Greatland Resources Limited

Greatland Resources Limited

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Mar 09Next Earn

Q4 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 29, 2026

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Greatland Resources June quarter 2026 investor call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad.

If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star 0.

Finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you.

I'd now like to welcome Shaun Day, Managing Director, to begin the conference. Shaun, over to you.

Shaun Day

Thanks, Gavin. Welcome, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to dial in on a busy reporting day.

I'm pleased to present Greatland's June 2026 quarterly results. Joining me here in the room is Otto Richter, Chief Operating Officer; Monique Connolly, Chief Financial Officer; Rowan Krasnoff, our Chief Development Officer; plus Andrew Baller, our Head of Investor Relations.

Just turning to slide 5. Firstly, I'd like to start by pointing out that Greatland's strong operating performance for the full-year FY 2026, having achieved 329,000 oz, we meaningfully beat guidance and did better than $200 below the range for all-in sustaining cost guidance.

In parallel, we delivered our key growth and drilling programs in line with guidance. The production and all-in sustaining cost outperformance over the year was primarily driven by the confluence of improved productivities across the open pit and the underground mines, greatly improved gold and copper recoveries, along with better-than-budgeted realized copper prices across the year.

Now to the June quarter on slide 6. We delivered another strong quarter, producing more than 79,000 oz of gold and 3,600 tonnes of copper.

All-in sustaining cost came in at just over 2,300 Aussie per ounce, which was again below the lower end of our full-year guidance. In the quarter, we sold a little less ounces than produced, with 75,000 oz of gold and 3,000 tonnes of copper sold.

This delivered operating cash flow of $302 million and a cash build of a further $81 million for the quarter. We closed the year with around $1.3 billion cash in the bank, and Greatland remains debt-free, which puts the company in a very robust position.

I'll leave Monique to talk in depth to that, but we finalized the execution of the $500 million corporate debt facility during the quarter as well. This provides for around $1.8 billion of liquidity, which importantly substantially de-risks and provides confidence we can deliver our considerable growth pathway.

We announced an exceptional Telfer reserve upgrade at the end of June, which included group reserves now increased to 5 million oz. This includes a 1.1 million uplift to bring Telfer's reserves to 1.8 million oz.

The Telfer reserve uplift defined a multi-year Main Dome underground reserve and secured a multi-year baseload open pit feed, with further growth to come from undertaking studies at West Dome underground and a potential sublevel cave to open up the vertical stockwork corridor. Our record surge in Telfer drilling continues, and we are increasingly confident of continued growth in reserves and resources.

With that, I'll now hand across to Otto to speak to the operations.

Otto Richter

Thank you, Shaun. Turning to slide 8, we will now look at the key drivers for this quarter's strong performance.

Looking at the West Dome open pit first, the open pit total material mined again saw an increase quarter-on-quarter to 7 million tonnes. This is our sixth consecutive quarter-on-quarter increase in total material mined since Greatland took ownership and represents a 59% uplift in productivity since the March quarter last year.

The continued growth is a result of improved productivity, while also a focus on bench turnover has opened up larger, more productive working fronts. Plus, we are now just starting to see the benefit from our investment in the open pit fleet, with the new Cat 6060 digger and our refreshed truck fleet improvement equipment availability.

The open pit mill feed grade notched down slightly from 0.49 g to 0.44, as we saw a higher proportion of our portion-costed material, or lower-grade material, being fed directly to the processing plant, rather than being stockpiled, which is in line with our mine plan. While this result is slightly lower average grades processed, it avoids rehandling costs and has the added advantage of preserving more of our higher-grade ROM stockpiles.

Stage 7 growth stripping continues, with 2.7 million tonnes waste mined for the quarter, at a strip ratio of approximately 2.3, down again from the 2.7 last quarter. This downward trend is pleasing and is expected to continue as more ore is exposed and ore contribution increases.

The design strip ratio is approximately 1.1, as we've previously announced. The open pit grades reconciled as expected in the quarter, which is a very positive sign that our enhanced grade control system continues to deliver improved reconciliation outcomes.

Then turning to the Main Dome underground, our underground ore mined again exceeded 300,000 tonnes, in line with our previous quarter's performance. The underground development saw a sixth quarter of record development, with 1,945 m, including almost 400 m of growth capital development.

The second development drive to West Dome underground progressed by 240 m and was 92% completed at quarter end. We then turn to slide 9, where we can see the processing outcomes for the quarter.

We milled 5.2 million tonnes at 0.53 g/t gold head grade, with mill tonnes up and grade down quarter-on-quarter. The result was a slight decrease in ounces produced compared to the prior quarter, but highlighting our recoveries were tremendous again.

In the September quarter, we achieved the highest quarterly gold recovery at Telfer since 2010, with 88.6% recovery. Pleasingly, we have maintained this strong recovery rate for the fourth straight quarter, with 86.8% recoveries for gold in the June quarter, and our copper recoveries were also strong at 81.5%.

Moving on to the stockpiles, this quarter, we processed about a half a million tonne of ROM stockpiles, with an estimated 1.4 million tonne at 0.68 g/t remaining at quarter end. Our total stockpile drawdown of 1.3 million tonne for the quarter was broadly consistent to the prior quarter and included the trialing of portions of the historic low-grade stockpiles.

The results of these low-grade stockpile trials were broadly as expected and have been incorporated into the FY 2027 processing schedule. We also note that our higher-grade stockpiles will be utilized for mill feed blending throughout the remainder of FY 2027.

On projects, the TSF8 Stage 4 construction is ongoing and scheduled to complete in the third quarter of FY 2027 and will provide capacity out to the second half of FY 2028. I'll now hand over to Monique to speak to the costs.

Monique Connolly

Thanks, Otto. As Shaun outlined earlier, we achieved an all-in sustaining cost of 2,312 per ounce for the quarter and 2,179 for the year, delivering a healthy beat to the 2,400 to 2,800 oz guidance range.

This is a great outcome driven by strong ounce production, good cost control, and stronger-than-budgeted copper byproduct credits from current copper prices. Our all-in sustaining margin for the quarter was 4,156 oz, resulting in an all-in sustaining margin of 64%.

Looking at the key operating cost items, mining costs of $91 million increased as planned due to higher total material moved. Processing costs of $71 million were lower than the prior quarter, as there was no maintenance shutdown scheduled in the June quarter and due to processing of West Stage 2 material, which requires more reagents and consumables.

Sustaining capex of $32 million was higher than the previous quarter as planned due to a gas turbine overhaul in the power plant and increased underground development. Site service costs of $26 million was in line with plan and previous quarters.

Turning to cash flow and finances, we generated revenue of $545 million from sales of 75,000 oz of gold and 3.5 thousand tonnes of copper, noting that sales of $20 million were completed in late June with cash not received until after the quarter ended. Gold sales were achieved at an average realized price of $6,468 per ounce.

This resulted in Telfer's operating cash flow of $302 million and an $81 million cash build, which was after a tax payment of $87 million for the March tax instalments. We closed the quarter with $1.3 billion of cash and no debt, having executed the $500 million corporate debt facility during the quarter.

Greatland remains fully exposed to any upside in the gold price, with downside protection via gold put options out to June 2027 at an average strike price of $4,650 per ounce. From a tax perspective, I've talked to the $87 million paid in the June quarter for the March tax instalments.

The June quarter instalments of $64 million were paid this month, and we'll now commence monthly instalments for FY 2027, with a final catch-up tax payment forecasted for the December quarter of this year, the value of which is being estimated and will be included in our FY 2026 annual financial report, which will be released next month. Turning to growth capital, as FY 2026 is a significant year of investment at Telfer, with a view of multi-year life extension.

Our growth capital program at Telfer has progressed well over the year, having been in line with our growth capital and resource and exploration guidance spend. At Telfer, we invested $59 million during the June quarter across the TSF8 Stage 4 lift construction, which is scheduled for completion in the second half of FY 2027; West Dome open pit Stage 7 growth stripping; underground development across A Reef, ASB, and West Dome underground; and the open pit mining fleet renewal program.

I'll now hand over to Shaun to speak to our recent reserve upgrade.

Shaun Day

Thanks, Monique, and I'll take us across to slide 14. Towards the end of the June quarter, we delivered an updated reserve estimate for Telfer, noting that our reserve estimate at Havieron was unchanged.

Telfer reserves grew by 1.1 million oz to achieve 1.8 million oz. This is an outstanding outcome given we acquired zero reserves at acquisition in December 2024.

The Telfer reserve update is based on only the first half of the FY 2026 240,000-meter drilling program, providing the potential for Greatland to continue to deliver inventory growth from the full results of our FY 2026 program and, together with, our new FY 2027 drill program. The Telfer reserve upgrade saw group reserves grow to 5 million oz, representing a doubling of combined Telfer-Havieron reserves in just under 18 months since acquisition.

On slide 15, you can see a visualization of where the reserve upgrades sit at Telfer. The reserves outline a multi-year Main Dome underground reserve and secures a multi-year baseload open pit feed.

Our intention is to continue to grow reserves by infill drilling, noting some 6.1 million oz of resources sit outside that present reserve, with 3.5 million oz within that West Dome open pit, and plus another 2.6 million oz sitting in the underground across Main Dome, West Dome underground, and that vertical stockwork corridor. In terms of the underground, we're undertaking studies to deliver growth and convert indicated material into reserves is also underway at West Dome underground and for that vertical stockwork corridor.

Also of note, and you can see this in the top right, is the potential to convert 42% more gold from inferred resources that's just treated as waste within that West Dome open pit reserve shell, which has potential to materially reduce strip ratios. If we turn across to slide 16, we can see the new Pinnacles discovery.

This was an exciting development during the quarter that materially enhances the potential of our West Dome underground project. The Pinnacles program originated from our exploration team, who wanted to test their geological model for the extent of that West Dome underground structure.

The hole not just the intercepted structure, but for the West Dome underground, returned an intersection close to 60 m true width at 6.5 g gold and +0.1% copper. Importantly, the intersection lies 1.2 km along trend of that West Dome underground resource and shows good potential for the continuation of mineralization structures between that Pinnacles hole and across to the existing West Dome underground.

The Pinnacles target remains open to the south, with follow-up also required to the north of the West Dome underground. Further drilling has been planned to confirm the tenor and extent of the mineralization between the West Dome underground and the Pinnacles intersection, as well as up to the south.

Overall, it's a great indicator of West Dome underground's potential to genuinely transform the Telfer underground. Now for our guidance, which is captured on slide 18.

It's worth pointing out that FY 2027 will be a year in which we begin the execution of our organic growth strategy, underpinned by the full-scale development of Havieron and the early works being undertaken on the West Dome underground. We will commence investing in both these exciting projects in FY 2027, but, of course, we won't receive the benefits of our investment until subsequent years, with the first ore from West Dome underground presently expected in FY 2028 and the first ore from Havieron through the mill in FY 2029.

Production and operating cash flow from Telfer, along with our really healthy balance sheet, will be important enablers for Greatland delivering growth projects at both Telfer and Havieron concurrently. To this end, we expect to produce 260,000 to 300,000 oz at Telfer for the FY 2027 year, at an all-in sustaining cost of between 2,900 and 3,330 Aussie per ounce.

Production is anticipated to be modestly weighted to the second half due to open pit scheduling, whilst also noting that we have our major process plant shutdown at Telfer during this first quarter. Production from the open pit and underground mine areas are expected to improve on the level seen in FY 2026, with the key driver of the reduced production coming from use of lower-grade stockpiles, which are replacing the higher-grade stockpiles that were present in the FY 2026 processing.

The change in year-on-year all-in sustaining cost in FY 2027 are largely a function of the denominator from the lower gold production, increased open pit total material movements, albeit at more efficient unit rates, and lower copper production, along the broader inflationary pressures, which you see across the sector. Growth capital at Havieron is guided at 400 $365 million to $435 million, with substantive investment to commence following receipt of the secondary approvals, which we expect to receive in the coming weeks.

We continue to anticipate first gold from Havieron in FY 2029 following project commencement. In terms of Telfer growth capital guidance, it's $315 million to $335 million, which will be split across substantially completing the open pit renewal, as Otto mentioned, we'll bring in another new 6060 Caterpillar digger; underground development, the majority of which is this early works for West Dome underground; paste plant infrastructure, this is specifically for the West Dome underground, although I note it will be beneficial for Havieron in the future; and power plant upgrades.

We're also pursuing our studies on the West Dome underground and the vertical stockwork, and we continue to increase tailings capacity into FY 2029, and ultimately with a view of being able to join up the TSF7 and TSF8 into a single, more efficient structure. Exploration and resource development spend guidance of $70 million to $80 million builds on the record drill surge delivered across FY 2026, with more priority being put on infill and resource conversion drilling during 2027, intended to grow reserves, while a healthy amount of drilling remains budgeted for resource growth and extension drilling.

Moving to slide 19. As mentioned earlier, FY 2027 represents a subtle year in Greatland's journey, with key investment not yielding the ounce production benefit until subsequent years.

Slide 19 outlines Telfer's key investment projects across the year and when the future material benefit of that growth will be delivered. Our spend on open pit fleet is in addition to the investment we made across this past FY 2026 year, which is already achieving benefits in terms of the productivities you're observing, with six consecutive quarters of increased productivity.

A majority of underground growth development investment is on West Dome underground early works, including the commencement of a third drive, which will provide haulage directly into Telfer's existing underground crusher and surface hoist, freeing that West Dome underground ore potentially through that very efficient existing infrastructure. These early works are intended to accelerate project delivery following the completion of a West Dome underground study in FY 2027.

Subject to the outcome of that study, first development ore from West Dome underground would be targeted next year. The paste infrastructure will be used both for the West Dome underground, and the belt feeder, where it ties into that Telfer processing plant, will benefit the ultimate paste requirement for Havieron.

The TSF lift we're planning will extend tailings dam capacity out to in FY 2029. Now, just to conclude on slide 21, before we move to the Q&A format, the June quarter rounds out an excellent year for Greatland, one in which the team exceeded guidance and added $714 million in cash to the bank to close with $1.3 billion of cash and no debt.

The cash balance and ongoing production from Telfer is a robust platform to deliver our considerable organic growth pipeline of projects. Greatland's delivered substantial reserve growth, successfully changing the perception of Telfer to one that now supports an extended mine life.

In FY 2027 at Telfer, it will be this subtle year for the company in terms of production, but our investments unlock our flagship Havieron project and advance that West Dome underground, which is expected to deliver significant benefits and growth in subsequent years. Finally, our record drill spend across FY 2026 delivered outstanding resource and reserve growth, and we look forward to continuing that program into this year, as we work to deliver multi-decade integrated Telfer-Havieron gold mining complex.

With that, I'll invite Gavin to open up the call for Q&A.

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. That is star 1 if you wish to ask a question.

Your first question comes from the line of Hugo Nicolaci from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hugo Nicolaci

Morning, guys. Thanks for the update this morning.

Firstly, just picking up your comments on processing costs and the material step down this quarter, but there's a lower consumables for the lower Stage 2 material. Can you just sort of step us through a bit more of the detail there, how much of that's also the lower heap leaching tonnes and sort of what you expect or what you've factored into the '27 guidance in terms of processing costs going forward?

Shaun Day

Hugo, yeah, thanks for the question. Look, in terms of the processing costs for kind of the year ahead, yeah, we've tried to get that balance right, but because we're putting through some more oxide material, there is a little bit more consumables through that mill, more reagent use.

Also some reflects the general inflationary environment. That said, in terms of the dump leach, it's kind of an automatic stabilizer for our business.

At really high gold prices, we can actually take a bit more ore and put it through the mill, that achieves higher recoveries. At a lower gold price, we can put more of that material onto the dump leach, still get recoveries, albeit over a lot longer time.

It's all just part of that constant refinement and opportunity we have to optimize the throughput that we have through that processing.

Hugo Nicolaci

Got it. Thanks.

Then just on Havieron, you've got a development spend next year, sort of at $365 to $435, which I think was broadly in line with the study late last year. Obviously we've continued to see significant cost inflation, particularly at underground, since that study would have been put together.

How are you seeing the overall budget for the project on pre-production spend, and is that bit over $1 billion still the right number from here? Look,

Shaun Day

what I can say is it's so far, good. We've been pretty open that it's a June 2025 cost estimate.

Clearly, we work in an environment where we're going to be delivering this over 3 years, there will be some inflationary impact of that, of course. We've been using this time well in terms of starting to or progressing a number of the contracting, and so far there haven't been any surprises, we're pretty pleased in how it's going.

We'll continue to monitor that really really closely, and there's just a huge amount of time, energy, and effort being done to try to achieve Havieron well. There's no relax about it.

We know it's a significant undertaking, but the team is motivated and engaged.

Hugo Nicolaci

Great. Then maybe just one for Monique.

Looks like some working capital, favorable impacts in the quarter there. Just confirming you'd continue to expect your payables to build and that sort of thing as your growth capex continues to wrap up from here, and then maybe we see that start to unwind on completion of some of these projects?

Monique Connolly

Correct. That's exactly right.

I think, as we start to ramp up capex, you'll see that working capital adjustment move. The other one to look out for is our revenue and what's happening with receivables over the quarter ends as well.

Hugo Nicolaci

Got it. Last one, if I can, just any comments on your corporate costs?

Looks like roughly $35 million in the second half of '26. Is that the right run rate to sort of $70 million a year going forward?

Monique Connolly

That does sound a little high. We did have the stamp duty costs coming through off the back of the acquisition of Telfer and Havieron.

I think, from a true corporate cost perspective, it's probably more around the $45 million to $50 million mark, and then you've obviously got your exploration costs and some finance costs coming through as well off the back of the debt facility being put in place.

Hugo Nicolaci

Great. Thanks, guys.

Pass it on.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Radclyffe from Global Mining Research. Your line is open.

David Radclyffe

Good morning, Shaun and team. My first question's on guidance.

You said it's obviously slightly second-half weighted. Was wondering if you maybe describe some of the potential levers here, such as the underground contributions are relatively flat, is there any potential here maybe to pull forward some of the West Dome underground development?

Then any other factors we should think about that could potentially flex it, I guess, up or down?

Shaun Day

Yeah. Thanks, David.

As we said, look, we're a little bit back-weighted. That's multifactorial, but the two main factors are just the mining sequence, particularly on that open pit, and then the major shutdown, which is actually presently underway, and I'm pleased to say, more than halfway complete and progressing in fact, a fraction ahead of schedule, so that's really pleasing, because, yeah, it's good to get these things squared away.

In terms of, you talked about kind of the underground, I think you're exactly right. When we think about opportunities in FY 2027, we really think about what we can do around that underground to bring things forward.

I don't think that's going to be dramatic, but naturally, we'll be seeking to see what we can do to accelerate that. I think that West Dome underground is where there's, yeah, some slight opportunity to try to break in there and get some development ore and bring that up through the mill this year.

I don't want to overstate that. I think it's a reasonably modest volume, but that's the opportunity ahead of us if we can continue to improve the underground productivity rates, which you've seen us do again for six quarters in the year since acquisition, but that's the challenge we're setting the team.

Can you accelerate that? Of course, that ore from that West Dome underground, if you've got 4+ g, high copper, it'd be a really nice sweetener.

Again, if that came in, it probably wouldn't be till the June quarter, if at all. I don't want to overemphasize that, David, but naturally, those are the kind of things that we'd love to achieve if we can outperform.

David Radclyffe

Okay. No, thank you.

That's clear. Maybe just to push on that a little bit, then when we think about vertical stockwork corridor and restarting the sublevel cave, obviously, the studies sort of weren't complete, so that didn't make it to the recent resource reserve upgrade.

Is there any color you can provide on how those studies are progressing, and when you'd think about releasing that, and hopefully we don't have to wait for the next annual update? Then, given the surface hoisting capacity, it's still a pretty good gold price, I think most people think, why not start the sublevel cave sooner rather than later?

Otto Richter

I'll take that one, Otto here. For the VSC, because that has to tie into the bottom of the current sublevel cave, we're currently progressing the geotechnical work on that.

The resource component of it is mostly done. It's just finalizing the geotechnical work of tying into the existing sublevel cave and making sure that we get that continuous flow of material.

Following that, we will then do the mine planning and financial study, and we're looking at finishing that study in the FY 2027 year. It sits very close to existing infrastructure, as you would see on the underground slide.

The benefit there is, as soon as we get into it, we don't have to install, for example, major capital like our primary ventilation and hoisting capacity, because that is already in place. As you rightly pointed out, we would definitely make use of that existing infrastructure.

I do have to point out that the vertical stockwork corridor is narrower than what the original sublevel cave was. We're expecting it to come in at a lower production rate than what the previous sublevel cave did, but combined with the West Dome underground, it'll give us that full capacity or full utilization potential to tie into our existing infrastructure.

Shaun Day

If I can just augment on that, David. I just want to kind of point out, look, Otto has significant caving experience out of Newcrest.

Obviously, the site itself also ran a very meaningful sublevel cave. Nick, who's joining us on the 5th of October, also comes with a caving background.

As far as what I might describe as a mid-cap goes, I think we have some exceptional and unique caving capabilities, which gives us a lot of confidence around this. There's a 6 million tonne per annum hoist sitting there.

We're currently using it for about 1 to 1.5 million tonnes per year. That is a great opportunity for us to better leverage that infrastructure, the West Dome underground, the vertical stockwork sublevel cave.

Equally, and I think Otto kind of referred to this, we're very measured about how we view the geotech. This is going to be a 1, maybe 1.5, possibly 2 million tonne, but probably 1.5 million tonne sublevel cave, it's certainly not going to be a return to a 5 million tonne kind of sublevel cave.

David Radclyffe

Thanks. No, that's clear.

Then, if I can sneak one more in. There's still obviously a lot of newsflow around about strategic metals.

I haven't managed to go through the entire quarterly yet, I was wondering, is there any update on O'Callaghans and where you're at and what you're currently thinking?

Rowan Krasnoff

Thank you. I'll take this.

This is Rowan Krasnoff. Possibly just by way of reminder for those who aren't familiar with O'Callaghans, this is our tungsten deposit that we announced our first Greatland resource estimate for in March.

That resource demonstrated the project's scale and quality. It's one of the world's largest high-grade tungsten deposits, and it's 10 km just to the south of Telfer.

As you say, tungsten is a critical mineral, and the market for it continues to be really strong. Obviously, our business is gold-copper focused, and we have a very substantial development that we're about to commence at Havieron.

I don't think you'll see us develop it ourselves, but we are focused on how we can create or realize value from it for our shareholders. A number of options remain on the table, and that ranges from divestments to joint ventures or a spin-out.

We have received interest in the asset, but we want to ensure anything we do with it optimizes and maximizes value for our shareholders, and fortunately, the strength of our balance sheet allows us to be a bit patient and selective in that regard. I can't be definitive at this stage, but we're working hard on it at the moment and expect things to come together this year.

David Radclyffe

All right, great. Thank you.

I'll pass it on.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Baker from Macquarie. Your line is open.

Adam Baker

Morning, Shaun and team. Just a quick question on guidance.

Looks like you're pretty comfortable with stockpile that you've been putting through in the 4Q. I was just wondering on your breakdown for your mill feed in the 4Q sorry, into FY 2027 guidance.

It does appear that 25% of the blend in the 4Q was from stockpiles, with 10% from the high-grade ROM stocks and 15% from the lower grade. Should we expect similar moving forward over the next 12 months, noting I guess if you continue at that run rate, I guess you got around three quarters worth of high-grade feed remaining?

Otto Richter

Yep, Otto here, I'll take that one. We're looking at continuing roughly around that 30% mill feed rate from stockpiles, albeit we will be changing over to the lower-grade stockpiles, rather than the high-grade stockpiles fed during FY 2026.

Then the underground has a similar feed to what we've had in the Q4, and our open pit will slightly pick up throughput as we progress through the year. Hence, one of the reasons as Shaun pointed out that we are slightly back-half weighted in terms of tonnages.

As the open pit comes through, we end up replacing or displacing any low-grade material from the stockpile. Just to interrupt.

Just the remaining, there's about just over a million, or just under 2 million tonnes of the high-grade stockpile still left, the intention of that is to blend that over the year to make sure that we have a stable or a balanced ore feed through the process plant. We'll use that remaining high-grade feed through FY 2027 as well.

Adam Baker

I guess from what you saw in the 4Q, you didn't see any metallurgical challenges putting through the lower-grade stocks?

Otto Richter

We've run three trials on that low-grade material, obviously, compared to the large volume, it's still only a sample set, but we ran three trials in the Q4 period, and our recoveries were broadly in line with what we were expecting from those, which gave us the confidence to include it in the FY 2027 mine plan or processing plan.

Adam Baker

Thank you. Just maybe one for you, Shaun, if I may.

Just acknowledge that the higher capital expenditure over the next couple of years, but cash levels $1.3 billion, you've got that undrawn $500 million debt facility. Any considerations for capital returns?

Oh, look,

Shaun Day

Adam, it's a kind question, but, look, we think the best way we can deliver value for shareholders is deliver Havieron, deliver West Dome underground. I'd, David's question, love to deliver the sublevel cave as well.

I think if we deliver those three, and the cash at bank de-risks and should give market confidence of our ability to do it. I think that's our initial focus.

For good order, I'm a dividend kind of guy. If you look at my history at Straits, Sakari, Northern Star, we were big dividend and consistent dividend payers.

That is where we'd want to get to, but I think our goal here is to deliver shareholder returns, and we think right now that's delivering the growth.

Adam Baker

Thank you too.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Morgan from Barrenjoey.

Your line is open.

Daniel Morgan

Hi Shaun and team. Excuse me.

Obviously very pleasing to see ongoing material movement growth on the open pit. Just wondering what you've got embedded in guidance or thinking about for FY 2027, you've done about 26 million tonnes this year, growing sequentially.

What does the next year look like?

Otto Richter

Otto here, I'll take that one. If you look at our Q4, we produced about 7 million tonnes TMM out of the open pit.

We're expecting the average for FY 2027 to be broadly in line of that, with a modest uptick as we progress through the year. In terms of grade, expecting similar to what we had for the FY Q4, around that mid-0.4s.

Daniel Morgan

Thank you. Maybe just expanding on that.

Obviously this is a transition year in many respects for the company, but at that open pit, you've got a big focus on moving material. How big is the transition for if you look forward to FY 2028?

Have we opened up a lot of ore on the open pit so that we can generate more ore, or are we still stripping back?

Otto Richter

It's two components to that. As you've seen with our reserve update, we we've had a substantial reserve update, but that was only based, as Shaun said, on the first half of our drill program.

There's obviously a a ongoing drill component that we will include in the plan, and that may affect what our designs look like. At this stage, we're getting a really high +85% conversion of that inferred material over to indicated material.

As we've mentioned in our reserve, there's over 40% of our reserve ounces that are currently sitting in that inferred that hasn't been included in the reserve statement. That component we will definitely work towards, and then as we open up Stage 7, as we open up Stage 7, that definitely exposes us to to more ore, we're expecting an uptick in ore.

Then the next, I guess, big win or big target that we are looking at is, with this updated drilling, is to look at the timing of when does that next big cutback of ours start. Certainly an uptick in the ore component, but based on on drill results, definitely also looking at when do we start that cutback, and that would potentially start in FY 2028,

Daniel Morgan

but. Thank you.

I don't know, Otto, if it's your place to address, or if it's Shaun, but could you just maybe talk about the demarcation of the roles between COO, Nick Strong coming in, and Otto, you're moving to Chief Technical Officer? What are the different mandates and what's under your coverage and what are you trying to achieve?

Thank you.

Shaun Day

Daniel, well, why don't I jump in? Sorry, just to make it easier for Otto, but Otto can augment.

Look, I think what we see is and, yeah, firstly, let me just say Otto's just done the outstanding operational outcomes you've seen over the last 6 months, it's a great credit to Otto, and we're really confident about this quarter. We also, we're really excited about Nick joining the team.

Otto's focus is going to be on that long-term life of mine planning, and Nick is bringing on board the West Dome underground, bringing on board the sublevel cave, the big open pit extensions at West Dome underground, perhaps at least understanding, if not bringing forward, re-accessing the Main Dome underground, which also potentially is a notch higher grade. We are spoiled for optionality around this site, and the drill program is meant to really bring that optionality forward so we can create flexibility and resilience in our operations.

That's the work that Otto will do, and then he'll effectively be passing that across to Nick to execute that budget year. I think it's a really important, and I think all the companies I've had worked with have had this kind of structure as they've matured.

It's a really important integration for us, that COO CTO interface. Otto was a big part of our selection process for Nick.

I think we're set up for success there. We love that it's just a very big job for one person to do, we think having the expertise of Otto and the expertise of Nick, I think, sets us up for success.

Daniel Morgan

Certainly no shortage of things to look at. Maybe just last question on that.

The West Dome underground, obviously you've had a lot of great exploration results and it's fleshing out as you drill more. When might you expect to give the market a bit more color on what a potential mine plan might look like, tonnes, grades, that sort of thing wrapped up in a study?

Is that something that's on the agenda that we can hear about that?

Otto Richter

The study is currently progressing well. We're currently expecting to release that study in FY 2027.

The main focus in the short term is to make sure that we connect that second drive and give us the ventilation through to the ore body. That will then allow us to step out as well and look at what, I guess, the full potential of that West Dome area is.

The area that's currently being done in the resource is currently going through that planning process, and we're hoping to complete that study by the end of H1 FY or in FY 2027.

Shaun Day

Just to briefly add, yeah, what's already doing there underwrites the investment we're putting in, the infrastructure, and in terms of your preference there, Daniel, no one's dying of boredom at Greatland, that's for sure. No,

Daniel Morgan

I'm sure that's not the case. All right, thank you, Shaun, Otto, and team.

Appreciate this.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time, I would like to hand back.

Shaun Day

Okay. With that, just really want to thank everyone to dial in.

Appreciate it's a busy season. Just delighted with what the team has delivered across FY 2026, and it sets us up for a really pivotal FY 2027, setting up the growth to create multi-year, if not multi-decade shareholder value.

Thanks again.

Operator

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating.

You may now all disconnect.