It's 11:00 A.M. exactly. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us. There's no better place to hold our 12th Annual General Meeting in The Mint. Very appropriate. We're delighted to welcome you all here today. Thanks for joining us. My name is Jake Klein. I'm the Executive Chair of Evolution. Evolution respects and supports the indigenous communities in which we operate, both in Australia and Canada. I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on whose land we are hosting this meeting today. I pay my respects to the elders, past and present, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I would also like to acknowledge our First Nations partners in Canada. Before proceeding, please ensure that your mobile phones are switched off or on silent. I'll do the same.
Mine's done. Thank you, Lawrie. In the unlikely event of an emergency, please leave via the emergency doors on either side of you, to the left and right. Go to the courtyard. Fire wardens will be in place to direct you and make your way directly to the front of this side and out of the gates. Upon exiting, please turn left and convene in front of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum at Queens Square. Firstly, I'd like you to introduce your board members today. Dialing in from his hometown in Vancouver, in Canada, is Jason Attew. Jason is the Lead Independent Director and a member of the Audit Committee, and Nomination and Remuneration Committees, and he's also the lead independent. On my left is Lawrie Conway, who's Evolution's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
You will hear from Lawrie later this morning. Next to Lawrie is Tommy McKeith. Tommy is up for re-election at this meeting. Tommy is the Chair of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Next to Tommy... I'm just checking that everyone is in their right place. Next to Tommy is Vicky Binns. Vicky is a member of the Audit Committee, and on Vicky's left is Andrea Hall. Andrea is the Chair of the Audit Committee, and he is also a member of the Risk and Sustainability Committee. Next to Andrea is Jim Askew. Jim is up for re-election at this meeting. Jim is a member of the Risk and Sustainability Committee and the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Next to Jim is Peter Smith. Peter is up for re-election at the meeting. Peter is Chair of the Risk and Sustainability Committee.
And finally, next to Peter is our Company Secretary, Evan Elstein. Evan is also the VP for Information Technology and Communications and Corporate Affairs. We have a lot of Evolution people here today, and I think it's important that you meet and see the people who are really doing the work for you. They are owners of the company. Every one of our people across the company are owners. So if there are any difficult questions, this is the group I fear most. But first of all, the leadership team, Barrie Van der Merwe, Chief Financial Officer. Barrie's still glowing in the glory of the World Cup victory, and now he's claiming that he supports Australia in the cricket. Bob Faulkner, Chief Operations Officer. Glen Masterman, VP, Discovery. Paul Eagle, VP, People and Culture. Fiona Murfitt, VP, Sustainability.
Kirron Schmidt, General Manager, Business Development. That's your leadership team, along with Lawrie, who really are the leaders of the organization, along with the general managers. And a lot of the site managers are here today. So again, I think it's really important that you see the people who are working on the sites, who are leading the sites, and the functions across the business. So Arnie Coxon, GM, Operational Projects. Maybe just stand, so that people can ask you questions later. Scott Barber, GM, Mungari Operations. Joe Mammen, GM, Cowal. Ben Young, GM, Mount Rawdon. Dan Macklin, GM, Exploration. Jason Floyd, GM, Ernest Henry Operations. Stean Barrie, GM, Transformation and Effectiveness. Dan Brearley, best dressed and GM, Projects. David Parrott, GM, Commercial. Peter O'Connor, GM, Investor Relations. You can call him Rocky. Everyone else does.
Sally Knox, GM, People's Experience. Justine Fisher, GM, Communications and Corporate Affairs. Paul Shaw, GM, IT. Welcome, Paul, it's your second week at Evolution, so welcome to you. Andrew Horvath, Projects Executive, Mount Rawdon Pumped Hydro. There are a number of other people in the room who are also Evolution people, and we warmly welcome them and thank them for their efforts today. The order of proceedings for today will be as follows: We will work through the formal business of the meeting, pursuant to the agenda set out in the notice of the meeting that was issued on the 18th of October, 2023. Copies of the notice of the meeting are available at the door.
After all the agenda items have been dealt with, the formal AGM will be closed, and Lawrie Conway, our CEO and Managing Director, will then give a company update presentation, and we will also answer the questions that have been lodged and any questions that you may have accumulated through the presentations that we give today. So I want to open today's address by talking about something that I've been highlighting for some time, and that's the rising risk that we are witnessing around the world, and it's affecting all of us. The ongoing war in Ukraine is approaching the end of its second year, and last month, we saw the start of a major new conflict erupt in the Middle East.
These regional conflicts are not only having tragic local consequences, but they are also having very significant social, political, and economic impacts around the world. I think it's fair to say that this is one of the most seminal geopolitical moments in our lifetimes. A century ago, the global order was being redefined following World War I, and similarly today, these geopolitical changes have the potential to have ongoing material repercussions for many, many years to come. The deteriorating geopolitical outlook needs to be overlaid with the increasing financial risk, and particularly debt levels, and here our focus needs to be firmly on the United States. Just before World War II, the U.S. debt was around $40 billion. Today, it's a staggering $33 trillion. So that's 800 times higher and goes up by $100 million every hour.
It also means that for every U.S. taxpayer in the country, they effectively owe $200,000 in debt. If you look all the way back to 1970, the U.S. dollar spot gold spot price has had a remarkable correlation to this U.S. debt level. I think that's a trend that is entrenched and does seem very predictable today and intractable. So I guess that gives you a view, my view, as to where the gold price is going. But I think this is also important, at the same time, China has emerged as one of the world's largest investors in U.S. Treasuries, which are issued to fund these consistent U.S. government deficits. It's also become, this is China, has become one of the world's largest creditors to low and middle-income countries.
Then you turn to inflationary pressures, which also continue to have an impact on global markets. We have seen consecutive interest rate rises from the world's central banks, as they seek to return inflation to target levels, and I think we're all very well aware over here that we've had 13 consecutive rate hikes in Australia to date. And while this higher for longer interest rate environment has led to a modest reduction in the rate of inflation in most developed countries, many, like Australia, are still above their targeted range, and inflation does remain an ongoing challenge. So in this unsettled macro environment, the Australian dollar spot gold price has increased approximately 14% since the beginning of the year, and it's reached all-time high levels of over AUD 3,000 an oz.
I often reflect that in 1991, when I started in the gold industry, the gold price was about AUD 300 an oz, so it's 10 times higher today, and I think has still a lot further to go. The major contributor to this recent rally has been central bank buying, which is 14% higher in the first 10 months of 2023, within compared to the same period last year. There's also been the impact of the falling Australian dollar, which has positively impacted the Australian dollar gold price. As a company, we are not comfortable with the risk trajectory that is contributing to a higher gold price, but we do also acknowledge at the same time that investor preferences for safe haven assets in times of uncertainty in global markets.
Sadly, I'd have to say that I don't see any scenario at the moment where this macroeconomic environment normalizes anytime in the foreseeable future. Strategically, this has implications for Evolution. To date, investors, in my view, and a few of you have asked me why the gold price hasn't gone up as much as it should have. I think investors have tended to be risk-off as they reallocate to interest-bearing investments, and we haven't seen the expected rally in gold securities yet. I have no doubt that this will change in time. Likewise, investors will be looking to limit their exposure to geopolitical risk, and Evolution is very well-positioned in Tier 1 jurisdictions to benefit from this.
Our focus on continually seeking ways to improve the quality of a small, highly concentrated portfolio of up to eight assets, has resulted in us developing into one of the lowest cost gold producers in the world today. Our acquisition of, of Ernest Henry has also provided investors exposure to copper, which is one of the metals which will be so critical to the green revolution that is underway. So overall, we think that our strategy is very well suited to the current environment. Looking back at the year in review, it was a challenging year for Evolution. We continued to make significant capital investments across our portfolio, positioning our operations for a period of reduced costs, higher production, and lower capital intensity.
In FY 2023, we produced 651,000 oz of gold at a very low all-in sustaining cost of AUD 1,450 an oz. This was despite a major weather event at Ernest Henry in March, which flooded the mine, and meant that our lowest cost, most cash generative asset was unable to produce in the last three months of the financial year. I think it's a credit to Jason Floyd, his team over there, the way the leadership team rallied, but particularly the site team, responded to that event. It was a very, very significant event, and Ernest Henry has been able to reestablish itself as a reliable, consistent performer, delivering strong gold and copper production in the first quarter of FY 2024. Mount Rawdon was likewise challenged by heavy rainfalls, while Cowal and Mungari performed very well.
Red Lake's transformation was slower than we would have liked, and FY 2023 did not deliver to our expectations. We have made changes which we believe this year will start to demonstrate that our persistence and commitment to this asset is well-founded. Red Lake is a very large gold endowment and has the hallmarks to emerge as a cornerstone asset within our portfolio. As a business that seeks to prosper through the cycle with a margin over ounces mentality, the board and I were very proud, are very proud, that despite these many internal and external challenges that we confronted in FY 2023, we were able to declare two more dividends during the year to take our record to 21 consecutive dividends, returning over AUD 1.1 billion to shareholders since 2013.
Major investments at Red Lake and Cowal are scheduled to be completed and commissioned in this next 12 months, FY 2024. We currently have only one major capital project scheduled in FY 2024-2025, being the AUD 250 million plant expansion at Mungari, which will extend its mine life out to 2038. Our organic growth pipeline remains strong, with board approval for the Ernest Henry Mine extension project to progress to feasibility study being approved in FY 2023. This approval includes a commitment to a AUD 15 million feasibility study and a AUD 7.5 million drilling program to deliver a further significant mine life extension at our lowest cost and highest margin asset. Work has commenced on the feasibility study, which we expect to complete in the March quarter in FY 2025.
Our commitment to invest in exploration for new gold and gold copper deposits at our existing operations, as well as greenfield projects, returned encouraging results at our key cornerstone assets. We're excited to announce new drilling results at Mungari and Cowal in the first quarter of FY 2024. I always know that there are good drilling results coming through the office when I see Glenn and Dan walking around the office with a big smile on their face. They've been doing that regularly over the last 12 months, which is great. These drill results highlight the potential for additional high-grade mineralization outside of the known mineral resources at Cowal and Mungari, and near active mining fronts that have the potential to be converted into ounces, which can be mined in the not-too-distant future.
Significant drilling to set extensions were also reported at Ernest Henry throughout the year and supported the release of an increased mineral resource in August 2023. That's only really 20 months, 22 months after owning the asset, acquiring 100% of the asset. Ernest Henry is an asset that we've been involved in since 2016, but only late in 2021 did we actually acquire 100% of it, and it's been a phenomenal asset since 2016, but even better now that we own 100% of it. As a business, we remain focused on ensuring sustainability is integrated into everything we do, safeguarding the health and safety of our people, working with the communities in which we operate, and caring for the environment.
We respect and welcome, and this is genuine, and I think this is quite different to some other companies. This is not lip service. We welcome the input of our First Nations partners, our community partners, and appreciate the opportunity to learn more from our First Nations partners about the lands on which we operate. Prioritizing initiatives to support the health and wellbeing of our employees continues to be a focal point for Evolution. In FY 2023, overall health and safety improved across the company, with delivery on or better than target across all our sustainability targets. Pleasingly, we saw almost a 20% reduction in injuries to our people during the period.
We also achieved an 11.2 reduction in absolute emissions in FY 2023 against our FY 2020 baseline, furthering our commitment to the 30% emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. I'm very proud of these positive gains we've made towards our sustainability goals during the year. We continue to be recognized for that performance in the sustainability area, achieving a sector-leading rating in Sustainalytics, ISS, MSCI, ESG ratings, assessments, as well... And anyone can ask Fiona Murfitt, our VP, Sustainability, what all of those mean, but they're really important. As well as being one of only three gold companies recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Australia.
The transition, and this to me is really exciting and important, of Mount Rawdon, from a 20-year-old plus gold mine into a major pumped hydro generator, continues to build momentum with the feasibility study due for completion in the next few months. Once constructed, this project will have the capacity to power 2 million homes in Brisbane during peak periods and will reduce Queensland emissions by over 3%. To me, this is just a great example of how Evolution is prepared to think differently about its assets, which it has in the portfolio. But I wanted to save the most important point to last, and I want you, as shareholders, to know that really the most important asset this company has is our people. We want working at Evolution to be a highlight of each person's career at Evolution.
Sorry, at each point in each person's career, and this year we have been fortunate, and really fortunate, to have numerous examples of our people acting like owners. As I said earlier, each of them one really is an owner, but acting like owners, living our values, contributing to the success of our company. So thank you to all of you, both here and on our sites, and everywhere across our organization, for making Evolution a better company.… In closing, on behalf of the board, I would really like to express our appreciation to you, our shareholders. Your support and trust we don't take for granted. As a board, we are optimistic about the future and excited about the continued growth opportunities that lie ahead for Evolution. We thank you, genuinely thank you, for being a part, an important part of our journey.
Thank you. Evan, are you gonna tell me what I need to do next? Okay, I'm now gonna hand over to you, Evan, which is good.
Thanks, Jake. I'm just gonna outline some of the procedural matters for today's meeting. This is a meeting of Evolution shareholders. As such, only shareholders, their appointed proxies or corporate representatives are entitled to make comments, ask questions, or vote. All other attendees are welcome as observers. As the written questions received from shareholders prior to the meeting are of a general nature and not related to any specific Resolution, they will be read out and addressed in the Q&A part of the meeting. You'll be given the opportunity to make comments or ask questions in relation to the Resolutions to be considered by the meeting. Shareholders with questions relating to specific Resolutions are requested to ask them at the time the Resolution is to be considered by the meeting.
At the appropriate time, the chair will ask shareholders who wish to make a comment or to ask a question to raise their hand. Please state your name, before asking your question, and wait for the microphone to be provided. The chair has determined that we will hold a poll in relation to all the items of business. The process will be that we will go through each Resolution and then conduct the poll with respect to all the Resolutions once they've all been tabled. After the completion of discussion and before the vote on the poll is taken for each item of business, the total number of valid proxies for that item and the manner in which they have been directed, will be displayed on the screen.
These numbers will be as at the closing time for receipt of proxies, which was at 11:00 A.M. Sydney time on Tuesday, the 21st of November, 2023. As noted in the notice of meeting, the chair intends to vote proxies for the chair in favor of the Resolution. For the purposes of the poll, Reggie Hebron of Link Market Services, the company share registry, which has examined and prepared summaries of the proxy forms received, has been engaged to act as the returning officer. And Martin Carson of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's auditors, has been engaged to observe the poll and procedures before a determination of the results is made. When you registered your attendance at this meeting, voting shareholders and proxy holders were given a yellow admittance card.
The card provides for a holding of a poll on any of the Resolutions put to shareholders. On this card, you will find a series of boxes for voting. You must tick or mark the for or against boxes for your vote to be valid and counted for each Resolution. If you wish to abstain from voting, please mark the abstain box on your voting paper next to the relevant Resolution. If you are a proxy holder, you must comply with the direction of the shareholder if you wish to lodge a valid vote. The for and against votes are shown on the schedule attached to the poll paper. If the shareholder has given you discretion for how to vote, you should include that number of votes in the number you write in the for or against boxes.
Alternatively, you may wish to write those discretionary numbers separately in the for or against box. If you are a proxy holder and you do not lodge a vote on any of the Resolutions, the vote for those Resolutions will pass to the chair of the meeting to exercise pursuant to the Corporations Act of 2001. The chair must comply with the direction of the shareholder. When no instructions have been given to the chair on how to vote, as set out in the proxy form circulated to shareholders, the chair has been expressly authorized to exercise those votes and intends to vote those shares in favor for all Resolutions. If you have any questions in this regard, please make yourself known to a representative from Link Market Services before lodging your voting paper.
Once all the Resolutions have been read and questions relating thereto have been addressed, and you have finished marking your card, representatives from Link Market Services will collect all voting cards. After the votes have been counted and reviewed by the external auditor and after the company presentation, the results of the poll will be released on the ASX platform and displayed on the company's website following the conclusion of the meeting. I'll now ask the chair to proceed to the ordinary business of the meeting, as set out in the agenda that appears in the notice of meeting. The notice of meeting was dispatched to shareholders on the 18th of October, 2023, and accordingly, this meeting is deemed to have been properly convened. Back to you, Jake.
Now in the exciting part of the meeting. The first item on the agenda is to receive and consider the financial statements of the company for the year ended 30 June 2023. The annual report of the company for the year ended 30 June 2023, together with associated reports of the directors and auditors, has been made available to all shareholders, electronically or in hard copy. I will ask the company secretary to record that the report was tabled at the meeting. The company's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is represented here today by audit partner, Brett Entwistle. Brett, some people have come and sat next to you, which is good, because normally PwC is on their own, the auditors.
But if there are any questions, and we're hoping there are, with respect to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and contents of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of its financial statements, and the independence of the audit in relation to the conduct of the audit, you may ask them now. Are there any questions? There ain't nothing. Great, you've got away lightly again. As there are no questions on the financial statements, I will now proceed to the Resolutions as set out in the notice of the meeting. Which one is this? Yeah. This is Resolution 1 of the agenda. The Resolution to adopt the remuneration report is set out in full on the screen and in the notice of the meeting. I will take the Resolution as read.
Are there any questions? No. Okay, we will then move to Resolution 2. Thank you for that. Given I have an interest in the outcome of this next Resolution, I'll hand over to the chair of the meeting. I'll hand the chair of the meeting to Tommy McKeith, chair of the Nom and Rem Committee.
Thanks, Jake. I now go to Resolution 2 of the agenda, which is up there. As a Director, the Resolution to re-elect Jacob, Jake Klein, as a Director of the company is set out in full on the screen and in the notice of meeting. Mr. Klein, being a Director, retires in accordance with Clause 8.1D of the Constitution of the company, and being eligible for re-election, is seeking re-election as a Director. Mr. Klein is the Executive Chair of the company. Mr. Klein was appointed as Executive Chair in October 2011, following the merger of Conquest Mining Limited and Catalpa Resources Limited. Previously, he served as the Executive Chair of Conquest Mining.
Prior to that, Jake was president and CEO of Sino Gold Mining Limited, where he managed the development of that company into the largest foreign participant in the Chinese gold industry. Sino Gold was listed on the ASX in 2002 with a market capitalization of AUD 100 million and was purchased by Eldorado Gold Corporation in late 2009 for over AUD 2 billion. Prior to joining Sino Gold and its predecessor in 1995, Jake was employed by Macquarie Bank and PwC. The board, with Jake abstaining, unanimously support his re-election. A biography of Jake is provided in the notice of meeting, and I now invite Jake to say a few words in support of his election.
Thanks, Tommy. It sounds a little early for you to hear from me again. But I have to say that I was really fortunate and consider it a real privilege to have founded Evolution 12 years ago. When we and a few of us here and some of you as shareholders recognized that there was an opportunity to fill a vacuum in the Australian gold mining sector at the time by creating a new gold producer. And, you know, I think we all are proud today that Evolution is the third-largest ASX-listed gold company, which, you know, has exceeded all of our expectations. But as you'll hear today, we have a team of people that is committed to do even better.
I'd have to say that I don't think that in the last 12 years, there has been a day that I haven't lived and breathed our company. I'm proud of what we have been able to achieve, and to me, at the core of that is our values, our culture, our people, and our willingness to be courageous and also, at the same time, hopefully be humble. I also do recognize that we have a long way to go before we can really consider ourselves a great gold company and declare mission accomplished. To be honest, I'm not sure you ever get there, because you should always be trying to improve.
Given this is the first time, somewhat nervous time for me, that in 12 years you've had the opportunity to vote for my appointment, I do hope that you'll support and endorse me continuing to be part of this exciting company. Thanks.
Thank you, Jake. I'll take this Resolution as read, and are there any questions? All right, thank you. I'll hand the chair back to Jake.
Thanks, Tommy. Don't go too far-
Yeah.
- 'cause this Resolution is to re-elect you-
Yep.
Mr. Tommy McKeith, as a Director of the company, and is set out in full on the screen, and in the notice of the meeting. Tommy's being a Director, he retires in accordance with Clause 8.1D of the constitution of the company, and being eligible for re-election, he's seeking re-election as a Director. Mr. McKeith or Tommy is chair of the Nom and Rem committee. Tommy is a geologist with 30 years experience, and I think I've known you for 20 of those 30 years, in various mine geology, exploration, business development roles. He is formerly executive vice president for Gold Fields Limited, where he was responsible for global greenfields exploration and projects, one of which included investment in Sino Gold in China.
Mr. McKeith was also Chief Executive Officer of Troy Resources Limited and has held Non-Executive Director roles at Sino Gold, Avoca Resources, Genesis Minerals Limited, and he's currently the non-executive chairman of Arrow Minerals Limited and a Non-Executive Director of Cleantech Lithium PLC. Tommy was first appointed to the board on first of February, 2014, and is considered by the board to be independent. The board, with Tommy abstaining, unanimously supports his re-election. A biography of Tommy is provided in the notice of the meeting, but I now invite Tommy to say a few words in support of his re-election.
Well, thanks again, Jake. As Jake said, I've spent actually 35 years in the mining industry. Unfortunately, I'm a little older than we said.
You said that.
Yeah. As a geologist involved in discovering ore bodies and as a mining company executive working to extract value from those, discoveries. I'm extremely fortunate to have been involved in numerous successes and, of course, many failures as well over those years, and I believe I've learned many lessons from both. I had the pleasure of joining the Evolution board some nine years ago, and I can truly say that it has been a highlight for me to be part of this company, which lives its values, has clear-minded ambition, and understands well its responsibility to stakeholders. My focus has been, and will be, the long-term value creation for shareholders through the efficient use of all our resources and respect for our stakeholders.
I do hope that you'll support my re-election to the board so that I can assist the company in some small way on its journey to becoming a great company.
Thanks, Tommy. I'll take this Resolution as read. Are there any, are there any questions? I now go to Resolution 4 of the agenda, which is the Resolution to re-elect Jim Askew, or James, as a Director of the company, and it's set out in full on the screen and in the notice of the meeting. Mr. Askew, being a Director, retires in accordance with Clause 8.1 D of the Constitution of the Company, and being eligible for re-election, is seeking re-election as a Director. Jimmy is a member of the Risk and Sustainability Committee and a member of the Nom and Rem Committee. Jimmy is a mining engineer with more than 40 years of broad international experience. I think that may be a little understated as well.
As a Director and Chief Executive Officer for a wide range of Australian and international publicly listed companies, mining, finance, and other related companies, I don't think there's an area in the sector that Jim hasn't been involved in, and his knowledge is immense. Jim has served on the boards of numerous mining and mining services company, which currently includes Syrah Resources Limited, a company with operations in Mozambique and in the USA. Jim retired from Endeavour Mining Corporation in May 2023. Jim was first appointed on 19th of October, 2011, and is really a founding board member of this company. He's made a massive contribution to the development of the company, and is considered to be, by the board, independent. The board with Jim abstaining, unanimously support his re-election.
A biography of Jim is provided in the notice of the meeting, and I now invite Jim to say a few words in support of his re-election.
You mind if I do it down here, Jake?
You can.
Given my 50 years in the industry. Thank you, and good morning. As Jake mentioned, I'm Jim Askew, I'm founding Director. I'm seeking election, or re-election on the basis of a long career in the global mining industry, with leadership and board roles, and I remain very active internationally. I do acknowledge that stakeholders have registered a degree of concern regarding my long tenure as a Non-Executive Director at this company. However, I'm happy to report my enthusiasm and engagement in our industry continues. As mentioned by Jake, I ceased a major role with Endeavour Mining board earlier this year. That required a lot of work and was very demanding of time and travel internationally.
I remain available and committed to serve on the board in the best interest of our shareholders. Thank you.
Thanks, Jim. Are there any questions on that Resolution? I will now go to Resolution 5 of the agenda. The Resolution is to re-elect Mr. Peter Smith as a Director of the company, and he's set out in full on the screen and in the notice of the meeting. Peter, being a Director who retires in accordance with Clause 8.1D of the Constitution of the Company, and being eligible for re-election, is seeking re-election as a Director. Peter is a chair, is the chair of the Risk and Sustainability Committee. Peter is a senior executive with over 46 years experience, that seems accurate. Primarily in the resources sector. He has worked in a range of sectors, including gold, coal, metals, and fertilizers.
Peter has held senior positions with Kestrel Coal Resources, Israel Chemical Limited, Newcrest Mining, Lihir Gold, WMC Resources, Western Metals, and Rio Tinto. Pete was a former Non-Executive Director of the New South Wales Minerals Council, and previously Evolution, and rejoined three years ago. Pete was first appointed on April 2020 and is considered by the board to be independent. Sorry, was appointed again on the first of April, 2020, and is considered by the board to be independent. The board, with Pete abstaining, unanimously support his re-election. A biography of Peter is provided in the notice of the meeting, and I now invite Pete to say a few words in support of his re-election.
Thank you, Jake, much appreciated. Yes, so my name is Peter Smith. As you're probably aware, and Jake alluded to it, I've been a Director of Evolution in two stints. So I was a founding Director as a Newcrest nominee. I left after two years after leaving Newcrest, and I was fortunate enough that the company offered me an opportunity to be a Director again when I retired from full-time executive management in 2020. Just to clarify those numbers, I've three weeks from now, it'll be 47 years since I started work as an 18-year-old coal miner in Wollongong. And that's been an extensive experience base for that period of time over many, many commodities. My experience is dominated by operational leadership roles with the past 20+ years in senior executive positions in corporate-level organizations.
I'm passionate about driving excellence in all aspects of our business, constantly seeking to improve what we do through the intelligence, initiative, and drive of our people. As you might imagine, I fundamentally believe in keeping everyone safe every day, and I'm proud that the board has seen fit to appoint me as Chair of the Risk and Sustainability Committee. I believe I have the skills and experience across all facets of our business that will support the future development of our company and contribute to ensuring the highest standards of corporate governance, socially acceptable behavior, are achieved by all of our—for all of our stakeholders. I thank you for the opportunity.
Thanks, Pete. Are there any questions on that Resolution? I'll now go to Resolution 6, and given I have an interest in the outcome of this Resolution, it's time for Tommy to do a bit more work, and I'll hand the chair over to him.
Is that the right one? Yeah. Thanks, Jake. I now go to Resolution 6 of the agenda. The Resolution to issue performance rights to Mr. Jake Klein is set out in full on the screen and in the notice of meeting. I'll take the Resolution as read. Are there any questions? So, yeah.
Thank you. I'm just grouping it 'cause it's in the thing of six and seven. And it's a general question: you say that the performance rights are measured against a group of 12 gold mining companies, and then you've listed six there. So... And you say that you can change it at any time. I'm just wondering how you came to those six or 12? Like, how do you get it? 'Cause you could put in any companies.
Yeah. Well, it should have been 12, I suspect. I'm not sure. Yeah. So what we do is we look to try and match companies to Evolution's profile, so both in size of the company, the complexity of the company, so you know, if they've got more than one operation, et cetera, and the size, and try and match them as best we can, either side. So slightly bigger companies than Evolution and slightly smaller companies than Evolution is what we try to do.
We really only change it once a year, and the reasons why we change it is because companies either become smaller because they've done something wrong, or they become really big and merged with another company, and they're no longer relevant as a peer of Evolution. Does that make some sense? Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't change in the rights for the, the past, the past rights. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the question. If there are no more questions, I'll hand it back to you, Jake.
Thanks, Tommy. Is it getting hot in here? I now go to Resolution 7 of the agenda. The Resolution of the issue for performance rights to Mr. Lawrie Conway is set out in full on the screen and in the notice of the meeting. I'll take the Resolution as read. Are there any questions for this one? Sorry, there it is. So now I'm gonna go to Resolution 8, and this is the Resolution for the issue of equity securities under the employee share option and performance rights plan. I'm gonna take this Resolution as read. Are there any questions on this?
We did receive one written question from a shareholder regarding the location of the employee share option and performance rights plan on our website, and for clarity, this is located in the investor section on our website, if you wanna go and look at it. I will now open the poll. So please, can you fill out your voting cards? And as a reminder, if you have any questions relating to the poll, please ask one of the representatives from Link Market Services before lodging your voting card. Can representatives from Link Market Services please collect the voting cards as they're completed? And I'll, once done I'll close the poll . Kevin, can I now close the poll? So I now close the poll and ask Link Market Services to count the votes.
As the counting of the votes on these items may take some time, and as previously advised, the results will be released on the ASX platform and on the website once the counting has been completed and reviewed by the external auditor, and proceedings concluded. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal business of the meeting, and that's why we can switch the air conditioning back on. I really thank you for your attendance, and formally declare the meeting closed. Now we get to the, the exciting part and the interesting part, where we get a presentation from the Managing Director and CEO, Lawrie Conway. Following that, we will open the floor to questions, and we'll try our best to answer them.
Thank you, Jake, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be able to present to you about Evolution and where we're taking the company in the next few years. Before going into the presentation, I want to reiterate what Jake said in his speech, which is to acknowledge and thank all of our Evolution team, our contractors and service providers, who either turn up each day to work and perform safely with a strong commitment to satisfy their requirements of their job or to provide us with the support and services we need to deliver for you, our shareholders. We have a highly engaged and dedicated workforce, and their efforts are appreciated by the board, the leadership team, and me. The presentation today is gonna be very similar to what we presented at our Investor Day in June.
This is because we believe it's appropriate, that given a large number of you, our shareholders, were not able to or did not attend the Investor Day in June. Jake touched on the macro world in the gold space and what's driving gold, and he did touch on a bit of our business through the last year. So you will see a little bit of duplication in the presentation, but we do think it's important to give you full context of where we're taking the company in the coming years. The next two slides contain details of the Mungari production target, where we're undergoing an expansion to double the processing capacity and the customary disclosures required regarding forward-looking statements. We're reminded to not place undue reliance on these. So firstly, a snapshot of the company.
Since last year's annual general meeting, we've seen our market capitalization increase by nearly 50% to around AUD 7 billion, while the Australian dollar spot gold price has increased by 14% to over AUD 3,000 an oz. Our focus on margin over volume, on quality over quantity, remains a key characteristic for the company. We generated AUD 944 million of operating cash flow last year, which is the equivalent of around AUD 1,450 for every oz we produced, and is a very healthy margin. Our FY 2024 guidance is 770,000 oz at a sector-leading AUD 1,370 per oz.
As Jake outlined in his speech, we have a sound track record of paying dividends, with our 21st consecutive dividend paid last month, even after a year of heavy capital investment and some adverse impacts of extreme weather. As a company, we continue to be recognized for our sustainability performance. As Jake mentioned, the rankings and ratings that we receive from the various agencies reflect the effort and work we put in to sustainability. And in terms of sustainability, as Jake said, it is integrated into everything that we do. This is seen through the human-centric lens, which incorporates health, safety, the environment, the community, including our First Nation partners. First and foremost is performing our jobs in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. We work in an industry which exposes us to high risks and have an obligation to provide a safe and healthy work environment for our people.
Jake said in his speech that we had less injuries in FY 2023, but we continue to work hard to reduce this every day. In the same period, we've reduced our absolute emissions by over 11% against our FY 2020 baseline, putting us well on track to achieve our 30% reduction by 2030. While the implementation of globally aligned standards for sustainability and climate-related disclosures will increase reporting complexity and associated compliance costs, we are well positioned to comply with these new standards. At Evolution, our strategy and approach has been to build a business that will prosper through the cycle. This has not changed since the company was formed nearly 12 years ago. It is clear, and it is consistent. In the recent high-cost inflationary environment, it has shown to be a very good strategy that works.
We want a concentrated portfolio of high-quality assets that are long life, low cost, in jurisdictions that are first world. We are willing to take appropriate geological, operational, and financial risks to enable us to generate adequate returns for our shareholders. This is backed by having a strong balance sheet. The realization of value is driven by how we execute against the strategy, and this is underpinned by our values, which we live every day. Turning our attention to our portfolio, I want to show you where as a company we are, and how it places us well for the future. This slide shows the assets in the portfolio and where they are placed in terms of key metrics from a value perspective. The mine life of each asset is shown on the horizontal axis, and we are targeting a 10-year minimum mine life at each of our assets.
Annual production is shown on the vertical axis. We are targeting a scale of production to generate strong margins and cash flow. The average rate of return is shown in the bubble size. When we acquire assets, we want to make sure that they generate adequate returns on those investments. The percentage of the asset payback, including acquisition and all subsequent capital, is shown by the bubble color. Starting with Ernest Henry on the top right of the chart, which is where we want to move our assets to the top right, the update in reserves and the outcomes of the recent pre-feasibility study now gives us a 17-year mine life on an asset which has repaid over 90% of all acquisition costs and subsequent capital. It is our highest returning asset at a rate of 25% per annum for each year that we have owned that asset.
The pre-feasibility study for the extension at Ernest Henry has shown that it will deliver an even better return at 28% at a conservative copper and gold prices of $12,000 per ton and AUD 2,400 per oz. At Cowal, this asset should be finishing operations next year when we acquired it. It now has 17 years remaining and has fully repaid all of our investment, including the recent investment in the new underground mine. As this new underground mine ramps up, and with Stage H of the open pit now fully back into ore, this asset is moving back to a high net cash generation mode again. The average return on investment at Cowal has been 16% per annum, which is at an average gold price materially below what the spot price is today.
Therefore, the rate of return at Cowal is expected to increase materially as we go forward. Mungari is an asset that should be nearing the end of its mine life, based on the life it had when we acquired it. Kundana, the acquisition a few years ago, was an enabler to the plant expansion project that we announced in June. This now gives Mungari a 15-year mine life, allowing the improved production rate, payback, and return on investment to be realized. As Jake outlined, Red Lake had a slow start to the state it was in when we acquired it. It needed a lot of capital investment to turn this around. Our immediate focus at this asset is to get Red Lake consistently delivering to plan and generating material positive cash flows.
The last one on the slide, which is Jake's pet project at the moment, is at Mount Rawdon. It really is an exciting renewable energy option play for us. Long ago, it repaid all the investment we made in that asset, and it now has a unique opportunity to convert itself into a multigenerational renewable energy asset that could be very valuable for Evolution shareholders. Looking at the combined portfolio, it is exciting to see that we have a suite of assets with long lives ahead, which are able to maintain or improve their rates of return and payback, and we continue to focus on that. The last slide showed where we have brought the portfolio up until today. This slide is more important in that it talks about the exciting future we have across the portfolio.
We are in the enviable position where all of the assets in the portfolio have significant organic growth opportunities. In addition to having this growth pipeline, we have flexibility to time and sequence each project. At Cowal, we're ramping up the new underground mine to support the existing open pit. This will lift production by 16% this year and deliver a material increase in cash flow. We are progressing a feasibility study, which will extend the open pit by 10 years and take the mine life out to 2042. We recently received approval from the regulator for the mine life to be out to 2045, which is an important milestone for this project. The recent feedback on the environmental impact statements from the public on the project was very positive.
Ernest Henry, the pre-feasibility outcomes that I mentioned before were exceptional, in that we've been able to extend the mine life out to 2040, with an increase in gold and copper reserves by 124% and 103%, respectively. The economics of this project are really outstanding. The NPV of the study shows $690 million at very conservative metal prices that I mentioned earlier, and at spot prices, this NPV lifts to over $1 billion. It shows a short payback period of around 1 year from first ore under both price scenarios and delivers a rate of return of between 28% and 38%. This does not take into account the very significant exploration success we've had in the first 18 months of ownership. Stopped working, battery. There we go.
Moving to Mungari, where we approved, as I said, the expansion project in June, that more than doubles the processing capacity from March 2026. The expansion allows us to transform this site into a cornerstone asset with a lot longer life and materially lower costs. We now have a mine life, as I said, out to 2038, with further extension opportunities. The project will generate an incremental NPV of around AUD 260 million at a rate of return of 19% at conservative metal prices. The project is expected to reduce the all-in sustaining cost by 18% to an average of $1,750 per oz, with this expected to be lower in the first few years post-expansion. As I mentioned earlier, Mount Rawdon provides that unique opportunity in closing the mine via a transition to a renewable energy project.
We expect an investment decision on this project by December 2024, and as it is a project around renewable energy, it's not something we'll be constructing, but it does provide benefit for our shareholders when we monetize that project. I touched on Red Lake earlier, where the primary objective is to become more stable and consistently delivering material free cash flow over the next few years. We do have a big resource base there, which provides options for expansion in the future, but we will only consider this once that consistency and cash flow generation has been achieved. The plan that we are executing is very much as well aimed at delivering high returns, but also deleveraging the balance sheet.
We've repeatedly said that in FY 2023, it was a peak year of capital investment, and from there, we would be able to move to a period of deleveraging and continue our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Over the next three years, our plan is to deliver around AUD 1.1 billion of additional cash before tax as compared to last financial year. This will be achieved through increasing operating cash flow via higher production at sector-leading costs, through lower capital intensity and a restructured balance sheet. At spot prices, the additional cash flow benefit would be another AUD 800 million. Our production this year is guided at 770,000 oz, and we are targeting around 800,000 ozs for FY 2025 and FY 2026.
At the end of FY 2026, we expect to have four long life assets producing at their higher run rates. The priority of margin over ounces will remain, and our all-in sustaining cost for FY 2024 is guided at $1,370 an oz, which is a 6% reduction from last year. We'll continue our cost discipline to optimize margin and manage the impacts of ongoing inflation. Our commitment to capital discipline is evidenced by the lower capital investment over the next three years, which is averaging just under $200 million per annum lower than FY 2023. As Jake mentioned, we haven't introduced any new major projects since last plan, and we only have one project in execution at the moment.
With this pipeline of high-value projects, we restructured the balance sheet in June to allow us to have greater flexibility on the timing of projects, while continuing to reduce net debt and increase returns to our shareholders. Our balance sheet is in a very good position, and as I mentioned at the start of the presentation, we've returned over AUD 1.1 billion to our shareholders since our first dividend. The strength and resilience of the balance sheet is highlighted by investment-grade rating, which was reaffirmed in July as part of the annual review process. We have long-term debt profile maturity, which is matched to our operating cash flows. The cost of debt is very low at 4.5%, with 82% of our debt fixed. We have adequate liquidity, and we have no debt repayments due until the December 2024 quarter.
We have modest hedging, with over 95% of our gold production unhedged for the next few years, and our copper production is fully unhedged. So that's where we're planning to take the organization in the next few years, but I thought it'd be appropriate just to touch on the first quarter of FY 2024. Our FY 2024 guidance has been maintained and reconfirmed. Our all-in sustaining cost in the quarter decreased 16% to $1,612 per oz. The ramp-up of the Cowal Underground continued, with first phase delivered during the quarter, and we awarded the EPC contract for the Mungari 4.2 project, which now locks in 60% of that project cost with a contractor who has secured the required workforce and the required accommodation.
Looking at some of the drilling results we had in the quarter, Mungari's results really underpin our strategy of continuing to discover and delineate further high-grade underground ore to support the plant expansion, positioning further upside of the mineral resource at Mungari. The results at Cowal further expand the potential of the underground mine, reinforcing our focus on delivering continued and reliable higher-grade underground production in the coming years. At Ernest Henry, the drilling program recommenced in September, and we now have two rigs in place drilling from underground platforms. Our drilling targets are twofold: Ernie Jr, which has potential to increase the ore body and footprint and confirming continuity of mineralization, and Bert, nearer to surface, that provides scale and extension opportunities as well.
Collectively, these results confirm that the organic opportunities we outlined in our Investor Day in June have much more upside potential, and we're gonna continue to work on those opportunities. In summary, we've got a portfolio of assets where we'll continue to prioritize margin over ounces and maintain our focus on safely and reliably delivering the plan. We've been successful to date in increasing the mine life of each of our assets and have had further upside for either mine life extension or margin improvement. This will enable us to deliver sustained, sector-leading returns for our shareholders. We have the flexibility to time these projects, and we'll continue our capital discipline. Doing this will allow us to deliver cash flows through the cycle, leading to increased returns for our shareholders. That concludes my presentation today.
However, before I hand back to Jake, it would be remiss of me not to call out a couple of people. There's two people sitting down the back of the room. They're gonna get a little bit embarrassed, but don't worry, they know who they are. It's Donna Leske and Liesl Kemp. They're in our Investor Relations team. You wanna stand up? Gonna embarrass you a little bit. I'm not gonna make you do a speech. Donna and Liesl have been in the Investor Relations team since the company was formed. They, they live in Perth. They have been fundamental to making sure that we deliver high-quality information to our shareholders since the company was formed. I don't know why, but they've decided they wanna go and play golf five days a week rather than come to work at Evolution.
On behalf of the board and our shareholders, thank you, Donna and Liesl, and we do wish you all the best in the future.
Thanks. Thanks, Lawrie. I'll now address the questions which were submitted prior to the meeting, and hopefully, we'll get another round of questions from the floor later. So the first question is: When will Red Lake in Canada become cash flow positive? Has anybody taken responsibility for purchasing this black hole asset, management or board, and/or board? I think you've heard a lot about the turnaround at Red Lake, and you heard from Lawrie and myself that, you know, whilst FY 2023 and the asset to date has been more difficult to turn around, we think that persistence and perseverance is the right strategy.
It did produce AUD 27 million of operating cash flow last quarter, and we need to get that reliability and predictability up, but it's really around the capital investment that needs to reduce over time as well as we get consistency and performance at the asset. So it's undoubtedly been a much more challenging asset than we expected when we acquired the asset. So I think that then goes to our value, or the second part of the question, which is our value around accountability, 'cause I think it plays right to that. And, you know, we have a core value of accountability, which is, I own it, whether it's good or bad. And in this case, I own it. I supported and recommended to the board and sought approval that we acquire Red Lake.
And so if anyone is accountable for it, it is me. I do hope that in due course, you look at the portfolio of assets and look at the 8 transactions we've done as we've developed the company, and Red Lake is seen as part of that change. But I put my hand up. I'm accountable for that acquisition, and happy to take any other questions around that asset going forward. Second question: When will you have 50% of your management and board members female and proportionally other diversities? This is a challenging one, largely because the sector that we operate in isn't very diverse.
You know, I've consistently said on forums and promoted the fact that really, to change the diversity of our industry, we need to get young people to join the industry who are diverse in all aspects. So I'm very proud that our graduate program represents a much bigger range of diversity than maybe our overall workforce and the sector. But I think it's something that the sector needs to work at, and certainly, Evolution is committed to doing that. When we do select board members, you know, we will prioritize recruiting highly skilled and talented and qualified directors.
We are committed to trying to get to 30% of the board being female, but we also do think it's really important that those people are appropriately qualified and skilled, as are people like Andrea and Vicky. So the next question: With the continuing and rapid devaluation of the U.S. dollar and consequently, the Australian dollar, is the company building up its own gold and/or silver reserves as in increasing its holdings of physical gold and silver bullion? Is the company aware of the historical reality of hyperinflation and the term, and I'm quoting here, "We will need a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a loaf of bread?" Is the company familiar with many worthy projections of gold reaching $5,000 in 2024, and the conservative projections of $3,500 in 2024?
Thank you for the opportunity to submit my questions. I think as a shareholder, what I'd encourage you to think of is what you own in the company, and essentially, what the asset of our... The biggest asset outside of people, which I said is our most important asset. The second most important asset that we own is the gold, and copper, and metal that we own in the ground. There, we own 30 million oz of mineral resource and 10 million oz of mineral reserves. So you are really buying a share of, metal that is in the ground. Our job is to get it out efficiently and safely, and profitably out of the ground.
Essentially, as a shareholder of this company, you are invested in metal in the ground, and our job is to grow that mineral inventory base, and take it out of the ground safely and profitably. We have not contemplated actually not selling our gold and holding it in physical gold at this point in time. The next question is, gold is on the way up. Why is the share price low at AUD 3.59 when fair value is up? Another good question. Lucky this morning, it was a little higher when I looked last. Look, I think that's a difficult one to answer in terms of, you know, I think it's a combination.
As I said in my remarks, it's around the fact that I think that people have been... Investors have generally been risk-off to date. They're putting their money in the bank rather than in gold securities. I think the only thing that we can do is largely what Laurie outlined in his presentation: deliver consistently, reliably, and become the go-to gold company for when that change in the, in investment sentiments, occurs. Are you interested in any asset, asset, any of the assets of former Newcrest? I think, again, what you heard from Laurie is that we do have a strong pipeline of growth opportunities. But we have said that our goal is to have a concentrated portfolio of up to eight assets.
And whenever we do something, we'll look at things through the lens of whether we're improving the quality of that portfolio, and this is a very important and it's accretive to shareholders. So it would be remiss of us not to look at assets that are up for sale, if these assets do come up for sale, and they are not yet up for sale. But in terms of whether we have an interest in them, that would be dependent on our view of those assets and a detailed and thorough view, and I think you can be confident that we'd only be interested in them if they were accretive to you as shareholders, and they improve the quality of our portfolio. The next question is, are you looking into other metals or takeover bids, either coming for Evolution or other companies?
I think there, if the question is around lithium and rare earths and various other metals, you can be confident that we will stick to our preferred metals of gold and copper, and you can be very confident that we'll stick to jurisdictions, like Australia and Canada, Tier 1 jurisdictions. So that is the end of the questions which were submitted, so it's now over to the floor for any further questions.
Yes. My question is, Evolution have interest in other gold companies. I can't off the top of my head remember what they are. Where would you find that in the annual report? What... How many gold companies were invested in?
You'd find it in the annual report on the balance sheet under investments or non-current assets, and there'd be a note to the balance sheet. I think they list it out in the notes to the... So, those have largely arisen as we've sold assets, and we've acquired an interest in those companies. We're not active in those companies, but we do have some investments in gold exposures. We also have royalties where we've disposed of three assets, as we've tried to improve the quality of the portfolio, because as counterintuitive as it is, you can actually improve the quality of your asset base by selling your worst-performing assets. And so, you know, we've sold three assets in our journey.
Mount Rawdon is the only asset that we started with in 2011 and remains in our portfolio. Each time we've sold them, we have tried to retain a royalty or an interest in the company that has acquired them, so that in the event, in the unlikely event, that we were wrong, and the company that acquires them is successful with the asset, we continue to have exposure to that asset. Note 16, page 248. I might... Yeah. Thank you for the question.
Okay, well, the second quick question.
Mm-hmm.
What's the company's policy toward hedging? Do we still hedge any of our gold or what's the-
We have hedged less than 5% of our gold, and we've only used it to hedge exposure against capital investments that we're making. So we did hedge the investment at Mungari. The expansion is AUD 250 million, so we took out a small amount of hedging, which was done at over AUD 3,000 an ounce. But our policy is to be unhedged unless we are trying to protect a capital investment that we want to ensure we get the appropriate returns, which Lawrie outlined earlier.
Thank you.
With the Mount Rawdon Pumped Hydro, can you explain in greater detail how the pumped hydro will function with the open pit, and I presume a tailings dam or something of that nature?
Sure.
Can you give a little bit more detail around that?
Thank you for the question. I think I'll finish at 1:30. So, the Mount Rawdon Gold Mine was started, I think, in 1991. Pete, is that right, or... It will be 25 years ago. In 2000, sorry, sorry, 2000. And it had a mine life of eight years at the time. So mining is scheduled to be completed at the, in the middle of next year. And then we'll be processing low-grade stockpiles for a period longer. So gold mining is effectively being completed. And so the opportunity at Mount Rawdon is, would have been either to sell the asset or to close the asset, and there's a liability associated with closure.
We were approached by ICA Partners, who are specialists in the renewable space, to convert Mount Rawdon into a pumped hydro scheme about four years ago. So there's been about four years of work ongoing on it. So pumped hydro will use the lower dam. It's the open pit is the lower dam, and the topography of Mount Rawdon is suited to a pumped hydro because it's steep topography, and the head height, which is really important, is about 500 meters. So it's well-suited, and we own the land. It's a disturbed site already, and it's an amazing opportunity to turn an old closing gold mine into what it... It will be a 100-year renewable asset. And Andrew will be able to answer any detailed questions. He's an expert on pumped hydro.
I encourage you to ask him about it, but it's a really interesting project.
Jake, you mentioned earlier that there is a long way to go, in your opinion, before you would regard Evolution as a great company. Appreciating that no company, like no person, is ever perfect, if you could wave a magic wand and have three wishes, overnight, as to ways in which or three ways in which you could make the company better than it is now, what would those three wishes be?
Wow! That's a really good question. Look, thanks for traveling from Adelaide to be here today and for being a loyal and supportive shareholder. We do appreciate it. I said, actually, there's not one thing that would make us great. I said, I don't think you ever become great because once you think you've become great, you're probably not a great company, and you should stop. So I think it's always seeking that improvement. I think it's, you know, we have a great culture, and we have great people. But it is an industry which, you know, is challenged in terms of attracting skills, attracting people to the sector.
So making sure that our people really experience the highlight of their career, because it's not the people sitting on the stage over here, other than Lawrie, who do the real work and make this company great. It's the 3,000 people across our sites who do that. So being able to continue to attract talented people, really being able to make their careers a highlight of their time at Evolution, a highlight of their career. That means giving them opportunity. It means giving them exposure, keeping our people safe, you know, doing all the things about sustainability with our partners and our stakeholders, and being focused on the core values of Evolution. And those are excellence, accountability, respect, and safety.
I think if we can do that consistently, we will be a great company, 'cause that will make people empowered to make decisions. You know, I think we've made bold and courageous decisions. As I mentioned, I don't think Red Lake necessarily was, you know, it was a it's a challenging decision, but you've got to keep making those bold decisions. I think the challenge for a company like Evolution is we've grown from pretty much nothing. I was driving past our first office in Bondi Junction yesterday. You know, there was nothing. We've grown into a decent-sized company. But we wanna retain that agility, that courageousness, because we don't want to transition into a company that is just entirely, you know, process-driven, scared of making decisions and, and not courageous.
I hope that answers your question. Of course, Glenn discovering a high-grade zone like we had at Red Lake historically would also be great. There you go.
Thank you. Quick question. Ernest Henry suffered a flood episode this year. How do you approach the investment in preventative measures, in the sense you don't know it's a five year event or a 10-year event or a 20-year event, maybe too long?
Yeah.
But it's just getting that balance right on capital investment.
So no, I think that's a very valid question. I mean, you know, Ernest Henry had this flood events. You know, I mentioned the fact that we responded, I think, very well and limited the damage. The damage was still severe. The mine was out for three to four months, and cost us effectively AUD 160 million dollars of revenue, in that period of time. So we've done a full analysis of the root causes. You know, we try and ensure that our mines are weatherproof for one in 100-year events, at least. And are in fact, you know, capable of withstanding whatever the environment throws at it. So that, you know, the, the...
We understand what went wrong at the mine, in addition to the fact that the rain was there, and we think we've ensured that that would not occur again. Fiona, have I covered off correctly? Thank you. Anything else? No, I... We now invite you for the for refreshments, which will be served outside. But really, thank you for coming. I encourage you to talk to the people over here who you'll notice are in a tie or smartly dressed. They're probably from Evolution. We don't normally wear ties. But thanks for coming along. Thanks for your support. And just a quick call-out to the people who've really made this happen. Lindsay, Natalie, and Justine, who've organized all of this. Laura, and Rocky, for getting all of this prepared.
Justine, thanks a lot. It is appreciated. I have the easy job of just standing here and reading out what has been put in front of me. Thank you.