Operator
Operator: I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. James Palmer, CEO.
Please go ahead.
James Palmer
Thank you, and good morning, all. James Palmer here, and thanks for joining the 29Metals update for the March quarter 2026.
Today, we'll be speaking to the presentation released this morning alongside our March quarter report, and joining me are Ed Cooney, our Chief Operating Officer; Peter Herbert, our Chief Financial Officer; and Cristian Stella, our Group Executive Corporate Development. A quarter with some strong results, and post-quarter-end, a challenging decision to undertake additional works to further de-risk Xantho Extended, which are now underway.
Zooming out first before I talk to the quarterly, the 29Metals investment thesis remains strong. The company's intrinsic value underpinned by two large copper resources across Golden Grove and Capricorn Copper.
As outlined on slide 4, both assets have long life potential and significant geological upside. At Golden Grove, we're nearing the end of the significant investment phase to enable mining of high-grade ore sources.
From the end of 2026, we expect reduction of capital expenditures and progressive ramp-up of mining from the high-grade ore sources of Xantho Extended, Oizon, and Gossan Valley to support metal production growth and free cash flow generation. At Capricorn Copper, the team are progressing rapidly towards a restart of production.
Water levels have been significantly reduced and are no longer an impediment to a restart. Focus is firmly on an approval for a new tailings storage facility and the study towards a restart of operations.
Prior to the production disruptions at Xantho Extended, we were guiding to over 50,000 tonnes of copper equivalent production per annum at Golden Grove, once Xantho's back, we'll be back at that run rate. At Capricorn Copper, we have a low capital intensity pathway to re-establish up to 30,000 tonnes of copper production per annum.
We're progressing this business towards potential as an 80,000 tonne per annum copper equivalent producer, and with the size of the resources at each asset, optionality exists to expand from there. Now to slide 6 to talk through the quarter and how we're progressing both assets towards their full potential.
While working through the challenges at Xantho Extended and in everything we do, we live by our most important company value of safety first, which is also reflected in our single-digit TRIFR and zero LTIs. We completed ground support upgrades at Xantho Extended post the quarter-end as planned.
This enabled re-entry into the mine post the impacts of seismicity from last year. In parallel with the implementation of the ground support upgrades, further geotechnical review work increased our understanding of the Xantho Extended decline and level accesses areas impacted by seismicity, and based on this further assessment, additional works to further reduce the risk of future potential production disruptions are being progressed prior to the recommencement of mining.
Upon implementation of the ground support upgrades, we had the option to recommence mining. We chose to undertake the additional works to provide further de-risking of production from the end of 2026 and for the life of the mine.
Since the temporary suspension of mining at Xantho Extended last year, a dedicated team was established to incorporate remnant and extensional ore sources into the 2026 mine plan. Far, this team is hitting the ball out of the park.
We produced 6.4 kilotonnes of copper in the March quarter, a run rate beyond the top end of our 2026 full year copper guidance. This work is ongoing to incorporate additional copper and gold ore sources into the rest of the year mine plan to maximize mill throughput and production outcomes, and it's expected to partially offset the impact of delayed restart of mining at Xantho Extended.
The team delivered this result all while continuing to build a new mine at Gossan Valley, which remains on track for $112 million capital expenditures to first ore by the end of 2026. At Capricorn Copper, a successful wet season concluded and water is no longer an impediment to a restart.
The team, now having reduced surface water levels by more than 2 gigalitres since the suspension of operations, are in a great place. Focus is now firmly on the approval for a long-term tailings storage facility, which is now the critical path imperative for restart of production.
We're planning for success with the commencement of a definitive feasibility study during the quarter to enable a restart of production upon approval of a new tailings storage facility. We have a lot to deliver for the rest of the year, and with Golden Grove generating $10 million of free cash flow for the March quarter and a liquidity position of $238 million, we have the balance sheet to deliver through 2026 with a focus on long-term value creation.
I'll now pass to Ed to talk through the operations in some additional detail. Ed.
Ed Cooney
Right, thanks, James, and morning, everyone. I'll move straight to slide 10 to talk to some additional detail on our plans at Xantho Extended.
As James mentioned, we completed ground support upgrades post-quarter-end as planned. In parallel, the team have continued to progress our geotechnical understanding of the impacts to production we experienced last year.
A key learning was that although ground support upgrades alone may be sufficient to mitigate future production interruptions, there are specific locations on the existing decline susceptible to higher rock stresses. These locations are situated where the decline crosses over and are coincident with seismically reactive fault structures.
To further reduce risk of future production interruptions, we've made the decision to commence new accesses to the footwall drives, which effectively bypass these higher stress zones. This development was kicked off over the last 24 hours with the first two cuts on the deck as of this morning.
We considered a range of scenarios to complete these works, such as progressing the works in parallel with production. We do continue to test our thinking on the potential to accelerate recommencement of mining in the upper levels of Xantho Extended whilst development of the new accesses is being completed.
The current plan is to defer recommencement of mining until the new accesses are complete, which is expected to be in the December quarter. This approach allows for higher development rates by progressing multiple headings without interruption or interaction from production activities.
It gets us to our desired endpoint faster and provides greater production certainty at Xantho Extended from the end of 2026 onwards. Importantly, although this decision does result in deferral of metal from Xantho Extended, no impact to the reserve is currently contemplated.
Onto slide 11. The team at Golden Grove are doing a phenomenal job in reworking the mine plans and evaluating alternate ore sources whilst we progress works at Xantho Extended.
As shown on slide 11, Xantho Extended contains high zinc and precious metal grades in addition to copper. However, there are other areas in Gossan Hill and Scuddles that have similar copper grades.
Hence, we maintain copper production guidance as we complete the additional access development. Ahead of greater mine plan flexibility from Gossan Valley, Oizon, and Xantho Extended in 2027, the site team remain laser-focused on identifying and incorporating additional remnant and extensional ore sources into the rest of year plan, with a focus on maximizing value from the best available ore sources and the key objective of replacing the tonnes from the deferred restart of mining at Xantho Extended and finding additional ore sources to push the mill and metal production outcomes harder for the remainder of the year.
Excellent progress on this front in the March quarter as James mentioned with over 6,000 tonnes of copper production. We do still have a lot of 2026 to go, but with the early wins on the board, the team are pushing hard to keep the momentum going.
I'll now hand over to Peter to discuss costs and capital.
Peter Herbert
Thank you, Ed. On slide 12, we summarize costs and capital for the March quarter.
Across the business, we continue to maintain a focus on costs and productivity improvements. The ongoing containment of site costs is a testament to the excellent work done by the team, with $97 million in site costs in the March quarter in line with that achieved 1 year ago.
That is despite ongoing inflationary pressures across the industry. Even as we work through the interruption to mining at Xantho Extended, we continue to maintain our healthy unit cost margins.
AISC unit costs of US$5.10 and C1 unit costs of US$4.30 per pound of copper sold, respectively, was a strong result. Diesel supply and costs have been a focus in the current quarter.
As a high-grade, low-tonnage operation on grid power, Golden Grove is relatively insulated from diesel cost increases. We estimate that based on current diesel prices, diesel costs will increase from approximately 2% to 3% of total site costs.
That said, we are engaging with our fuel suppliers regularly to understand any potential disruptions resulting from global events. Pleasingly, we are not seeing any disruptions currently.
On capital, Gossan Valley remains on track for $112 million capital expenditure to first ore by the end of the year, with total capital for the quarter of $28 million versus the prior quarter of $48 million, reflecting the step-down in activity during the quarter upon completion of surface civil works at Gossan Valley and subsequent demobilization of the civil contractor in January. The additional works at Xantho Extended to reduce the risk of further interruptions are estimated to cost between $10 to $15 million.
With reduced need for capital development activity in 2026 from the delayed recommencement of mining, we expect to manage the cost of these additional works within our pre-existing total capital cost guidance of $160 to $185 million. Work to identify opportunities to reduce and defer non-critical capital expenditures to better align with the resumption of mining at Xantho Extended remain ongoing.
Back to you, James.
James Palmer
Great. Thanks, Peter, and thanks, Ed.
Before I move on to progress at Capricorn Copper, I want to touch on the Golden Grove drill results released from the 2025 drill program during the quarter and post-quarter-end. Slide 15 shows some of the highlights from 2025 program.
Every hole bar one is a resource extension hole, wide, high-grade intercepts outside pre-existing mineral resource estimates. Overall, the 2025 drill program added mine life and provided mine plan flexibility, which then flows into the important work talked about earlier, incorporating and accelerating additional remnant and extensional ore sources into the '26 mine plan and beyond.
As this work bears fruit over 2026, the additional works at Xantho Extended are completed, and Gossan Valley is brought online, you can see how the pieces of the puzzle for Golden Grove come together in 2027 and beyond. We're really excited to bring that to fruition, and while the decision to undertake the additional works at Xantho Extended have come at a cost to production '26, they're essential to delivering this potential.
Now onto Capricorn Copper on slide 20. A huge milestone achieved during the quarter.
Site water levels now sufficiently reduced to no longer being an impediment to a restart of production. The team have had an extremely successful wet season, with significant water level reductions that now see the total water inventory significantly below the maximum operating level and surface water levels comparable to the levels prior to the extreme weather event in March 2023.
This was achieved through a very heavy wet season. It was a 95th percentile wet season, only 5% of wet seasons have had more rainfall, 1 in 20-year event.
The outcomes achieved during this wet season demonstrate that a sustainable water balance footing is possible at Capricorn Copper with the right focus and the appropriate water treatment infrastructure. A great job by the team.
Approval for a long-term tailings storage facility is now the critical path for restart of production, and we're working towards a response to the regulator's request for information in the September quarter. We're planning for success with the commencement of a definitive feasibility study during the quarter to enable a restart of production upon approval of a tailings storage facility.
I'll now hand back to Peter to talk through the balance sheet prior to wrapping up.
Peter Herbert
Thanks, James. Gross revenue for the March quarter was $165 million, that was $28 million higher relative to the prior quarter result.
That result was driven by higher payable copper and zinc metal sales. 29Metals finished the quarter with unaudited available liquidity of $238 million, consisting of $228 million of cash and undrawn liquidity under the group's offtake facility of US$10 million.
Golden Grove generated $10 million of free cash flow after all capital expenditures for the quarter, inclusive of its Gossan Valley investments. The decision to undertake further de-risking works at Xantho Extended prior to the recommencement of mining provides us with greater certainty over production outcomes from the end of 2026 and beyond, and allows us to deliver on the long-term potential of the assets.
The decision follows consideration of our March quarter performance, available liquidity, the macro environment, options to manage group operating capital expenditures, and the ongoing efforts to identify additional ore sources in the rest of the year mine plan. Back to you, James.
James Palmer
Thanks, Peter. Wrapping up here, we've seen globally mines are becoming harder to find, lower grade, and harder to mine.
On the demand side, as the world electrifies, the world is going to need a lot more copper. 29Metals remains well-positioned to capitalize on this favorable copper supply-demand dynamic, with over 2 million tonnes contained copper in mineral resources across two Australian-based assets, both with long-life potential and significant geological upside.
The team remain focused on leveraging this position by delivering safe production and prudently allocating capital to deliver long-term value to all stakeholders. Prior to the production disruptions at Xantho Extended, Golden Grove, 50,000 tonnes of copper equivalent, and we'll be back at that run rate.
At Capricorn Copper, a low-intensity pathway to re-establish another 30,000 tonnes of copper, we are progressing this business towards potential as an 80,000 tonne per annum copper equivalent producer, and with the size of the resources at each asset, the optionality exists to expand from there. With that, I'm happy to take your questions.
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Once again, that is *1 on your telephone if you wish to ask a question. We'll now pause a moment to allow for any questions to register.
Operator
Your first question comes from Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Daniel Roden
Good day, guys. Thanks for taking my question.
Just wanted to, I guess, understand, I guess, at Xantho Extended, I guess, the indicated mining rates there when we do get back in for production towards the year-end. Probably a couple of questions in here actually, but I guess, first, what's the decision and guiding factor for bringing that forward?
I guess, you're assessing it against seismicity and safety in the area, but what do you need to see to be able to accelerate mining in that area? Then, I guess, follow on, has the work that you've done at the moment, has that indicated that we need to be reviewing, I guess, the mining intensity and mining rates longer term from that area?
Just given to manage that seismicity impact and make sure that not causing any safety implications for your workforce in there?
James Palmer
Thanks, Daniel. Thanks for the question.
The first thing, safety, yeah, as I've said and I'll certainly reiterate, that's been the primary focus, and the ground support works that we've done, they've certainly allowed that, we've had re-entry into the mine. Safety first always.
Then the decision for the additional works is all around minimizing the production potential interruptions going forward. That's first work focus on safety, and then of course making sure that we can safely and without interruption progress the performance of Xantho Extended.
Then within that, while we're doing those works, that's where we are considering the upsides to accelerate both outside Xantho Extended as well as Xantho Extended itself. I'll just hand to Ed to give a bit more detail on some of those.
Ed Cooney
Thanks, James. To inform a decision on any earlier commencement of mining, i.e., in parallel with development, we do want to undertake some more technical work, and principally that will be some numerical modeling.
In terms of the other question about run rate, in January we did revise the production rate, the maximum production rate from Xantho Extended, to about 600,000 tonnes per annum. That absolutely remains the goal and objective, and nothing that we've seen from the technical work done to date would suggest that that target is not achievable once we restart production.
That's certainly the objective once we complete the bypass development, then we can get back into production.
Daniel Roden
Thanks. As well as part of the question is just looking at, I guess, Golden Grove was able to kind of give a $10 million net mine cash flow in the quarter, and I think it just goes to show that the NSR profile of the production zones isn't just Xantho Extended.
You do have some other obviously areas with high NSR tonnes that are coming out. Maybe is there any, I guess, additional color on what that might look like into the end of the year kind of until you get into Xantho Extended?
Are you looking at similar, I guess, NSR profiles to what you've delivered in the March quarter, or would you expect that to change modestly and you've kind of targeted some higher areas first just to improve, I guess, the operations now?
James Palmer
Daniel, I can grab the start of it and then Ed can add some more detail. We've certainly had since the first seismic event, we've had a team really working on that, the rest of the mine, Xantho Extended, as you've seen from some of the work, is obviously the bottom, the new development area of the mine.
We've still got the rest of the mine where the team are always looking at that, and exactly as you said, the NSR scripts are always targeting high value. Through the work they're doing, we've seen more of that coming through.
The other thing I'd add to is the exploration work and things like Oizon, Hougoumont, we're seeing those coming together, lots of potential upside, and then things like Tryall right up in the top area of the mine. Value always, and lots of that value drives you towards particularly copper, gold, which we've seen some of, and certainly looking to fill the mill with that through the rest of 2026.
Daniel Roden
The
Ed Cooney
other part, James. Oh
Daniel Roden
no, you go ahead, sorry. I was just going to say the only thing I'd add to that,
Ed Cooney
some of the specific and recent extensional results that we've had have introduced additional inventory at Tryall, which is quite reasonable copper grades, 2.5% copper grades, very shallow, from an NSR perspective, that is attractive, that will come into the plan sort of the back end of the year. Oizon as well, which will be a new ore body, that will kick off in the latter part of the year into 2027.
Ultimately, a bit hard to pin down exact sort of range of NSR material because there is still some work ongoing, and ultimately they're trade-offs. We are also looking at gold-specific sulfide material that we could either blend in with copper or treat in isolation, there's a few variables to work through as we continue on this work.
Daniel Roden
Yep. No, thanks, that's appreciated.
Thanks for that. I might ask a quick one and then pass it over, but just, I guess, the Capricorn Copper, the wet weather programs over the, I guess, cyclone and wet weather period in March seems to have been quite good.
It was definitely better than my expectations given the level of rainfall that you've had. It must be pretty encouraging for the regulator to see that the progress there and you were able to destock some of that water inventory.
How are those conversations going, and you mentioned that September you're going to get a bit more of a better view on what the TSF decision is going to be. I guess what's the timing expectation on, I guess, the DFS that you're doing at the moment, and when should we expect to see some details from that?
James Palmer
Great. Thanks, Daniel.
Certainly very pleased with the way the team have handled all of the work. You can see that's been a downward trend over 2 gigalitres of water now reduced over the last two years, happy with the long-term trend.
Then, as you pointed to, really happy with the short-term trend given how wet it was up and around Northwest Queensland, and you've seen some of our neighbors certainly had a lot of water as well. Yep, the resilience of the site to be able to reduce water levels not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard, very, very pleased with that.
Then you're right, that does mean the regulator, they can see the work, they can see the risk has reduced. Very positive conversations in general with the regulator.
Then specifically, yeah, DESI themselves, we've got the OCG overlay, again, all very positive, where the tailings permit is now the critical path. By removing water from the critical path, tailings becomes the critical path.
We'll be responding to that request for information from the regulator, we've had technical meetings, so, yeah, all of that is going well. Then you mentioned the DFS, so, yeah, obviously the team have been ramping that up during this quarter, and therefore we expect by the end of the year that we'll have a lot of detail, we've got some detail on some of the big packages, but we'll have a lot of that detail towards the end of the year.
Daniel Roden
Awesome. Thanks, James.
Thanks, Ed. Appreciate your answers and your time.
Cheers.
James Palmer
Right. Thanks, Daniel.
Operator
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press *1.
Your next question comes from Richard Brown, private investor. Please go ahead.
Oh,
Richard Brown
mine was just on the same lines for Capricorn. Is there any on a positive or pessimistic view as to when that might be open or how long a way for that mine to restart if everything went well?
James Palmer
Great. Thanks, Richard.
We certainly do look at the glass half full side internally. I think what I'll do is I'll go back to, yeah, having water not being the critical path, I think that obviously gives a lot of cause for optimism, and therefore the tailings permit is the critical path.
With that being ultimately in the hands of government, that's what makes it hard to really predict or forecast when we would have that permit in hand. That's why we're not waiting, we're doing the work on the DFS, we'll be in a position to be able to make a final investment decision once we know the outcomes of the study and then the outcomes of the tailings permit.
They're the two big things that we're focused on. One of them certainly firmly in our hands with the DFS.
The work with the regulator progressing really well and very positively, but yeah, very hard to predict or forecast when the regulator is going to give us that approval. Thanks, Richard.
Operator
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.
I'll now hand back to Mr. Palmer for closing remarks.
James Palmer
Great. Thanks.
Thanks for the time today. I think as you've seen, certainly we're focused on returning Xantho Extended to production while we're developing Oizon, Gossan Valley through 2026, and we have the balance sheet to do this.
We're also pursuing, the DFS on Capricorn Copper and then strategic options to deliver the potential that this business offers. Thank you, and have a safe and productive day.
Operator
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today.
Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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