Alkane Resources Limited

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to Alkane Resources fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants on the telephone are in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After management's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. For those on the telephone, To ask a question you may press star then one one on your telephone keypad. Participants on the webcast can type your question in the Q&A feature in the webcast. Now let me hand the call over to Natalie Chapman, Alkane Corporate Communication Manager. Please go ahead.

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Some housekeeping items to note. Please review today's press release for further details on our results and the accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download from the company's website at alcres.com. For those on the webcast, please move through the presentation slides yourself as directed by our presenters. Moving on to slide two. I'll remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates and beliefs and may also use terms that are non IFRS performance measures. Please review Alkane's disclosure materials for the risks associated with this forward-looking information and the use of non IFRS performance measures. I will also point out that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated. And as a reminder, Alkane closed the merger with Mandalay Resources on August the 5th, 2025. Our group financial and operating results for fiscal 2026 shown today only include 11 months from the Costa Field and Bjorkdale mines and the former Mandalay operations. while including 12 months of results from Tommy Lee. Please note also that Alkane Resources is no longer required to publish a quarterly MD&A as per the rules of the TSX. However, we remain committed to engaging our shareholders in a proactive manner. To that end, we will continue to host quarterly conference calls and webinars to help maintain the highest level of disclosure and to provide a public forum where our shareholders can ask questions and engage with management. Please move on to slide three. Today's speakers from Alkane Resources are Nick Earner, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer and James Carter, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now hand the call over to Nick Earner. Please go ahead Nick.

Thank you Natalie and thanks everyone for joining us today. Let's move to slide four. So as you can see on this, let me start by saying at Alkane, we've had a tremendous year of operations. The record production results, along with our close cost management, all happening in an historically high gold environment, allowed Alkane to generate record cash flows, which further increased our strong financial position. All three of our mines are operating really well. On a consolidated basis, we produced 42 and a half thousand gold equivalent ounces in the fourth quarter and just over 162,000 gold equivalent ounces in fiscal 2026. Remembering this doesn't include July 25th for Kosterfield and Bjorkdal. So including them gives the 168.3 thousand ounce equivalent that you can see on the slide. So it's hard work and diligence from the entire Alkane team I'm proud to say that we've met the top end of our production guidance we've met cost guidance at each site and we're just above our cost guidance for the group which is a great result in what we can all agree has been a pretty turbulent environment so these great results had our mines generate 174 million dollars in operating cash flow for the fourth quarter and over half a billion so 567 million dollars for the year we ended the year with $454 million in cash, bullion and liquid investments on hand, which is an enviable strong financial position. This will allow us to aggressively grow the company through exploration and capital programs in each of our mines. It'll allow us to advance the Bodo Kaiser Copper Gold Porphyry project, also while seeking M&A to opportunistically grow the company. I'm also very pleased to announce that the board is proposing to return to shareholders an inaugural dividend of $0.02 a share fully franked. This is subject to completion of the audit, satisfaction of the section 254 T dividend test under the CORPS Act and therefore final board confirmation. Whilst this is our clear intention, until these steps are completed, no assurance can be given that a new dividend will end up being declared or as to the final quantum or timing of any dividend that is declared. Let's move on to slide five. On a consolidated basis, in quarter four, Alkane processed more than 693,000 tons of ore and an average antimony grade of 1.4%. Recoveries of 89.5% gold and 91.1% antimony remained fairly consistent quarter on quarter. As a result, our three mines produced 42,500 gold equivalent ounces consisting of nearly 41,000 ounces of gold and 456 tons of antimony. for the statutory reporting year, again, without July 25th, for Kosterville and Bjorkdal. We produced over 162,000 ounces of record for alkane. I'll get into specifics on each mine shortly, but needless to say, all of our mines are operating very well as we head into fiscal 2027. So moving now on to slide seven. Sorry, I gave you the wrong slide number before. Moving on to slide seven at Tommingley. In quarter four, we processed nearly 326,000 tons of ore. Average grade, just under 2.3 grams a ton of gold. Recoveries were just under 88%. All of this resulted in Q4 production nearly 21,000 ounces of gold, slightly lower than Q3. For the year, Tomlin produced nearly 83,000 ounces of gold, which exceeded our production guidance. Processing continues to perform really well. The mill exceeds our original plans. And this is primarily, as I've mentioned in the last couple of quarters, a result of the continued use of a mobile crusher to pre-crush material prior to entering the processing circuit. So pre-crushing our material to different sizes which will try to optimize our throughput. This continues and people should now consider this to be part of our standard operating practice. Our capital expenditure in the quarter was allocated primarily for the Newell Highway realignment project. and construction is expected to be completed in Q3, so early in fiscal 2017, so early in calendar 2027. This, as people know, allows us to access the high-grade C&N tonneau deposits via two new open cuts and this great return project will sustain our growth and future cost profile. All in sustaining costs in Q4 with $2,481 per ounce, essentially in line with Q3. Our only sustaining cost for 2026 was $2,429 per ounce, which, as I said earlier, met our cost guidance for the site. So Tommy Lee generated operating cash flows of $76 million for the fourth quarter, and our record $232 million for the year. Overall, Tommy Lee had an absolutely outstanding year, setting new records for annual production, mined oil tons from underground, and mill throughput. Moving on to slide eight, Yorkdale. In Q4, Bjorkdal processed more than 331,000 tonnes of ore, an average grade of just under 1.1 grams per tonne, an average recovery of 85.6%. This resulted in Bjorkdal producing 9,935 ounces of gold. For the year, Bjorkdal produced nearly 38,000 ounces of gold which met the site guidance. Remember this doesn't include approximately 3,000 ounces produced in July 2025. I think we can all agree it's going to be quite rewarding going forward in fiscal 2027 not to have to keep dropping a month out. When comparing Q4 to Q3 lower grades and lower recoveries in Q4 resulted in a 20% decrease in gold production but this is primarily as a result of us not feeding the very high grade and a number of off-site trial material that I referred to last quarter. Our mine graver is in light with plan. We have slightly increased development tons in some higher grade areas. Mill throughput is consistent and we do have projects to improve recovery across bearing mineralisation. Capital works on lists of the tailings dam facilities ramped up further during the quarter. This work continues for the next 12 months. Lower production resulted in higher Q4 all-in sustaining costs of $4,184 per ounce, which is a touch higher than in Q3. For 2026, our all-in sustaining cost was just under $4,000 per ounce, which is below our guidance. The operating cash flow from Yorkdale was $48 million in Q4 and $156 million for the year. Overall, Yorkdale had a very consistent year delimiter plan. Moving on to slide 9, at Costafield Gold Antimony Mine, we processed over 36,000 tonnes of ore. In Q4, gold grades were 9.3 grams per tonne, slightly lower than Q3, and antimony grades were 1.4%, which is a bit higher than Q3. Gold and antimony recovery rates were 95.2 and 91.1%, respectively, all higher than the previous quarter. The mine produced 10,117 ounces of gold, in line with Q3, and 456 tonnes of antimony, which was higher than Q3 as a result of the grade. For the year, Costaville produced 37,000 ounces of gold and 1,224 tons of antimony, which meant guidance for gold and exceeding guidance for antimony. And please note that quarter on quarter grade variation is what we expect from such a high grade nuggety ore body. But that being said, despite the natural variation I just mentioned, grades were a touch lower than planned due to some challenges associated with ground conditions, slowing the drilling rate and access to certain areas. So mining, we continue to work on improvement programs, drill and blast, We're transitioning our capital development team to owner-operator like we have in the rest of the group. Focusing on operator training, increased focus on mine planning and we continue our transition to emulsion explosives to improve recovery and reduce dilution. The processing plant continues to focus on blend control to maximise throughput, recoveries and produce metal. And following on from the success at Tommingley, we've had pretty good trials here at Costafield as well. with pre-crushing or feed to further improve throughput, crusher downtime, and blend control, and work continues in this area. All-in-sustaining costs in Q4 were $2,568 an ounce, in line with Q3, and for 2026, all-in-sustaining cost was $2,462 per ounce, which meant guidance. Cost of yield generated $50 million in cash flow in Q4 and $179 million for the year. like Bjork Dahl, in 2026 Costafield delivered to our high expectations. Moving on now to slide 10, Tomingley Exploration. One of our key strategic initiatives is to drive organic growth by increasing our mineral resources by doing a pretty aggressive exploration program across our portfolio. So looking at slide nine, If we look at our exploration targets for the quarter, we're looking both near mine and regionally. Northern extension of Coloma, bullet one, was tested, as well as the southern extension to the Roswell deposit, which is bullet two on the screen. Trilling also commenced testing the areas between the Roswell and Wyoming one deposits, which is bullet three. That's actually from our underground decline, joining the two deposits. Further from the mine, we continue to work up regional targets in our ELs. as well as on the ML testing Wyoming 3 and other near-mines targets. Regional drilling programs being progressed include Paytons, Tomigley 1 and 2, Peake Hill and Glen Islay. Moving on to slide 11, at Bjorkdale, drilling during the quarter focused on increasing resources to extend the mine's life and also to bring new ore sources into production. On July 9 we announced The drill results are 29 drill holes in the north zone, bullet one on your slide, and east zone, bullet two. Efforts here were focused on infill and extension drilling, which resulted in pretty increased confidence in the understanding of the main geometry and grade controlling structures in the grade control unit, which is very, very important at Bjorkdal. Hole-out intercepts at east zone include nearly three ounces of gold over 1.25 meters and 81 grams of gold over 4.4 meters. And in north zone, An ounce of gold over just under a meter and 25 grams per ton of gold over 0.6 meters. These results show mineral systems still strong, still open at depth, so our future drilling is going to focus on step-out extension testing to assess this continuity of these known vein swarms and continue to refine the structural controls in each of these areas. We're exploring narrow veins and we've shown we've got the expertise to mine them efficiently over many years. Further to the northeast Drilling continued in the quarter to extend the depth of the storeheading deposit which hosts multiple zones of steep quartz veins comparable to those found in the main Bjorkdal deposit. Development to this area is one of our capital allocations for FY27 at Bjorkdal. At the Norberriot target drilling was focused on resource extension. Moving on to slide 12 at Costa Field, exploration drilling continued to focus on expanding resources. During the quarter, we drilled nearly 27,000 metres across the district. Underground drilling focused on testing targets, resource growth, reserve definition, while surface drilling programs progressed resource infill, resource growth, and target testing. On July 6th of this year, we announced results of 33 holes at the True Blue deposit. This is bullet points one and two on the image. The predominantly targeted infill of the upper portion of the deposit and this significantly increased competence and understanding of vein geometry and grade controlling structures. Significant intercepts include just under two ounces per tonne of gold and 25% antimony over 0.25 at what we call the Freeman vein and 84 grams per tonne of gold and 15% antimony over half a metre at associated veins. These results give us the confidence to proceed with our plans for development of True Blue although I noted in the announcement at the time I would have much more loved for these results to have been even better and to know that we had you know 300,000 ounces of this deposit we'll be doing step out drilling here while we continue to search those very high grades in increased density. Also on July 14 we announced the extension infill drill results from the Brunswick South vein that's on your screen. with high grade results including 50 grams per tonne of gold and 26% Antony over 2.17 metres. I'm particularly excited, we're particularly excited by these results as this newly found deposit not only contains pockets of a high gold endowment but critically significant quantity of Antony which helps us keep our concentrate grades up. We believe Brunswick South can be brought online without extensive access requirements as it's situated just 200 metres from existing developments. So we've already commenced development towards Brunswick South in this quarter we're in now. So the first quarter of FY27 and we've allocated capital for it in FY27 and we're looking to establish as a future primary production source at Costa Field. Moving on to slide 13, the Northern Molong Porphyry project. This project, the entirety of the project is shown on the map on this slide. Highly Prospective Gold Copper Corridor that also encompasses down the bottom right our Boda-Keyser Gold Copper Project. As we announced on June 10, exploration undertaken throughout this district, including testing the corridor between Boda and Keyser, bullet two on your screen. We did one diamond and one RC hole here, which we saw further mineralization as expected. Three RC holes testing geochem, geophysical anomalies northeast of Boda-Keyser, it's bullet point four. Four RC holes testing different chargeability anomalies within the Comabella Intrusive Complex which includes Glen Hollow and Harrington that's bullet points five and six which in this area we've had previous gold copper mineralization drilled by previous companies and we also completed the mobile manual to lyric survey over the majority of the district which defined target areas. Now assay highlights in Boda Keiser We got mineralisation in at 23 metres at just under 0.2 grams per tonne of gold and 0.14% copper, including 3 metres at higher grades. Near deposit, near Boda Kaiser, we got 9 metres at 0.3 and district-wide the best we had was 3 metres at 1.74. These results more add to our understanding of the project and showing the scale potential and possibility for future growth. One of the big things, which is a low-cost activity that we've been doing to advance the development of the Boda Kaiser Gold Copper Project in the quarter, is the continuing of environmental baseline studies. We've been talking to a whole heap of different stakeholders. We're negotiating with some property owners for access or potential purpose. We've been working out where do we stick infrastructure and processing. So we're on the path that I've detailed in my recent presentations. to put in a project approval application at the end of 2027 or early 2028 and have an investment decision in 2029. So as you can see, we've got a tremendous amount of exploration work going on on each of our projects, the goal of expanding resources and driving new discoveries to increase mine life, increase production levels and lower costs. And with that, I'll now hand over to you, Jim, to provide a review of our financial performance. Over to you, mate.

Yeah, thanks Nick. So if we're moving on to the Q4 and FY2026 financial highlights slide. So group revenue for the quarter was $257 million on sales of 47,400 and a little bit ounces of gold equivalent and that included 384 tonnes of antimony. Average gold prices during the quarter were just a bit over $5,400 Australian dollars per ounce and that was about 14% lower than Q3 and I think people on the call will be familiar with that. Average antimony prices in the June quarter was $24,276 a tonne. That was about 30% lower than Q3. We also delivered 8,500 ounces into our gold hedge book during the quarter just at an average price of $2,870 per ounce. and that leaves just under 29,000 ounces of gold to be delivered into those forwards at around about the $2,900 an ounce price over the coming four quarters through to June 2027. All in sustaining costs in June quarter for the group were $3,011 per ounce, gold equivalent produced. That was about 9% higher than Q3. and mostly probably grade-driven that Nick touched on earlier. And for the statutory reporting year, which is that awkward 11-month period for Brookdale and Costa Field, they were $2,907 an ounce gold equivalent produced, which is pretty close to the guidance. So operations generated, mine operating cash flow is about $174 million in the June quarter and that was about a margin of $2,431 per gold equivalent ounce over the AARC. So just note that our financial, audited financial statements will be out in the sort of third week of August. So at this time we're not reporting, we haven't got any earnings to report but Later, once that audit's done, we get those out with a complete set of financial statements. Sustaining capital during the quarter was $21 million. Most of that expenditure was associated with underground capital to grow on across the three operations, mobile equipment purchases and rebuilds. Growth capital was $20 million for the quarter, and most of that was invested at Tommy Lee's for the new highway relearnment. The eventual mining of the San Antonio open pit as we move later into 2027, tailings dam construction lifting at Yorkdale and exploration expenditures for June quarter which were just under 11 million dollars which Nick covered previously on his slides. So if we move to the next slide just to talk about cash flows where we've got the cash flow waterfall. So if you see on the waterfall chart there June quarter operating cash flows from the three operations were $174 million. Some of the items that we haven't talked about previously were $18 million of income tax installments. So they're just monthly installments that we make to the Australian Tax Office, mostly associated with Costa Field and Tommingly at the moment. And later on in this calendar year, we'll have a square up where we just finished off paying what tax we owe for FY26. There's $20 million of corporate and other expenses. So in that bucket is really about $8 million for corporate costs. Just a couple of million dollars this quarter for boater and regional exploration. About $10 million for Lupin. And there was a $4 million net repayment of our equipment loans. And so that where we left at $430 million of cash at the end of the year or $104 million post-tax cash build for the June quarter. So a really good quarter there for cash build. So at 30 June 2026, we've got a really strong financial position. We've got $450 million of cash bullion in list investments. And if you include our undrawn $110 million revolving credit facility, we've got total available liquidity of about Thank you for joining us. and any value accretive inorganic opportunities as they arise. So with that, I will turn the call back to you, Nick.

Thanks, Jim. Moving on to slide 16. As I mentioned, and you can probably pick up, we're pretty proud of the efforts of the entire Alkane team, which of course includes so many great employees that have joined with Mandalay to ensure that we met our 2026 production and cost guidance. We're really happy we've successfully managed our way through the Mandalay merger. and also with the other goals we've accomplished in the year. Most noticeably, I think we position ourselves to grow our business through capital initiatives, exploration programs, all while enhancing our financial position. Our primary goal for 2026 was to establish Alkane as a reliable, consistent producer, seen by everyone to have a steady mantra of under-promising and over-delivering. and our performance to date proves that we've done that. So slide 17, let me focus on fiscal 2027 and the outlook that I've detailed on this slide. We have a lot of momentum already coming from fiscal 2026. So levering the financial strength Jim just outlined, we're well positioned to deliver on this dual track strategy. We're gonna grow our production, albeit slightly, continue to try and constrain our costs in a very difficult cost environment and to increase therefore our cash generating capabilities to fund growth initiatives. But we remain singly focused on execution to meet our production and cost targets and aggressively drilling across our portfolio. It's a simple and proven strategy. So our plans for fiscal 27 are to produce our guidance is between 163,000 and 177,000 gold equivalent ounces, slightly higher than this year, and an all-in sustaining cost of 2,900 to 3,200 per gold equivalent ounce. Other deliverables listed on this slide have ensured that Alkane grows and remains a competitive mid-tier producer. Without a doubt, our strong balance sheet gives us a distinct strategic edge. Supported by our steady operations during this period, which, despite the disappointment of gold coming off nearly 30%, is a very robust gold and Antony price environment. We're deploying our capital towards both organic and inorganic growth. We remain ready to move fast on the right opportunities, but our approach, of course, will remain highly disciplined. In closing, we're pleased with our performance for FY26, and we believe we're well positioned to continue to drive long-term value for our shareholders and stakeholders. I personally would like to thank my entire team at Alkane for making 2026 so successful. For the board for supporting our strategy and to our shareholders for wanting to be part of the journey.

I hope you've enjoyed the last 12 months.

And with that, I'll hand back to you, Maggie, to start the Q&A session. Thank you.

Thank you very much. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, Please press star 11 again. Please stand by. Just a moment for our first question, please.

First question comes from Elle Harvey from UBS.

Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning team. Congrats on the result. Just wanted to kind of look at cost of field and the broader strategy there. Obviously, you mentioned in the Prezzo getting some nice hits out at True Blue. You also started drilling out at the Ngambi JV a couple of months ago. And your neighbours, Southern Cross, are having some success up the road at Redcastle. So just trying to understand what you guys are hoping will come out of the exploration push there over the next 12 to 18 months. Are we thinking it's more life extensions or do you think there could be a pathway in time to justify an expansion at Costa Field?

Thanks Al, it's Nick speaking. Well both mate. So number one is to extend the life. So in the last year we've extended a further 12 months to have a very clear look at four years ahead of it. and we obviously have a line of sight on a little bit further beyond that but this year's focus is we're going back to sort of grassroots testing to start to try and work up the multi-hundred thousand ounce resources like we had at Ewell Shepherd and we hope to continue to get it through Blueburn maybe even Brunswick South and then the purpose of that really is to try and extend the mine life out ahead of ourselves and then all things going smoothly particularly with Ngambi Once we have, you know, further than five years, preferably seven, then we'll look at capital investment to increase the production, albeit modestly, right? So, you know, we do sort of circa 50,000 ounce equivalents. Our next step, unless we, you know, discovered something Southern Cross style, would be to sort of try and move close to that 70,000 ounces by going from the 150,000 tons a year to 200,000 tons a year.

Awesome, thanks Nick I'll just ask another one maybe around growth options more broadly so yeah looking appreciate your comments around inorganic growth and you know there's that consistency in FY26 and 27 on your deliverables just around identifying inorganic growth opportunities so maybe just remind us on how you're approaching inorganic opportunities and then maybe how you weigh those up against options like you know Boda Kaiser sitting there and the equity stakes you have on the balance sheet where you've got some substantial holdings?

Yeah, so first to Bode-Kaiser, we're deploying pretty much as much capital as is reasonable for this stage. So things that push us through the approvals process at the same time as, you know, really sort of right back to grassroots target generation through the district. Things that we would allocate capital on there include property purchases, water purchases, things that are fundamental building blocks that any owner has to put together. Across, more broadly, so talking inorganic M&A, we look in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada and Scandinavia. ideally we look for things that can supplement our existing assets there we've talked about Victoria and they're pretty limited in the other jurisdictions where we have operations so we look for things that give us not just a step forward in growth but have the potential to grow even further that's our ideal that's our ideal asset is something with growth attachment so we're happy to pick up assets like our existing assets but where we have Open-sided growth, we could build those assets on top, if that makes sense. So the type of things that we're particularly interested in, a lot of the conversations we have are around single-mind producers who are saying, okay, I'm going to allocate one or two years of my cash flow to try and grow to the next stage. And were they to come together with us, then we would be able to de-risk and accelerate that.

That's our ideal acquisition, mate. Yeah, thanks for that, Nick. I'll hand it on to Giselle.

Thank you.

Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Kevin Tracy from Oberon Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my questions. Can we just clarify how you view True Blue today? On the one hand, in the release, you noted you have confidence to push forward with development, but it sounds like you were a bit disappointed as well. So how do you see the asset today, especially in the context of the exciting results at Brunswick? Do you see kind of development being pushed to the right? Or yeah, just be curious on your big picture views on Blue today.

Yeah, I understand. Yeah, thanks, Kevin, for the opportunity to clarify. So True Blue, we drilled, we had our initial inferred resource of 100,000 ounces. And I was certainly hoping that with this drilling program, I'd be able to say, oh, it's 150, it's 200, it's 300,000 ounces. That has not occurred. Hence my disappointment with that. It's still a high grade resource, plus it's somewhere in that 50 to 100,000 ounce range. but it means that I'm doing more step out or the team is doing more step out drilling there to try and grow that to be a significant target. We still have applied for the mining license for it. We still intend to develop to it because we consider that that's economic or will be economic but it's not quite the amazing next step that I was chasing. Brunswick South is Thank you for watching.

Okay, and that's Tommy Lee.

Can you remind us on the timeline of the open cuts contributing to production? I think you said the highway would be done early in Q3. And then, you know, a while back, this was ways back now, but the hope was that those open cuts would help Tommy Lee turn into a 100,000 plus ounce producer. And I'm just wondering if you could speak to that or update on that.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So first one, We expect to finish the highway early next year, like I said, and we are currently planning for starting open cut production in quarter one FY 2028. So in the July to September period of next year, in the July to September 2027. So that remains on track for us. That releases, open cuts have, you know, circa 200,000 ounces in them. So we have two choices there. We can expand the mill and accelerate and go to 100,000 ounces as we've identified. We've got costings and plans and schedules for that. And as you can see, we're doing sort of 80,000 ounces from underground. Or we can continue at this rate and balance the higher grade feed, having gone already to sort of around the 1.3 million tonnes per annum. At the moment, given the shorter mine life at Costa Field, and many more. that would be too quick for where we are at present given we haven't made that step forward at Costafil.

Okay and final one for me can you give us some sense of the growth capital budget for fiscal 27 and if you have any picture on the corporate cash cost outs as well that'd be useful.

Yes a corporate cash cost out should be very similar to this year so The items that Jim just mentioned, we continue to do closure work at Lupin. So we have the better part of $20 million that will go out in this coming year. So that will be the thing that you see at corporate that is currently grouped in the cash waterfall. With respect to our capital allocation, I mentioned it within the quarterly report, We're going to go close to doubling that in this coming financial year from where we are at the moment. We will finish off the highway at Tomingley. We will do quite a lot of development towards Brunswick South and opening up that mine area, the whole new mining area at Costa Field. At Bjorkdal we will commence development to Storehead. So we're going to Our target there is to be bringing Storeheaden online in 2029. So it's 700 metres away, a whole new area. We're intending to develop the whole thing. And the reason we can't bring it online sooner is we have to do, whilst we have a mining licence, we have to do environmental approvals for that. We'll be lifting the tailings dam at Storeheaden and adding another seven plus years there to tailings dam life. and then integrating a further expansion of that into the capital approvals process. And as well as that, we're replacing fleet, some of which probably should have been replaced at some of the cost of Yorkdale in the last couple of years. So we're really trying to position ourselves to be as efficient as possible going forward.

Okay, thanks. Thanks, mate.

Thank you.

Just a moment for the next question, please. Next, we have Lawrence Retail from Retail Investor. Please go ahead.

Hi, Nick. I just have several questions to ask. I'll start with the first one. The share buyback, is that still in progress and does it occur on both exchanges?

Lawrence, we do not have a share buyback yet. in progress. We have not announced one and we do not have one in progress.

Okay, yeah, because I know Mandalay was doing it, so I was wondering if that was continued.

No, no, sorry, that had stopped. And to talk very briefly about a buyback, at the moment we're focused on getting this dividend in place. The board continues to evaluate a buyback, but I think you've occurred you know you will have picked up we've got quite you know some aggressive um acquisition aspirations and we're still hunting value there realizing that our own shares we consider to be pretty cheap as well okay uh with regards to the nagambi yeah I don't have a sense of what the overall objectives are and

The only information I've been receiving is from the permit holder's website announced the second drill was deployed to the site.

Yeah, understood. So we will report when we have drill results, right? So we don't have drill results. And for us, you know, the deploying of drill rigs whilst it is material to them is a very small company to us. It's just, you know, par for the course, right? We have so many drill rigs around the group. So the purpose of Ngambi, Ngambi is located about 40 kilometers to the east northeast of Costerfield. It is an old mine that ran for many years and has been in care at Mains for a long time. Ngambi themselves had drilled a fair bit and had an inferred resource under the pit and the purpose for us is to number one Validate that resource with some infill and lift its standing. We're hoping for certainly plus 100,000 ounces equivalent to start with. And then what we want to do is to be able to develop as if it could be a mine of its own. And then we would use that permitting approvals. There's a whole heap of steps to go through to feed the cost of field mill either at the tail end of Costa Field Mine Life or as Al from UBS sort of indicated as a supplementary feed and expanding the mill at Costa Field. That would be our ideal scenario and obviously there's a lot of things to go through for that to be able to happen.

So what's the life expectancy of Costa Field then?

So at the moment if we simply go on the reserves and then we go for the resources, that is about five years at the moment. But please, please take into account that Costa Field has had a two to five year mine life since 2009.

Yeah, I know.

And the other important thing, sorry, on the Gambia is it does sit on an existing mining lease already. So that's important to be aware of.

Well, the other important thing too is that it's a mining license there as well, not an exploration license.

Yeah, right.

Which helps. Yes. If you wanted to put it in production, it certainly speeds things up. How does the metallurgy compare between the two?

Early stages. However, it does look like a very, very similar deposit. Higher grade in Anthony and lower grade in gold. So it does look like that it's compatible and we would obviously do testing as part of all of that. But we see nothing significant at present.

So if you increase the mine life at Costerfield to 10 years, and Nagambi works out, you could almost have a separate mill at the ladder, right?

Yeah, it would be that whilst what you say is true, it would be our preference to expand the facility at Costa Field instead.

Yeah, I guess I can see that. I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit more on the inorganic growth Do you have like a short list of mining companies that you're actively having discussions with? Like is it three or four or you're still throwing out a wide net?

We do both things at once but at any given point in time we're typically in active discussions with more like two to three mining companies. Okay. Any in Canada? We did have one in Canada, but that fell away probably in about March. And so Canada is back to the drawing board, if that makes sense, like the early stage engagement.

Yeah, it's a tough jurisdiction with the Liberal government and their bills, you know, Strangling extraction companies to keep the resources in the ground. So I'm just giving you a heads up that you may want to... I'm just warning you, I'm just giving you professional courtesy. When you're dealing with manufacturing companies in Canada, watch the politics. It's not promoting mining in Canada. It looks like it is, but it's the liberals. So be very careful. I think, is there any... No, that's it for my questions and I thank you for fielding them.

Okay. Cheers, mate. All the best.

Thank you. I see no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Natalie.

Thank you. We have one question. In addition to the recommended dividend, could you outline your thoughts on the dividend policy going forwards, please?

Yeah, absolutely. It's our intention to keep the dividend at this level. And so we obviously will need to form up closer to a dividend policy, but what we want people to see is that in this period of really high cash flow, we're determined to return some value to shareholders through this period of time. People should expect that we going forward now but we all get that circumstances might change but you know we're to continue a steady state from here that we'll be paying fully frank dividends at or around this level obviously with a view to always to work in how we can increase them.

Thanks Nick. We have no further questions so I'll hand the call back over to you for closing comments.

Fantastic. Thank you very much, Nat. So I think everybody, what I really want to say, which you all get, is that we've had a great year and we've enjoyed this part of the journey. We've been one of the best performing ASX gold producing stocks. And so really, thank you very much for Thank you for your attention and your questions. Reach out if you have any more and we look forward to continuing to deliver for you.

Thanks very much. Cheers.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.