Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Some housekeeping items to note. Please review today's press release for further details on our results, and the accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download from the company's website at alkres.com. For those on the webcast, please move through the presentation slides yourself as directed by our presenters. Moving on to slide two. I will remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates, and beliefs, and may also use terms that are non-IFRS performance measures. Please review Alkane's disclosure materials for the risks associated with this forward-looking information and the use of non-IFRS performance measures. I will also point out that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated.
As a reminder, Alkane closed the merger with Mandalay Resources on August 5th, 2025. Our group financial and operating results for fiscal 2026 shown today only include 11 months from the Costerfield and Björkdal Mines and the former Mandalay operations, while including 12 months of results from Tomingley. Please note also that Alkane Resources is no longer required to publish a quarterly MD&A as per the rules of the TSX. However, we remain committed to engaging our shareholders in a proactive manner. To that end, we will continue to host quarterly conference calls and webinars to help maintain the highest level of disclosure and to provide a public forum where our shareholders can ask questions and engage with management. Please move on to slide three. Today's speakers from Alkane Resources are Nic Earner, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and James Carter, Chief Financial Officer.
I will now hand the call over to Nic Earner. Please go ahead, Nic.
Thank you, Natalie, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Let's move to slide four. As you can see on this, let me start by saying at Alkane we've had a tremendous year of operations. The record production results, along with our close cost management, all happening in a historically high gold environment, allowed Alkane to generate record cash flows, which further increased our strong financial position. All three of our mines are operating really well. On a consolidated basis, we produced 42,500 gold equivalent ounces in the fourth quarter and just over 162,000 gold equivalent ounces in fiscal 2026. Remembering this doesn't include July 2025 for Costerfield and Björkdal. Including them gives the 168,300 oz equivalent that you can see on the slide.
It's hard work and diligence from the entire Alkane team, I'm proud to say, that we've met the top end of our production guidance. We've met cost guidance at each site, and we're just above our cost guidance for the group, which is a great result in what we can all agree as being a pretty turbulent environment. These great results had our mines generate AUD 174 million in operating cash flow for the fourth quarter, and over half a billion, AUD 567 million for the year. We ended the year with AUD 454 million in cash flow and liquid investments on hand, which is an enviable strong financial position. This will allow us to aggressively grow the company through exploration and capital programs at each of our mines. It'll allow us to advance the Boda-Kaiser copper-gold porphyry project, also while seeking M&A to opportunistically grow the company.
I'm also very pleased to announce that the board is proposing to return to shareholders an inaugural dividend of AUD 0.02 a share, fully franked. This is subject to completion of the audit, satisfaction of the Section 254T dividend test under the Corps Act, and therefore final board confirmation. Whilst this is our clear intention, until these steps are completed, no assurance can be given that any dividend will end up being declared, or as to the final quantum or timing of any dividend that is declared. Let's move on to slide five. On a consolidated basis, in quarter four, Alkane processed more than 693,000 tonnes of ore at an average antimony grade of 1.4%. Recoveries of 89.5% gold and 91.1% antimony remained fairly consistent quarter-on-quarter.
As a result, our three mines produced 42,500 gold equivalent ounces, consisting of nearly 41,000 oz of gold and 456,000 tonnes of antimony. For the statutory reporting year, again, without July 2025 for Costerfield and Björkdal, we produced over 162,000 oz, a record for Alkane. I'll get into specifics on each mine shortly, but needless to say, all of our mines are operating very well as we head into fiscal 2027. Moving now on to slide seven. Sorry, I gave you the wrong slide number before. Moving on to slide seven at Tomingley. In quarter four, we processed nearly 326,000 tonnes of ore. Average grade, just under 2.3 g a tonne of gold. Recoveries were just under 88%. All of this resulted in Q4 production nearly 21,000 oz of gold, slightly lower than Q3.
For the year, Tomingley produced nearly 83,000 oz of gold, which exceeded our production guidance. Processing continues to perform really well. The mill exceeds our original plans, and this is primarily, as I've mentioned in the last couple of quarters, a result of the continued use of a mobile crush to pre-crush material prior to entering the processing circuit. Pre-crushing our material to different sizes, which try to optimize our throughput. This continues, and people should now consider this to be part of our standard operating practice. Our capital expenditure during the quarter was allocated primarily for the Newell Highway realignment project, and construction is expected to be completed in Q3, early in fiscal 2017 to early in calendar 2027.
This, as people know, allows us to access the high-grade antimony deposits via two new open cuts, and this great return project will sustain our growth and future cost profile. All-in sustaining cost in Q4 were AUD 2,481 /oz , essentially in line with Q3. Our all-in sustaining cost for 2026 was AUD 2,429 / oz, which, as I said earlier, met our cost guidance for the site. Tomingley generated operating cash flows of AUD 76 million for the fourth quarter and a record AUD 232 million for the year. Overall, Tomingley had an absolutely outstanding year, setting new records for annual production, mined ore tonnes from underground, and mill throughput. Moving on to slide eight, Björkdal. In Q4, Björkdal processed more than 331,000 tonnes of ore, an average grade of just under 1.1 g a tonne, an average recovery of 85.6%.
This resulted in Björkdal producing 9,935 oz of gold. For the year, Björkdal produced nearly 38,000 oz of gold, which met the site guidance. Remember, this doesn't include approximately 3,000 oz produced in July 2025. I think we can all agree it's going to be quite rewarding going forward in fiscal 2027 not to have to keep dropping a month out. When comparing Q4 to Q3, lower grades and lower recoveries in Q4 resulted in a 20% decrease in gold production. This is primarily as a result of us not feeding the very high-grade off-site trial material that I referred to last quarter. Our mine grade was in line with plan. We had slightly increased development tonnes in some higher-grade areas. Mill throughput is consistent, and we do have projects to improve recovery across varying mineralization.
Capital works on lifts to the tailings dam facilities ramped up further during the quarter. This work continues for the next 12 months. Lower production resulted in higher Q4 all-in sustaining cost of AUD 4,184 /oz , which is a touch higher than in Q3. For 2026, our all-in sustaining cost was just under AUD 4,000 /oz , which is below our guidance. The operating cash flow from Björkdal is AUD 48 million in Q4 and AUD 156 million for the year. Overall, Björkdal had a very consistent year delivering to plan. Moving on to slide nine at Costerfield Gold Antimony Mine. We processed over 36,000 tonnes of ore. In Q4, gold grades were 9.3 g to tonne, slightly lower than Q3, and antimony grades were 1.4%, which is a bit higher than Q3. Gold and antimony recovery rates were 95.2% and 91.1% respectively, all higher than the previous quarter.
The mine produced 10,117 oz of gold, in line with Q3, and 456 tonnes of antimony, which was higher than in Q3 as a result of the grade. For the year, Costerfield produced 37,000 oz of gold and 1,224 tonnes of antimony, which met guidance for gold and exceeding guidance for antimony. Please note that quarter-over-quarter grade variation is what we expect from such a high-grade nuggety ore body. That being said, despite the natural variation I just mentioned, grades were a touch lower than planned due to some challenges associated with ground conditions slowing the drilling rate and access to certain areas. Mining, we continued to work on improvement programs, drill and blast. We're transitioning our capital development team to owner-operator like we have in the rest of the group.
We're focusing on operator training, increased focus on mine planning, and we continue our transition to emulsion explosives to improve recovery and reduce dilution. The processing plant continued to focus on blend control to maximize throughput recoveries and producing metal. Following on from the success at Tomingley, we've had pretty good trials here at Costerfield as well with pre-crushing ore feed to further improve throughput, crusher downtime, and blend control, and work continues in this area. All-in sustaining costs in Q4 were AUD 2,568 an ounce, in line with Q3. For 2026, all-in sustaining cost was AUD 2,462 /oz , which met guidance. Costerfield generated AUD 50 million in cash flow in Q4 and AUD 179 million for the year. Like Björkdal, in 2026, Costerfield delivered to our high expectations. Moving on now to slide 10, Tomingley exploration.
One of our key strategic initiatives is to drive organic growth by increasing our mineral resources by doing a pretty aggressive exploration program across our portfolio. Looking at slide nine, if we look at our exploration targets for the quarter, we're looking both near mine and regionally. Northern extension of Clover, bullet one, was tested, as well as the Southern extension to the Roswell Deposit, which is bullet two on the screen. Drilling also commenced testing the areas between the Roswell and Wyoming One deposits, which is bullet three. That's actually from our underground decline joining the two deposits. Further from the mine, we continue to work up regional targets in our ELs, as well as on the ML testing Wyoming Three and other near mine targets. Regional drilling programs being progressed include Patons, Tomingley 1 and 2, Peak Hill, and Glen Isla. Moving on to slide 11.
At Björkdal, drilling during the quarter focused on increasing resources to extend the mine's life and also to bring new ore sources into production. On July 9, we announced the drill results for 29 drill holes in the North Zone, bullet one on your slide, and East Zone, bullet two. Efforts here were focused on infill and extension drilling, which resulted in pretty increased confidence in the understanding of the vein geometry and grade-controlling structures in the grade, which is very, very important at Björkdal. Highlight intercepts at East Zone include nearly 3 oz of gold over 1.25 m and 81 g of gold over 4.4 m. In North Zone, an ounce of gold over just under a meter and 25 g/ ton of gold over 0.6 m. These results show mineral systems still strong, still open at depth.
Our future drilling is going to focus on step-out extension testing to assess this continuity of these known vein swarms and continue to refine the structural controls in each of these areas. We're exploring narrow veins, and we've shown we've got the expertise to mine them efficiently over many years. Further to the Northeast, drilling continued in the quarter to extend the depth of the Storheden deposit, which hosts multiple zones of steep quartz veins comparable to those found in the main Björkdal deposit. Development to this area is one of our capital allocations for FY 2027 at Björkdal. At the Norrberget target, drilling was focused on resource extension. Moving on to slide 12. At Costerfield, exploration drilling continued to focus on expanding resources. During the quarter, we drilled nearly 27,000 m across the district.
Underground drilling focused on testing targets, resource growth, reserve definition, while surface drilling programs progressed resource infill, resource growth, and target testing. On July 6th of this year, we announced results of 33 holes at the True Blue deposit. That's bullet points one and two on the image. They predominantly targeted infill of the upper portion of the deposit, and this significantly increased confidence in understanding the vein geometry and grade-controlling structures. Significant intercepts include just under 2 oz of tonne of gold and 25% antimony over 0.25 at what we call the Freeman vein, and 84 g/ tonne of gold and 15% antimony over half a meter at associated veins. These results give us the confidence to proceed with our plans for development of True Blue.
Although I noted in the announcement at the time, I would have much more loved for these results to have been even better and to know that we had 300,000 oz at this deposit. We'll be doing step-out drilling here while we continue to search for those very high grades in increased density. On July 14, we announced the extension infill drill results from the Brunswick South vein. That's bullet four on your screen. With high-grade results including 50 g/ tonne of gold and 26% antimony over 2.17 m. Now, we're particularly excited by these results as this newly found deposit not only contains pockets of a high gold endowment, but critically a significant quantity of antimony, which helps us keep our concentrate grades up. We believe Brunswick South can be brought online without extensive access requirements as it's situated just 200 m from the existing development.
We've already commenced development towards Brunswick South in this quarter we're in now. The first quarter of FY 2027, and we've allocated capital for it in FY 2027, and we're looking to establish as a future primary production source at Costerfield. Moving on to slide 13, the Northern Molong Porphyry Project. This project, the entirety of the project is shown on the map on this slide. Highly prospective gold-copper corridor that also encompasses, down the bottom right, our Boda-Kaiser gold-copper project. As we announced on June 10, exploration undertaken throughout this district, including testing the corridor between Boda and Kaiser, bullet two on your screen. We did one diamond and one RC hole here, which we saw further mineralization as expected. Three RC holes testing geochem geophysical anomalies Northeast of Boda-Kaiser. That's bullet point four.
Four RC holes testing different chargeability anomalies within the Comobella Intrusive Complex, which includes Glenhole and Harrington. That's bullet points five and six, which in this area we've had previous gold-copper mineralization drilled by previous companies. We also completed a mobile magnetotelluric survey over the majority of the district, which defined target areas. Now, assay highlights. In Boda-Kaiser, we got mineralization there, 23 m at just under 0.2 g/ tonne of gold and 0.14% copper, including 3 m at higher grades. Near deposit, near Boda-Kaiser, we got 9 m at 0.3 and district-wide, the best we have was 3 m at 1.74. These results more add to our understanding of the project than showing the scale potential and the possibility for future growth.
One of the big things, which is a low-cost activity that we've been doing to advance the development of the Boda-Kaiser gold-copper project in the quarter, is the continuing of environmental baseline studies. We've been talking to a whole heap of different stakeholders. We're negotiating with some property owners for access or potential purpose. We've been working out where do we stick infrastructure and processing. We're on the path that I've detailed in my recent presentations to put in a project approval application at the end of 2027 or early 2028 and have an investment decision in 2029. As you can see, we've got a tremendous amount of exploration work going on each of our projects with the goal of expanding resources and driving new discoveries to increase mine life, increase production levels, and lower costs.
With that, I'll now hand over to you, Jim, to provide a review of our financial performance. Over to you, mate.
Yeah, thanks, Nic. If we're moving on to the Q4 and FY 2026 financial highlights slide. Group revenue for the quarter was AUD 257 million on sales of 47,400 and a little bit ounces of gold equivalent, and that included 384 tonnes of antimony. Average gold prices during the quarter were just a bit over AUD 5,400 / oz. That was about 14% lower than Q3, and I think people on the call will be familiar with that. Average antimony prices in the June quarter was AUD 24,276 a tonne. That was about 30% lower than Q3. We also delivered 8,500 oz into our gold hedge book during the quarter, just at an average price of AUD 2,870 /oz .
That leaves just under 29,000 oz of gold to be delivered into those forwards, at around about the AUD 2,900 an ounce price over the coming four quarters through to June 2027. All-in sustaining costs in June quarter for the group were AUD 3,011 /oz gold equivalent produced. That was about 9% higher than Q3. Mostly probably grade-driven that Nic touched on earlier. For the statutory reporting year, which is that awkward 11-month period for Björkdal and Costerfield, they were AUD 2,907 an ounce gold equivalent produced, which is pretty close to the guidance. Operations generated mine operating cash flow is about AUD 174 million in the June quarter, and that was about a margin of AUD 2,431 per gold equivalent ounce over the AISC. Just note that our audited financial statements will be out in the sort of third week of August.
At this time, we haven't got any earnings to report, but later, once that audit's done, we get those out. We'll have a complete set of financial statements. Sustaining capital during the quarter was AUD 21 million. Most of that expenditure is associated with underground capital development across the three operations, mobile equipment purchases, and rebuilds. Growth capital was AUD 20 million for the quarter, and most of that was invested at Tomingley for the new highway realignment, for the eventual mining of the San Antonio open pit, as we move later into 2027. Tailings dam construction, lifting at Björkdal, and exploration expenditures for June quarter, which were just under AUD 11 million, which Nic covered previously on his slides. If we move to the next slide, just to talk about cash flows, where we've got the cash flow waterfall.
If you see on the waterfall chart there, June quarter operating cash flows from the three operations were AUD 174 million. Some of the items that we haven't talked about previously were AUD 18 million of income tax installments. They're just monthly installments that we make to the Australian Taxation Office, mostly associated with Costerfield and Tomingley at the moment. Later on in this calendar year, we'll have a square-up where we just finish off paying what tax we owe for FY 2026. There's AUD 20 million of corporate and other expenses. In that bucket is really about AUD 8 million for corporate costs. Just a couple of AUD million dollars this quarter for Boda and regional exploration. About AUD 10 million for Lupin, and there was a AUD 4 million net repayment of our equipment loans.
That where we left it, AUD 430 million of cash at the end of the year or AUD 104 million post-tax cash build for the June quarter. Really good quarter there for cash build. At June 30 2026, we've got a really strong financial position. We've got AUD 450 million of cash bullion and listed investments. If you include our undrawn AUD 110 million Revolving Credit Facility, we've got total available liquidity of about AUD 549 million. We have a really strong overall financial position that underpins the foundation so we can aggressively fund our growth opportunities, which is what the plan is at all our operations. Yeah, Nic spoke about it, to pay an inaugural, fully franked dividend of AUD 0.02 per share after the conditions that Nic talked about earlier in the presentation.
That all with the balance sheet still gives us all the flexibility that we do need to act on any strategic and any value-accretive inorganic opportunities as they arise. With that, I will turn the call back to you, Nic.
Thanks, Jim. Moving on to slide 16. As I mentioned, and you probably pick up, we are pretty proud of the efforts of the entire Alkane team, which of course includes so many great employees that have joined with Mandalay to ensure that we met our 2026 production and cost guidance. We are really happy we have successfully managed our way through the Mandalay merger and also with the other goals with the company in the year. Most noticeably, I think we have positioned ourselves to grow our business through capital initiatives, exploration programs, all while enhancing our financial position. Our primary goal for 2026 was to establish Alkane as a reliable, consistent producer, seen by everyone to have a steady mantra of under-promising and over-delivering, and our performance to date proves that we have done that.
Slide 17, let me focus on fiscal 2027 and the outlook that I have detailed on this slide. We have a lot of momentum already coming from fiscal 2026. Leveraging the financial strength Jim's just outlined, we are well-positioned to deliver on this dual track strategy. We are going to grow our production, albeit slightly, while continuing to try and constrain our costs in a very difficult cost environment, and to increase therefore our cash generating capabilities to fund growth initiatives. We remain singly focused on execution to meet our production and cost targets and aggressively drilling across our portfolio. It is a simple and proven strategy. Our plans for fiscal 2027 are produced. Our guidance is between 163,000 and 177,000 gold equivalent ounces, slightly higher than this year. An all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,900-AUD 3,200 per gold equivalent ounce.
Other deliverables listed on this slide have ensure that Alkane grows and remains a competitive mid-tier producer. Without a doubt, our strong balance sheet gives us a distinct strategic edge. Supported by our steady operations during this period, which despite the disappointment of gold coming off nearly 30%, is a very robust gold and antimony price environment. We are deploying our capital towards both organic and inorganic growth. We remain ready to move fast on the right opportunities, but our approach, of course, will remain highly disciplined. In closing, we are pleased with our performance for FY 2026, and we believe we are well positioned to continue to drive long-term value for our shareholders and stakeholders.
I personally would like to thank my entire team at Alkane for making 2026 so successful, for the board for supporting our strategy, and to our shareholders for wanting to be part of the journey. I hope you have enjoyed the last 12 months. With that, I will hand back to you, Maggie, to start the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by. Just a moment for our first question, please. First question comes from Al Harvey from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning team. Congrats on the result. Just wanted to look at Costerfield and the broader strategy there. Obviously, you mentioned in the preso getting some nice hits out at True Blue. You also started drilling out at Nagambie JV a couple of months ago. Your neighbors, Southern Cross, are having some success up the road at Redcastle. Just trying to understand what you guys are hoping will come out of the exploration push there over the next 12-18 months. Are we thinking it's more life extensions, or do you think there could be a pathway in time to justify an expansion at Costerfield?
Thanks, Al. It's Nic speaking. Both, mate. Number one is to extend the life. In the last year, we've extended a further 12 months to have a very clear look at four years ahead of it. We obviously have a line of sight on a little bit further beyond that. This year's focus is we're going back to sort of grassroots testing to start to try and work up the multi-hundred-thousand-ounce resources like we had at Youle-Shepherd. We hope to continue to get at True Blue, maybe even Brunswick South. The purpose of that really is to try and extend the mine life out ahead of ourselves. All things going smoothly, particularly with Nagambie. Once we have further than five years, preferably seven, then we'll look at capital investment to increase the production, albeit modestly, right?
We do sort of circa 50,000 oz equivalents. Our next step, unless we discover something Southern Cross style, would be to sort of try and move it closer to that 70,000 oz by going from the 150,000 tonnes a year to 200,000 tonnes a year.
Awesome. Thanks Nic. I'll just ask another one maybe around growth options more broadly.
Yeah.
I appreciate your comments around inorganic growth and there is that consistency, in FY 2026 and 2027, on your deliverables just around identifying inorganic growth opportunities. Maybe just remind us on how you're approaching inorganic opportunities and then maybe how you weigh those up against options like Boda-Kaiser sitting there, and the equity stakes you have on the balance sheet where you've got some substantial holdings.
First to Boda-Kaiser. We're deploying pretty much as much capital as is reasonable for this stage. Things that push us through the approvals process at the same time as really sort of right back to grassroots target generation through the district. Things that we would allocate capital on there include, property purchases, water purchases, things that are fundamental building blocks that any owner has to put together. Across more broadly, talking inorganic M&A, we look in Australia, New Zealand, U.S., Canada, and Scandinavia. Ideally, we look for things that can supplement our existing assets there. We've talked about Victoria, and they're pretty limited in the other jurisdictions where we have operations. We look for things that give us not just a step forward in growth, but have the potential to grow even further. That's our ideal asset, is something with growth attachment.
We're happy to pick up assets like our existing assets, but where we have open-sided growth, we could build those assets on top, if that makes sense. The type of things that we're particularly interested in, a lot of the conversations we have are around single-mine producers who are saying, okay, I'm going to allocate one or two years of my cash flow to try and grow to the next stage. Were they to come together with us, then we would be able to de-risk and accelerate that. That's our ideal acquisition mate.
Yeah. Thanks for that, Nic. I'll hand it on.
Cheers, Al.
Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. We have Kevin Tracey from Oberon Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions. Can we just clarify how you view True Blue today? On the one hand, in the release, you noted you have confidence to push forward with development, but it sounds like you were a bit disappointed as well. How do you see the asset today, especially in the context of the exciting results at Brunswick? Do you see development being pushed to the right? Yeah, just be curious on your big picture view on True Blue today.
Yep. I understand. Thanks, Kevin, for the opportunity to clarify. True Blue, we drilled, we had our initial inferred resource of 100,000 oz, and I was certainly hoping that with this drilling program, I would be able to say, oh, it is 150, it is 200, it is 300,000 oz. That has not occurred, hence my disappointment with that. It is still a high-grade resource, plus it is somewhere in that 50,000 oz-100,000-oz range. It means that I am doing more step-out, or the team is doing more step-out drilling there to try and grow that to be a significant target. We still have applied for the mining license for it. We still intend to develop to it because we consider that that is economic or will be economic. It is not quite the amazing next step that I was chasing.
Brunswick South is just something that we discovered next year when we were doing I mean, last year, sorry, when we were doing extensional drilling. That is looking really solid, crossing much closer to the sort of target size that we had for True Blue. It is still unbounded at depth, and there may even be a repeat lens a little further to the West there. It is early days for that. Please do not read into that I am yet saying that that is a + 300,000 oz resource.
Okay. At Tomingley, can you remind us on the timeline of the open cuts contributing to production? I think you said the highway would be done early in Q3. A while back, this was a ways back now, the hope was that those open cuts would help Tomingley turn into a 100,000+ oz producer. I am just wondering if you could speak to that or update on that.
Absolutely. First one, we expect to finish the highway early next year, like I said, and we are currently planning for starting open cut production in quarter one, FY 2028. In the July to September period of next year. The July to September 2027. That remains on track for us. That releases, open cuts have circa 200,000 oz in them. We have two choices there. We can expand the mill and accelerate and go to 100,000 oz, as we identified. We have got costings and plans and schedules for that. As you can see, we are doing sort of 80,000 oz from underground. We can continue at this rate and balance the higher-grade feed, having gone already to sort of around the 1.3 million tonnes per annum.
At the moment, given the shorter mine life at Costerfield, I am intending to keep us at the current level of production. The main reason is that unless our exploration at Tomingley goes and we find another sort of Roswell-sized deposit, another 500,000 oz, then all I will be doing is shortening the mine life there as well. I think from a scheduling, a production perspective and capital allocation and then exploration treadmill, that would be too quick for where we are at present, given we haven't made that step forward at Costerfield.
Okay. Final one from me, can you give us some sense of the growth capital budget for fiscal 2027? If you have any picture on the corporate cash cost outs as well, that'd be useful.
Yeah. Corporate cash cost out should be very similar to this year. The items that Jim just mentioned, we continue to do closure work at Lupin. We have the better part of AUD 20 million that will go out in this coming year. That will be the thing that you see at corporate that is currently grouped in the cash waterfall. With respect to our capital allocation, I mentioned it within the quarterly report, we're going to go close to doubling that in this coming financial year from where we are at the moment. We'll finish off the highway at Tomingley. We will do quite a lot of development towards Brunswick South and opening up that mine area, the whole new mining area at Costerfield. At Björkdal, we will commence development to Storheden. Our target there is to be bringing Storheden online in 2029.
It's 700 m away, a whole new area. We're intending to develop the whole thing. The reason we can't bring it online sooner is whilst we have a Mining Licence for it, we have to do environmental approvals for that. We'll be lifting the tailings dam at Storheden and adding another 7+ years there to tailings dam life, and then integrating a further expansion of that into the capital approvals process. As well as that, we're replacing fleet, some of which probably should have been replaced at Costerfield and Björkdal in the last couple of years. We're really trying to position ourselves to be as efficient as possible, going forward.
Okay. Thanks.
Thanks, mate.
Thank you. Just a moment for the next question, please. We have [Lawrence Retail] from [Retail Investor]. Please go ahead.
Hi, Nic. I just have several questions to ask.
Yep.
I'll start with the first one. The share buyback, is that still in progress, and does it occur on both exchanges?
[Lawrence], we do not have a share buyback in progress. We have not announced one. We do not have one in progress.
Okay. Yeah, because I know Mandalay was doing it-
Yeah.
continued.
No, sorry. That had stopped. To talk very briefly about a buyback, at the moment, we're focused on getting this dividend in place. The board continues to evaluate a buyback. I think you will have picked up, we've got quite some aggressive acquisition aspirations, and we're still hunting value there, realizing that our own shares we consider to be pretty cheap as well.
Okay. With regards to the Nagambie-
Nagambie, yeah.
earn-in. Yeah. I don't have a sense of what the overall objectives are, and the only-
Okay.
information I've been receiving is from the permit holder's website announced the second drill was deployed to the site.
Yeah, understood. We will report when we have drill results, right? We don't have drill results. For us, the deploying of drill rigs, whilst it is material, them as a very small company to us is just par for the course, right? We have so many drill rigs around the group. The purpose of Nagambie. Nagambie is located about 40 km to the East-Northeast of Costerfield. It is an old mine that ran for many years and has been in care and maintenance for a long time. Nagambie themselves had drilled a fair bit and had an inferred resource under the pit. The purpose for us is to, number one, validate that resource with some infill and lift its standing. We're hoping for certainly + 100,000 oz equivalent to start with.
What we want to do is to be able to develop as if it could be a mine of its own. We would use that permitting approvals. There's a whole heap of steps to go through to feed the Costerfield mill, either at the tail end of Costerfield Mine life or, as Al from UBS sort of indicated, as a supplementary feed and expanding the mill at Costerfield. That would be our ideal scenario, obviously there's a lot of things to go through for that to be able to happen.
What's the life expectancy of Costerfield then?
At the moment, if we simply go on the reserves, we go for the resources, that is about five years at the moment. Please take into account that Costerfield has had a two to five-year mine life since 2009.
Yeah, I know.
Since 2009.
Yeah.
The other important thing, sorry, on Nagambie is it does sit on an existing mining lease already. That's important to be aware of.
Well, the other important thing too is that it's a mining licence there as well, not an exploration licence.
Yeah. Right.
Which helps.
Yes.
If you wanted to put it in production, it certainly speeds things up. How does the metallurgy compare between the two?
Early stages. However, it does look like a very similar deposit. Higher grade in antimony and lower grade in gold. It does look like that it is compatible, and we would obviously do met testing as part of all of that. We see nothing significant at present.
If you increase the mine life at Costerfield to 10 years and Nagambie works out, you could almost have a separate mill at the latter, right?
Yeah. Whilst what you say is true, it would be our preference to expand the facility at Costerfield instead.
Yeah. I guess I can see that. I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit more on the inorganic growth. Do you have a short list of mining companies that you're actively having discussions with? Like, is it three or four, or you're still throwing out a wide net?
We do both things at once, but at any given point in time, we're typically in active discussions with more like two to three mining companies.
Okay. Any in Canada?
We did have one in Canada, but that fell away probably in about March, and so Canada is back to the drawing board, if that makes sense. Like the early stage engagement.
Yeah. It's a tough jurisdiction with the Liberal government and their bills, strangling extraction companies to keep the resources in the ground. I'm just giving you a heads up that you may want to-
Yeah, no. Thank you. Look, it's probably at the limit of what I can discuss publicly, but it's fair to say that-
Yeah.
as we're all aware, there's geological opportunity in a lot of these jurisdictions and some things we get people calling us, sometimes we call other people. We're very typical.
Okay. I'm just warning you, just giving you a professional courtesy. When-
No, no, understood.
You're dealing with extraction companies in Canada, watch the politics.
Yeah.
It's not promoting mining in Canada.
Understood. Thank you.
It looks like it is, but it's the Liberals. Be very careful.
Yep.
I think, No. That's it for my questions, and I thank you for fielding them.
Okay. Cheers, mate. All the best.
Thank you. I see no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Natalie.
Thank you. We have one question. In addition to the recommended dividend, could you outline your thoughts on the dividend policy going forwards, please?
Yeah. Absolutely. It's our intention to keep the dividend at this level. Yeah. We obviously will need to form up closer to a dividend policy. What we want people to see is that in this period of really high cash flow, we're determined to return some value to shareholders through this period of time. People should expect that we, going forward now, we all get that circumstances might change. We're to continue a steady state from here, that we'll be paying fully franked dividends, at or around this level, obviously with a view to always to working how we can increase them.
Thanks, Nic. We have no further questions, I'll hand the call back over to you for closing comments.
Fantastic. Thank you very much, Nat. I think everybody What I really want to say, which you all get, is that we've had a great year, and we've enjoyed this part of the journey. We've been one of the best performing ASX gold-producing stocks. Really, thank you very much for being part of it. Thank you for your attention and your questions. Reach out if you have any more, we look forward to continuing to deliver for you. Thanks very much. Cheers.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.