Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Evolution Mining June 2025 quarter results. 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 hand the conference over to Mr. Lawrie Conway, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Mel, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today on the call by Matt O'Neill, our Chief Operating Officer; Glen Masterman, our VP Discovery; and Peter Rocchio Connor, our GM Investor Relations. Today, we released our June quarterly report and an exploration update, which will be the reference point for the call. Glen will take you through the great exploration results we've seen at Mungari and Northparkes, which is providing us with confidence about further resource growth at both operations a little bit later. The June quarter has been another busy and successful quarter at Evolution. It rounded out what has been an excellent year for us. Up front, I want to thank all of our employees and contractors who have enabled us to safely deliver on our plan in a much more consistent and reliable way.
The three charts on the first page of the report and the sustainability chart on page two perfectly depict the year's performance, including the consistency quarter -on -quarter . With our TRIF improving 35% over the prior year and reaching its lowest point at just under five, it does mean that we have delivered our plan with a strong focus on safety. We have met our original group guidance, generating record cash flow, which has hit the bank account to further improve the balance sheet flexibility. We produced 182,000 ounces of gold and 19,000 tons of copper at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 1,562 per ounce. For the year, we produced 751,000 ounces of gold, 76,000 tons of copper, at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 1,572 per ounce for continuing operations.
It is to be noted that the all-in sustaining cost included an additional AUD 40-AUD 45 per ounce for royalties that were due to the higher-than-planned gold price. However, we will take the net additional revenue of AUD 950 per ounce any day. You will see the word "record" multiple times in the report. This is because we have broken many—be they safety, operational, and financial. Our group cash flow for the quarter was AUD 308 million at a margin of over AUD 1,700 per ounce. For the year, we generated just shy of AUD 800 million of cash at an achieved gold price that is AUD 800 per ounce below the current spot. The group cash flow was underpinned by the AUD 2.3 billion of operating cash flow generated during the year. I want to call out Cowal in terms of the operational cash flow.
Ten years ago tomorrow, we received New South Wales government consent to acquire Cowal, and a week later, we took ownership. We paid just over AUD 700 million to acquire the operation. This investment and all subsequent investment has been repaid. Last year, several people said that the best days of Cowal may be behind it. In FY 2025, it delivered AUD 855 million in operating cash flow, more than we paid for the asset, and AUD 600 million of net mine cash flow. Having approved the Cowal Open Pit Continuation project in April with a 35%-70% rate of return, it is abundantly clear that Cowal has many more decades of significant contribution to Evolution. We ended the year with AUD 760 million in the bank. To evidence our continued discipline to capital management, we repaid all of our FY 2026 debt commitments of AUD 145 million on top of the AUD 75 million FY 2025 commitments.
We also paid our 24th consecutive dividend during the quarter. This financial performance resulted in our gearing improving to 15%, and we are now back in the normal operating gearing range. We should remember that our gearing was 25% at the start of the year, which means we have improved by 10 percentage points or a 40% reduction. We successfully renewed our AUD 525 million revolver facility through until August 2028, and this facility remains undrawn. A couple of other highlights during the quarter included the early commencement of commissioning of the plant expansion at Mungari, the approval of the Cowal OPC project, and the appointment of Fran Summerhayes as our CFO. I'm looking forward to Fran joining us in September. Turning to our FY 2026 group guidance, we have released our key group metrics today and will provide full details with our financial results next month.
In short, the way I would describe the FY 2026 group guidance is a rinse and repeat of what we did in FY 2025 to safely deliver high-margin, significant cash flow. Our group production is guided at 710,000 to 780,000 ounces of gold and 70,000 to 80,000 tons of copper, which is the same as last year. The difference will be in where the production comes from this year, in that Mungari will be ramping up to the 200,000-ounce rate, while Cowal will be completing the mining of the stockpile ore in Stage H. Northparkes completed mining of E31 open pits in FY 2025, and Ernest Henry will see planned lower grades. We've continued our focus on costs and expect to see about a 4% inflation impact, which equates to between AUD 105 and AUD 125 per ounce.
Cowal and Northparkes will be utilizing a larger proportion of stockpile ore during FY 2026 that was predominantly built up during FY 2025 due to the completion of Stage H and the E31 pits. This will result in a higher non-cash cost component of the all-in sustaining cost in the order of AUD 75-AUD 90 per ounce. These two items are the drivers to the movement from the FY 2025 all-in sustaining cost to FY 2026, which is guided at AUD 1,720-AUD 1,880 per ounce. I note that a number of analysts are quoting a 15% increase in our all-in sustaining cost. However, our all-in sustaining cost is reported on a byproduct basis. These two changes I just spoke about are the main drivers to the FY 2026 all-in sustaining cost change, of which the cash component is increasing due to inflation by 4%.
This equates to AUD 85 million-AUD 95 million cash impact on our operating spend of around AUD 2.1 billion. It is not a 15% change. The movement in our operating costs equates to AUD 130-AUD 140 per ounce change in the gold price, and remember that the spot price is AUD 800 per ounce higher than what we achieved last year. Therefore, we could make up the operating cost increase in the first quarter of FY 2026 if the gold price holds at the current levels for this quarter. Our FY 2026 all-in sustaining cost guidance will still see us as one of the lowest cost producers in the sector. Our group capital investment is guided at AUD 780 million-AUD 980 million, which at the midpoint will be around AUD 200 million lower than our FY 2025 investment.
As we head into FY 2026 with a continued focus on safe, consistent, and reliable delivery, achieving our plan will result in another year of significant, with material upside at the spot gold price. With that, I'll now hand over to Matt to take you through the operational performance.
Thank you, Lawrie. As noted, the final quarter of financial year 2025 capped off a great year for our operations, with all sites safely delivering to plan. Over the 2025 financial year, as noted earlier, we set a number of new records for safety, production, and financial outcomes. As I talked to at the last quarterly update, the consistency and predictability we are seeing in the operations now is built on the back of teamwork and collaboration, not just at the operations but more broadly across the wider Evolution team. It is a credit to everyone involved. Our goal remains the same: we say, we do, we deliver. I am very pleased to say that I think the Evolution team has done that this year.
We placed a strong focus on safety and sustainability over the course of the year, and pleasingly, this effort has shown in the results we have achieved, with the headline number being the 35% improvement in our TRIF. Pleasingly, all of our operations contributed to this. The rigorous and disciplined approach to safety from everyone is evident across both the leading and lagging indicators. The TRIF noted before is our key lagging indicator, and one of the key leading indicators that we use is outstanding material risk actions. I'm happy to be able to say that this sat at zero outstanding actions as of the end of the financial year. We also achieved a number of operational milestones during the quarter.
Most pleasingly, in a year where we saw a rise in gold price, we achieved our full-year guidance for production, ensuring we banked the benefits of the high gold price as evidenced in the financial results. Mungari 4.2 commissioning continued with ramp-up to full production well advanced, and we commenced the OPC project at Cowal post-board approval in the March quarter.
There are a few items that are worth calling out in our group production numbers for the June quarter, and these are: the mill shutdown at Cowal, which saw the reduced output from the operation over that quarter; the commissioning of the new mill at Mungari, which, as you can see in the quarterly numbers for that operation, is starting to show the benefit; the continued consistent performance at Red Lake, which this year had its best year under Evolution ownership and set a number of records, including net mine cash flow, ore mined and processed, and gold produced. Also worthy of a call-out is the continued cash generation from Mount Rawdon, which continues to contribute to the group. Moving into the financial year 2026, we're in a good position to repeat financial year 2025, and the operational focus remains the same: continued safe delivery to plan.
We have exciting long-life operations, each with opportunities to grow or extend, as evidenced by the exploration announcements Glen will talk to next, and also the project pipeline noted in our quarterly announcement. We will continue to do the work required to ensure we achieve the full potential of each of our operations. I'll now hand over to Glen to walk through the exploration updates.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to turn your attention to our exploration announcement, which was released this morning in addition to the June quarterly report. Firstly, I want to take you back to August 2023 when we first introduced the Genesis Discovery and Mungari site visit during Diggers and Dealers that year. A few of you will remember the revealing of the gold-rich stockwork zone along the wall of the ore drive, which signified the very top of the newly discovered Genesis vein. Since then, our drilling has also discovered the Solomon vein, shown in Figure 1 of this morning's release, which is parallel to and in the hingewell of the Genesis ore body. Together, we have recorded a mineral resource of over 300,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 10 grams per ton contained in both vein arrays.
The resource and growth potential are situated entirely on our 100% owned tenements at Mungari. We remain very excited about the potential to extend these vein systems along strike and at depth, as we are convinced we have unearthed a new mineralized corridor, which we expect should continue along strike towards the historically mined Barkers ore body, shown in Figure 1. This new search space spans a large volume of prospective geology, which had never been effectively tested by previous drilling. We will continue to aggressively explore this area to expand the mineral resource into the untested gap towards Barkers, with the aim of extending high-grade production well into the future. Positive results were also received underneath the Arctic pit north of Millennium, also shown in Figure 1.
The results are significant because we believe we have picked up the very well-endowed Strzelecki line of load under the pit, with lots of room to grow it. At Northparkes, we have been exploring along the stock margin contact represented by the pink unit in Figure 2. This contact is important because it is a localized emplacement of copper-rich porphyries, which are preserved at depths very close to surface. Our geological model is predicting the potential for the discovery of additional porphyry targets to be preserved at similar depths to Major Tom and E51 in the sparsely drilled areas highlighted by the red dash shapes in Figure 2. The Major Tom and E51 results confirm continuity of grade and volume geometries of copper mineralization at both prospects.
Drilling programs have been extended into the September quarter to ensure the full extent of mineralization will be delineated at both targets before we commence resource modeling and optimization studies. Elsewhere across the portfolio, drilling has recommenced at the Cloncurry North project near Ernest Henry in Queensland. Work is progressing on the recently acquired Corella project, also adjacent to Ernest Henry. We are aiming to develop open-pit copper-gold drill targets on both projects within haulage distance from Ernest Henry, with potential to utilize latent capacity in the processing. Drilling also commenced in the June quarter on our Slate Bay target near Red Lake. Slate Bay is hosted in rocks of similar age to Kinross's Great Bear deposit, which were typically never previously considered to be prospective for gold until the discovery of Great Bear.
We have developed a sizable and strong gold-in-gravel geochemical anomaly in this very underexplored rock package only 15 km north of Red Lake. Key points I want you to take away from the results released this morning are, firstly, that the high grades in drilling at Mungari increase our confidence of being able to sustain for longer the high-grade underground production at current rates or better. Secondly, we have confirmed a geological model at Northparkes that will lead to a potential pipeline of new copper-rich near-surface open-pit targets with the ability to offer future operational flexibility and incremental production growth. With that, Mel, would you please open the line to 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. Congrats on the strong, safe results. I guess across the portfolio, there's organic growth options across each of them. You've guided us to AUD 750 million-AUD 950 million CapEx spend over the next five years, and we've got fiscal year 2026. Can you talk through the staging of that CapEx by, start at a high level over that period, what that profile looks like, and what projects come in and out, or how they're prioritized?
Looks like you want more than just the FY 2026 guidance there, Kate. Look, I think our view there is the projects, as they go through feasibility and then into execution, they're going to change. That's why where we stand, Cowal is the main one. It's AUD 430 million over the next seven years. You'll see a fair portion of that come through over the next, I would say, two to three years as we do the bund at the north and then this other surface infrastructure and go to the south. The next decision point comes into the Ernest Henry extension and then E22. As you know, we've got the hybrid study, which is, and that will then be something the Board will consider in the first half of this year. Similarly, with the extension at Ernest Henry, I think.
What the study team has been doing at Ernest Henry is working out. It will now be more trucking down below the existing 1,200 level. The capital pushes out a few years, but we need to get that final feasibility study. It is a long way of saying, at the moment, that AUD 750-AUD 950 is going to be the average over the next five years. As these projects advance, we will be updating on that spend, but I would be taking that as sort of the average over the next five years.
Got it. Thank you. At Cowal and Northparkes, that non-cash component in all-in sustaining costs, I assume it is larger at Cowal, that number. Is there anything you can say about that, or can you talk to the tons of stockpiles we should expect for the mill feed at Northparkes and Cowal in terms of forecasting next year?
Yeah, the short answer to that, Kate, is that it will be at Cowal. When you look at it, we've got 1.5 million tons of ore at Northparkes from the E31 that will feed through over the course of the year. But the value of that ore, in terms of the overall production, considering you've got 6.5 million tons and most of it coming from the underground, on a per-ounce basis, I think the only difference you have there is they produce less ounces than Cowal. So on a per-ounce basis, it will be a relatively larger amount. If you look at Cowal, we'll be into the third quarter is when we start to move into ore, sorry, into stockpile ore only, and that becomes the majority of the feed for basically almost the second half of the year.
That's why it'll be the largest proportion of that, AUD 70-AUD 80 an ounce will be at Cowal.
Okay, got it. I have to wait until the full year before I will get the numbers by each side. Is that right?
Absolutely, you will. It is AUD 75-AUD 90 an ounce. But yes.
Okay.
If you look at it, Kate, Cowal produces over 300,000 ounces out of 750. So on a per-ounce basis in the group impact, it will be the larger portion.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Lawrie and Tim. First question is just on Ernest Henry. I know the extension study is complete but not released to us, and there is a PFS Stewart, Bert, for the end of this year. Lawrie, you just also intimated that there might be a bit more trucking in the near term, which if I put all that together. Is the crusher chamber and associated infrastructure, is that going to be deeper in the mine and therefore a longer life proposition? Is that what we are looking at here? Thank you.
Thanks, Dan. I'll hand this over to Matt. Just to briefly, yes, we will be trucking below, and therefore we have to introduce more trucks into Ernest Henry that will look at their capital in FY 2026. That is the reason why the study went for a bit longer, to look at how we can best optimize the ore body. The reason it finishes in the June quarter, but the next board meeting is later in this quarter, and therefore the board needs to see the outcomes before the market.
Yeah. Without going into all of the detail, thanks, sorry. The study, I suppose, the high level, and Glen's talked about it as we've gone through, is that there's been more mineralization at Ernest Henry coming in.
That study has included some of that, and that has an impact on what we do there to make sure that we maximize it. The trucking does buy us a little bit of time. It does obviously tend to lend itself towards what you indicated of, well, where does the crusher go? That is really the key point of what we are talking about. Going through the economics, the trucking works quite efficiently because it is not trucking to surface. It is only trucking back to the crushing horizon. I think that is an important point to note of what we are talking about there. You will see some of that come through in the study when it gets released.
Thank you. Just at Mungari, is there a live update of how well the mill commissioning is going? When might you expect it to be running at the 4.2 million tons in the ramp-up? Thank you.
Yeah, I'll cover that one. It's going pretty well. We had a really good start and sort of a honeymoon period for a commissioning of a mill. Last month, we had a really strong month in terms of throughput. There have been no major concerns that have come up. I would expect us to start seeing everything come to fruition sometime in the next quarter. We've been able to achieve throughputs, and we've been able to achieve recoveries. It's just sort of bedding in some of the things that you find as you commission a plant like that. No material items are slowing us down at this stage, which is really good.
Thank you. Just last question is that Mount Rawdon, appreciate a small asset in the portfolio now, but it looks like you're going to be doing some processing of stockpiles into FY 2026. When do you expect last gold production to be? How material is this? You have provided group guidance for FY 2026. I presume it's either a minor contribution to it or it's excluded from cost calculations, etc. Can you just outline that? Thank you.
Yeah, sure, Dan. So what we've seen with where the gold price is sitting, there is economic, very low-grade material on the ground there at Mount Rawdon. And we were able to process that through the last part of FY 2025, and it will go through the first part. So it'll be very minimal contribution in terms of that AUD 710- AUD 780. And then in terms of the all-in sustaining costs, we've quoted that as on the ounces and costs for the continuing operation, so excluding Mount Rawdon.
Okay. Thank you very much for your perspectives.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Hugo Nicolaci with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Congrats on the full-year result. First one on Northparkes, maybe for Glen, just noting the open pit there is stopped, and you've now got the stockpile of material to process this year. Can you just give us a little bit of an update on how you're thinking about when the next open pit gets developed? Is that something for FY 2027 or more FY 2028 as you choose between sort of E51 and major time or E27?
Sorry, got my mic on now. Yeah, look, I think that's probably fair timing for the next open pit delivery. That would be E28 North East pit. What we're looking at trying to do with the exploration drilling and subsequent studies is to build this pipeline of open pit targets that we can, for the most part, switch on and off when we need them from a sort of flexibility operational standpoint. If there's opportunities to introduce some production growth, we'll look at that as well.
Great. Thanks a lot again. That's helpful color . Maybe just one on cash flow, given the focus there. Just some observations in terms of the quarter, looking like your corporate costs and D&A both stepped up significantly in the fourth quarter. Appreciate you're setting up for Brisbane office. You've got a number of studies running. How much of that step up is sort of the underlying corporate versus those studies? What do you think your corporate costs should be on an underlying basis going forward?
Yeah, a couple of things in there driving that, Hugo, is there's some studies work and that that we've done that are not being deemed as capital, so they fall into the corporate costs. As we get into June, you have a lot of true-ups across all of the departments. That is why that was higher in the quarter. In the D&A , you've got to take into consideration that we put out the MROR, and therefore you update your D&A for the whole six months based on the latest. With some of the changes in the MROR, the depreciation per ounce will look a lot higher than normal. The full-year DNA gives a fair indication of what we are starting as the base going into 2026.
Got it. Just so I can, on the cash flow pace, looks like your cash tax in the second half was a fair bit lower than what would have been implied by your first half reporting. Do you expect any catch-up there? Also, on working capital, the AUD 100 million build in the quarter, what are the moving pieces in that? Do you expect that to unwind?
Yeah. Tax, quite simply, is that we make our installment payments monthly, and then we make our final payments in the December quarter. That is why you will see the second half is generally lower than the first half because you have that final payment for the prior year tax returns in the December quarter. In terms of the working capital, I look at it from an annual basis to start to try and keep it simple. What we really have is our working capital movement in the year is AUD 25 million-AUD 35 million, either inflow or outflow, but it is heavily impacted on concentrate sales at Ernest Henry and Northparkes nowadays. When you see in the June quarter, we had a Northparkes shipment that fell from the last week of June into the first week of July.
Therefore, the sales, as you'll see for Northparkes for the year, were less than the production for the year. Therefore, our receivables were lower. At Ernest Henry, we received a settlement in June that was actually expected in July. The combination of those reduced our receivables by about AUD 40 million-AUD 60 million. That would have brought us back into the normal range just in that perspective. In addition to the receivables, the June quarter, you'll see that we had a higher major capital spend in the quarter, and that was really related to projects finishing and new projects starting. We have progress claims and deposit requests coming through in the back end of June, resulting in higher payables. You will see that those two combined to drive the working capital movement in the June quarter.
As I've said, those concentrate sales are the ones that really drive it on the annual basis. As we look forward in the unwind, you'll see we received a payment for that Northparkes shipment in this quarter. Therefore, that will offset some of the payables that would go out. You won't see the full AUD 98 in the September quarter. Concentrate shipments, really in the timing of them, are the ones that drive our working capital movements quarter -on -quarter.
That's helpful color . I'll pass on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Kaner with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Lawrie and Tim. Thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, just on Cowal, I see there was an underground roof collapse there back in March. Just sort of want to know what the ground conditions are like there as you continue to ramp up the underground operations and I guess any learnings or changes in procedures following that incident.
Thanks, Paul. Matt'll take that.
Yep. No problems. So yeah, without going into huge amounts of detail on the incident, we're still, well, it's under investigation at the moment, and you will see in the department notices on that. What we've done in the short term, we did take some actions to stop some of the areas until we finished our investigation around the geotech. Once we completed that, we changed some standards on ground control in some of the drives depending on their orientation. At this stage, that's probably all I can really talk about there. We haven't seen anything majorly different across the whole operation, if you know what I mean. We did have that as an isolated event, but we have taken steps to make sure we put probably more conservatives back into some areas short term.
Yeah, no, understood. Thanks for that color .
Just another one just there on the stockpile adjustments for 2026, both Cowal and Northparkes, just double-checking that that AUD 75-AUD 90 an ounce, that's included in your all-in sustaining cost guidance for 2026?
Yes, it is.
Okay, great. No, that's it from me. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ben Lyons with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good day, Lawrie, and everyone else on the call this morning. Just one further one on the cash flow statement, please. Noting the early repayment of AUD 145 million of debt. Just given the very attractive structure and cost profile for a lot of your facilities, just wondering what your intentions may be, whether you intend on making further early debt retirements or possibly just growing the cash balance going forward. Thank you.
Sorry, Ben, it was just a little bit hard to get that last part of the question.
It's just around whether you intend on making further early debt retirements or growing the cash balance. Thanks, Lawrie.
Yeah. Thanks, Ben. No, look, our view is that we'll continue to balance out between the capital investment, the debt repayments, and dividends. We don't see a lot of value in building up a large cash balance. As I said, we're back at 15% gearing, well into the range that we see as our normal operating. I would expect that we'll continue on reducing those debt term lines earlier.
Okay. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Al Harvey with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, team. Just on FY 2026 guidance, I wonder if you could just step us through the downside and upside scenarios that would take you to the ends of the 710,000-780,000 ounce range. Is it primarily around the speed of the Mungari ramp-up or something else in the portfolio?
Al, I am going to not deflect that one to Matt because I think he'd give you all the downsides and not the upsides. Look, I think we can talk about that in August when we go asset by asset. Our position is that we want to continue what we've done over the last 12 months and really the last 18 months, which is deliver consistently quarter in, quarter out. There are things that can be the downside, but our focus is on just delivery each quarter, safely getting those ounces and copper tons out.
Sure. Thanks, Lawrie. Maybe, are you able to share the FY 2026 copper price and Australian dollar assumptions?
Yes. It's in the report: AUD 4,400 an ounce for the gold royalty price assumption and AUD 14,500 a ton for our copper byproduct credit.
Great. Thanks, Lawrie.
Thanks, Al.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Mitch Ryan with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. First question, obviously, the two key studies completed during the quarter still need to go to the board. So I'm assuming that the CapEx associated with those is excluded from the FY 2026 guidance at this point in time. Is that correct?
In terms of studies and the like, they are included. Is the trucking requirements that we have for Ernest Henry. In terms of E22, nothing material in the guidance. In terms of, we're not expecting any execution in FY 2026.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks for clarifying that one. Obviously, the OPC project commenced in the quarter. Have you commenced the bundle wall move as part of that? Can you progress into stage I without the bundle wall move?
The second part, yes, Stage I progresses without the need for the bundle wall to be in place. In the first part, we were fortunate. We had the board out there in the last week of June as part of their annual visit. A few days after was when the works on the bundle wall commenced. They actually saw the contractor mobilizing the site while we were there in the last week of June.
Okay. I guess we've sort of been given capital numbers, if I recall correctly, around happening in the dry conditions but in wet conditions. That sits inside that AUD 430?
Yeah. So the AUD 430 allows for the nNorthern Lake production bundle to be done as a wet move. And the southern, it's intended as a dry move. But that's a few years away.
Okay.
Based on where it is, we'd expect the water to have receded enough.
Okay. Perfect. Appreciate your time. That's it for me.
Thanks, Mitch.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good day, all. Apologies if you've already answered those. I got buried during Dan's questions. The first one for me, you provided some broad color from the major operations into next year. Just wondering if you can provide similar commentary on Red Lake. I mean, I think comments in the past is that asset, long-term potential of roughly 140,000 ounces per annum. Is that still where the thinking is? Is that the sort of run rate you expect to achieve in 2026?
Thanks, Andrew. Sorry that Dan kicked you off the line. In terms of Red Lake, I'll hand to Matt just to talk about the operation and where it's going. I was there a couple of weeks ago and just seeing that they're definitely getting more resilience into the operation and being able to get more consistency. What we want, and it hasn't changed for the last 18 months, we want 30,000-40,000 ounces quarter in, quarter out. Safely delivered and generating positive cash. We saw that through last year. Matt, do you just want to talk about then what that does going forward?
Yeah. I think you covered it off. In terms of the real key for Red Lake, it is about making money. That continues to be the focus rather than chasing a target, is probably the message to keep giving the team at that operation. They have been able to do that this year. The 30-40 each quarter, obviously, you do the maths on that and you get your range. That is still the thinking. It is still probably an exciting asset. I know Glen would be pretty keen. In terms of geology and what we still see available there, for me, I still look at that as one of the exciting ones. We have got to earn the right and have consistent delivery and making some money to be able to go and chase that. That's kind of the process for at least the next 12 or 18 months for me at Red Lake.
No worries. Thanks. Onto Mount Rawdon, I mean, last quarter, you commented that you were going to cease stockpile production in the fourth quarter of FY 2025. You're doing a final tail stand lift, and it seems to be an implication that, sorry, an inference that production will continue into 2026. I assume that's not material. Is that included in the overall group production number for FY 2026?
Yeah. Andrew, that was a question of Dan. Mount Rawdon, based on the metal prices, we'll continue to process some low-grade material through the plant because it does make money as evidence. Water. We'll see that tail off through the next couple of quarters. The ounces are included in the 710-780. They're not material ounces in terms of a group perspective. It'll be a lot less than what we did, the 35,000 ounces last year.
In terms of our all-in sustaining cost, the ounces and costs of the other assets are the only ones that are included in terms of the AISC.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks. That's all from me.
Thanks, Steve.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alex Barkley with RBC . Please go ahead.
Hi, Lawrie and Tim. Just a quick follow-up question on Red Lake. Around that reserve rate lease line. Were you able to give some breakdown of which mine areas that occurred at and why? And why did the update occur now?
Yeah. Alex, you're referring to the MROR reserve grade at Red Lake, just to be clarifying?
Yeah, that's right. Apologies. I don't think we've had a call since then. Yeah, just interested to see the intakes going forward.
Yeah. There are a couple of things to on the reserve grade. I think what we have done in the underground is really to sort of fully understand the full potential of the resource and how that is going to convert to a reserve. A couple of the drivers there have really sort of driven or affected, impacted cut-off grades. We have seen inflation come in. Also, as we have started to open up in the underground, we have seen that we have had swings and roundabouts, and we have not seen the type of continuity that we had assumed in the drilling by the space at the time. These have driven changes to both the resource and the reserve. What we have done on the reserve is to look at the resource to sort of maximize the full reserve potential.
Now, in fact, what that e nables us to do is then to expand that we're currently mining to. As Lawrie mentioned earlier, in terms of what we've been doing in the last 18 months, it's really to start to look at how we are started, how to generate cash flow. What that is doing, what that is switching us to is mining at a higher cut-off grade, mining more selectively as we sort of progress at Red Lake, and mining to a grade that's in the plan is going to be higher than the reserve. What enables us to do that in the plan is that we do have resource that sits there at higher grade. We need to upgrade the drilling classification on that. We've doubled the drilling budget in FY 2026 to enable us to do that.
That will convert to reserve and allow us to then sort of narrow that gap between what we see in the reserve grade, which is lower than what we have in the plan.
Yeah. Not at that trouble. Thanks very much for the color. That's all. Thanks, Matt.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Matthew Frydman with MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thanks, morning, Lawrie and team. I might continue with Glen while he's got the mic. Can I ask on Mungari in the context of some of your commentary already this morning and also the recent MROR update? Obviously, you're finding more high-grade underground material from Genesis continuing to add tons to the reserve there. I guess looking forward, and now that the new project's largely completed, how do you think about the splits in terms of feed between underground, open pits from Castle Hill and other areas? Does that change going forward now that you've got more confidence in the underground? I think previously you said you expected it to be about an 80/20 split between open pit and underground. As I say, does that change now going forward? Is there any consideration in that of feeding 100% Evolution-owned dirt versus EKJV dirt into the mill?
I guess bigger picture is the near-term target still that sort of circa 200,000 ounces? As you suggest, Glen, does this discovery more kind of add to the runway or add to the length of time that you can operate at that level in the future? Does it sustain that production level for longer? Thanks.
Yeah, Matt. Glen, I'll talk about the exploration potential. I think in terms of an operating standpoint, the 80/20 is still the expectations in the plan of the split between the open pit and the underground. Glen's role is to get the 20% to 30%, and therefore we get more production out of Mungari. In terms of the joint venture, I mean, our EKJV, it operates. It's operating well. We do the campaign processing of that material. That will continue as we go forward, even under the expanded plant. Do you want to talk about the underground and the?
Yeah. Look, and I think.
Go ahead.
Yeah. I think in terms of what we saw, Matt, you referenced sort of the growth in the resource and the reserve in our MROR statement. A lot of that was driven in the open pits. We had captured some of the resource growth that I spoke about in the underground this morning. That is included, but most of that growth was driven by the open pits. That was with the drill bit. Metal prices has also helped increase there. I think from what we're seeing at the moment, the extension of these veins is, and continuing to delineate and grow the resource is really, really important to us. As Lawrie alluded to, I think the first trick that we want to be able to succeed at is actually extending that 20% contribution for as long as we can into the future.
What we're doing with the results at the moment is confirming we can. We want to be able to get that underground production to match the open pit production in terms of its ultimate mine life so that we always have that 80/20 contribution. Now, assuming we're good enough and we make more discoveries in the underground, which we believe we will, then there's the opportunity to think about how we finally increase the underground production rate. I think what the results from Genesis and its extension towards Barkers and then at Arctic, which is further north of Millennium, we're starting to see that we have that opportunity to deliver on both fronts.
Yeah. I understand. Thanks for that, Glen. That's pretty clear. Can I ask just a quick one while we're on Mungari? The processing cost in all-in sustaining cost of AUD 91 an ounce. I'm assuming that that largely represents the capitalization of most of the processing costs while obviously the mill expansion is ramping up. You've alluded to commercial production in the first half. Should we expect that processing costs as a function of all-in sustaining costs will lift once you declare commercial production, obviously offset by the growth CapEx rolling off? I hope that all made sense. Yeah, just wondering what the AUD 91 an ounce relates to. Thanks.
Short answer there, Matt, is no, it isn't. The capital for the plant is in the major capital section of the cost per ounce. The higher cost per ounce at Mungari is on two things. You're in a commissioning phase and you're putting through lower-grade material through that phase. We also have toll-treated some material that was of our old low-grade stockpile material that will come through into a processing cost as well. What you'll see in FY 2026 as we move to the 4.2 million tonne rate, the cost per ounce will reduce, particularly in the processing area. That's where we'll get the economies of scale.
Yeah. Okay. I understand, Lawrie. Thanks. Perhaps I did not express it clearly, but in the quarter you declared that your processing cost per ounce at Mungari was AUD 91 an ounce, which seems artificially low. I am just trying to understand what drove that, whether that was recognizing. Sorry, in that.
In that regard, yes. Some of those commissioning costs get backed out and capitalized. Sorry, I thought you meant the actual construction costs. Yes, Matt.
No. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I meant the impact to all-in sustaining costs. So I assume partly that capitalization continues until you declare commercial production.
Correct.
Okay. I understand. Thank you. Maybe just lastly, I suppose on capital management and capital returns. Obviously, you've mentioned on the call that you're quite comfortable with the balance sheet flexibility. Obviously, the gearing's come right back into the range. Just thinking about how that translates to capital returns at the end of the financial year. Obviously, you enjoy a tax shield benefit on some of those cash flows that you generate, particularly out of Northparkes. I guess wondering whether, in your view, the franking balance and generation support continuing to pay out 50% of cash flow as the policy sort of dictates, or are there other options? Remind us of where buybacks sit in terms of the capital return framework, and is that something the board might consider? Thanks.
Yeah. Short answer to that, Matt, is we. Each time we sit down with the board and look at our policy, we'll do that in August. I think the last couple of halves, we've made the call that our policy, we think, is working well where 50% of our cash flows are going back to our shareholders, and we use the balance for either reinvestment in the business or reducing our gross debt levels. I don't think you're going to see much of a change.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Conway for closing remarks.
Thank you, Mel. Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us on the call today. We certainly had a great quarter to finish a successful year, which improved in not only the safety and the consistency, but also in the exploration and projects areas and generating significant cash flow as we've seen today. We will continue to apply that cost and capital discipline, and we will see that flow through into FY 2026. I look forward to updating you next month on our full-year financial results. Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.