Channels within the next 24 hours. James, Nick, welcome to Direct Connect, over to you.
Thanks, Stuart, welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us today. Black Cat's had a successful year ramping up production, very pleased to present these results to you. We produced 91,000 oz in the year. We've got AUD 105 million cash on the balance sheet, no debt and no hedging. The company, since we listed, has increased in share price 19% per annum. I'm pleased to, for those of you who don't know the company, I'll just give a quick snapshot. We've got two assets in production at Paulsens and Kal East. These hubs have ramped up well over the last year and a half. Kal East is continuing to ramp up. At our Coyote project, we're drilling at the moment. We've also got the Mt Clement Critical Minerals project, which is near to Paulsens.
During the June quarter, some of the highlights were that we processed 428,000 tons of ore, to produce 20,800 oz of gold. Paulsens had a record quarter of 10,600 oz. At Kal East, we had our first quarter producing 100% Black Cat ore through the Lakewood Mill, that's the photo that you can see behind me in the picture. That's the first Black Cat ore going into the mill. We're ramping up at Kal East, have AUD 105 million cash on the balance sheet. I'll pass over to Nick. He'll go through some of the financial aspects of the quarter, I'll come back and go through the operational aspects.
Great. Thank you, James. Good morning, everyone. As James mentioned, this is the first quarter of 100% Black Cat ore through both of our mills, this resulted in the company ending the financial year in a strong position with AUD 105 million of cash bullion and listed investments. This amount was nearly double the AUD 56 million that we had at the start of the financial year and was an increase of AUD 14 million for the quarter, even with the recent decrease in gold price and fluctuations in the fuel prices. On to the next detailed slide, I'll pull a few key takeaways from this. Firstly, operating cash flow before capital was AUD 77 million for the quarter, which was a record for Black Cat. This, for the full year, was AUD 255 million.
We continued to invest in developing both mines at Kal East with pre-strip at the Fingals Open Pit and decline advance at Majestic Underground, totaling AUD 44 million for the quarter. This investment sets up both mines for future quarters. Next, as noted in the quarterly, Paulsens generated AUD 27 million of notional cashflow, that was off the back of the record quarterly production under Black Cat ownership. Finally, while obvious, it's worth noting the increase in cash and liquid assets balance at the end of each of the quarters. I'll hand you back to James.
Thanks, Nick. As Nick said, we're in a strong financial position. The market is volatile. We've seen rising fuel prices. Gold prices have been also volatile. Our growth strategy is being reviewed to align our exploration efforts with expanding our near mine production and ounces. Capital investment is allocated on the basis of quarterly cash generation as the priority, then allocating capital to near mine opportunities. I'll go through some of those opportunities with you today. I'll start at Paulsens. We've had an excellent quarter at Paulsens. The team there have done a fantastic job. We've had strong output of 114,000 tons with increased grades that produced record production, 10,600 oz. Importantly, I think we've also recouped the AUD 106 million investment that we made in acquiring and restarting the mine. I think this is an important milestone.
Importantly, over the quarter, we've had two new discoveries. I'll go through those on this slide here at Regulus and Lynx. These discoveries extend the known mineralization. They're near surface, they're oblique to the existing ore body. These are structures that were unknown previously and demonstrate the significant opportunity to continue to find more at this fantastic ore body. I'll go through some of the intercepts that we've had. At Lynx, we've had 1.5 m at 54 g. Another intercept, 4.8 m at almost 19 g. These are very high grade and very near surface. We can rapidly bring these ounces into development. We developed a drive of 88 m at a diluted grade of 3 g , producing 454 oz through the mill. It's this very rapid discovery and then getting development and producing from these deposits that I think is particularly pleasing.
At Regulus, we've had intercepts of 5 m at almost 91 g, 1 m at 69 g. Similarly, we've put development drives through 76 m at 9.7 g diluted, producing almost over 15,000 oz. This demonstrates not only the geological potential of Paulsens in new deposits near surface, but also the ability to generate significant cash flow from these deposits immediately. We're pretty pleased with these results. It gives confidence that this gold system at Paulsens is fertile, large, and will provide us significant additional ounces in the near and longer term. I'll turn to Kal East. It's the first quarter of 100% Black Cat feed. We processed 314,000 tons. In May and June, it was pleasing to see that Lakewood ran at a 1.3 million ton run rate.
Both mines continue to ramp up. The ramp up will continue for the next six months. At Fingals, as you can see in the numbers here, we've done a significant amount of waste stripping over the recent quarters. Waste stripping will significantly reduce in the next few months. The mine grades during the quarter were lower than we expected in the upper benches of the pit. We expect this to increase as we ramp up and the pit moves into benches lower down in the ore body. At Majestic, stoping commenced during the quarter. The mined ore increased to 50,000 tons. This is expected to continue to increase over the next six months. Majestic will become 30% roughly of the Lakewood feed.
Grades again were lower this quarter in the upper level of the mine. Again, we expect that to increase as we ramp up production. More broadly at Kal East, if you think a little bit longer term as we start, we're just in the process of ramping up these operations. I think it's important to show some of the longer-term potential, both at depth and along strike. Our future drilling campaigns at Majestic and the nearby Imperial, I think have good opportunities to extend the mine life. The first priority is to ramp up production over the next six months from both Fingals and Majestic. We'll look at the opportunities to extend with further drilling these mine lives. I'll turn now to Coyote.
We've been drilling there, doing an infill program just below what was the prior operations. Also trying to extend the ore body down dip to about 850 m. The results will be expected in September from this program. We're also looking at reprioritizing the rigs. Because of the success that we've had at Regulus and Lynx at Paulsens, we're just considering that we might transfer some of the drilling that we're doing at Coyote to Paulsens. We've also got the Mt Clement project, which is nearby to Paulsens. This is an antimony project. It's very high grade. Metallurgical testing is underway as we speak. We're also engaging industry participants to determine the scale of this project, what offtake requirements may be. Ultimately, that determine the next steps in developing the project.
Before we get to Q&A, I'll just go through sort of the opportunities as we see to why invest with us. We've got strong operating cash flow. We're looking to grow this quarter- on- quarter. We've increased cash, we've got reserves growth and recent underground success at Paulsens. We're growing opportunities across all projects. We also have the team and the track record of developing these projects and these assets. We're well-placed to consider opportunities as they come about to grow internally, no matter what the circumstances of the market prevail. As I said before, we've got volatility in fuel and gold prices. The business is really well positioned to respond to anything that comes about. We'll provide production guidance at our full-year results. That will include all-in sustaining costs.
Lastly, I'd just like to thank you for the shareholders for their support of the company as we continue to grow. With that, I'll pass it back to Stuart and open the line for questions.
Thank you, James. Fantastic presentation. As I said earlier, if you do have a live question, please raise your hand and I will let you in to ask. James, whilst we do wait, I will ask one question. The recent Regulus and Lynx discoveries have extended mineralization beyond the historical footprint at Paulsens. How significant could these discoveries become in terms of extending mine life and increasing production from the existing infrastructure?
We've had some really encouraging results. It is early days. We think that these structures are significant and have hundreds of meters of strike potential. We will be drilling it over the months ahead and to further define that potential. The fact that it is such high grade and so near surface means that it can quickly come into production. As we've demonstrated, I think we had about 20% of our production in the last quarter come from developing ounces in those regions. Certainly as we look ahead, it will become an increasing part of our mill feed over the years ahead.
Excellent. We've got a question here from [Richard Knight], I'll just allow him in now. Richard, go for it.
Go, Richard.
Thanks, Stuart, and hi, James. Congrats on a good quarter in many respects. I suppose the one I wanted to drill down on a little bit was just Fingals. Obviously, slightly lower grades there in the upper benches. Was that a reconciliation issue or was that just a function of where you are mining in the pit?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Richard. Look, it's a function of where we're mining in the pit. We are in the upper benches and the ore body steepens up as we get into it. It's more flat lying in those upper benches but in the months ahead, the ore body steepens up and as it does so, we expect the grade to increase and dilution to reduce.
Okay, thanks. In terms of guidance, you mentioned you're going to deliver guidance at the financial results. Is that going to be broken down on an asset basis or how should we think about how that's going to be delivered?
Yeah, I think that's the intention, asset by asset and to give not only production guidance but all-in sustaining costs as well.
Okay. In terms of the strategy document that you're coming out with, can we expect that before the full year results? Or what's the likely timing on that?
Yeah, I think, Richard, I think we're just considering those options. We just want to make sure that we phase the opportunities in the right order. We do have a strong intention to grow from internally generated projects. Before that, we've got to ramp up both Majestic and Fingals and I think there are opportunities, as we've shown at Paulsens. There's also Belvedere, which is nearby. Given the current environment, we just need to phase everything that we do to live within our means. I think there's significant opportunities to grow, but we're just considering the timing of that growth.
Yeah. Okay. Based on that, maybe it's a sort of later in the half phenomenon in terms of?
Yeah, look, I think we'll come to the market with more definitive plans as those plans are developed and once we've got the confidence to go ahead with the various opportunities.
Okay, great. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Richard.
Thank you, Richard. Passing over to Paul.
Good day, guys. Can you hear me all right?
Yeah, we've got you, Paul.
Yeah. Hi, thanks. Couple of questions from me. Obviously, guidance for the year ahead is still forthcoming. Just wondering on a high level conceptual toll treatment likelihood through the course of FY 2027. Noting you have remaining parcels from Westgold you're obligated to treat?
As you referred to, Paul, there's two remaining parcels that we have with Westgold in the current quarter and the final quarter of this calendar year. By the end of the year, they will be completed. We don't expect any further toll treating in calendar year 2027. We've got our own material from both Fingals and Majestic that will fill the mill.
Yeah, sure. Following on from that, maybe these two sort of go together. Richard asked a question about the grade profile at Kal East. Noting today it looks like the majority of the costs you incurred in the June quarter to run that operation have still been capitalized. I'm just curious as to when you might be anticipating that expenditure goes from being capital to OpEx?
Yeah. I think as I made comments in the presentation at Fingals, we expect waste stripping to significantly reduce over the next few months and through to the end of the year. That waste stripping is capitalized at the moment, but will reduce. That Majestic, the ramp-up of Majestic will take about the next six months. There is still some capitalization that's occurring right now as we ramp up production. As I referred to, production was 50,000 tons. That will ramp up significantly by the end of the year. As we get to the sort of nameplate production levels, we will stop capitalizing that investment.
Yeah. Can you remind me what you consider nameplate production run rates out of Majestic to be?
Yeah. It'll be 30% of the mill feed, the mill is 1.2 million tons ground with a national 400,000-450,000 tons ground from Majestic.
Right. The last one, I guess it probably ties into those as well, is as far as feed grades from these ore bodies go, can you give us an update on when we might see that updated resource reserve status published, please?
Yeah. I think with our annual report, we will update the reserves, resources. Certainly in our guidance you will get a view of what the grade profile looks like.
Great. All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Got a couple come through here. Why didn't you sell bullion when the price was at a record high a few months ago to fund development and exploration?
Yeah. Look, we remain flexible on our bullion strategy. We continue to hold some bullion, and we will continue to do so. We have significant cash on the balance sheet at the same time. We remain flexible in our approach. We are predisposed to gold. We think the value of gold and the long-term value as an inflation hedge and we like holding gold. We're a gold producer, and we'll remain flexible in that strategy.
Another one. When do you think you'll be able to stop stope Regulus and Lynx?
Yeah. Look, I think Regulus, we are starting stoping right now. There are ounces that we're producing from Regulus from stoping. Lynx will be a little bit longer, but certainly over the next six months or so we'll start stoping Lynx as well. As I previously said, Regulus and Lynx will become an increasing part of the production profile certainly over the next year and couple of years.
Another one here, James. With Amber now on Board, is the current growth strategy primarily focused on organic growth, or there is appetite to pursue M&A opportunities as well? Also, could you share any insights into the key areas or themes that are currently being explored?
Yeah. I think, the first opportunities that I always look at are the near mine opportunities around our existing infrastructure that leverage that infrastructure, leverage that capital investment, and I always think about cash on cash returns and what if I'm putting AUD 1 in today, I want to get AUD 2 out over two years. Those are the first opportunities we'd look at. There are always other opportunities that we'll consider, whether they be tuck-in opportunities near our existing hubs. I think we'd remain flexible on all opportunities as we see it. Every opportunity has to meet financial hurdles to generate cash on cash returns. As I said in the announcement, we invested in Paulsens, and we've now repaid that capital. We've also obviously discovered more at Paulsens. That's the sort of thing that we're looking to do and continue to do.
One last one, James. We have one come through as a live question, and [Kote], over to you.
Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can, Kote. Thank you.
Okay, excellent. Congratulations on a positive quarter. I have an accounting question from your disclosures. When you break out sustaining versus growth CapEx, do you define development drilling at new deposits, which is required to maintain production as growth CapEx or sustaining CapEx?
I'll give a response then I might pass it over to Nick. The response from myself is it depends on exactly what type of drilling it is, but I'll pass it over to Nick and he can respond.
Yeah. That's fine. Generally speaking, Kote, it depends on if the ore bodies is in the current mine plan or resource. For example, with Lynx and Regulus, that wasn't part of our original mine plan. In that instance, it could be considered growth. We look at each dollar of spend in each area as sustaining ore growth. Yeah, as James said, it's on a case-by-case basis.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Kote. James, that's all that's come through today. Thank you for participating in today's webinar. I appreciate your time and wish you and the team all the very best. I look forward to chatting again soon. Thank you to everybody for attending, and thank you for your questions.
Thank you, everyone.