I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Aaron Colleran, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Mel. I'll provide a brief overview of the June quarter and then open for questions. The June quarter was a good quarter, as you'll see from the chart on page four, though. Page four of the quarterly. It was a good quarter that contained our worst month and our best month. It was a rollercoaster ride of a quarter, but a great effort by the Eloise team to deliver the quarter on guidance and bring the year home on guidance. Thank you to the team at Eloise, but for the record, I don't need the suspense. I'm happy for you to come out of the blocks hard each quarter and then coast home. Eloise produced 3,202 tons of copper in comm and importantly sold 3,469 tons of copper due to the big stockpile decision we had at the end of March. Costs were down.
A great all-in sustaining cost result of AUD 4.58 per pound, which translates to $2.98 a pound sold, and an AIC of AUD 4.90 per pound copper sold as the level of capital spend decreased as the budget year came to a close. Lots of copper sold plus low costs saw an excellent cash flow result. Eloise generated net mine cash flow of $16 million after capital expenditure. A great little mine, a truly great little mine. Eloise achieved its quarterly guidance and also full year FY 2025 guidance. For the full year, Eloise came in 3% above the production target, 5% under the AISC target, and 2% under the AIC target. An amazing level of accuracy there. It's almost as though we know what we're doing. This is the second year and eighth quarter in a row that Eloise has met or exceeded guidance. We do know what we're doing at Eloise.
We have a great team at Eloise led by Ben McEnany. Thank you to the team. Turning now to Jericho. During the quarter, the Jericho site-specific Environmental Authority and associated progressive rehabilitation and closure plan were approved, and a minor amendment to the Eloise Environmental Authority was also approved. We now have all the approvals we need for the Jericho mine and the Eloise plant expansion. We are good to go. Good to develop, construct, mine, and process. We appointed GR Engineering to construct the new plant items. Earthworks commence in August, and construction will commence in October with an expected commissioning period in the December 2026 quarter.
One thing I want to reiterate is that although we have engaged GR Engineering to expand the Eloise plant to 1.1 million tons per annum capacity, the equipment is being upgraded to 1.5 million tons per annum capacity to allow for a straightforward later expansion. The oversized equipment provides the flexibility to do the second stage expansion quickly and cheaply. We estimate as cheaply as $10 million. Including the oversized equipment upfront avoids higher costs and delays associated with retrofitting or replacing equipment. Given the exploration success we're having at Jericho, and I'll talk more about that later, we are very confident that over time we can ramp up production from Jericho alone to 1.5 million tons per annum. Add in the potential for extensions at Eloise and for regional exploration success, I'm confident that we could maintain that rate for well over 10 years.
At a 1.5 million tons per annum throughput rate, copper production is 100% higher than where it is today, and operating costs are expected to be 20% lower. Production up and cost down has a big impact on cash flow. It'll be a great asset. The Jericho access drive was at 1,549 m of its planned 3,000 m total distance at the end of the quarter. It remains on schedule to reach first development in June 2026. The real highlight at Jericho, though, was the resource extension and infill drilling we did at the north end at Matilda North, Jolly, and Tucker. These chutes are all shaping up as high-grade continuous chutes, as good as anything in the center of Jericho. This has important positive implications for the mine ramp-up, and we are looking at the potential for faster ramp-up now.
Also, don't overlook the drill hole completed at the Billabong chute. A 380 m step out and bang, we hit 4.1 m, estimated true width, grading 2.4% copper. It was a big quarter for financing, a very big quarter. We locked in a US $40 million prepayment facility with Trafigura. We launched a two-tranche $55 million placement to institutional and sophisticated investors. We entered into a $25 million surety bond facility with Swiss Re and we launched a share purchase plan to raise up to $10 million.
There is a lot of information released about those transactions, so I won't cover that again here other than to say that with only one tranche of the placement issued, the second to be issued on shareholder approval at an EGM on 20th of August, and the share purchase plan still open, our issued capital is a bit hard to work out, so we have included a reconciliation on page 18 of the quarterly. Also worth noting is the surety bond facility. It's not a big transaction, but it's something of a breakthrough transaction for AIC Mines. It's one of the first surety bond facilities to be put in place by a junior mining company and is significantly cheaper and more flexible than the previous arrangement. Less than half the price we were paying previously. Now to guidance. We are expecting a slightly better year in FY 2026.
The guidance ranges are set out on pages 18 and 19 of the quarterly, so I won't read them out here. FY 2026 should again see good cash flow from Eloise. You'll note, though, my normal caution. The comment on page 18 that achieving the cost guidance will require tight cost control given the increased depth and complexity of operations at Eloise. Don't try to read between the lines here. That is a fair and reasonable statement and is a reflection of our cautious style and that our numbers aren't padded. That's all. Note also that we are currently benefiting from historically high gold prices. Gold revenue is treated as a byproduct credit, so reduces our all-in sustaining cost. The AISC guidance assumes a gold price of $5,000 per ounce, which compares to the current price of around $5,150 per ounce, Aussie dollars.
A change in the gold price of AUD 500 an ounce impacts our all-in sustaining cost by approximately $0.10 a pound. So long may the current prices last. That concludes my review, so I'll ask the operator to open the line to questions. Thank you, Mel.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Richard Adams, who is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi Aaron. Just looking, you were saying this last quarter was fairly bipolar. It finished, I think, in June, I think you put through 75,000 tons. On a run rate, that takes it to 900,000 per annum. With Jericho coming on next June, with a plant not being finished until December, do you think you'll be able to gain more consistency of throughput? Throughput for this coming quarter looks at 550,000, 575,000, as I say, per month. Last month it was 750,000. These are, and as you said, I think April was 400,000. There's quite a lot of variability in there. Do you think with Jericho coming on board, you will be able to average above nameplate capacity for that six-month period next year?
Richard, just to confirm those numbers, sorry, what were you quoting then, like a per annum, a bulked-out sort of per annum number?
Yeah, I mean, if you actually look at June, where I think the throughput was 75,000 tons.
Right.
If you were to multiply that, I think April was 400. This quarter's projected about 550, 570 per month.
Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah.
Hence, if you look at June, you multiply that by 12, you get to 900, which is obviously above the 725 nameplate capacity.
Yeah. Now look, I understand the question. Good, good. Thank you. Let me answer it as best I can. The chart you're looking at, chart one, I'm guessing on slide four, that's all produced rather than all milled. We averaged that out and you know it will come as no surprise to you. I think we noted in here that at the end of quarter, there it is on that same slide, same page, end of quarter ROM stocks of 26,000 tons will be processed during the September quarter. That's because we had such a big month in June. We couldn't process everything we produced in June. There's 26,000 tons left over at the end of the month. If we go back to the table on page three, say, the tons processed line for the year, 634,000 tons processed.
That's more or less exactly what we were targeting, around 625,000 tons. It was a good year, 650,000 tons, a better year, a very good year. Anywhere between 150,000 to 165,000 tons through that mill in a quarter is achievable. Now remember, we are mine constrained. We're not mill constrained. FY 2025 full year, 634,000 tons. That's a mill that can do probably 725,000 tons per annum. We've got in the order of 100,000 tons per annum of available capacity. Jericho is slightly harder, so it's not the full 100,000. It's somewhat less than that. There is capacity in the current mill to start putting some Jericho ore through if we came across that. Now to the beginning of your question when you talked about that June period, December period. The access drive gets to the orebody in June next year. Now let's be clear.
That's when the access drive, or as we now call it the JAD, Jericho Access Drive, gets to the orebody and will start getting some ore, but that'll be development ore. That won't be stoping ore. On a relative basis, very little ore. It actually takes us the full FY 2027 to ramp up to 600,000 tons per annum out of Jericho. In that first six months, we're not mining at the get-go at 600,000 tons per annum. We ramp up. In that first six months, as we're commissioning the larger mill, if commissioning is on time, we'll have built up a little bit of stockpile, which is useful. When we do really open up that new crusher, we've got plenty of ore to start feeding it for the commissioning. If it's late, that's not good. If it's early, we'll have to push mining harder and everywhere in between.
That slight stockpile build up post-June 2026, Richard, we'll catch that up. We'll process that very quickly through the mill. As it is currently lined up, a June 2026 reach the orebody and a December 2026 quarter ramp up the new mill is actually an appropriate overlap. I hope that answers your question. Thanks, Richard.
It does answer my first question, but I do have a second one if that's possible.
Yep, go ahead.
Second one, exploration. Obviously, you've done plenty of drilling, very successful drilling around Jericho, Eloise, Lens 6, la la la. We haven't had great, uniquely new success elsewhere yet. You know, Sandy, Artemis, we've got some results waiting at the moment, which look interesting. Last quarter, you did mention the anomaly or the below Jericho, a long way down. You indicated you might drill that this year. Have you got any, has that tightened up at all in your timeline or ability to do that?
Yeah, thanks, Richard. Let me give as much background as I can to exploration at the moment. Firstly, I just sort of go back to strategy. We don't need more 2% ore, and that's probably where we left, you know, Sandy Creek, almost Artemis and things like that, is that those orebodies won't displace Eloise or Jericho in the next, let's say, five years. They'll be milled one day. There's no doubt about that. They will go through the mill, but they don't displace all that we've got at either Eloise or Jericho. To displace all, we want 3%-4% copper ore, and that's what we're looking at. As I've said in the past, we're moving through the regional prospects quickly with only one to three holes.
That's not a true test of those anomalies, but it's probably a sufficient test at those initial stages to see if there's something better than what we already have or something similar to Eloise in its upper levels. I remind people, Eloise in its upper levels, or what is now the deeps, when that was, you know, when Eloise Liverpool in its early days when it was mined selectively as the individual lenses, that was regularly producing 4.5%, 4.6% copper. A fantastic project. We imagine finding another one of those, and that's exactly what we're looking for, and hence we're moving through these projects quickly. That said, you've seen we hit Arlington, Yukon, Defiance, and Baghdad, and the interesting, these deep holes that you never know what's quite down there below Jericho, as well as Kevin down south.
Those two holes at this stage are likely to be, I'm sorry to say this, Richard, but the way we've got the year set up, they're likely to be in the December quarter, or at least the December quarter when we get those results. They're both deep holes. We can set the rig up there. It's not as much of a problem if we get rain in that period on a hole that you're sitting on the hole for a couple of weeks anyway. Every hole we drill is interesting. Cuba at the moment or a Grande have all got great geophysics, dare I say it. Let's see what the core looks like. Specifically, those nice two deep Jericho holes, as well as the nice deep one at Kevin down south, December quarter.
Okay, thank you very much. Thanks for that.
Yes, yes, Richard.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Kormendy with Shaw and Partners. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Aaron. Thank you for taking my question. Firstly, congratulations to you and the team. Eight quarters consecutively of meeting guidance is not something we're used to when we're looking at junior mining companies, that really is outstanding. Now that I've got that out of the way, at the risk of upsetting you, just in terms of the cost guidance, if you have a year out for the year ahead, there's a wide range there. I understand you've explained that as a result of increased depth and complexity at Eloise. I'm just wondering, is there something else to note around labor market conditions in your part of the world or turnover or anything else going on there?
No, no. I would say other than the gold price, Peter, and look, the oil or diesel price has actually been reasonably good for 12 months now. If we put gold and diesel aside, most of the costs are now within our control. That range is probably the conservatism you expect out of us or caution. It is very hard to do with a 12-month outlook. I don't want to promise, Peter, but I'd suggest that we might tighten that up for you during the year. Would be the best way to approach it.
Okay, thank you.
No, to clearly answer your question though, no, there's nothing in particular that I'm worried about in terms of inflation. We're seeing nothing more than basically sort of CPI at the moment. Able to get people, equipment, contracts we're re-letting at the moment. Nothing coming in as a surprise at all. What feels like a nice flat year ahead of us, dare I say it, and it's an unusual position to be in after the last couple of years.
Yeah, that's pleasant. Thank you. Question number two, just in terms of your progress for the ventilation on the link drive, your commentary does make mention of competent ground conditions. Is there any more color you can provide on the next raised ball?
Oh, yeah, look, so the competent ground conditions is the JAD itself, the access drive. As we've always said, you know, it's 3 km , but you know, it's all in country rock. We weren't expecting anything complicated in it. We certainly haven't come across anything complicated. You know, no water, no structures. Albeit a structure might be something interesting. So the access drive itself, the ground conditions are great. The vent draft that we're about to kick off pilot drilling, the secant piles have all been drilled or in place. The concrete platform's in place. We'll put a rig over that, put the pilot hole down for Raising Australia to get the site shortly. I'm not going to give you an exact date. These things are always plus or minus a couple of weeks, depending on how quickly the last job finishes or doesn't.
They're probably a little bit late at the moment. That's fine. They'll be on site shortly and we'll hitch up that raised ball and start to test this one. As I think I've run through, you know, and there's a good photo of it in the last quarterly, you know, how we've approached this vent rise with the piling holes drilled around the circumference of the rise backfilled with cement. In that incompetent ground, the top 40 to 50 m will actually be raised boring through that ring of cement. A more conservative approach this time. Does that answer the question, Peter?
Yes, it does. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay, cheers. Cheers.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Aaron, and Karen Siphons on the cutoff. Just a quick one from me on your FY 2026 CapEx. I just wanted to, you haven't put any, I guess, band ranges around that. Is there, I guess, probably two things in indicative bands that you'd want to slap around that? The other one was just, I guess, in terms of profilings that, you know, weighted towards a specific half or generally just flat across the entire year?
Yeah, interesting question, Dan. As you know, in the past, we haven't even put ranges around our production and cost guidance. It's all a bit of a game, really. There's actually a point target. You guys will take midpoint and that's the target. How you put a top-end guidance to some of these things is a bit of a moot point. I would say on our capital guidance that they're tight. There is no room, there's no padding in any of those numbers. They're simply the numbers we have to hit. I see no, yeah, personally, I see no reason to put out different numbers externally to what we're targeting internally. That's what they are, Dan. You know us. Every IR manager in the country is probably now either sniggering or sweat has broken out on their brow. I think that we actually put out our internal forecasts.
That's a reality. I could put a whole lot of padded forecasts out here that would be easy for us to hit, but that would also put you into palpitations because we'd add 10% to everything. These are the targets we're going to work hard to hit. I hope that sufficiently answers the question, Dan.
That's maybe coming at it from probably the angle that I'm trying to come at it from. I suppose you've got a lot of CapEx projects kind of going on concurrently, and it's not unreasonable to expect maybe some either pull forward or slippage in terms of timeline. Whether it's in FY 2026 or FY 2027, that's kind of, I guess, where I'm coming from. Maybe asking in a different way, I guess, if you're going like maybe not line by line, but maybe just groups, what are the general timeframes for the capital spend of, you know, like I guess the plant expansion and the remainder of the link drive? Maybe from that perspective. Thanks.
Yeah, no, great, great. Sorry, I forgot to answer that part of your question. Sustaining, yep, you know, roughly even. The raised depth drilling won't specifically be even, but at $2.5 million, that won't wag the dog here. Similarly, long-term mine development. The underground mine development and the long-term mine development component, you know, roughly even this year. We're moving ahead all year, advancing in the deeps on a continuous basis rather than the stop-start basis we've done in the past. That should be relatively even. Jericho, hard to answer. Access drive, even, other than the, other than the vent rise in this quarter and a vent rise in the final quarter. Plant expansion, roughly even over the quarter, you'll see that's very 12-month weighted rather than the 18-months effective guidance that we gave in the capital raise presentation, which may well be the source of your question.
The NPI, probably back-end weighted, raised depth drilling, again, a small piece there. I would say front-end weighted, only because we'll try not to do that during the wet season. Exploration is similar, as you've seen in the past, slows down during the wet season. Corporate, you'll see, we'll see if I'm on the, see if I'm on the final call. Once we hit that $7.5 million, that's when the money stops. We may not be able to dial in at June next year. All good. Is that a better answer? That's as best as I can give, Dan. Is that a better answer to your question?
No, that's a good color, thank you. Maybe just final one from me, and it's kind of around the edges. The working capital build in the quarter, I assume a lot of that is the ROM builds that you've had.
Correct.
Maybe just a bit of color around expectations, like is that all Q1? I assume this stockpile change there is included in your all-in sustaining costs as well. I'm more just a flag, but expect that in Q1 as well. Is that?
Yeah, that's correct. We'll get rid of that stockpile. All going well, we'll get rid of that stockpile this quarter. If you can't match, I can't do it for you, especially on this quarter, but if you can't sort of match that adjustment when you go through your numbers, just give us a shout. Come through to Duncan or John directly, and they can lead you through how that sort of working capital adjustment is built up and where that ROM stockpile can be adjusted and has impacted the quarter's numbers. Because Dan, as we know, your numbers are amazing in their precision. You do come in as, out of all the analysts that cover us, the closest every quarter, every year. Quite amazing, the level of detail you do and how accurate you get it. Thank you. Thank you for paying so close attention.
No matter. Appreciate the marketing, but thank you very much. I'll have to stop off and congratulate a good quarter again. Cheers, mate.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shane Laplastria, who is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi Aaron, thanks for the chance to take a question. I'm wondering what your thoughts are about the LME copper price over the next 12 months, particularly in light with the arbitrage closing off to the United States.
Yeah, look, an extremely difficult question, Shane, because it really opens up the whole tariff piece, the tariff question and what impact that tariff's going to have. I've seen reasonable arguments for both sides, for positive and negative around tariffs. The obvious, to be honest, the obvious one is tariffs are a stupid idea and they won't drive, especially in the short term, they won't drive additional supply into the market and potentially impact demand. Is that sustainable? That sort of carry-on isn't sustainable and the economy is big enough to adjust for that over time, over a relatively short amount of time, I would say. The arbitrage you're seeing at the moment, to make the obvious statement, will unwind. What does that do? It has brought forward some demand, bought effectively artificial demand. Has that had an impact on price? Clearly, it has.
It's dragged the LME copper price up a bit with it, emptied out LME warehouses. What does that do forward? Can true demand settle in there and hold that price? I think that's a reasonable assumption. The more we see of true demand coming out of China now, as well as the rebuild, the restock in Europe, I'm not particularly worried about an effective collapse. I don't like to use the sort of emotive terms, but I can't see the copper price falling hard or fast at all. In fact, it should well be able to hold. We're seeing that at the moment. We're seeing the copper price and the LME price hold pretty well. We're forecasting $14,500 Australian dollars per ton over the year to meet all our objectives. We've seen that recently. The price won't go as low as $14,600, $650. So far, so good.
I think that's a fair outlook. Every dollar above $14,500 a ton is good for us. We are on true demand fundamentals and copper price fundamentals. Remember, we've got an Australian dollar offset or inherent hedge, as it would be, which is helping us. That Australian dollar copper price is very good for us at the moment. I hope that answers the question. It doesn't answer your question, Shane, because, yeah, to be quite honest, I can't. You know, if I knew exactly where the copper price was going over the next 12 months, I'd probably do a slightly different job. Or I'm probably fooling myself, but look, we're confident of where it is, what Eloise can achieve over the next 12 months based on a $14,500 forecast. I hope that gives you some background on our thinking on the commodity price.
Yes, that's excellent. Also, any thoughts on any recent developments at Mount Isa with the smelter? We might be weeks away from hearing of some financial support from either state or federal government for the smelter. I guess even if that support doesn't come through, it doesn't need re-bricking until 2030. Is that correct?
Yeah, that's right. The Mount Isa smelter question is a bit of a vexed one. Like everybody in northern Queensland, I'd love to see that stay there, stay open, and importantly, be able to operate efficiently, economically, profitably. That's the piece. Holding that smelter open with subsidies is probably as clever as the tariff debate. Let's step aside from that. Just some facts from an AIC Mines or an Eloise point of view. We do currently deliver all Eloise concentrate to Mount Isa smelter for processing, albeit we sell our concentrate to Trafigura on a long-term offtake agreement. Delivering into Mount Isa gives us a saving on the state government royalties because we're producing copper in country rather than exporting a concentrate. There's also reduced freight costs compared to shipping our concentrate to an offshore smelter. Mount Isa is not a low-cost smelter by any means.
To be able to run it, Glencore clipped some of those savings from us. Net-net, we do better than sending it to Japan. Our estimate is the savings equate to approximately $1.8 million a year. If we had to send concentrate offshore to Japan, say, where most likely a nice clean, high gold concentrate would go, that's fine. Eloise has done that in the past. We could set up to do that reasonably quickly and it's not going to have a significant impact on Eloise. A little bit of a working capital issue as we change over to a three-month payment timeframe rather than one month out of Mount Isa. The real issue, which is the broader issue, is when the jobs from Maiko, the copper miner, go and they're effectively gone.
If jobs go from the concentrator and the smelter, it makes all those other services in Isa hard to provide, hard for those service providers to stay there in Mount Isa. That's probably the biggest concern. It is good for us to have a strong Mount Isa and a strong service provider base in Mount Isa. That's what we need to see. That's what the whole industry needs to see. Potentially, with a closure, that provider base would move, I would guess, elsewhere in Queensland, probably back to Townsville. That's not the end of the world for us by any means. It just means they're not close, they're not as quick to respond, not as quick to get to site. There's always a transport or time delay cost involved.
We'd love to see Mount Isa smelter stay open, but fully recognize that that's very difficult for a smelter that, I would guess, is not currently making money.
Great, thank you.
Thanks, Shane. Cheers.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nick McRusty with Moelis Australia. Please go ahead.
Hey Aaron, thanks for taking my question. Just circling back to your earlier comment on grade displacement, what sort of internal threshold are you using to justify follow-up drilling across the regional targets, particularly as you weigh that up against your existing ore sources in the context of the plant expansion?
You said, look, Nick, that's a really good question and I've got a terrible answer for it. We really haven't had to yet. I'd love to have been right at that precipice, right at that level going, oh, should we follow this up or shouldn't we? We haven't come close. If I had to guess a number, it really probably is, if we're getting plus 2% hits over plus five meter width, we wouldn't slow down. We're happy with what we call, what we're initially looking for is 15% m. Five to three type of numbers would keep us there. I guess, Nick, the best answer to your question is that 15% m in a drill hole will get followed up. Less than that goes back to join the queue.
Perfect. That's great. Thanks.
No worries. Cheers, Nick.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Adams, who is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Sorry, Aaron, me again. I just forgot one question. More of an update. Tailings dams, you mentioned a couple were being proposed. I was wondering, has that gone through, and also are they budgeted for within this recent financing agreement?
Yeah, good question. Tough question, Richard. We shouldn't let you back on, but no. There's two. There's the Tailings Dam 5, the current tailings dam, the lift, and that amendment has gone in. Tailings Dam 6, the new, the longer-term tailings dam, post-Tailings Dam 5, which is actually to be built on top of the current footprint, the Tailings Dam 1, 2, 3, 4 footprint. That EA amendment has gone in as well. That's quite a long timeframe for that one to get a response. Both of those approvals are in and aren't time critical to us. They're fine. Yes, both the lift and the planning for TD6 is included in the money we raised.
Great. Thank you for that. I won't bother you again. Thank you again.
No worries. Anytime. Cheers, Richard.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Colleran for closing remarks.
Thank you, Mel. FY 2025 was a great year. Eloise again achieved guidance. Have I mentioned that we achieved guidance? Sorry. It produced 12,863 tons of copper in concentrate and generated net mine cash flow of $27.4 million after capital. A truly great little copper mine. The expansion to 20,000 tons per annum is underway and this will transform Eloise into a great copper mine with good production, low costs, and a long mine life. A well-understood mine with a great team running it, fully permitted in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with further organic growth upside. AIC Mines is a company that ticks all the boxes. It has got to be the best value and most leveraged copper miner listed on the ASX. FY 2026 will be a transformational year for AIC Mines as we complete the Jericho access drive and expand the Eloise plant.
We expect AIC Mines to become the go-to ASX stock for copper leverage and there are many reasons to want your investment portfolio leveraged to copper over the next few years. Thank you for dialing in. That concludes the call. For anybody who's at the Noosa conference later this week, please call by and say hello to myself and Duncan. We'll be there. Cheers, everyone.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.