Hello, and welcome to the Core Lithium September quarter investor call. Our presenter today is Paul Brown, the Managing Director. Paul will give a brief presentation, followed by a Q&A session at the end. If you'd like to ask a question, just click on the question icon at the top right of your screen, tell us that you'd like to ask a question in the text box, and just click send. We'll call your name and unmute your microphone when we get to you in the Q&A. You'll find a copy of today's presentation on the ASX and also the Core Lithium website. With that, over to you, Paul.
Thanks very much, and good morning, everyone. I'm also joined with James Virgo and Chelsea Bates. We'll be happy to take any questions at the end of the presentation. Look, again, thanks for joining us. We've had a really busy quarter. Really happy and proud to be able to put our results out today and certainly talk to everyone in a bit more detail. A quick reminder of some of the key features of our project. We have long lives. We're fully funded. We have established infrastructure, and we have multiple sources of growth optionality. The operating plan targets 1.2 million tons of throughput and a mine life production of around 257,000 tons of SC5 concentrate.
We also switched it up since our last presentation, so we're actually reporting an SC5 rather than an SC6 equivalent, which you'll see in the green highlight there. As I mentioned, we are fully funded. I think that's important. We spoke about that on several occasions and obviously with the current market conditions, it just highlights the initiative we had last year when we were going through our funding process. We always wanted to be fully funded, so I'm pleased to be able to say that we've achieved that and we're head down, bum up and into the project. We had AUD 244 million of available resources and AUD 157 million of restart capital spend remaining with free cash flow also coming out of Grants when we start shipping.
The stage restart combines near-term production from Grants while we develop BP33 with Carlton's deposited reserves and exploration potential, which we'll talk about with Blackbeard. We're executing across both operations and the development of BP33. This quarter marked a significant milestone in our transition to operations with plant commissioning underway and first spodumene concentrate produced and we're obviously on track to deliver our next major milestone, which is shipping in the December quarter. BP33 underground development and surface infrastructure continue to advance with first development ore on track for mid-calendar year 2027. We finished the quarter, as I said, with AUD 244 million in available funding, including cash receivables and Tranche 2 of our senior secured, with remaining restart capital of AUD 157 million, leaving a significant liquidity buffer, which is pleasing. Our restart plan is unchanged since FID.
The schedule, production plan and capital assumptions remain unchanged. We have delivered on all of our key early milestones, including funding, FID announcement, contract award, commencement of mining, commencement of development, and our first concentrate production. The next immediate milestone for the first shipment of Grants in the December quarter. We are focused on the ongoing underground development. Of course, our exploration that is happening currently out of BP33. BP33 development remains on track, with first development ore in mid-calendar year 2027. Followed by steady state production in mid-calendar year 2028. I think there are some really good images here. The images demonstrate the physical progress achieved at Grants since FID in late March. Again, we mobilized NRW in May. So we have had considerable advancement at Grants. The progress reflects the rapid mobilization and the focus of the team. So really pleased with the results at Grants.
I think another great picture here. I think we had owners and investors on site when we actually first crushed our first ore a few months ago. You will see the picture there. We are well advanced from Grants, from delivery and obviously crush material. I think this image demonstrates the physical progress that we have achieved. Again, really pleased that we are executing on plan there. Just moving to the DMS plant. Obviously, there has been a lot of action in and around this in the lead up to our first concentrate. Just like the shout-outs to the team there around a very safe, well-executed upgrade. You also see the middle image there, which is the last piece of plant that we will install later next year. It is the one long lead item for the capture of the tails.
Again, the plant itself, holistically, apart from the reflux classifier, has all been upgraded, and we are well into commissioning. So another couple of good images here. These are actually images we took on-site last month, but you will see that spodumene is being produced. It looks fantastic. From the moment we turned the plant on, the plant performed really well post-upgrade. You will see the picture with the spodumene in the hand there. It is lovely green, clean spodumene. Again, really pleased with how the plant is performing and importantly, looking forward to the September quarter, sorry, the December quarter, when we do ship our first concentrate. Just moving to BP33. Again, you will see the aerial image there. Again, just shout out to the team that is developing BP33. So we have Develop Global in there through Bill Beament's crowd.
We couldn't be happier with the progress that is being made there. It was certainly one of the bigger decisions we made as we moved into FID and beyond. We are thrilled that the team has mobilized rapidly, safely, cut our first portal, and obviously the development in the decline is tracking on schedule. So we are really pleased with the quality of people that have turned up there. I think we talk a lot about the difficulties of inflation and skills in the market and pleasingly for us, [Phil] has a ready-made, fantastic team. He has multiple operations that he can source skills from and equipment, and we are really enjoying the relationship that we have created there. Again, couldn't be happier with that area of the development. Here are some photos, obviously, of the site as well. We have obviously advanced infrastructure quite considerably.
You will see offices, workshops.
We've also got Ava Pile on site doing the vent raises. Again, associated infrastructure matching the development and really pleased with the progress in these areas as well. We did put out a result from an exploration perspective at BP33. Again, we're really pleased with the program. We'll talk about money released on hold, but the assumption there was there could be some additional mineralization at the depth we've drilled there. Certainly, we intercepted around about 34 m at 2.09 Lithium Oxide and a further 3.43 at 2.44. That's considerable high grade that we've established there. Certainly, the results reinforce the confidence in the quality and the continuity of the mineralization beyond the 10.5 million tonnes of resource that we have. Three additional holes are still targeted. We obviously haven't completed them yet.
They are deep holes, but obviously, the holes are designed to target the extension down deep and along strike, supporting potential for future mineral resource growth or potential upgrade. Just moving to Blackbeard. We have around about a 12,000 m program planned at Blackbeard. Due to the, I guess, the extensive wet, we did get in there a little bit later than we would've liked. But the program remains on track. As I said, we're drilling around about 12,000 m. The purpose of this really was to understand what might be below the ground. Obviously, previously, we've had an exploration target of around about 7 million-10 million tonnes at a reasonable grade, 1.5-1.7. We've only drilled this area to around about 200 m. Obviously, this program is designed to go a fair bit deeper, and also we've only used RC.
We're doing a combination of RC and also some diamond drill. I think strategically, this remains a very interesting growth optionality for us. It is within 20 km of our existing infrastructure. As I said, we have a reasonable expectation here with the exploration target we put out previously. We are continuing to drill. We'll drill right up until the wet and, obviously, we are planning on putting out some results in the near future. We look forward to updating everyone when they become available. I'll just hand over to James, who can talk us through the quarter and cash flows and give us a bit more flavor on how you're thinking about our funding statement.
Thanks, Paul. Turning to cash flow, we finished the September quarter with AUD 200 million in cash, up from AUD 182 million at the end of June. During the quarter, we received AUD 98 million in funds net of costs, comprising AUD 62 million from convertible notes and AUD 36 million from the senior debt facility. On the user side, we invested AUD 51 million in capital expenditure, primarily relating to BP33 underground development, associated infrastructure, and upgrades to the processing plant. We also invested AUD 30 million in site operating costs as Grants mining and processing activities ramped up ahead of first shipment in the December quarter. This, alongside corporate cost exploration expenditure and transaction costs associated with the funding package. Looking forward, we have AUD 244 million in available funding, including undrawn debt and expected receivables.
Importantly, our September quarter cash flow does not yet include any revenue from near-term production Grants of approximately 134,000 tonnes of SC5 product, with first shipment on track for the December quarter. Together, this provides a strong funding position to support our development program through to steady state production in 2028. I hand back to Paul.
Thanks, James. Look, I think I love this slide. It was really good to be able to tick off the quarter and ensure everyone we're executing through our plan. As James mentioned, the funding package we're really pleased with getting that way, and obviously, the cost of those structures are highly competitive. We've certainly got a great, very supportive, consortium-led funding package with Glencore and InfraVia and Nebari. Look, as I mentioned, the funding package, major contracts, logistics chain, portal cut, initial plant upgrades and first concentrate production have all been delivered. Again, this has been our aim. We want to get market confidence and do what we say we're going to do. Current activity is focused on Grants mining, plant optimization, BP33 development, infrastructure construction, off-take, and exploration program.
We're also looking at expansion studies as well, which will include plant upgrades or potential plant upgrades, carbon and obviously BP33. The restart schedule, production plan, and capital assumptions remain unchanged in speed, which again, is really pleasing in a pretty challenging market with first shipment, the next major milestone, followed by first ore from BP33 in mid-calendar 2027. Of course, steady state production is aimed still on track for mid-calendar year 2028 at BP33. Look, we really want to thank everyone for their time. I think, again, a massive thanks to the Core Lithium team and contracted partners. We have had a massive quarter. I was driving in this morning thinking to myself, this time last year, our market cap was about AUD 120 odd million, and we were looking for funding. So we've really got after this.
We haven't sat still through what was a pretty challenging lithium winter. We've secured great funding, great partners, and certainly from an execution perspective, thrilled with our contracted partners to Develop and everybody else that's contributed. Again, I'm really pleased with the quarter and happy to open up to questions.
Thanks, Paul. Just a quick reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, just let us know via the chat on the screen. We'll pause for a minute while we wait for the question queue. Thanks. It looks like we've got no questions, so I'll just hand back to Paul to wrap up.
Yeah. Again, thanks everyone for the time. We'll certainly be in touch with a few analysts in the coming days. Again, thanks very much.