Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Evolution Mining FY 2024 half-year financial results conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jake Klein, Executive Chair. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Darcy. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning. As always, we really appreciate it. I'm turning to the presentation that was released on the ASX this morning, and on page three we've set up the order of the call. I'll start by making a few brief remarks. Lawrie Conway, our CEO and Managing Director, will then take you through a business update, where you will hear that we remain on track to deliver FY 2024 production and cost guidance. Barrie will talk you through the financial results, which demonstrate our cash generation is gaining momentum. And finally, Glen will provide an update on the mineral resources and reserves, which will showcase our very high-quality portfolio of assets. I do want to start by acknowledging that the last month since we released our December quarterly report has been challenging.
For those of you who have provided us feedback, we hear you and we are listening. We know we need to safely deliver our guidance, and we also know that we need to build predictability into our business. I assure you that everyone at Evolution understands this imperative. To achieve this, we also recognize that we will need to be focused and not distracted. We also know that our business is well positioned. If you turn to slide four, an area that I think investors have been looking for is highlighted in the first column. Our cash generation is increasing. In the half-year, net mine cash flow was up 136% to AUD 203 million, underlying EBITDA increased by 28% to AUD 573 million, and our gearing reduced to 29%.
With copper and gold prices remaining elevated and a lower capital intensity going forward, investors should feel confident that this momentum in higher cash generation will be further demonstrated in the second half, as we also benefit from the capital investment we have made in the portfolio. Our EBITDA margin of 43% is high, and our portfolio now has an average mine life of around 15 years, and this is based only on all reserves. The quality of the geological upside in our assets is reflected in the fact that, excluding Northparkes, we pretty much replaced all the ounces we mined over the last 12 months, and our success with the drill bit delivered a very material increase in copper ore reserves.
You may recall that when we acquired Northparkes in December, we said that a priority was to release a JORC-compliant resource and reserve, which we have done today. This confirms that Northparkes has a very large metal inventory, over 400 million tons of resource, which gives us great confidence in the very long mine life ahead of us at this operation. As you will hear from Lawrie, the integration and first couple of months at the operation are going well. Its addition to the portfolio also provides investors with increased exposure to copper, with it now making up about 30% of our revenue. If you look at copper's contribution to our mineral resources, it now makes up around 40% of the in-ground metal value.
As we treat copper as a byproduct credit, this exposure to copper provides us with a long-term structural competitive advantage over our peers with respect to costs. Now I want to turn to slide five. I think a pretty good analog for underlying value is looking at growth of a company's mineral resources on a per-share basis. After all, outside of our people, the most valuable asset that we have and any other mining company has is the metal it owns in the ground. The chart shows that, as a shareholder of Evolution, you have had significant growth in both gold and copper resources on a per-share basis since we formed the company in 2011.
In other words, in spite of the many ounces we have mined and the almost AUD 1.2 billion we have returned to shareholders in dividends, there is more copper and gold attributable to each Evolution share than at any other time in our 12-year history. Another good indicator of accretive value is the cost of discovery. If you look at our long-term track record in this area, we have added ounces to our mineral resources through only discovery, and here we are excluding ounces that we have acquired at a cost of less than AUD 50 an ounce of gold. If you include copper as a gold equivalent, it reduces to below AUD 40 an ounce. For an update as to how we're going to get these ounces and tons out of the ground safely and efficiently, I'll now hand over to Lawrie for a business update.
Thank you, Jake, and good morning, everyone. I'll provide you with an update on the business and an outlook for the remainder of FY 2024. First, to slide six. Our group FY 2024 guidance remains unchanged, with production within the range of 789,000 ounces of gold and 62,500 tons of copper at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 1,340 per ounce, ±5% for all guidance metrics. All operations are on track to produce the midpoint of guidance or better, except for Red Lake, which we updated in our December quarter report. The performance in January was good and ahead of plan, which keeps us on track. Specifically, the key drivers for the March quarter are completing the planned major shutdowns at Cowal and Ernest Henry, as well as ramping up the Cowal underground to be at commercial production by the end of the quarter.
These activities will enable higher production levels in the June quarter. Additionally, the continued ramp-up at the Cowal underground in the June quarter will enable higher throughput at higher grades. In the June quarter, we do have a planned major shutdown at Northparkes, which was included in our guidance for the asset. At Mungari, the June quarter will see a higher proportion of higher-grade underground material compared to the March quarter. Moving to slide seven. At Red Lake, we took the decision last month to change their plan so that they deliver an improved cash position for the year, as well as focusing on being more reliable. Margin and productivity are more important than just ounces for this operation. Pleasingly, January's performance was on plan, and this has continued into February. That said, we need to maintain the discipline for this to continue for the remainder of the year.
Our organic growth projects remain on track and budget, with Mungari 4.2 project advancing well. The updated reserves we released today for Mungari provide us with even more confidence in this project. The studies at Ernest Henry and Cowal are tracking to plan. Overall, our capital remains within the guidance range. The good progress we have made in the first half has seen us transition to positive cash generation, which is what we indicated in our Investor Day in June last year. As we deliver the plan in the second half of the year, including banking the benefits of higher-than-planned metal prices, this will see us materially increase the cash flow and continue to deleverage in the second half of the year. Moving to slide eight and looking at Northparkes. The acquisition was successfully completed in December, and in January we paid the final working capital adjustment.
This adjustment was essentially funded from proceeds received during January from a pre-acquisition shipment. As part of our purchase price allocation, the contingent consideration has been fair valued at AUD 28 million. It is to be noted here that this contingent consideration was above our base case valuation, and should we pay this over the next three years, Evolution would benefit by approximately AUD 70 million in additional revenue. The integration work is making good progress. We've had very good engagement and support with our external stakeholders. Rob Cunningham started as the General Manager a couple of weeks ago, and the site leadership team structure is in place. Rob has extensive experience at and knowledge of Northparkes. The first joint venture meeting was held, including a visit by Sumitomo to the Cowal operation.
As I mentioned on the call last month, the operation made a net cash contribution in December post-stream commitments, and this continued into January. The operation has delivered to plan in the first two months. We delivered on our commitment to report the resources and reserves today, and Glen will cover this shortly. The feasibility study for E22 is on track, and there has been very good engagement with the study team on assessment of the alternative sublevel cave option. The study is due to be completed in the June quarter. We are planning a site visit before the end of the financial year to show the quality of this well-established long-life asset, which has significant upside potential. Thank you for your time this morning, and I'll now hand over to Barrie, who'll take you through our financial results.
Thank you, Lawrie, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide nine. During this half, we delivered an improved set of financial results with higher profitability and cash generation. Underlying profit after tax was up 54%, and we started to deleverage, driven by a 28% increase in underlying EBITDA that increased by AUD 127 million. An 18% increase in revenue and continued cost management drove the EBITDA margin up to 43% from 39%. Capital expenditure reduced as planned, and major capital expenditure was AUD 71 million lower than the same time last year, with net mine cash flow increasing AUD 117 million, which is 136%.
Gearing is 29.7%, down from 32.8% at year-end. The board declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.02 per share. Now moving to slide 10. The most pleasing part of our results is the momentum we are building with generating cash to reduce debt and provide shareholder returns.
As we said at our Investor Day last year, our capital intensity is reducing. Major capital per ounce is down AUD 198, or 22%, compared to FY 2023, and total capital expenditure is AUD 76 million lower than half-one of FY 2023. The base plant for the Cowal underground is now commissioned, and the mine is ramping up to commercial production. Capital expenditure guidance remains unchanged. Compared to FY 2023, the all-in margin per ounce increased 3.5x from AUD 173 per ounce to AUD 600, driven by a strong gold price, lower capital expenditure, and continued cost control. The graph on the bottom right of the slide paints the resulting picture of how our group cash flow before debt, M&A, and dividends grew from a cash outflow of AUD 95 million in quarter four of FY 2023 to cash generation of AUD 79 million in quarter two of FY 2024.
As production increases during half two, driven by the Cowal ramp-up and increases in Red Lake production, this momentum will continue to build. Lastly, on slide 11, the board declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.02 per share. This is the 22nd consecutive dividend, which in total is now approaching AUD 1.2 billion since inception. It will be paid on the 5th of April to shareholders that are on the register on 28th February. Our balance sheet is strong and with AUD 716 million in available liquidity and a fully repaid revolving credit facility has adequate flexibility to provide shareholder returns through dividends. As announced at our Investor Day last year, our debt maturity profile is aligned with longer expected mine lives and their cash generation profile. This is evidenced by our investment-grade credit rating that was reaffirmed in August.
Our cost of debt is a low 4.99%, of which 74% is long-term debt fixed at a rate of 4.5% per year. Over the next 2.5 years, around 95% of our production is unhedged, with only 120,000 ounces hedged to cover the capital of the Mungari 4.2 project at an average price of AUD 3,185 an ounce. In conclusion, we are very pleased that cash generation started to gain momentum during the first half, which will continue as we deliver higher production in the second. We have a strong and flexible balance sheet with a revolver fully repaid and AUD 716 million in available liquidity. I will now hand over to Glen for the MROR update. Thank you.
Thank you, Barrie, and good morning to everyone. I'd like to turn your attention to slide 12 of the presentation, which references results reported in our December 2023 annual mineral resources and/or reserve statement, which we released to the ASX this morning. Gold and copper resources are up year-over-year by 8% and 134%, respectively. And likewise, our reserves have increased by 15% for gold and 100% for copper relative to the December 2022 result. A key message I want to leave with you is that the MROR grew by a combination of acquisition, drilling, and design changes. The other key message is that we have a quality portfolio of assets in great geological addresses that we will continue to grow.
Our MROR growth in 2023 was driven primarily by the acquisition of Northparkes, which, on an 80% attributable basis, added 2.6 million resource ounces of gold and 2.3 million resource tons of copper, along with 660,000 reserve ounces of gold and 390,000 reserve tons of copper. As Jake mentioned earlier, you will recall in early December when we announced the acquisition of Northparkes that we cited resources and reserves as reported by CMOC in their public disclosure. At the time, we committed to do the work which would enable us to report the Northparkes MROR under and in accordance with the JORC 2012 Code. This work was completed over December and January, whereby we have determined that the result is consistent with the findings of our extensive due diligence. The main adjustment we made was to account for a full year of mine depletion in 2023.
You will be able to find the Northparkes material information summary and Table 1 in the rather lengthy appendix of our MROR statement. The next step at Northparkes is to report the mineral resource to include the ore reserve so that it is consistent with the way we will report the MROR for our other assets. What this means is that the current mineral resource reported this morning for Northparkes does not include the metal that informs the ore reserve. We inherited this reporting situation from CMOC, which is identical to the way Canadian companies report their resources and reserves. Our aim over the next six months is to rerun the mineral resource at Northparkes to include the ore reserve.
A conservative estimate of the full and positive impact Northparkes has on the group results can be achieved by viewing Table 1 on page two of this morning's MROR announcement and summing the Northparkes ore reserve, the contained gold and copper, to the metal totals of the reported group mineral resources. Moving to slide 13, I'd like to focus your attention on the waterfall charts, which highlight year-over-year changes to the group MROR. As mentioned, the key growth driver of our mineral resource was the Northparkes acquisition. However, we also reported a material addition at Mungari, driven mainly by a higher gold price assumption, along with increases delivered in the Kundana underground from our drilling programs. The Mungari result is a 10% increase in its mineral resource.
We also realized notable additions at Cowal, driven mainly by drilling successes in the underground and as well at Ernest Henry. As Jake mentioned, our long-term group discovery cost, updated to reflect the changes in 2023, is under AUD 50 per ounce for gold additions to the mineral resource and a very competitive AUD 37 per ounce on a gold equivalent basis. At Red Lake, we are reporting a reduction in the mineral resource. The main drivers of the change are mining depletion, reclassification of the resource at Aviation, which has moved some of the mineralization out of the inferred category based on recent drilling results, and alignment of the resource cutoff grade of several ore bodies in the lower areas of Campbell, Red Lake, and Cochenour to the current mining costs.
Our mineral resources are reported within optimized pit shells or underground mining shapes, assuming a long-term gold price of AUD 2,500 per ounce gold and AUD 12,000 per tonne copper. The one exception is Ernest Henry, where the estimate is reported within the interpreted 0.7% copper envelope. Outside of Northparkes, group ore reserves grew substantively, with a key contribution from Ernest Henry for both gold and copper. Pleasingly, the Ernest Henry ore reserve doubled during the year relative to the size of the ore body when we acquired 100% ownership two and a bit years ago. We realized a 30% addition to reserves at Mungari, reinforcing our confidence that throughput will be maintained at the 4.2 million tonne milling rate deep into the mine life at Mungari. Our ore reserves assume long-term and gold and copper prices of AUD 1,800 per ounce and AUD 9,000 per tonne, respectively.
I'm going to conclude my section with some comments on the growth history of gold and copper resources and reserves since the formation of the company. We have built our business through a series of creative and accretive M&A transactions that have provided the foundation of our business, from which we have been able to significantly grow our resources and reserves. We have outpaced depletion of our MROR with growth from drilling, along with modeling, optimization, and design updates. A key ingredient in our success is the identification and acquisition of assets in world-class geological addresses where we can continue to unlock value with our drilling programs. With that, I'll hand back to Jake for closing comments.
Thanks, Glen. Just before opening the lines for questions, I'd ask you to turn briefly to slide 14, where we've summarised the key messages we'd like you to take away from this. As you'll see, our cash generation is increasing. There is no change to our guidance. The quality of our portfolio is improving. Our balance sheet has started deleveraging, and I assure you, we as a team know exactly what is expected of us for the remainder of the year. With that, Mel, can you please open the lines for questions?
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Kate McCutcheon with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Lawrie, Jake, and Glen. At Northparkes, you mentioned that the JV meeting went well and you're assessing the SLC option for the E22 study due out next quarter. Is the JV supportive of the sublevel cave versus a block cave? I guess I'd interpret the strategy of maximizing cash flow over maximizing NPV. Would that be fair, and what comments can you give around E22 looking forward?
Thanks, Kate. I'll let Lawrie answer that question.
Yeah, thanks, Kate. The first question, yes, Sumitomo is very supportive of looking at both options. That was something that they brought to the meeting from their own side. And the other thing is they want us to maximize both NPV and cash flows. They're not wedded to one. They want to make sure that the right decision is made. I think the good thing we've seen in the first couple of months has been that the site team is engaged openly around looking at both options. I think earlier on, with the previous owners, they were locked into one and thought that was the only solution, whereas at the moment, the engagement has been very positive.
I'd just add to that that I think, Kate, with a mineral inventory of the size, which is at Northparkes, and yesterday the board got an update from Glen on some of his early views on geology, and there's certainly a lot more to be discovered in the field. And I think with the inventory of that size and scale, you've got a real opportunity to optimize it. And as Lawrie says, Sumitomo came to the meeting actually constructively engaged and supportive of looking at it from both a cash flow and an NPV perspective, which may have been different to the previous owners.
Okay, got it. So June, we will get an update, or June quarter?
Yes.
Cool. And then somewhat of a strategy question, I guess, resource reserve update. You're now running AUD 1,800 for gold and AUD 409 for copper. Versus peers, you have been slower to lift those up, and they're still lower than some of the U.S. peers that we look at who have long mine lives as well. How do you think about making sure that you're making the most out of the reserves versus a conviction in pricing, I guess, or being able to flex a mine plan to take advantage of commodity prices?
I think that's a good question. We have been very conservative, and I was actually pleased to see that the bellwether of low reserve price assumptions, Barrick, is even lower than us. They're using AUD 1,200. It's something I've always looked at Mark Bristow and Barrick and thought conservative reserve price assumption is a good way to look at the long-term value of your portfolio. But on the short term, we do look at optimizing our mining strategies to take into account the higher gold price.
Of course, we're very happy that the gold price is higher, but I think a conservative gold price assumption is correct, and I think it does reflect the quality of our portfolio. And it does mean that not every reserve ounce that you compare across a portfolio of different companies is of the same quality. I would say that those with the lowest cost, the lowest price assumption, demonstrate higher quality.
Okay, thank you, Jake.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Manav Shah with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, it's Rahul Anand from Morgan Stanley. Look, two questions from me. First one, quickly on Northparkes, the adjustment to the reserves number. Am I reading that right that it's about a 30% adjustment lower? It seems like I'm just focusing on the reserves here, not the resources. And Glen did talk about how this was expected because the previous adjusted ore resource and reserve were not per the JORC Code. So how should we think about sort of how you're modeling this going forward after this cut, and what parts have you seen specifically in terms of your development plans around E22 that might have been impacted?
Rahul, I'll let Glenn answer that one.
Yeah, Rahul, so what I think might be happening here is in our acquisition announcement, the resources and reserves were cited at a 100% on a 100% basis. What we have done with the work to bring it into accordance with the JORC Code is report those resources and reserves at our attributable ownership interest, which is at 80%. That will be the difference, plus an adjustment for depletion in 2023. So I think that's perhaps where you might be sort of looking at that 30%. So it's actually not a 30% reduction. The only adjustment was for the depletion, as I said.
And I think the only other thing that, Rahul, I'd draw your attention to is that in the case of Northparkes, we have not included yet the reserves in the resource. So as Glen indicated, that'll be work which is done through this calendar year and will be added to the resources to be consistent with the way other companies report JORC resources.
Yes, that makes sense. Okay, that's fine. And then look quickly, a second one, perhaps a bit on the working capital side of things. You had a bit of a working capital release in the half past. I just wanted to understand with Northparkes coming in, where are you seeing this working capital moved to? What's the current status of Northparkes in terms of working capital requirements? So AUD 22 million was your release in this half, I take it?
Thanks, Rahul. I'll pass you on to Barrie.
So Rahul, thanks for that. I mean, when you look at the working capital on the stat balance sheet, just a couple of things to keep in mind. So you need to adjust for Northparkes and what came in. So there was AUD 70 million net trade working capital position that we assumed on that. And then also take into account that there's non-trade accruals. For example, the accruals for stamp duty and transaction costs sits on the balance sheet as well. I think the best reference point, if you want to have a look at the cash trade working capital flows for the RFEs, is to go back to the December quarterly report where we showed that outflow of AUD 57 million. And that was really in three parts.
It was as Ernest Henry came out of the weather event, it was building up some working capital. So that was a component. The Cowal long-term stockpile was about AUD 10-20 of that, and then trade creditors that decreased in the half was AUD 10-20 that made up that AUD 57. If I look ahead, considering there's increased activity into the second half, one would expect that that'll kind of up the creditors a bit. The Mungari project is also ramping up.
So a bit of an uptick in creditors from that, and then offset by the Cowal stockpile build, which is a constant feature of our working capital. So when I look ahead at working capital, I don't expect Northparkes to distort that or influence that in any material way because we got it with a full working capital position. And then I think pretty flat going forward. Don't expect any material moves there.
Okay, that's clear.
I'll just add a couple of comments there. I think as Barrie indicated, this half from June to December, you see the buildup as Ernest Henry returns to full production. So in the June half of last year, it was down because there wasn't production for that period. And then now they're back into a normal rhythm. So that's monthly. So you wouldn't see much of a swing anymore going forward with Ernest Henry. Northparkes, as Barrie said, that builds up just on an acquisition. Their concentrate shipments are not monthly like Ernest Henry just due to the volume of production. So they will move intra-quarter, but over the full year, you sort of see that even out, and therefore then you'll just have your normal creditors and debtors move. So I would expect in the second half of this year, it gets back into a steady run- rate.
Got it. Okay, that's clear. Thank you very much. That's my two. Cheers.
Thanks, Rahul.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry with UBS. Please go ahead.
Good day, team. Thanks for your time this morning. Maybe if I can just take you back to Kate's question on price assumptions. I used to think about you as a AUD 1,450 sort of reserve price. Now it's AUD 1,800, but it's probably a little bit more complicated than that. How should we think about Red Lake and Mungari going forward in terms of the assumptions and, I guess, high-level how you think about them versus the rest of your portfolio now?
I think just before handing over to Glen, I'll just make a couple of comments, Levi. I mean, as you correctly say that we used to be at AUD 1,450. I think our price increases have been materially lower than the sector. So we still are right at the bottom end. And I think as Laurie said, the focus and shift at Red Lake is now on cost margin rather than on headline production numbers. And we reset that in January as we so you can see us be much more focused on that as we're delivering. And pleasingly, for the first six weeks of this year, it is delivering to plan.
And likewise at Mungari, as we said when we answered the question from Kate, where there is opportunity to take ounces which are profitable, contribute to our cash generation, we'll take them from the pits and the mining areas where we have development in place to recover them. Glen, do you want to?
Yeah, look, I'll just add to that. Levi, particularly at Mungari, we do for our underground assume the long-term gold price assumptions for the reserve there, which is sitting there at AUD 1,800 an ounce now. I think one of the things that we do take into consideration at Mungari is with the open pits. So where we have open pit mining scheduled in a 12-18-month period, we will look at a range of gold prices and do the sensitivity analysis to understand what the best mining option will be for us and above the AUD 1,800 per ounce.
So that's certainly something that does get taken into consideration in the short term. At Red Lake, we're still utilizing the current price, well, the price assumptions that we've assumed in the update we released today. There are models at Red Lake which are run on the older assumptions, and these will be gradually updated with time.
Got it. Okay, thank you. Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matthew Frydman with MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thanks. Morning, team. Couple of questions. Firstly, if I can just dig into a little bit the falling capital intensity. And obviously, you guys have called out that that's really one of the key drivers in terms of your improvements in your cash flow. And that's clearly driven by some of your key capital projects ending. So I'm just trying to get a sense of how that looks into next year and over the medium term. So maybe firstly, a couple of questions on that.
Can you remind us or just give us a bit of a summary of what studies are expected over the next, say, six to 12 months in terms of key projects? I mean, off the top of my head, you've got the Ernest Henry Life Extension, Cowal open pit continuation study. You've just talked about the Northparkes study in answering Kate's question. Is there anything I'm missing there? Anything from Red Lake? And if you can just sort of give us the rough timing on that.
Lawrie, over to you.
Yeah, Matt, I think you've got most of them. So if we look at it, the Mungari plant expansion, that's in execution in terms of the study, the Ernest Henry study. The feasibility study runs through to the March quarter, March quarter 2025. We've got the Cowal open pit continuation, which the study's nearing completion, but ultimately, the timing on that one is going to be determined by regulatory approvals. We've made submissions back to the government this last couple of weeks. So that's now back with them, and we're waiting for what consent conditions and other requirements that would come for that before we can even go to a decision on that. And then we've obviously got the feasibility study at Northparkes on the E22, which is coming through into the June quarter.
As we said in June at the Investor Day, and those projects are outlined in that pack, we will time those as and when they're needed. When we look at Ernest Henry, every day that Glen keeps drilling and finding more metal, it makes it harder for the study team. But most of that capital is out in 2027, 2028. And when we look at the Cowal continuation, we've got that flexibility about stockpiles. We've obviously got water on the lake and how we build the bund there. And there's also the mining fleet and the mining crew. So we'll assess that over the next six months based on how the regulatory approvals go. But that's where each of those studies are at for the moment. And we're right in the middle of life of mine planning.
So, as we come to finishing this financial year, is when we'll give the outlook and guidance on these capital projects. But I think, as Barrie highlighted, net mine cash flow up 136% is being driven by two things. One, the capital intensity's decreasing, and the higher metal prices are flowing through to the bank.
Thanks very much, Lawrie. I know that there's nothing necessarily specific in terms of studies due on Red Lake, but it is a big chunk of the mine development and growth capital in FY 2024 at least. You've talked about how you reset the expectations in the near term at that asset in terms of production. But how do we think about the rate of capital spend there? I mean, you've been spending AUS 50 or AUD 60 million a quarter at least for the last two and a half years at Red Lake. Does a focus on margin going forward mean less mine development capital? Should we expect growth capital is going to roll off materially as Upper Campbell is completed? Just kind of, yeah, trying to step through how that looks.
Yeah, look, I think that's a good question, Matt. When we look at it, what John and the team are going through now, we've got two processing plants. We've got three mining areas. Certainly, you need to do a lot of development to keep the plants running. What John is now doing is working out how does he keep those plants full with the right productivities from the three mining areas that we've got available while at the same time making cash. We did that restructure of the workforce in the first quarter of this financial year and working out then what do we need going forward with that real shift in mindset rather than trying to develop and move the mining rates up to levels that basically need too much capital. And given it hasn't returned cash at the moment, that's the change in the focus for them.
I do think, though, again, and if you look in the financial statements and the turnaround at Red Lake, while it's not getting to where we need to be, the cash flow before the major capital has moved dramatically compared to the December half of last year. So we are seeing some, but we're not seeing the outcomes in terms of the ounces delivering the cash.
I think from a strategic perspective, Matt, I'd just add that our portfolio's changed materially over the last decade. I think when we started the company, the average mine life of our portfolio was like five years on a reserve life basis. It's now 15 years. That's only on reserves. So we've got 30 million ounces in resources. And if you take the copper resources as a gold equivalent, that adds another 20 with obviously the addition of Northparkes being the longest life asset.
So we're very focused on capital allocation, making sure that we only allocate to projects where it's necessary and which passes the hurdles and which fits with the overall portfolio. As you've seen over the last decade, the portfolio is subject to change as well. What I am assuring people is that there won't be additions to the portfolio, but the portfolio is continually under review.
Got it. Thanks for that, Jake. Thanks, Lawrie. Jake, maybe just quickly while I've got you talking about the portfolio and capital allocation. You called out in the presentation, obviously, the significant contribution to revenue and to sort of in situ value that the copper makes in the group now. Can I ask how that sort of drives decision-making around potential changes in the portfolio, potential acquisitions, potential divestments, and just internal capital allocation decisions? I mean, do you want to keep the copper exposure sort of circa 30%? Is that the right level? I guess, are you conscious of avoiding being overexposed to copper? Potentially, that drives decisions around asset additions, as you just spoke to.
Matt, we're not fixed on a number. I think it goes back to the strategy of quality of portfolio. And what we have found, certainly with Ernest Henry and Northparkes, we acquired the balance of Ernest Henry in 2021, and we acquired Northparkes recently. They're very large assets. They're very long life, and they're very low cost, and they're very cash-generative. So I'm not skewing our BD team to say, "Let's only look at copper-gold assets." But we've been looking at things where we think we can improve the quality of the portfolio and that mine life and cost of production. Northparkes happened to come up late last year. We'd been looking at it from February. And in fact, it was an asset that we were interested in 2021 or 2020 when the Triple Flag stream was acquired. So it's been on our radar.
It's in our backyard. But again, going back to messages that we've heard from investors, there will not be additions to the portfolio of a material nature until we have demonstrated that reliability and predictability, and investors can be confident on that reliability and predictability. And we've earned the right to grow.
That's pretty clear. Thanks for your comments, Jake. Thanks, Lawrie.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jake, Lawrie, Glen, and team. First question is just on your comments in the presentation. You talked about January seeing some very good performance operationally across the group. Can I just look into a couple of assets? So at the Cowal underground, are we still on track to declare commercial production in the March quarter? Is it now tracking well, the underground, with the paste plant, the mining sequence? So these all in relatively healthy rhythm. Thank you.
Lawrie?
Yes, Dan. So essentially, as we got to the end of December, the paste plant was nearing commissioning, and that happened through January. The tons have increased, and we'll see that continue through February and March. We're still on track based on the performance to date in this quarter to move to commercial production from the start of the fourth quarter.
Okay. Thank you. At Red Lake, on the underground mining front, there was obviously seismicity in September last year, which temporarily quarantined an area of high-grade ore. Last month, you said you expected access to be restored, and there was a regulatory decision on that as well. Have you got access to it? Has this now occurred, or is this something you still expect imminently?
We have got access back into Hanging Wall 7, Dan. That happened in January.
Thank you very much. Maybe just exploring on that Red Lake comment, I think in the presentation, there's comments about changing the mine plan to focus on cash generation. I mean, can you just expand a bit more on that? What are you doing here?
Yeah. So I mean, what John and the team have done is they've basically identified the areas that we need to get the production drilling, getting the development done to deliver consistently through the second half of the year and get their productivities up because we weren't seeing that in the first half. So we're unlikely to mine as much as we had had in our plan. And what we've seen through January and February, that shift in focus around productivity in drilling and development meters is starting to show improvements. And not only that, in the processing areas, we have seen improvements in recoveries, which was another area that John and the team wanted to focus on.
Dan, I had the opportunity of catching up with John who passed through Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and I'm actually going to Red Lake in a week's time and looking forward to seeing it. A very pleasing thing from the board's perspective on this is that Red Lake's really starting to focus on costs. Lawrie's directed them to that in this new strategy. Real focus on costs. We've seen a 10% reduction in the workforce in June. John is looking at other areas where we can optimize costs and make the mine more efficient. I think this shift in approach is going to deliver a better outcome from a portfolio perspective for us.
Okay. Thank you very much for your perspectives.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Al Harvey with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good day, team. Maybe just a quick one. Obviously, you retained the group guidance. Just wondering if you can step us through how the remainder of the portfolio should make up that 40,000 ounces taken out of Red Lake, I mean, the December Q, and I guess what the key risks are to making up that difference. All right.
Yeah. Look, as I said on the call, and again, last month, each of the assets are tracking to the midpoint of guidance or better. Red Lake is the one that we've downgraded. We've said we'll be in the range of the 789 ±5. I think you can yourself work out that it won't be the + 5. So we are in that range. What we'll see is Cowal, Ernest Henry, Mungari, Mt Rawdon, and Northparkes delivering at midpoint of guidance or better. It won't obviously offset all of that 40,000 ounces. And it is predicated on how Red Lake goes at their new target range. But as we stand at the end of January and as we stand midway through February, we're still on track for that range of the 789 ±5.
Sure. Thanks, Lawrie.
And I think just to add to that, and it was in the presentation, what we see is Cowal and Ernest Henry have their shutdowns this quarter. They get to commercial production on the underground. So yes, Cowal has a lift-up. They are able to put more tons through in the fourth quarter than the third quarter. You'll see Ernest Henry, which will be consistent quarter- on- quarter. And Mungari, as I said, you get more underground material into the fourth quarter as opposed to this quarter. We've ramped up to full mining at Paradigm. Mt Rawdon is just finalising the mining of the pit. They'll finish that in the September quarter. And Northparkes, as a cave, is performing to plan.
Sure. Just on Northparkes, I know you talked a bit about kind of a three-year cash harvest at the acquisition. I just wanted to clarify if that includes CapEx for E22 regardless of whether it's a block cave or a sublevel cave?
Yeah. When we look at that, I mean, the study will be finalized in the June quarter. Then obviously, as we said, we're looking at the two options, the block cave, the sublevel cave. Our view is that sublevel cave is the better one both from a cash and even an NPV perspective, given that it allows you to go to a block cave later in the mine life. So as we finish that, we'll be able to articulate it. But on the base of a sublevel cave, that's what we see as the next three years has been cash-positive in each of those years. Then you've got some capital investment. But that's where it currently sits. But we've just got to wait to the end of the feasibility study.
Sure. Thanks, Lawrie.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jon Bishop with Jarden Group Australia. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just probably extending a little bit around your trade payables or net payables position. I realize these are only snapshots in time, but can you give me a bit more context as to what's driven the increase over the last, call it, three years? I mean, if I look at your historicals at each of the reporting periods, you've gone from maybe net payables of around AUD 60 million about three years ago to about AUD 300 million with your December 31 numbers. Is it just a function of the increase in asset scale, or is there some underlying bits or movements there that we should be aware of?
That's Barrie answered it. Lawrie answered the question, but great, they're still being paid on time. Don't worry about that.
I think there's a couple of things to that, Jon. Yes, it has been on the assets. But I think if you do look at it through the last three years, that is when our capital spend was increasing. And so you would see at reporting dates, you'd have larger balances of payables. And then what you would see, as Barrie mentioned earlier, as we get to the December half, we've picked up the Northparkes liabilities around stamp duties and the likes that go into there. And also, as the acquisition of Ernest Henry, 100% of it at the start of 2022, we then go to having 100% of that concentrate, whereas in the past, we actually only had 30%. And so that was also in the receivables, but you also have your TCRCs that are attached to that that then have to be booked as a payable.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And just to touch on the discussions you've had with Sumitomo since you've taken the keys, you've obviously inherited some open-pit mining operations, which seem to be gold-heavy. Given your stream, that's probably not in your interest to maintain. How is that sort of dynamic going in terms of your discussions with mine plans with Sumitomo?
I'll hand that to Glen, who chaired the joint venture meeting. But I think from Sumitomo's perspective, it's making sure we get the best value out of the asset. They're obviously not linked into the stream. They didn't make that decision. But certainly, our view is pretty well aligned to theirs about optimizing the asset. Glen?
Yeah. And one of the ways in which Sumitomo have expressed to us how that is to be done is their preference is to be able to maintain that uniform, consistent production over the medium term, over the next five years, and really optimize and maximize how we mine in the underground. Noting, of course, in the open, they are short-term pits. And so they are still sort of focused and aligned with us in terms of how we want to think about Northparkes going forward.
I think just on that, Jon, one of the pits is gold-dominant, and the other is a gold-copper. So they are different pits. And just a final comment on that, I mean, I think early engagement with Sumitomo and Triple Flag has been really positive and constructive. I think they're pleased to see us as the new owner. And we're looking forward to engaging both of them to optimize the value of the asset going forward.
Just some examples of that, Jon, we've engaged the technical teams sort of on the Evolution side and on the strategy side. I mean, they have a very long history there, as you know. It would be fair to say that they probably have a deeper understanding of the asset, particularly around its history than we do. We've got the technical teams coming together, sort of sharing concepts, ideas, and really sort of trying to pick up from the learnings of Sumitomo over the years on how we can continue to improve at the asset.
Right. That's really helpful, guys. Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Hugo Nicolaci with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, team. Thanks for the update. Just one on costs. You've noted in the pack you're expecting a lower level of labor cost increases for FY 2025. Can you just remind us the timing of contracted labor pricing resets broadly across the portfolio? Thanks.
Yeah. Hugo, our employee labor reviews are done annually, and they take effect from 1 June. So that's most of the workforce. Then the contractors are basically dependent on employees and contracts. So for our fixed-plant shutdowns, they're as each of the shuts come through, some of those, obviously, on contracts over two to three years with indexation built into them. And then for the other contracts that are awarded as new contracts, it's depending on the market rates at the time that we award the contracts. But what we saw through last calendar year, it averaged pretty well in line with what we had movements for our workforce as well.
Great. Thanks for that, team. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Klein for closing remarks.
Thanks, Mer. Thanks, everyone, for joining. Final thing to add is Happy Valentine's Day. Have a good day. Cheers.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now just.