial support for Samphire America as their board undertakes a review of their strategic alternatives including but not limited to a sale of the company. So when we bring this together as I've said before we're set up well operationally and we've put early runs on the scoreboard, having generated group sales revenue of $480 million for underlying EBITDA of $272 million and an operating margin of 57%. To finish the quarter with an audited net cash balance of $342 million after returning $117 million to shareholders in the form of a fully franked final dividend that was effectively funded out of quarterly free cash flow. We believe we have the right strategy and the right team. We have a strong balance sheet and we're investing in opportunities that have the potential to unlock significant long-term value for our shareholders. And you can be sure that we'll keep you working hard to do what we say we will do. So with that, let's go to questions. Thank you.