Look, I'd like to start off today with a bit of a mea culpa. Last year, we just released our Pre-Feasibility Study on the Mandilla project, and I actually stood on this stage and I said we'd be actually delivering the DFS by June of this year. We haven't delivered on that commitment. The delay with the DFS has nothing to do with the technical strength of this project. In fact, with the drill programs that we have going on, combined with the work that's happening on the DFS, it's only just reinforced for us just how strong this Mandilla project is going to be in production. Our delay is actually linked to our ownership structure of the Mandilla project.
That is the nature of the tenure is split between where we own the gold rights but not the underlying tenure, and with the rest of the package, we actually have our name on the title. For us, that's actually brought an unexpected, albeit in hindsight, unsurprising delay. It comes at the point when you go to lodge your approvals and you actually need the consent of the underlying tenement owner. For us, that has taken a little bit longer than we would expect. That's the mea culpa. Now, we'll get back on to talking about building [inaudible] ounces. It's now 2.1 million ounces and it will grow again in 2027. Our deposits are less than 70 km from where we stand today, so that certainly ticks the box from a jurisdictional perspective. We have delivered the Pre-Feasibility Study. It assumed a gold price of AUD 4,250.
Irrespective of the pullback in the price since March, this is still hovering AUD 1,500 above where we had our base case assumption. Mandilla is going to absolutely print cash in the current gold price environment. Financially, we are a lot stronger. We have AUD 65 million in the bank. We are working on the DFS. It is scheduled for delivery in the March quarter of 2027. We have an early revenue opportunity with MMS where they will fund the mining and processing of Think Big, which is at our Feysville project, and that will give Astral a really important revenue stream as we accelerate the development expenditure at Mandilla. Mandilla as a project is going to operate at about 100,000 oz per annum for well over a decade. The recent diamond drilling results are pointing to significant additional growth, and we haven't even started exploring at Spargoville yet.
We also know that the Kamperman deposit at Feysville will continue to grow as well. Mandilla is a large-scale open pit and it has very, very simple metallurgy. In W.A., permitting a gold mine in the W.A. goldfields is not a risk. It is a process and it is a process that we are currently working through. From a share price perspective, we have copped a smack. It is absolutely disproportionate to the retracement in the gold price and perhaps it's actually linked to the delay that we have incurred on the DFS. For the canny investor, that is certainly where the opportunity lies. Comps, when you look cheap, you're crazy if you don't.
Looking at the developers across the landscape and you look at those that are focused at 100,000+ oz per annum projects, there's no doubt that there are some compelling projects out there. Whether it's Ausgold's project developing the Katanning mine in the farming community there. Or closer to home, you've got Minerals 260 70 km west of Kalgoorlie with a 1 g deposit of Bullabulling and we have a 1 g deposit 70 km south of Kalgoorlie . They all appear as solid development projects but with very different EV per ounce evaluations. Are those projects worth 2x-2.5x more than Astral? Obviously, I'm going to say that's absolutely not the case. The one thing that the studies are showing is that they will all need significant amounts of equity to go alongside the debt to actually build those projects.
At Astral, that equity hurdle we need to climb has the potential to be somewhat smaller than our peers. As I said, we are well-funded with AUD 65 million in the bank. We will start mining [inaudible] from that, combined with the cash we have at the bank, will go a long way to closing the equity gap we need to build our project. This management team, it's a known quantity. We know how to run a cost-effective junior. We also know how to build and operate projects. The bulk of this team took Egan Street's Rothsay Gold Project through all the study phases. We got the mine fully permitted, and that mine has successfully gone into production. It is still operating today.
Importantly, it worked and it delivered exactly what was written on the tin, and the team that we have working on Mandilla is going to achieve exactly the same thing here as well. From a finance or project metrics perspective, I would love to be talking about the DFS numbers here, but we have our Pre-Feasibility Study numbers on the screen. They're a year old now. As I said earlier, the Pre-Feasibility Study is based on a AUD 4,250 gold price assumption for the revenue and a AUD 3,000 gold price assumption for the mine designs. Gold is trading around AUD 5,750 at the moment. At that price, the payback on this AUD 227 million development is six months. The internal rate of return is 170%. The net present value at an [inaudible] and the free cash flow is just shy of AUD 5 billion. This is a solid project and it's on the doorstep of Kalgoorlie.
The operating and capital costs that are under review. The work on the ITE, albeit limited to the Mineral Resource Estimate that we put out in April of this year. For us, getting a clean bill of health on the Mineral Resource Estimate is critical for the debt funding. The remainder of our project risks are actually very vanilla for a W.A. Goldfields project. Detailed mine designs and schedules are underway, as well as mine contractor pricing. The site layouts are in the process of being finalized and once that's complete, then [inaudible]. From a schedule perspective, the DFS delivery is due in the March quarter of next year. That's given us a lot more opportunity to complete infield drilling on stage 1 and our expectation is we'll have all of stage 1 in the measured category by the time we get to that final investment decision.
The reality is time is money. If you're not earning, you're burning. Th e delays are expensive. We are mitigating that with this early mining opportunity at Think Big, which on the current schedule, will see us in revenue in the June quarter of next year. [inaudible] Once we finalize the site layouts, that'll be all submitted and then the approval clock will start ticking. The Mandilla project is all about the successful mining of Theia. This year we actually set out to test that theory with a 3,000-m program of six diamond holes. The isometric drawing you can see on screen here shows the completed drill holes. It also highlights [inaudible] along the drill trace. Every hole of this program has demonstrated the potential to significantly increase the scale of Theia. We've already identified the opportunity almost double its vertical extent.
As a result, [inaudible] the success that we've had to date. I've got two cross-sections that I'll show you. They're actually highlighted there on this isometric drawing. The first section is to the north. These sections are 260 m apart. Hole 263 returned a couple of decent [inaudible] and another 81 m at 1.4 g/ton. If you bulk that out, it's 360 m at 1 g/ ton. The second hole, 259, also returned a large intersection. That was 270 m at 0.7 g/ton , so lower grade, but we still saw 16 zones of visible gold in that hole. On this occasion, the visible gold didn't grade as highly as we've typically seen with our VG observations. It's pretty plain to see a significant depth opportunity there on this section. The second section, as I said, another 260 m further south. Assay results are back from 261.
There's a decent zone there, 54 m at 2.4 g/ton, just below [inaudible]. That hole did end in mineralization with 5 m at 3 g/ton and another 15 meters at just shy of 1 g/ton . The second hole has assays pending, but you can see the visible quartz on the right and visible gold on the left. This again is showing another potential decent intersection from the base of the pit extending up to 200 m down hole. Again, it shows the opportunity to significantly extend Theia at depth. Theia Deeps is demonstrating we have plenty of growth to come, but these [inaudible] mine plan for a good 10 years. This current slide is focused on what we're doing in the here and now to de-risk our mine as we head towards production.
The lighter blue drill collars are planned infill drilling that is remaining to do in stage 1. The yellow shape is that stage 1 pit. That's 4.2 million tons at 1.1 g/ton. I t's basically the first 16 months of mine production. We're halfway through this infill program. We're infilling it to 12 .5 m by 12.5 m drill spacing. [inaudible] 0.9 g/ ton. The second part, another 103 holes averaging over 1.3 g/ ton. Whilst this infill isn't exciting, it is a crucial de-risking step, it will help to maximize our debt-carrying capacity. The infill program is delivering above that Mineral Resource Estimate grade, it is certainly meeting expectations. I'll cover off quickly on our two other projects, Feysville and Spargoville [inaudible] and Rogan Josh.
We did a drill program at Kamperman early this year, 17 holes, 3,000 m. We got solid results. One of those results, 14 m at 7 g/ton. We still haven't actually even followed up, and it demonstrates the resource is open to the south and at depth. Once we complete heritage clearances [inaudible], then we'll be back drilling at Kamperman. In the December quarter last year, we also announced that JV-style agreement where MMS will fund us into production [inaudible] in the Feysville from the DFS or the Pre-Feasibility Study are non-core to feeding the Mandilla process plant. This joint venture allows us to bring revenue early by three to four years. Depending on the gold price, Think Big could actually contribute AUD 50 million worth of free cash flow to [inaudible] in bank, and it certainly sets us up for a very well-funded development scenario.
The mine development and closure plan and NVCP have been submitted for Think Big. Astral has completed 6,000 m of infill to support the mine development, and we expect those results to be out later in this month. Turning to Spargoville. In May of last year, it increased our landholding sevenfold. We've completed a [inaudible] hit. Our priority is to drill the Wattle Dam complex, which has a series of deposits known as the Spiders. Just like with Kamperman, as soon as we complete the heritage clearances, we will move the rigs and prioritize drilling at that Wattle Dam complex. Again, we expect to complete the surveys this quarter and be in a position to be drilling there [inaudible] 14 km worth of prospective strike just between the Wattle Dam complex and the Eagle complex.
This is only 2 km away from the proposed process plant Mandilla, and we are exceptionally confident that it will be [inaudible] for the Mandilla gold plant development. Coming up [inaudible] the Think Big infill. We are targeting Mineral Resource Estimates for the March [inaudible] as well, and then a final investment decision immediately thereafter. Think Big will be in mining in the March quarter with revenue to follow in the June quarter next year. To wrap up, the Mandilla Gold Project is already a long- life, high- margin gold project. The DFS is going to confirm that, and our ongoing exploration is simply going to continue to add to it. We have AUD 65 million in the bank. We have line of sight on another AUD 50 million from the JV, and the combination of those will see us very well-funded as we head into development. Thank you.