Okay, I think let's start. Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Aeris Resources quarterly presentation. I will take you through the presentation. In end of the presentation, there will be time for Q&A. If you put up your hand, I will unmute you and you can ask your question. We also have the Q&A where you can type in questions. We will try to answer those at the end of the presentation. I guess to kick off, again, a strong quarter. The balance sheet are getting stronger every quarter and, really, this is sort of setting Aeris up for a very good FY 2027. Quarter-on-quarter for the last three quarters, the business has improved quarter-on-quarter and we're very pleased when you see the numbers that the balance sheet keeps on looking a lot better.
Just sort of stepping through the presentation. We're still forecasting to achieve that 40,000-49,000 tonnes copper equivalent as per the guidance. The development projects, they're all progressing well. You'll see when we talk through it. At Jaguar, we started the exploration drilling for the base metals in the last few weeks and Stockman feasibility study is getting closer to being able to release. On the exploration side, as we said before, we're putting a lot of effort and money into exploration this financial year and we're targeting around that AUD 30 million spent this financial year on exploration. Clearly the focus is on extensions of those resources. The growth, as everyone probably on this call know, the Peel transaction is ongoing and we'll touch on Peel a little bit in the presentation in the back end.
We put this strategy up in the beginning of the financial year and really we're getting to a point we can tick most, if not all of those boxes. At Tritton, as we said, it's all about the Murrawombie Pit. The Murrawombie Pit is now in full production and will deliver 1.5 million tonnes in the next 6- 7 months, which means Tritton more will run nearly at full capacity or at full capacity for FY 2027 and specifically for quarter four. We really focus on Constellation on time and you'll see when we talk through it, we have brought some initial capital forward, just all of that to make sure we de-risk the project for an early start in quarter one FY 2027. Exploration, as I said, the clear focus.
At Cracow, Golden Plateau Drilling is going extremely well, and you'll see some of the results, and that was all about how do we extend the Cracow mine life through exploration. The North Queensland assets sold. As I said earlier, at Stockman, we've started the base metal drilling. We've got the care and maintenance now to the bare minimum, and really we'll start to see some of those results coming through in the next quarter. We've said we'll put the Stockman feasibility study out early in FY 2027, and that is progressing to plan. As we start to work through the different areas and strategies, a lot of it has been done, and a lot of it will be done in the fourth quarter. Progressing really well to deliver a stronger FY 2027. The key points for FY 2026.
The key takeaway for us is cash receivables sitting at AUD 150 million. That is a significant step up quarter-on-quarter and even, you know, from AUD 106 million- AUD 150 million. That is really pleasing to see the balance sheet strengthening. Cash flow from operations, really strong quarter-on-quarter, 72% up. AUD 76 million for the quarter and you can see the production sitting at 10,400 copper equivalent tonnes at a group level at AUD 4.86 a pound. Really a great outcome. Cost, as always, well managed across the business. We'll talk a little about diesel and I'm sure there's questions around what is the diesel impact and I'll deal with it perhaps right now. Currently, we had no issues with supply of diesel. We don't see any issues with supply. It's more on pricing.
The quarter was not impacted much around pricing. We're expecting quarter four to see a higher diesel price. For us at a group level, that's about AUD 0.12 a pound additional cost, which is a 2.5% increase at a group level, but it's not a material impact. That's sort of where we see the diesel pricing sitting at for the next six months or so. We talked about Peel. Tritton, although, as we discussed in the last quarter, with the delays due to the geotech issues in the mill, in the Murrawombie Pit, we have revised the plan for Tritton as an internal plan.
They fell a little bit short on that, not much, and it was mainly due to the first ore grades we got out of the pit in the transition area was lower than we expected and a little bit of dilution from underground, but overall, pretty close to the revised plan. Murrawombie Pit is now absolutely on ore. There was a stockpile at the end of the quarter. As I said earlier, there will be 1.5 million tonnes mined by November and significant stockpile build-up from open pit mining. Constellation Project early works. We have committed AUD 10 million-AUD 15 million, which is not in guidance, but we really thought that instead of leaving it for FY 2027, bring that forward and start to de-risk the business. That early works is around infrastructure and road to get that all set up and ready to go.
We'll talk about Cracow and Golden Plateau as we go through the presentation. Strong cash flows from operations. You can see there, sitting at between the two operations, AUD 95 million in operating cash flows. We still invested a growth capital of around AUD 20 million in the Murrawombie Pit. The closing balance, as you can see from a cash point of view, sitting at AUD 119 million. When you look at the year to date, AUD 232 million operating cash. Significant investment. That was most of that capital was for the Murrawombie pre-strip. Now that's done. There will be no more growth capital for Tritton in the next quarter or very little. Now it would go into operating costs.
You can see the proceeds of the equity raise and closing balance are very strong operating cash flows while we still investing significantly in the business. Looking at the different operations, at Tritton specific, significant increase in ore tonnes, and that is on the back of the Murrawombie Pit starting to deliver ore. It also good ore tonnes from underground. We, with this focus on keeping the mill running at maximum capacity. The mill capacity is 1.8 million tonnes. At some days we're running it above that level, but we're targeting that 1.1 million tonnes and you can see the March quarter is starting to deliver an increase in that production both from a mine and processing point of view.
We have said in the last quarter already that due to the delay of the Murrawombie Pit, we are targeting towards the bottom end of the guidance, but we're still targeting within guidance for Tritton and delivery on production. This is just a few images. That's the open pit, but you can see the significant work in the bottom image of what was done on the old heap leach pads. Those are closure costs, which is part of the environmental bonds. We use the waste from the pit to close those old heap leach pads, and that will be a material change from a cost-saving point of view to close those old pads, but also will have an impact on the bonding requirements for those pits over time.
The Murrawombie Pit, as I said earlier, will do about 1.5 million tonnes till November and the growth capital is now done in the pit, so it's all on ore and delivery to the plant. This is, as we all know, this is the future of the business, Constellation. We've done a lot of work. We've now settled on a smaller open pit mine, so it's two-stage pit, which will then go underground. You can see there's some really good high grades early up in the underground.
We've committed to spend that additional capital early that was to set it up so that when we get on ground, we can start to move fast, all the capital currently is planned to be funded from operating cash flows at Tritton into the future. Remember, this ore body starts literally 8 m below surface, so it's not a massive pre-strip to get on ore. It's perhaps six months and you should see some ore coming out of Constellation. On the permitting side, that's all on track. We're expecting a mining lease to be granted in quarter four. As we've said before, that in quarter one we will kick off Constellation development and processes. A lot of money into exploration.
We're focusing on all these resource extensions across the Tritton portfolio, currently focusing on Avoca Tank. We've seen some really great results coming with Avoca Tank. We've now believed that the amount of holes we drilled to a separate structure outside of the current known structure that is building up really nicely. We will come out with a market update in the next month to really give everyone a feel for what we've seen. Avoca Tank, it continues at depth. We perhaps found another ore body. We're drilling a lot of effort on Budgerygar. What we're seeing at Budgerygar is thicker and better extensions than what we expected originally. We're also drilling South Wing and Tritton at depth.
A lot of effort is about extending those resources to two to three years ahead of ourself and really good results. Current drill rigs all running and will keep running into FY 2027 to keep extensions. At Constellation, we are planning to start a drill program there, which will be a grade control drill program, but also looking at further extensions at Constellation and the ability to bring a reserve update out in the next two to three months for Constellation as well. The Cracow results, as we've said before, Cracow is and has been delivering for the business for a long time now on target, on plan, and once again, they've done exactly the same. 10,000 ounces at AUD 3,400 an ounce.
Cost on budget and well managed and we remain that they would end up around the midpoint of guidance. Golden Plateau is of course, what we've been saying for a while now, is where we think the future additional time and future can be other than the Western Vein Field, which will continue. We started off with a small drill campaign to start to test our theory around an open pit mine in Golden Plateau. We then expanded that to a 14,000 m drill program, and you can see some of those results we're getting. The key for us was to confirm what we expected and what we've seen so far. With the 32 holes drilled, they all intersected what we expected.
If that keeps going the way we think it is, we're getting more and more confidence that there will be a future open pit opportunity for Cracow around Golden Plateau. The size of that, we will all define, but that can be a material increase in mine life for Cracow on top of what you'll get out of the Western Vein Field at Cracow. On the project side, I'll just touch on a high level. We've said we want to test the eight base metal targets at Jag, and you can see each one of those yellow blocks. That's the targets. We've already drilled the Panther target, and there's been some good results or encouraging results.
We've already started the second hole, we will drill all of those targets within the next two months and then see where we go from there. Some encouraging results going through Jag. For those who haven't been on this before, we have made the clear decision that we would start Jag with a 10-plus year mine life. Part of developing that 10-year mine life is these eight base metal targets. We will drill them out and then see how do we progress with that further. As I said earlier, the Stockman updated feasibility study will be released early in FY 2027. As part of the simplification and looking at non-core assets, North Queensland's been divested. We got AUD 5 million cash for it and with release of cash back bonds.
Those cash back bonds are still restricted within the Washington Sale Leaseback Facility for the bonding which we've got in place. At a corporate level, there you look at the closing cash quarter-on-quarter improvements. Although September to December was on the back of an equity raise, December to March was purely driven by operating cash flows and good results from the operation. At the receivables, there is AUD 30 million in receivables. If you try to split that out, AUD 20 million of that is just final payments for concentrates, which has already been sold, and AUD 10 million is for stock on hand and invoiced at the port. That is money which will come in within the next month, the AUD 20 million at least, as payments for receivables.
The operating cash flow operations at AUD 75 million, that's a 72% increase. From where we sit, strong support, obviously higher commodity prices, but it's also delivered through ongoing production achievements at the two operations. We'll just touch a little on the Peel transaction for those who hasn't been in these presentations. Clearly for us, we looked at Peel as a strategic transaction on how do we get Tritton to a 10-year, 30,000 tonne mine with two strong resource or reserve-backed projects. Now, we'd already talked about Constellation. Constellation is the next 10 years. It will do about 750,000 ounces annually at around 2% copper plus gold. One of the key other assets which we always thought made sense was Mallee Bull, which is in the Peel portfolio.
Mallee Bull is already a 6 million- 7 million tonne resource, also around 2%. As soon as we can put a home for it for processing, we can turn that into reserve. Between Mallee Bull and Constellation, for once they're both up and running, you're looking at 1.5 million tonnes at that 2% copper target, plus all the other assets at Tritton. For us, it was strategic. The logic makes sense. That's a 63% increase in resource for Tritton with Mallee Bull, obviously the bigger resource. Most of that 122,000 tonnes of copper metal will convert into a reserve within a few months after the deal is closed. Clearly for us, how do we pull Tritton to that 30,000 tonnes?
The key deliverables will be Mallee Bull and Constellation, which you can see on that slide. We got Wirlong and other Tritton assets, which we showed you earlier in the drilling results, all of those extending. For us, within the next three years, we are targeting that, you know, as a group level around that 55,000-60,000 copper equivalent tonnes, and that taking Tritton to 30 plus Cracow, and then obviously post that with the projects we have available. This is sort of the indicative timeline. Everything so far is on target. We have the court hearing next week, that will then progress further into a closing of the transaction by late June, early July. That's the current thought process. Look, that's all of the summary.
Obviously, we're on target for what we wanna do. It's very pleasing to see the balance sheet improving, cash at hand improving. We can invest where we need to invest to set the business up for FY 2027 going forward into the next three to five years by setting it up and starting up these long life projects and focusing on delivering longer life operations at both Cracow and Tritton. That is sort of the presentation. I'm happy to take questions if there's any questions from people on the call. Paul Kaner's got a question. Paul, can you hear me?
Yeah. Got you, André. Can you hear me, mate?
Yep. Perfect.
Very easy. Good, mate. Good. Just quickly on Murrawombie.
Yeah.
I just wanna get a sense of how that grade is tracking. Obviously you've sort of gone through this transitional material this quarter.
Yeah
But you've sort of moved into the sulfide. Just wanna get a sense of how that.
Yeah
Grade is tracking and what we should assume for.
Yeah
the coming quarters.
We've seen, Paul, that the, in the last, this month, that the grade is now reconciling a lot better now that we're in the sulfide. The grade's gone back up. The average grade over that 1.5 million tonnes I talked about earlier is around 1% copper. That's sort of what we'll see coming out of the pit over the next five months.
Okay. Great. Apologies if I missed this.
Sure.
To Cracow. Just how that exploration drilling's going there at Golden Plateau, when should we expect a study on that and, when could this material feasibly come into the mine plan?
Look, the drilling is going extremely well. We got, you know, drill rigs running all the time. You can see some of the results there. The key for us was always to ensure that what we think is there, is there, and what we've seen so far is confirming what we expected. We will cut off exploration at Golden Plateau. The results, you know, starting to put new pit design around it by June. Then use those numbers to do a new pit design. That is the aim. The drilling will continue, but that would be the aim, to start to get approvals. Approvals will take about 12 months. The aim for us is from today, around 18 months to two years to have Golden Plateau in production.
That's clear. That's it from me, André. Thanks for your answers, mate.
Thanks, Paul. There was a few online questions. I don't think anyone else has put up their hand currently. I might just go to the Q&A. I've got a question here. What is the planned use for growing cash balance? Note, Peel transaction is a script, not cash. The planned use for the growing cash balance is investing in these capital projects. We will develop Constellation in the next 12 months to two years. We will then develop the Mallee Bull mine and also look at Golden Plateau. There's a lot of use and it's all about setting, investing in the next three years for the long term because once you've got these big projects up and running, the investment will drop off because they will run for 10+ years, specifically Mallee Bull and Constellation.
I hope that answers the question. I've got a few questions from Jason. Jason, I might answer some of those. The others, I will come back to you. We talked about the grade, and I think we talked that through. We talked about the grade we expected. The question was sort of what is the grades and FY 2026 in brownfield growth levers. Brownfield growth levers for Tritton, Jason, is really saying these extensions which we're drilling at all these deposits on the property is where the brownfield sits. Drilling Constellation out further and extending that life and improve that reserve, resource to a reserve, that's where we see the value for the future, specifically for Tritton.
We talked, you asked about high gold prices and are we focusing on getting as much tonnes to the mill. That has been the case. We have done new mine plans around cutoff grades based on the higher prices which we've seen. Cracow is just, the nature of the Cracow ore body is just these narrow vein high grade ore bodies and you keep on extending them as you mine, and that's always been the case. We have done the work and some of those resources is now in the mine plan. We talked about the drill rigs. I think that makes sense. The drill rigs will keep going into FY 2027 to drill out Budgerygar, South Wing, Avoca Tank.
The Avoca Tank specific with the new load we found, that will take quite a bit of drilling and we're focusing a lot of effort into drilling that out, because we're seeing some really exciting results coming out of those. I think we've dealt with some of the other stuff. Jason, we might contact you and send you separate emails. We talked about Jag and we talked about the alterations. We'll get back to you on some of those. Just checking if there's any other questions from anyone. There's a question from Steve. Are there any workforce or technical constraints on expansion of operations? The answer, Steve, is no.
We've got the technical in-house workforce, we'll also use consultants if needed to close out some of these projects. We have set the business up successfully for all these projects coming up. I don't see any other questions or any other hands. I'll give another minute or so for questions and then we'll sign off. Everyone. Thank you. I don't see any questions, any more questions. Let me just make sure that we don't have any more questions. Nothing else, let's just have a quick look. In that case, thank you everyone. Appreciate your time, we'll talk again in three months. Thank you.