I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Aaron Colleran, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Thanks, Cameron, and good morning, everyone. I'll unpack the December quarter for you and then open to questions. I say unpack, this time because while the December quarter was a great quarter, the numbers are a bit more complicated than usual because of the amount of stockpiles we've built up and the opportunity that the current strong commodity price is providing us. Eloise is a great mine, operated by great people. In a quarter where Mother Nature was clearly in a bad mood, throwing both geological and meteorological problems at us, our team delivered on both production guidance and cost guidance. So thank you to the team at Eloise, particularly those who worked through Christmas and the New Year in some very tough conditions.
Eloise produced 3,202 tons of copper in concentrate at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 4.87 a pound, or $3.26 per pound, and an all-in cost of AUD 5.22 a pound or $3.50 per pound, achieving production and cost guidance. Note that Eloise achieved record quarterly mine production under AIC Mines' ownership of 189,000 tons of ore. With that, half the financial year now complete, we've produced exactly half of guidance, and we're well set up to bring the second half home. Eloise got a lot of rain in December, 571 mm in December alone, including 357 mm over a 48-hour period. That's a lot of rain. It didn't impact mining, but it did impact ore crushing and concentrate trucking.
So at the end of the quarter, we had unusually large ore stockpiles and concentrate stockpiles. This needs to be considered when running through our cash flow information. I'm sure everyone on the call was expecting the December quarter to be our best cash flow quarter ever, given the current commodity prices, but you'll see that it was pretty much in line with the June and September quarters. Three simple reasons: one, December quarter cash flow is basically September, October and November sales. Two, reduced processing capacity due to wet ore, saw us build ROM and crushed ore stocks of 27,000 tons, containing approximately 450 tons of copper.
And three, poor concentrate drying conditions and temporary road closures, and the delivery pad at the Mount Isa smelter, due to rain, saw us build a stockpile of about 2,000 tons of concentrate, containing 464 tons of copper. That concentrate is worth about AUD 8 million, and if we'd sold it in December, it would have delivered our best quarter ever, which I expect is what shareholders were expecting. So don't worry, it's all there. It's just coming in the March quarter, and January prices are better than December prices, so something of a silver lining there. Boom, boom. While talking about Eloise, don't forget, don't gloss over the drilling results from the Deeps and Lens 6. They're on the front page, obviously, in the report. Exceptional width, exceptional copper grades, and well worth noting, exceptional gold grades. It's a ripper of an ore body.
Jericho, as you well know, is equally impressive. Note the deep drilling done at Jumbuck and Squatter, 200 meters step out holes, and bang, there she is. We're gonna be mining at Jericho for a very, very long time. So Jericho, we hit a bit of water in the access drive. We knew it was coming. We now look to be through it, but it did slow us down a bit in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, we were 90 meters from crossing the J1 Lens, so you can expect an update from us shortly. The plant expansion can't come soon enough. We're whipping GRES as hard as we can, albeit with a feather bow and not a cat of nine tails. We know who we're dealing with there. They continue to perform well.
The plant expansion is progressing well, and although it is still early in the construction period, it's on budget and on schedule. Turning to financial performance. Capital expenditure remains broadly in line with guidance. That is, most of our line items were at about 50% of full-year guidance. Being now halfway through the year, that's where they should be. Those CapEx items that are ahead of budget are Eloise mine development, Eloise resource definition drilling, and non-plant infrastructure. Let me run through these exceptions. Eloise underground mine development is guided at AUD 32 million for the year. That's summing both sustaining and major. We've spent AUD 21.7 million of that, or 67% of that amount, at the halfway mark. We now expect to come in slightly ahead of guidance at AUD 36 million, as basically costs have crept.
Eloise resource definition drilling is guided at AUD 2.5 million, and we've spent AUD 1.6 million. We now expect to come in slightly ahead of guidance at AUD 3.5 million, as initially gated expenditure, i.e., success dependent, is brought in the budget. The NPI, non-plant infrastructure, that's at 59% spent. That's mainly timing. So Eloise, maybe AUD 4 million, AUD 5 million over guidance on CapEx for the year, so that's roughly 10%, but set against significantly better revenue than expected. Which brings me to the very last paragraph of the quarterly report. This is where the gems are always hidden. Bit of a trick. Always check the very end, right at the very end. Last paragraph. Let me read it to you.
If current prices hold for the next six months, then Eloise could produce approximately AUD 30 million more cash flow than we originally forecast. This strength in commodity prices, combined with the strong drilling results at Jumbuck, has warranted re-optimization of the development rate at Jericho. An increased development rate, albeit at increased upfront cost, is now being considered, as it would provide for a faster production ramp up to 1.1 million tons per annum, and a stronger platform for the stage two expansion to 1.5 million tons per annum."...What this means is that we are going to put that AUD 30 million to work by doing additional development at Jericho.
Additional development sets up additional stopes, which would allow us to achieve a sustained 1.1 million tonne per annum mining rate, and then a 1.5 million tonne per annum mining rate sooner than planned. This is what we've been saying all along. If the market delivers us incentive pricing, then we will use that funding to increase production. We're putting that work together now and expect to have more information for you with our updated mineral resource and ore reserve estimate due for release in April. So until then, we'll continue to refer to the 1.5 million ton per annum production rate as aspirational due to the JORC constraints, but post-April, I think you're going to hear us refer to it as the new plan A. That concludes my review.
I'll ask the operator to open the lines for question, and let's get into the minutiae. Thank you.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Paul Kaner at Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Aaron. Thanks for the call. Just a couple of questions. Firstly, just on grade. Out of Eloise, obviously, the last two quarters have been a bit lower than the quarters before that and a little bit lower versus reserve. I guess, just how should we think about the grade coming out of Eloise moving forward? And, obviously, yeah, once it combines with Jericho, it should come down a little bit, right?
Yep. Well, yes, to the last part of your question, you know, it'll drop a bit, once we start blending in, Jericho, especially where we're starting at Jericho, we were 1.5, 1.60 type numbers, kicking off there. Yeah, lower than it has been, probably lower than you and I expected. Simplest answer, Paul, is overdraw. You know, simplest answer is, you know, if the, if tons are presenting themselves, we'll take them at the moment. Don't, don't read too much into that. That's not a massive change in strategy. It's not a change in, you know, it's not a change in cut-off grade.
But, you know, in the upper levels, like at Maisie and some of those areas that we are, you know, literally, essentially, closing off, finishing off, you know, we'll take that, we'll take that last stope or two, because we're not coming back. And at the moment, you know, at AUD 18,500 a tonne, you know, 1.5%, is not to be left behind. So it's at the margin, but, you know, you, Paul, you've correctly picked up, that, slightly lower grade, but, you know, then have a look, and then you'll have noticed this, a lot more tonnes. You know, where did, you know, 189,000 tonnes line for the quarter, a record? You know, where do you think those came from?
That came from, you know, grabbing everything that we could see. I just. Does that answer the question for you, Paul?
Yeah, yeah, no, it does. I mean, I guess, what should we assume as the base case for Eloise?
Back to reserve.
Okay.
Back to reserve.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, that's, sorry, I should have been clearer. Don't read into that a change in strategy.
Yeah.
It was opportunistic, run with, run with reserve grade.
Yeah, too easy. And then just, yeah, moving on to those tenements that you acquired, just north-
Yeah
Of Cannington.
Yep.
Just talk us through that. Obviously, some interesting geophysical anomalies there, just the history with those tenements, et cetera.
Yeah, being tied up by a junior, which is now Broken Hill Mines. The shell that they backed that into held them for quite a while. I should know the name of the company. That was a company we're dealing with. It just doesn't spring to mind. So we've been trying to get hold of those for quite some time. We like it. Historically, the work was done, you know, five, six years ago. There's a nice anomaly. You know, there's very, very little drilling, and you know, the typical sort of shallow, let's not take this too seriously, type drilling.
One hole's got a nice intersection, one hole doesn't, and so it just sort of sat on the back burner in this junior company portfolios in the past. You know, we like the area. You know, it fills in a gap in our tenement package down there. As you correctly picked up, nice anomaly, and copper in it. You know, the second hole didn't come in. It's still, you know, historically, it has been tested that, you know, there is copper there in that system. It'll come as no surprise to you, we're gonna give it a better whack than what's been out there in the past.
Apologies, you know, for not, you know, not being able to supply you with a lot of information. You know, we just get tangled up by JORC these days as to, you know, we would have to put out, you know, 50 pages worth of appendices to give you one historic number. So we'll give you more detail when we get out there and we drill some holes. Keen to do that. You know, we're, you know, Yeah, it comes as no surprise to you, Paul. You know, we've got a view on sort of every patch of ground, you know, within 50, if not 100 kilometers around us, and what we do like, what we don't, and-
And the best way to get hold of some of that is to peg it or acquire it, as we've done here. You know, we haven't gone into the acquisition day details because they are de minimis. You know, we acquired for cash 100% of that interest. It, there's not a blip for us. It's not a blip for BHN. They were keen to move it on. We were keen to add it to the portfolio. We'll keep you updated.
Too easy. No, thanks for that, coloring. That's it for me. Cheers.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shane Le Plastrier, a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, Aaron.
G'day.
Just a quick question, almost follows on from the last one. What can we look forward to in the next three months, in terms of exploration and perhaps drilling in particular?
Yeah, tough. Tough, Shane. That's really, yeah, these three months are the hard ones because of the weather. So you know, I hate to say this, but you can't look, don't look forward to much. We won't be back on the ground with a drill rig, you know, until March, and possibly late March. So that won't see numbers coming through until really April, May. First, it probably is some infill at Jericho. Yes, you know, as soon as that weather gets better, you know, from April, May, we're right back into the regional prospects. You know, that Cannington or Brumby project, you know, that's on the list.
It's, you know, it's not better than, but it's not definitely no worse than some of the prospects we already have in the Eloise regional package. We'll be out there again this year, banging through those. It probably warrants a bit of an update, an exploration note for you so you know what the program looks like this coming dry season. We'll get that out in due course, but unfortunately, Shane, that's probably not the answer you were hoping for. You know, in the next quarter, the exploration or the drilling results you'll see will only be drilling from underground. We will be drilling under, obviously, at Eloise, you know, Deeps North West. We'll be out at Jericho.
We'll get, you know, we should, you know, could have some drilling platforms set up out there shortly. But it's, you know, probably the June quarter is the one to watch.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks. Cheers.
Thank you. Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, you can register by pressing star then one on your phone. Next question comes from George Ross at Argonaut. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hey, Aaron. Good morning.
G'day.
Yeah, looking good, mate. Just wanted to ask about, I guess, the execution of the Eloise plant upgrade. What are the biggest risks there to the timeline, do you think?
I'd say there's nothing complicated in what we're doing. You know, critical, you know, items, path, power upgrades. You know, we've got to get the, you know, we've got to upgrade the plant. We've got to get, you know, upgraded power to it as well. Then, George, it's the, you know, crossover. You know, now way... We've noted in the past how careful we've been with this. You know, the, you know, not the two plants, but, you know, the current plant, the expanded plant, you know, we try to keep those work areas segregated, so, you know, the build is not impacting, you know, the current, throughput. That's, you know, that's possible, but, you know, it's not, perfect.
Then, you know, we've also, you know, tried to make the cutover as straightforward as possible. But, you know, obviously, that cutover, you know, will, you know, need to take, you know, current plant down, you know, wire in, pipe in, the new crushing circuit, you know, new float cell, then run it back up, you know, probably wet, before we start pumping ore through it. There'll be a bloody great stockpile of it ready to go, so we want to do that as quick as possible. It's certainly not one of these things we're gonna run water and waste through just to see how she goes. We might do that for 30 seconds, but there's all ready and willing already, let alone in 9 months' time.
So I think, George, at this point, you know, the risk is not the schedule to build it. The risk is the December quarter ramp up. You know, what do we really get through the new mill in December? You know, do we even get, you know, do we even manage to do the December quarter at the, you know, the 700,000 ton per annum run rates? And, you know, I would hope so. You know, that's what I'll be whipping for, you know, for 1 million tons per annum rate through in that quarter. But, that's the bit we'll find out in December.
How are you going with stockpiling ore, Aaron?
Yeah, yeah. So, two things. You know, one, we were discussing this recently. It is going to be difficult to provide you with guidance in July for FY 2027 because of that. We'll do our best. We'll step you through it, we'll give you as much detail as we possibly can. You know us. Stockpiles, well, we've already got almost more stock, crushed ore and ROM pad than we can deal with. That stockpile buildup is not gonna, you know, it's not gonna be a problem. We're certainly gonna have the stocks available.
The opportunity, and I think we've mentioned this in the past, is over the next six months, is the ability to put some parcels, you know, some decent parcels of Jericho through the current plant, to see how it, to see how it goes through on its own. You know, obviously, we could start blending some through. We're not expecting anything untoward. We've done sufficient met testing, as you know, you know, chalcopyrite, chalcopyrite, stuff jumps on the bubbles. But, you know, that's the opportunity over the next six months, is to try and not really to build up too much of a stockpile. We only to use the opportunity to treat it, to see how it performs.
Current plan shows we will have a decent stockpile ready for that plant when the commissioning's all going well in the December quarter.
That's great.
Was that the question? Is that, is that answered?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just one last one. I mean, there's some mention here of the AUD 1.5 million study. How are you feeling about timeline on that at the moment?
Yeah, the
Execution.
We've commenced the engineering. We've given GRES the go ahead on that, engineering design, engineering drawings. We haven't made any long lead time orders because they're not sufficiently long that we've needed to do that. So we've still got some time up our sleeves to put those orders in. So the schedule, the timing is all about production and the amount of development, which, you know, obviously, that's what we're alluding to at the moment, is, yeah, how quickly we ramp up, you know, how quickly we push the underground. That's no spoilers today. Sorry, George, we'll have to wait to the MRR estimate, you know, April. Yeah, that work's ongoing.
Yeah, that work, you know, is exactly what we're doing at the moment. And rather than me start throwing around, numbers now, we'll get you, something useful, in a couple of months' time, few months' time.
That's great. Thanks, Aaron. That's it from me.
Thanks. Cheers, George.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Hissey at Moelis. Please go ahead.
Oh, g'day, Aaron.
G'day.
I got some early commentary back to front on my side. Just remind me of the, I guess, the mechanism, the timing lag on your shipments in, you know, 90% recognition at a provisional price, and then maybe three months to settlement. Is that correct?
Yeah. Look, we can take you through it. I know we've done it in the past. We've put it in, you know, directly. I've got John with me here if we want to run through it. But see, the difficulty... Yes, you're right, Paul, and as I said, September, October, November, you know, is sort of what we, you know, got paid for and, you know, what we pushed through. We know, you know, 90% of that comes in, and the 10% comes in, you know, later, whether that's a month later or three months later. And so what we've got with Traf at the moment is N plus three. So they can choose whether they take the month of shipping or month of shipping plus three pricing.
So that was changing around. Look, we— rather than sort of... John, you have a chat to run through that.
No, that, that's exactly right. I mean, in essence, I mean, the way to think about it is, yeah, 90% provisional in the month following shipment. It's just a question of whether that 10% filing invoice is the month after that provisional or a couple of months later, and that really depends on the nomination, so that can vary. But we obviously, you know, you know, we schedule that out behind the scenes, you know, based on those nominations. But happy, again, happy to have a chat offline on that. But, you know, that's effectively the broad way that works.
No, that's fine, John and Aaron. Thanks. I mean, probably the takeaway is when you have a volatile price movement, there'll be more difference between, I guess, the average price over a quarter and the price you guys receive when price flips around like it is at the moment. And so, you know, I guess that's just something to be we'll be mindful of, on our-
Yeah
... on our side.
Look, I think you guys handle the lag, you know, that one-month lag pretty well. It's you know, the sort of more mom and dad shareholder that, you know, probably thinks, you know, we're minting, you know, AUD 18,500-AUD 19,000 a ton for copper at the moment. You know, that doesn't happen, you know, for another month. And that's why I sort of, you know, I'm probably overly sensitive to it. That's why I mentioned in those, you know, in the commentary that, you know, I suspected shareholders were expecting, you know, our best cash flow ever. But you know, really, you know, hold that thought. Hold that thought for March. Yeah.
Sure. One last quick question, any more cash bonding required to be handed over, sort of between now and the conclusion of the growth projects, or are you, you're effectively fully bonded as we speak?
Um-
Yeah, I mean, at this stage, until the end, like, there's some potential requirements on the margins, but they're not for the next.. That's at least 12 months out, but it's around the margins. So, so the answer fundamentally is, yes, fully bonded.
Yeah.
Great.
Well, exactly what I was gonna say. Nothing in the financial year, and it's like, it's $2 million. We'll run you through that, you know, for the next tailings dam, lift and things like that, Paul. Nothing material.
Understood. Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Cheers.
Thank you. We are showing no further questions at this time, so I'd like to hand back to Mr. Colleran for some closing remarks.
Thanks, Cameron. Look, as you, as you saw, the December quarter was another great quarter, even under a challenging operating environment. Eloise is a great ore body, and we've got a great team running it. Calendar year 2026, calendar year 2026, is a transformational year for AIC Mines. We've got a big year ahead of us. We have the team in place, we have the funding in place, the ore body gets better and better and closer and closer, and the copper, gold, and silver prices are supportive, to say the least. 2026 is gonna be a great year for AIC Mines. You cannot own too many AIC Mines shares, albeit gamble responsibly. Thank you for dialing in. That concludes the call.
Thank you. That concludes our conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.